Danny Heinrich, 53, of Annandale made the admission as part of a plea agreement.
Advertisement
Luger told reporters that while Heinrich pleaded guilty to only a single child pornography count Tuesday, the Minnesota man isn’t getting away with anything. “Danny Heinrich is no longer a person of interest he is the confessed murderer of Jacob Wetterling”. In exchange, Heinrich would not be charged or prosecuted for Wetterling’s kidnapping or murder, or another assault on a different 12-year-old boy.
In court, the judge recommended Heinrich serve the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
They set up the Jacob Wetterling Resource Centre, which works to help communities and families prevent child exploitation. “For the family and everybody to have to sit and listen to him, what he did to Jacob …”
August 30: Federal prosecutors meet with Wetterling family to discuss the terms of the plea deal.
In the years after Jacob’s disappearance, his mother, Patty Wetterling, became a nationally known advocate for missing children.
In 1994, congress passed laws bearing Jacob Wetterling’s name that require states to establish sex offender registries.
The 1989 abduction and murder of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling of St. Joseph, Minnesota, has been solved with a confession in court Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2016.
He recalled handcuffing the young boy and putting him in the backseat of his vehicle after he stopped the 11-year-old at gunpoint as he rode his bike home along a rural road in St. Joseph, Minn., with his brother and best friend. Jacob said, “What did I do wrong?”
KSTP-TV’s story has this, “Heinrich said he wasn’t under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time and that his actions “were voluntary” and ‘of his own free will.’ Heinrich said he then went home to Paynesville but returned to the site a few hours later with a shovel”. Jacob then started to cry.
“Jared had the courage to stand up and say this happened to me”, Patty said. There, he forced Jacob to disrobe and perform a sexual act on him until the boy told Heinrich he was cold.
I pulled the revolver out of my pocket. He then pulled the trigger, but the gun didn’t go off. Heinrich then took Jacob into his auto, where he handcuffed him to the front passenger seat. He also attempted to camouflage the area with grass and twigs following which he went away – only to return again at midnight when he noticed that the grave was partially uncovered and Jacob’s jacket was clearly visible outside. He gathered the human remains and reburied them at a farm. “He is the confessed murderer of Jacob Wetterling and almost 27 years after he committed this heinous crime, he has been brought to justice”.
Heinrich led officials to Jacob’s buried remains in a central Minnesota field last week. The office said local and state law-enforcement agencies, as well as the FBI, are “currently in the process of reviewing and evaluating new evidence in the Jacob Wetterling investigation”.
Patty Wetterling always kept hope her son would be found alive. “Our hearts are hurting because for us, Jacob was alive. until we found him”.
Heinrich’s attorneys walked quickly by the media without comment.
Authorities in October named Heinrich as a person of interest in Jacob’s disappearance when they announced the child pornography charges.
Heinrich was first named as a person of interest in the case nearly a year ago, but his current federal charges stem from an unrelated case. They again focused on him as part of a fresh look into Jacob’s abduction around its 25th anniversary.
He was physically linked to that case previous year 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.
Advertisement
After pleading guilty to a single count of receiving child pornography, Heinrich coldly detailed how he kidnapped and killed Jacob.
