(Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office via AP ).
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September 3, 2016: Authorities confirm that Jacob’s remains have been found and positively identified.
(Kimm Anderson/St. Cloud Times via AP).
The remains of a Minnesota boy who went missing almost 27 years ago have been found.
“Our hearts are broken”, Patty Wetterling said in a text on Saturday.
Authorities in central Minnesota say the remains of Jacob Wetterling have been found.
Schoolboy Jacob Wetterling was riding his bike with his brother and a friend in October 1989 when he was snatched by a masked gunman. On Saturday, authorities confirmed that his remains were found, after decades of extensive searches.
Heinrich was arrested previous year and declared a person of interest in Jacob’s case. The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office, assisted by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the FBI, the Stearns County Attorney’s Office and the United States Attorney’s Office are now in the process of reviewing and evaluating new evidence in the Jacob Wetterling investigation.
On Saturday, Stearns County Sheriff’s deputies confirmed Jacob’s remains were located after longtime suspect Danny Heinrich led the Federal Bureau of Investigation to a farm in central Minnesota, not far from the abduction site. Included in that bill was the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act – the nation’s first mandated sex offender list. While he was questioned extensively about Jacob’s kidnapping at the time, he denied any involvement.
He is now incarcerated and awaiting trial on child pornography charges. He faces federal child pornography charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty, but has denied any involvement in Jacob’s abduction, and has not been charged with that crime.
Charges have not been filed against Heinrich in Jacob’s case.
Jacob ordered a pizza and invited his friend over, but before he left, he called his parents and asked if a trusted neighborhood friend could watch his 8-year-old sister, Carmen, while they went to rent the movie. Heinrich was also a suspect in another 1989 kidnapping in nearby Cold Spring, Minn., that took place the same year, but he can not be charged because DNA evidence linking him to the case was discovered after the statute of limitations in place at the time had expired. After the incident, Jacob has not been seen since, despite intense search efforts and missing posters offering rewards for his appearance.
Last October, authorities announced they were unable to prosecute Heinrich for the assault and abduction of Scheierl, because the statute of limitations had run out.
Danny Heinrich remains incarcerated, awaiting trial next month on child pornography charges. “We have no words”.
The remains of a boy who has been missing for over twenty years has been found.
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A law enforcement official said that a person of interest in Jacob’s abduction took authorities to a field in central Minnesota last week.
