A man who has been publicly identified as a person of interest in a Minnesota boy’s 1989 abduction has sent a letter to 14 state officials and agencies, complaining about how he has been treated by law enforcement, reports the Associated Press. Dan Rassier wrote that law officers violated his civil rights and his family’s rights and “abused the privileges of their power” in relation to the Jacob Wetterling case. Rassier criticized the way the investigation has been handled over the years.
This is the first time Rassier, an elementary school music teacher, has put his complaints in writing. Asked why he did so after all this time, he said: “They are just going to keep me kind of on this lifeline dangling there forever, and I want that to stop.” Jacob was 11 when he was abducted Oct. 22, 1989, by a masked gunman at the end of Rassier’s driveway in St. Joseph, 80 miles northwest of Minneapolis. He hasn’t been seen since. Authorities have examined tens of thousands of leads, but there have been no arrests in the case that drew national attention and led to changes in sex offender registration laws. Rassier, now 56, was home alone at the time. He has been questioned multiple times, but his name didn’t come out publicly until 2010, when authorities searched his family farm over two days. Rassier, who says he is innocent, has not been cleared.