Police file reveals flawed investigation into 1996 missing persons case of North Dakota mother and son

Editor’s notice: It is a a number of half collection analyzing the investigation into the 1996 disappearance of 35-year-old Sandra Jacobson and her son, 5-year-old John Jacobson. 

BISMARCK — Sergeant William Connor’s cellphone rang on the afternoon of June 2, 2004. On the opposite finish was a consultant from the Lacking and Exploited Kids’s Heart, who believed they could have had “successful” – a clue – on a 1996 lacking individuals case from his jurisdiction.

It involved the case of Sandra Jacobson, who on the night of Nov. 16, 1996, left her dad and mom’ Bismarck residence, alongside along with her 5-year-old son, to get gasoline. Her Honda Civic, discovered the next morning close to the Missouri River in Bismarck’s Centennial Park, contained her purse, which included, amongst different objects, a checkbook logging a Nov. 16 transaction to a neighborhood gasoline station.

Within the cellphone name, the Heart alerted Connor that there was an individual named Sandra Jacobson residing in Mandan, a city positioned simply throughout the river from Bismarck.

Whereas the hit turned out to be a lifeless finish, it started a years-long quest by Connor to re-examine the investigation.

The police file from this case, lately obtained by Discussion board Information Service, reveals what Connor discovered: a lacking individuals investigation that left key questions unanswered, important proof unaccounted for and potential suspects reduce unfastened.

Whereas the file doesn’t point out a responsible social gathering, it does pose some arduous questions: Did the Bismarck Police Division’s preliminary investigation into the disappearance of Sandra and John Jacobson have a look at all doable angles? Or did it miss asking some essential questions?

Revisiting the case 

On the morning of Sunday, Nov. 17, 1996, Bismarck Cops found a grey 1990 Honda Civic parked alongside the Missouri River in Centennial Park — its driver’s door cranked vast open.

With excessive winds and temperatures effectively under freezing, an open door was an indication to legislation enforcement officers that one thing wasn’t fairly proper.

They have been appropriate.

Officers found keys within the ignition and a handbag sitting on the passenger’s seat, however their efforts to go looking the realm for the motive force got here up quick. A light-weight dusting of snow that fell in a single day erased any hope for footprints main them to the reality.

The invention of the automotive was the beginning of a lacking individuals case that may hang-out the Bismarck Police Division for many years.

Detective Tim Turnbull walked within the doorways of the Bismarck Police Division on the morning of Monday, Nov. 18 and was greeted with a lacking individuals report filed over the weekend.

Within the report, Turnbull discovered {that a} mom and son from Heart, North Dakota, had been reported lacking by Bernice Grensteiner, Sandra Jacobson’s mom. Grensteiner instructed the Bismarck Police Division that her daughter was having psychological well being points when she left the night of Nov. 16 to get some gasoline. She hadn’t heard from them since.

There was one thing else within the report that stood out to Turnbull. A girl who recognized herself as Sandra Jacobson had referred to as the Bismarck Police Division hours earlier than she went lacking, claiming a liked one was in peril by the hands of a satanic cult.

That set off a prepare of thought for Turnbull, who assumed a distraught and mentally sick lady had snapped, main her down a darkish path that ended within the frigid waters of the Missouri River, her 5-year-old boy in tow.
Straight away that morning, he referred to as up the Burleigh County Sheriff’s Workplace and requested them to begin looking out the river. The preliminary investigation into their disappearance, led by Turnbull, had begun.

Later that day, Turnbull met with Sandra Jacobson’s husband, Alan Jacobson, who arrived on the police station contemporary off a flight from a enterprise journey in Missouri. He had been instructed the day earlier than that his spouse and son had been reported lacking.

What Turnbull didn’t know when Alan Jacobson walked into his workplace on Nov. 18 was that issues had been rocky for the couple. On the time of the disappearance, Sandra Jacobson and her husband have been within the midst of a separation. Their 5-year-old son, John, was residing along with his mom in Heart, positioned 40 miles outdoors of Bismarck.

In a number of interviews performed by investigators all through the years, her dad and mom, kinfolk and shut associates stated Sandra Jacobson believed she was days away from a divorce — a course of she claimed was being dealt with by her soon-to-be ex-husband.

Subsequent investigations would reveal no proof of the initiation of a divorce course of. Alan Jacobson by no means talked about the divorce to Turnbull, both.

As a substitute, Turnbull listened as Alan Jacobson instructed him he and his spouse have been separated. Though they lived aside, he instructed Turnbull that he had lately been having hassle along with his spouse, fueled by what he known as her conspiracy theories that he was having affairs. In accordance with the police file, he claimed these allegations have been “completely off the wall.”

Alan Jacobson went on to color the image of an unstable lady with periodic non secular obsessions, at one level telling the detective that his spouse appeared “glossy-eyed” throughout a go to to his residence the week earlier than her disappearance.

