Patty Wetterling said in a text message to KARE-TV that 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling “has been found and our hearts are broken”.
Advertisement
Michael Campion, former superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and former commissioner of the state Department of Public Safety, says it’s a tribute to law enforcement that investigators never gave up.
Jacob was 11 when he was kidnapped shortly after 9 p.m. on the night of October 22, 1989, as he and his brother, Trevor, 10, and best friend, Aaron Larson, 11, rode their bikes to a Tom Thumb store not far from the family’s rural St. Joseph, Minn., home to rent a video. Heinrich is now in custody on child pornography charges.
“I always wondered if we’d ever find out”, Chuck Scherer, a longtime family friend of Jacob’s parents, Patty and Jerry, said Saturday night.
Sources say Danny Heinrich lead investigators to a forested area where Jacob Wetterling’s remains were finally found.
Attorneys for Heinrich have asked for a change of venue for the trial, saying he will not receive a fair trial. “Their choice changed the world”, the statement said. The flame that has become more than the hope for one as it led the way home for thousands of others. 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.
On their way home, a man wearing a mask and holding a gun stopped them.
Last October, authorities announced they were unable to prosecute Heinrich in Scheierl’s case because the statute of limitations had run out.
Jacob’s parents founded the Jacob Wetterling Resource Centre, which works to help communities and families prevent child exploitation following his abduction. Allegedly authorities found DNA reportedly tying Heinrich to another kidnapping of another boy around the same time.
Authorities searched Heinrich’s home in July 2015, and they found child pornography in three-ring binders and on a computer hard drive. In both Jacob and Jared’s cases, the statute of limitations have run out, and Heinrich can not be prosecuted; but he is expected in court next month for his child pornography charges. They hoped the kidnapper may have left trace evidence during the assault on Jared. Authorities surveyed Heinrich’s shoes and auto tires, and they were considered to be consistent with the track marks found where Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped.
Every Oct. 22, on the anniversary of Jacob’s disappearance, Minnesotans kept their porch lights on in his memory.
“Saturday September 3 2016, marked an end of a 27 year search for Hope and Truth”. “Today, we gather around the same flame”. “Our hearts are heavy, but we are being held up by all of the people who have been a part of making Jacob’s Hope a light that will never be extinguished”. It shines on in a different way.
Another person wrote: “Minnesota loves you and your family”, in a tweet addressed to Jacob’s mother.
Advertisement
The announcement ended a mystery that had rankled police and anxious parents, but it destroyed the last shred of hope for Jacob’s family of finding him alive.
