11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted by a man wearing a stocking mask along a country road in St. Joseph, Minnesota, in October 1989. Wetterling, his younger brother and a friend were returning from a local convenience store at the time of the incident. After an intensive investigation, Wetterling was never found.

In December 2008, police in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, searched the home of Vernon Seitz, a barber who told his psychiatrist that he killed two boys in the 1950s. Seitz was found dead in his home, but investigators discovered a variety of disturbing items, including a photo of Wetterling. Authorities say Seitz is not linked to Wetterling's disappearance.TwinCities.com: Search of Milwaukee Man's Home Reveals Disturbing Links... (January 7, 2009)

The abduction of Wetterling led his parents, Jerry and Patty Wetterling, to found the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, a nonprofit organization advocating child safety. In 1994, the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act was passed by Congress, creating the first federal law that instituted a state sex offender registry. An amendment to the law, Megan's Law, made the registry information available to the public.BJA.com: Jacob Wetterling Act History