A Minnesota man confessed Tuesday to abducting and killing 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling almost 27 years ago, putting to rest a mystery that had haunted the state and led to changes in national sex offender laws.
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September 1: Heinrich confesses in detail to authorities how he abducted and killed Jacob Oct. 22, 1989. The boy asked him, “What did I do wrong?”, Heinrich recounted.
Danny Heinrich, 53, confessed as he pleaded guilty to child pornography charges in Minnesota on Tuesday.
Heinrich made the statements as part of a plea deal related to child pornography charges, on which he was indicted last December.
Jacob went missing one evening when when he and his brother left their home in the hamlet of Saint James, Minn., with a friend to ride their bicycles and a scooter to a store to rent a movie.
After assaulting the boy in a nearby wooded area, Heinrich said, he began to cry when he told Jacob he couldn’t take him home.
Heinrich laid in wait for the three boys to return, and when they did, he put on a mask and confronted them with a revolver.
He later told the court how he impulsively shot and killed the 11-year-old with a revolver in a panic after he said he saw a police auto drive by without any lights on. He then spotted a Bobcat digger with keys in it and used the machine to dig a large grave for Jacob.
They found a match to Heinrich.
Jacob disappeared on a dark road in central Minnesota on the night of October 22, 1989.
He was initially facing 25 counts of child pornography, that was reduced to one count of receiving child pornography, the other 24 counts are dismissed in addition to this agreement. After that, he’ll be evaluated for sex offender commitment – “and may never be released from custody again”, Kendall said.
Heinrich was arrested in October on child pornography charges. But last summer authorities searched his house for ties to the boy’s disappearance. Paynesville is about 30 miles from where he abducted Jacob in St. Joseph.
In the late 1980s, Heinrich was living in an old apartment building in the heart of downtown Paynesville.
He was suspected of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy named Jared Scheierl elsewhere in Stearns County in 1989. The Pioneer Press typically doesn’t identify victims of sexual assault, but Scheierl has spoken publicly for years about his case.
Heinrich “is the confessed murderer of Jacob Wetterling, and almost 27 years after he committed this heinous crime, he has been brought to justice”. Investigators revisited the site again Friday for crime-scene purposes.
With Wetterling’s parents looking on, Heinrich explained how he had carried out the crime.
Moments after Danny Heinrich abducted Jacob Wetterling on a rural road in Minnesota, the man handcuffed the 11-year-old boy and forced him into a vehicle. But he led authorities to Jacob’s remains last week, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing case. U.S. Attorney Andy Luger said he and other officials were anxious that Heinrich would back out of the deal before that court hearing. Prosecutors could not bring charges against Heinrich in that assault, however, because the statute of limitations had expired.
After years of wondering, we now know the details surrounding 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling’s abduction. After asking each boy his age, he took Jacob and let the others go.
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He was physically linked to that case a year ago when DNA found on a sweatshirt Scheierl was wearing during the attack was matched to Heinrich’s DNA profile, according to WCCO, Minneapolis’ CBS affiliate. Jacob’s remains were identified Saturday. Authorities expect to provide more details this week.
