52-year-old Danny Heinrich was arrested on five counts of possessing and receiving child pornography.
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At a Thursday news conference in Minneapolis, authorities said they also are investigating him in connection with the Wetterling case, in which he has not been charged.
A man charged in federal court with possession and receipt of child pornography has been named as a person-of-interest in the 1989 abduction of an 11-year-old Minnesota boy, authorities said on Thursday.
Though no arrests have been made, child pornography suspect Danny James Heinrich, 52, has been questioned in the abduction, authorities said.
“The defendant has denied any involvement in the disappearance of Jacob Wetterling and is not charged at this time with any crime related to that disappearance”.
Members of the FBI, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Stearns County Sheriff’s department have been meeting over the past year to conduct a new review of the Wetterling case, Thornton said. “But…my brother Dan has had a cloud over his life for 26 years, and for that be gone would be a blessing in disguise”.
And Heinrich’s name has come up before in connection with the Wetterling case.
WJON Reporter Isaac Schweer will be at the news conference, and will be updating us as soon as it begins. We know what you all know.
After searching Heinrich’s Annandale, Minn., residence July 28, investigators found 19 three-ring binders filled with pornographic images of young boys, a computer hard drive filled with images, and a collection of VHS tapes containing images of children, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said. “I just want him home”, Jacob’s mother Patty Wetterling said the day after he was abducted.
Missing Children Minnesota was running a child protection workshop in Chaska which FOX 9 attended, with parent Chad Petrie saying it changed the way he parented. “What happened?”, Wetterling’s family said in a statement.
– Investigators say at the time of Wetterling’s disappearance, Heinrich lived in Paynesville. “He described Heinrich’s auto, and police scanner radio as being very similar to that in Jared’s case”. She says Jacob’s family is “preparing a statement”, and they’re asking for time and privacy. He’s facing several child pornography charges.
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It was a sentiment echoed around this college town 75 miles northeast of the Twin Cities, where the local clinic still displays a poster with a yellow ribbon and candle proclaiming “Jacob’s Hope”, and where porch lights still glow for a week in October in support of finding the boy who disappeared. “We will be available for comment next week but ask for a few space at this point in time”. We could always tell something was a little off, so we tried to stay on the other side of the street.