“He acknowledged she bought actual excited and was shaking and tried to stand up and go away and he grabbed her and sat her down and stayed along with her till she calmed down,” Turnbull wrote in his follow-up report.

Alan Jacobson instructed the detective his spouse referred to as him at round 6:15 a.m. the morning of Nov. 16 — the final day she was heard from — and instructed him to hope for his or her son. Particularly, he stated she requested he recite the Lord’s Prayer.

Having simply returned from a visit to Missouri, Turnbull inquired as to the dates he had been touring. In accordance with Alan Jacobson, he left the morning of Nov. 16 and returned that day, Nov. 18, simply previous to arriving on the police station.

That was, one way or the other, ok for Turnbull. It wasn’t, nonetheless, ok for his superiors.

On Dec. 30 — a couple of month after Sandra and John Jacobson went lacking — Turnbull met with Lt. Myron Heinle and Sgt. Nick Sevart relating to the case. Involved that Alan Jacobson’s alibi had not been correctly vetted, they got here up with a brand new plan.

That very same day, Turnbull reached out to Alan Jacobson to go over the small print of his November work journey. Paperwork within the police file present that Alan Jacobson claimed he left North Dakota on Saturday, Nov. 16 at round 8 a.m. and rode with six different individuals in a van to Missouri.

“He acknowledged he bought to the lodge room on that Sunday, 11-17-96,” Turnbull wrote within the follow-up report.

Turnbull adopted by way of with calling the Westport Lodge, the place he confirmed with the supervisor that Alan Jacobson had stayed for less than a single evening: Nov. 17, 1996.

Whereas Turnbull requested the supervisor fax a replica of the information to the Bismarck Police Division, he was knowledgeable it was towards firm coverage to take action with no subpoena.

In accordance with the police file, Turnbull didn’t get hold of data as to the place Alan Jacobson stayed the evening of Nov. 16, the night Sandra and John Jacobson went lacking.

But Turnbull indicated in his follow-up report that Alan Jacobson’s alibi checked out.

On Jan. 7, Turnbull acquired a handwritten letter from Alan Jacobson’s coworker, who wrote that the 2 drove collectively to St. Joseph, Missouri on Nov. 16, the place they stayed the evening. The coworker wrote they then traveled to St. Louis on Sunday, the place they spent the night sightseeing earlier than returning to the lodge.

Turnbull didn’t observe up with the coworker who wrote the letter, in keeping with the report. Questions as to the place Alan Jacobson stayed the night of Nov. 16, 1996 went unquestioned — and stay unanswered.

Processing the car 

On the day it was found, the 1990 Honda Civic was taken to the Bismarck Police Division for documentation. But with no foul play suspected, the car was not fingerprinted.
It was a transfer that pissed off these near Sandra Jacobson, who met with the Bismarck police on Dec. 27 in search of solutions.

“I instructed them that even when we discovered a set of prints that didn’t belong to Alan or Sandy, we would wish a suspect to match them to and at the moment there aren’t any suspects,” Sevart wrote within the follow-up report.

That was tough for Sandra Jacobson’s family members to deal with. They have been conscious {that a} shut member of the family who acquired a cellphone name the day she went lacking instructed investigators on Nov. 26 that they suspected there was a 3rd social gathering within the car.

There was one thing else that didn’t sit effectively with them. Within the days after the disappearance, Alan Jacobson entered Sandra Jacobson’s residence and allegedly took a variety of objects. They puzzled why legislation enforcement had allowed him to try this.

The reply? They have been married. It was his property, too.

The identical reasoning was used when Sandra Jacobson’s purse was launched to Alan Jacobson on Nov. 27 — and once more on Dec. 23, when he drove the 1990 Honda Civic off the Bismarck Police Division lot.

Closing out the investigation

Whereas interviews with these near Sandra Jacobson continued to be performed within the months following her disappearance, investigators targeted closely on looking out the Missouri River. The North Dakota Nationwide Guard was referred to as in a number of occasions to go looking from the skies, whereas dive groups did their finest to navigate the frigid waters.

A baby’s shoe discovered close to the river in Centennial Park on Might 20,1997 gave investigators hope that it may belong to John Jacobson. Whereas Alan Jacobson instructed Turnbull on the time that he believed the shoe may belong to his son, John Jacobson’s older brother and grandmother adamantly stated the shoe wasn’t his — it was far too giant.

Within the spring of 1997, Turnbull made efforts by way of native media to alert boaters to be looking out for something that would level them to the invention of Sandra and John Jacobson. In the end, nothing turned up.

All through the years, investigators acquired cellphone calls from these claiming to have seen the mom and son. All leads have been totally investigated — ultimately, they amounted to instances of mistaken id.

On Feb. 23, 1999, Turnbull declared the case inactive.

“There aren’t any additional leads on this case,” he wrote within the report, “The case can be filed till one thing additional comes up.”

Partially 2 of this collection, study what Connor found as he tried to return in time to uncover unanswered questions that would make clear what occurred to Sandra and John Jacobson.