He was testifying under oath, detailing Jacob’s abduction and death in his own words.
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Wetterling was 11 years old when he was kidnapped at gunpoint by a man wearing a mask in October 1989 near his home in St. Joseph, Minnesota.
“He started to cry”, Heinrich told the court.
Said the boys tried to shine flashlight in his eyes, offered him tape they had rented from video store.
The man asked the boys their ages, grabbed Jacob and told the others to run into the woods or else he’d shoot, Jacob’s father has said, recounting what his other son told police. He handcuffed him in the front seat. More than 700 people attend an anniversary vigil less than two miles from where Jacob was taken. First, in the molestation of 8 boys in Paynesville, and then nearly immediately in the Wetterling case 30 miles away in St. Joseph, Minn. He said the three children passed him, so he turned around and faced the direction of the road they would be coming back on. Heinrich denied there was oral sex or penetration, but he did mention masturbation. “We stand in solidarity with the Wetterlings as they seek justice, and peace”.
He said that when he had brought the boy into his vehicle, Wetterling had asked: “What did I do wrong?”
“We were hoping he would go someplace or do something that would lead us to evidence or to Jacob and he didn’t”, retired Federal Bureau of Investigation supervisor Al Garber told KARE 11 last November.
He then took Wetterling into some trees and assaulted him and then shot him.
He shot the boy twice moments later and buried him about 100 yards away, according to Heinrich.
Authorities have long suspected a link between Jared and Jacob’s cases, leading them to circle back to Heinrich.
Initially, he said, he used a Bobcat to dig a hole and bury Jacob and camouflage the area with grass and twigs. Jacob was buried in his clothes.
Heinrich said he then went home to Paynesville but returned to the site a few hours later with a shovel.
About a year later, he returned to the site with a flashlight and saw the grave was partially uncovered, and Jacob’s jacket was visible.
“I gathered up as much as I could and put it in the bag and transported it across the highway” to a field, and reburied the remains, he said. His fate remained one of Minnesota’s most haunting mysteries until last week.
Jacob vanished 27 years ago, after he was abducted by a masked gunman while riding his bike on October 22, 1989. Wetterling’s friend and younger brother were there as well.
The Pioneer Press reports on June 2 that a new court document details why investigators consider Heinrich a “person of interest” in Jacob’s abduction.
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.
They were announced as part of a plea deal with Danny Heinrich, the man who led FBI investigators to his remains late last week.
A Minnesota judge says Heinrich could be sentenced up to 20 years for child porn, kidnapping and sexual assault.
Heinrich would be 73 after serving a 20-year sentence.
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State officials said in court he will not face any prosecution for crimes committed in 1989.
