One autumn evening in October 1989, a masked man abducted an 11-year-old boy at gunpoint as he rode his bike near his rural Minnesota home.
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After lying for years that he had nothing to do with the awful crime, Heinrich finally led authorities to the remains of the boy last week.
From the moment Danny Heinrich was arrested and charged with possessing child pornography past year, investigators were focused on getting him to admit his involvement in the abduction of Jacob Wetterling. But he has pleaded not guilty to several federal child pornography charges.
“Finally, we know”, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said during an emotional news conference following Heinrich’s confession.
A USA man admitted Tuesday to killing an 11-year-old boy in 1989 in a case that shocked Americans and prompted a law requiring states to establish sex-offender registries.
October 22, 1989: Jacob is abducted by a masked gunman while riding his bike with his brother and a friend on a rural road near his home in St. Joseph.
In court, the judge recommended Heinrich serve the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The boy asked him, “What did I do wrong?”, Heinrich recounted.
Heinrich confessed Tuesday to abducting and killing 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling almost.
Heinrich said he confronted the three boys and told two of them, Jacob’s little brother and his friend, to run.
Heinrich said he left the scene but went back later to bury his body.
Heinrich is to be sentenced November 21.
She called Luger to tell him that as a team they might have the keys to crack the cold case that had brought the federal 1994 Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, which requires states to maintain sex offender registries and guidelines.
In order to get information that could lead investigators to Jacob, prosecutors had to agree to a deal with Heinrich in which a murder charge was off the table, Luger said.
Besides the fact that the people who cared about Wetterling and those who worked for decades to determine what happened to him no longer have to agonize over the possibility of never knowing his fate, perhaps the one truly positive aspect of Heinrich’s confession and near-certain impending decades-long incarceration is that he’ll be locked away, far from the children he once admittedly terrorized. He said he told Jacob to turn around. “To us, Jacob was alive, until we found him”.
Luger added that he hopes this can be the time for family, friends and neighbors to “begin the healing process”. Jacob’s remains were identified Saturday.
Patty Wetterling also thanked Jared Scheierl, a Minnesota man whose own sexual assault as a 12-year-old was long suspected to be connected to Jacob’s disappearance.
By late Tuesday, investigators were prepared to excavate where Heinrich said Jacob’s body could be found. “I raised the revolver again and shot him again”, Heinrich told the court.
When first announcing the federal child porn charges against Heinrich previous year, federal authorities named him a person of interest in Wetterling’s abduction.
In 2015, the state crime lab linked DNA from J.S.’ case to Heinrich. She became a national advocate for missing children, and with her husband, Jerry Wetterling, founded the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center, which works to help communities and families prevent child exploitation.
Luger said the Wetterling family and Scheierl were part of the ongoing plea deal negotiations.
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The defendant described how he then handcuffed Jacob and put him in the passenger seat of his vehicle. Authorities also searched the home where Heinrich lived with his father at the time and found scanners, camouflage clothing and a picture of a boy wearing underwear.
