The identification process had a forensic odontologist identify the remains alongside a Ramsey County medical examiner.
Advertisement
Court documents say new DNA testing on Jared clothes – unavailable two decades ago – detected a match to Danny Heinrich. In a statement, the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office said it would provide more details later this week.
For nearly three decades, Minnesotans kept their porch lights burning, hoping Jacob Wetterling might find his way home.
Police said Wetterling’s suspected killer, Daniel James Heinrich, 52, became cooperative over recent weeks and eventually gave investigators enough information to lead them to Wetterling’s remains.
Patty and Jerry Wetterling confirmed Jacob had been found dead and said: “Our hearts are broken”.
With Jacob’s remains found, could we ever go back to that time of innocence?
That statement said in part: “We are in deep grief”.
“We didn’t want Jacob’s story to end this way”, the statement read.
Parent Jeff Kremers said, “We went everywhere we just knew you had to be home for dinner and bedtime you could roam anywhere”.
According to the lights on for Jacob Wetterling Facebook page, people are asked to have their lights on through Monday evening. Their choice changed the world. It shines on in a different way.
Another person wrote: “Minnesota loves you and your family”, in a tweet addressed to Jacob’s mother.
2004: Patty Wetterling runs as a Democrat against Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy in Minnesota’s 6th District. “It’s been hard to talk about, since nothing’s really official, but it’s also hard not to”.
Jerry and Patty Wetterling address the media outside their St. Joseph home on November 3, 2015.
“He stepped out of the vehicle, approached me from behind, grabbed me by the shoulders and put me in the auto”, he said in an interview broadcast in 2004. “It’s kind of relieving to find out, but it’s sad, too”.
Wetterling was 12 years old when he was kidnapped by a man with a gun in rural St. Joseph, Minnesota, in 1989.
Jacob, his brother and a friend were coming home from a convenience store on bikes and a scooter when an armed man wearing a stocking mask approached them. They kept running for the woods and when they looked back again, both the man and Jacob were gone. After the incident, Jacob has not been seen since, despite intense search efforts and missing posters offering rewards for his appearance. 53-year-old Heinrich resides in Annandale and has repeatedly denied any involvement in Jacob’s abduction. To the contrary, he said, it’s been a top priority for local and federal law enforcement the entire time.
Heinrich was eventually named a person of interest in the Wetterling case last October. However, police discovered Heinrich’s DNA on the sweatshirt Jared had been wearing the day he was kidnapped past year. Heinrich is now in custody on child pornography charges. No charges can be filed in that case, however, as the statute of limitations has passed.
Sources say the remains that may be those of Wetterling were found at an undisclosed location in central Minnesota.
After almost three decades of mystery, local authorities announced on Saturday that his remains had been found.
“Our family is drawing strength from all your love & support”. They lit the flame that became Jacob’s Hope. Jacob’s story has touched the lives and hearts of Minnesotans for a generation.
Advertisement
“It’s a very sad situation, and I feel for the Wetterling family”, he told Lowe. Now 27 years later, police are saying a suspect in his disappearance led the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the remains.
