This photo released Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2015 by the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office, shows Daniel Heinrich.
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Heinrich, who was indicted past year on 25 child pornography counts, had been scheduled to go to trial next month on the charges before he led investigators to Jacob’s remains. Law enforcement wouldn’t say exactly where Heinrich led them to Wetterling’s remains, but law enforcement activity in the last few days had focused on pasture land a mile outside of town, just beyond the trees.
Daniel James Heinrich, 53, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of possession of child pornography as part of a plea agreement to confess to the kidnapping and murder of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling in 1989 – one of Minnesota’s most mysterious and haunting cold kidnapping cases.
Danny Heinrich made the admission Tuesday as he pleaded guilty to child pornography charges in federal court in Minneapolis. Heinrich confessed Tuesday to abducting and killing 11-year-old Jacob Wetterli. Authorities said the man held onto Jacob and threatened to shoot the other two unless they ran into the woods. He did so last week. Jacob’s smiling face was burned into Minnesota’s psyche, appearing on countless posters and billboards over the years.
According to the Star Tribune, Heinrich said he 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.
Jacob asked to go home, but Heinrich told him he couldn’t take him all the way home, at which point, the boy began to cry, the Star Tribune reported.
On a day that would have brought most human beings to their knees, Patty Wetterling summoned the strength and dignity to step before a crowd of reporters, standing by the side of Luger and others who have been instrumental in obtaining a confession from the man who killed her son.
Twenty minutes later, they passed him again, so Heinrich got out of his vehicle, put on a mask, reached for a revolver and confronted them.
The complicated path to convicting Danny Heinrich, and to bringing Jacob home, was the result of a team effort involving state, local and national agencies, Kendall said.
A 1989 sketch of the suspect in the Jacob Wetterling abduction, left.
“I’m cold”, Jacob told Heinrich. He will also be required to register with the state as a sex offender after his prison sentence ends. Heinrich said Jacob asked. “We love you Jacob, we will continue to fight”.
September 3, 2016: Authorities confirm that Jacob’s remains have been found and positively identified.
“In this case, what Mr. Heinrich was offering was the ultimate piece of information”, says Tamburino.
Investigators zeroed in on Heinrich then but J.S. was unable to identify him, Sanner said.
Heinrich’s confession, in addition to helping lead police to the spot where he buried Wetterling’s body, was part of a plea deal. Jacob then started to cry.
Investigators had long targeted Heinrich for the boy’s kidnapping but were unable to find evidence. Heinrich told the court he panicked and pulled out a revolver. More than 700 people attend an anniversary vigil less than two miles from where Jacob was taken.
Heinrich said he went home for a couple of hours, then went back to the gravel pit and buried Jacob about 100 yards away. “It’s incredibly painful to know his last days, his last hours, his last minutes”, Patty Wetterling said.
Henrich was first questioned shortly after the boy disappeared but maintained his innocence and police didn’t have enough evidence to charge him. But when he later returned to the site and saw a part of the boy’s jacket sticking out he exhumed the body.
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Heinrich, now 53, described the sexual assault and murder of Jacob and also a separate attack on another boy who survived, as part of a plea deal with federal and state authorities created to reveal what happened to Jacob and to recover his remains. Scheierl has talked publicly about his case in hopes it could help investigators find his attacker and Jacob’s. Unfortunately that case was beyond the statute of limitations, but the DNA test led to a search warrant on Heinrich’s home, and the discovery of child pornography.
