He said the boy asked him, “What did I do wrong?” At that point in the testimony, Jacob’s sisters began audibly sobbing. “Heinrich said Jacob was buried in a reflective vest, red jacket and blue sweatpants”.
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Heinrich described during a court hearing what happened the night of October 22, 1989, the last night Jacob was seen alive. On the way back to the vehicle, Heinrich noticed a police cruiser on the road nearby. Heinrich said he had a mask and a revolver with him as he handcuffed the boy and put him in his auto, CBS Minnesota’s Nina Moini reported via Twitter. He told Jacob to turn around, using the excuse he needed to use the bathroom, and loaded his revolver, and proceeded to shoot Jacob in the head twice.
For MPR, Brandt Williams and Jon Collins say, “Asked why Heinrich killed Jacob after sexually assaulting him, Luger said authorities believed he panicked that night after hearing a police auto”.
The details got worse. Heinrich said he dragged Jacob about 100 yards to the northeast of where he was shot. The defendant says his own shovel was too small so he stole one from the construction site.
America’s upper Midwest “lost its innocence” with Wetterling’s kidnapping, said Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner.
That spot is evidently the same one Heinrich led authorities to last week, according to the AP.
Heinrich will be sentenced to 20 years in prison (that’s the maximum allowed by law for a receipt of child porn conviction) at his November 21 sentencing hearing. Federal sentences do not allow for parole, so he will serve the entire 20.
Aaron Larson, Jacob Wetterling’s childhood best friend, recalls Wetterling’s abduction at his home in Worthington. Jacob then asked whether he was taking him home.
Jacob Wetterling’s mother says it is “incredibly painful” to learn of her son’s last hours of life.
“He’s taught us all how to live, how to love, how to be fair, how to be kind”, Wetterling said. “We will continue to fight”.
“For us, Jacob was alive until we found him. we need to heal”. His maximum sentence is 20 years. Heinrich could also be civilly committed to the state’s sexual offender programme after his prison sentence ends.
At a news conference soon after and with family members in attendance, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said, “Finally, we know. Danny Heinrich is no longer a person of interest he is the confessed murderer of Jacob Wetterling”. He admitted keeping Jared’s trousers and underwear. Once he was done, a shocked Jacob reportedly told him the following. “I said, ‘Don’t cry'”.
“I was thrown into this investigation not by choice, but because I was a victim, a victim of an assault that defined who I am today”, Scheierl said Tuesday.
“If you would have asked me 25 years ago what my goal in life was, I wouldn’t have had an answer”.
“I was driving on a dead-end road” outside St. Joseph on the evening of October 22, 1989, when he saw three young boys on their bikes with a flashlight, Heinrich said. They did the same over Labor Day weekend, as news of the break in the case traveled around the world.
September 6: Heinrich pleads guilty to one federal count of receiving child pornography in a plea deal that likely will send him to prison for 20 years.
Heinrich, who had as many as 150 pornographic images of children in his home and computer, including minors under age 12, admitted to downloading image of naked minor female on March 1, 2014, as well collecting other images.
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Before Heinrich could change his plea to “guilty”, the judge asked a series of questions to make sure Heinrich was competent to make the decision, fully understood the consequences of the plea, that the facts that were admitted and true that support the admission, and that no one forced him into making the decision.
