Answers are finally emerging about the abduction of an 11-year-old boy in Minnesota in 1989, as Danny Heinrich has admitted kidnapping and killing Jacob Wetterling.
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Tuesday, Danny Heinrich, the man who confessed to Wetterling’s kidnapping and murder, stood in court and revealed the chilling details of the day in question.
She said she reached out to federal prosecutors with the hope a substantial prison sentence on federal child porn charges would be the best way to further Heinrich’s cooperation in the Wetterling investigation.
Wetterling was kidnapped in October of 1989, and it was learned earlier this week that Danny Heinrich admitted to his abduction and murder.
As part of the deal, which the Wetterling family approved, Heinrich led authorities to Jacob’s remains last week. After asking the boys their names and ages, he told Trevor and Aaron to run, keeping Jacob behind.
As they began to drive again, Heinrich panicked when he saw a police vehicle down the road, he recounted.
Heinrich said he initially left the boy’s body at the scene but later returned to bury him, MPR reported.
According to an investigator, Henrich led authorities to Jacob’s buried remains in a field in Minnesota last week.
Williams also relays U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger’s explanation for how Tuesday’s hearing came about, from an initial message from Heinrich’s defense team to a meeting with the families in the case last week about a possible plea deal. As his mother Patty Wetterling said on Tuesday, “It is a world that is worth fighting for”.
“Our hearts were touched by a request from children to honor Jacob in this way”, the JWRC said in a statement. “Putting fear in them is not helpful”.
“In this case, what Mr. Heinrich was offering was the ultimate piece of information”, says Tamburino.
Heinrich faces the statutory maximum of 20 years on the child pornography count, though Judge John Tunheim will decide his sentence.
Using technology that wasn’t available in 1989, investigators found Heinrich’s DNA on Scheierl’s sweatshirt, and used that evidence to get a search warrant for Heinrich’s home, where they found the child pornography.
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Scheierl has spoken publicly for years about his case. She says that’s how other children have been found years after they went missing.
