Police dismiss tantalizing tip in 1989 Wetterling case

A dead Milwaukee barber who had said he killed 2 children was apparently obsessed with abductions.

By LORA PABST and MARY LYNN SMITH, Star Tribune staff writers

Last update: January 6, 2009 - 11:52 PM

Milwaukee police said Tuesday that a barber who allegedly confessed to killing a boy more than 50 years ago and who joined the 1989 Minnesota search for Jacob Wetterling is not linked to Wetterling's abduction.

According to a search warrant obtained by a Milwaukee television station, Vernon Seitz, 62, reportedly told his psychiatrist that he had killed two children in 1958, when he was 12, and wanted to confess. When police went to his home Dec. 15, Seitz was dead, apparently of natural causes.

Investigators searching Seitz's house after his death found child pornography, paintings and drawings of nude boys, and maps, photos, letters and articles related to the Wetterling case and other missing-children cases.

"We have no information to substantiate any allegation that the deceased was involved in any missing children cases or homicides of children," Milwaukee police spokeswoman Anne Schwartz said late Tuesday in an e-mail. "We have exhausted all possible angles in this case."

Patty Wetterling said Tuesday night that she was relieved to learn that Seitz wasn't linked to Jacob's disappearance. "Thank God," she said. "I'm happy that's not where our answers lie. ..."

"And I'm happy that there are still people wanting to solve our case," she said.

Wetterling said Seitz came to St. Joseph after Jacob's abduction and talked to her at least twice. He said he was a barber and psychic who wanted to help find Jacob.

"He claimed to be a victim of sexual assault, so he seemed very sympathetic and drawn to helping," she said. "He was one of thousands of people that we met. ... We talked to anyone who wanted to help us find Jacob."

She said as far as she knows, investigators knew about Seitz but never considered him a suspect.

Seitz's Milwaukee psychiatrist, Victoria Fetter, said he told her that he had used what he regarded as his psychic abilities to help the families of missing children across the Midwest but that he never mentioned Jacob Wetterling.

Seitz approached Fetter 11 years ago and shared details of his own alleged 1950s abduction in Racine, Wis., claiming that he was forced to shoot a 14-year-old boy who had also been abducted, she said. She disputed the search warrant's claim that Seitz told her he had killed two children.

Fetter said she told Racine police about his confession last November, but that their subsequent investigation failed to turn up anything to back up his claim of a missing boy who was killed.

Fetter said she tried to contact Seitz to tell him that Racine police had found no information about the alleged abduction and death, but wasn't able to reach him.

The search warrant said Fetter contacted Milwaukee police Dec. 12 to disclose Seitz's confession about the shooting death from 1958 and that police had planned to interview Seitz but before they could do so were called to his home on Dec. 15 on a report of a dead person. But Fetter said Tuesday night that she never called Milwaukee police.

Milwaukee police said that despite the pornographic drawings of young boys, drawings of nude children, books on cannibalism, children's shoes and tufts of hair found, there was no evidence to suggest Seitz was linked to the Wetterling case or any other crimes involving children in the country. He also had posters and photos of Jacob and maps of St. Joseph.

According to the search warrant, police found new concrete in the home's basement and dirt piles in the yard. A further investigation found no human remains.

Patty Wetterling said she's received many calls over the years about her son's case, but lately they've come less frequently.

"The good news is that people haven't stopped caring and following up on leads," she said. "The best way these cases are solved is when people don't quit."

lpabst@startribune.com • 612-673-4628 mlsmith@startribune.com • 612-673-4788

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