Earlier on Saturday, Patty Wetterling confirmed that news to KARE 11’s Caroline Lowe via text saying, “All I can confirm is that Jacob has been found and our hearts are broken. They lit the flame that became Jacob’s Hope”, said a statement released by Jacob’s family Saturday.
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Unnamed sources told CNN affiliate WCCO and the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper that a suspect in Wetterling’s disappearance led the Federal Bureau of Investigation to remains that are now being tested for DNA.
11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted in Saint Joseph, Minnesota, in 1989.
A single bouquet of flowers is rested on the sign for Dr. The statement says that the Ramsey County medical examiner and a forensic odontologist identified the remains Saturday.
Eleven-year-old Jacob Wetterling disappeared almost 30 years ago, on a rural road near his home in central Minnesota.
Then, earlier this year, DNA belonging Heinrich was found on the sweatshirt of a 12-year-old boy who was kidnapped and sexually assaulted just nine months before Wetterling’s abduction only 10 miles away.
Many people told WCCO it wasn’t the outcome they hoped for for many years, but they’re hoping it will bring some sense of peace for the Wetterling family after 27 years.
The boys did. And then Jacob and the masked man were gone. “And I thank the law enforcement officials and others who never stopped searching for him”.
DNA tests are now being conducted to determine if they are in fact the boy’s remains.
The case has not lain dormant for those 27 years, said Tom Heffelfinger, former US attorney for Minnesota.
The parents of the toddler who was killed by an alligator at Walt Disney World in Florida say they will always remember their sweet little boy.
Jacob’s abduction shattered the entire state’s sense of safety.
Jacob went missing after riding his bicycle to a nearby convenience store with his brother and a friend October 22, 1989.
News of the breakthrough in one of Minnesota’s most infamous cold cases washed over St. Joseph on Saturday morning, leaving residents unsure of whether to be happy about the possibility of closure or sad for the Wetterling family. His smiling face was burned into Minnesota’s psyche, appearing on countless posters and billboards over the years.
Jacob’s mother, Patty Wetterling, became a nationally recognized advocate for the cause of missing and exploited children.
The family’s advocacy led to the 1994 passage in Minnesota of the Jacob Wetterling Act, which established the first state sex offender registry in the nation. Investigators had long suspected the two cases were connected.
Heinrich was arrested a year ago on federal child pornography charges.
Authorities said that when they searched Heinrich’s home last summer, they found nothing to connect him to Jacob.
October 26, 1989: Deputies on horseback and hundreds of people search for Jacob, but find nothing. They found a match to Heinrich.
None of the charges allege that Heinrich distributed pornography. Rassier was home when Jacob went missing but told Nelson, he had “absolutely nothing to do with the disappearance”.
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The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing case, said remains and other evidence were recovered and that the remains had been buried. Experts say the case against the alleged child molester is strong. According to CNN, “investigators will evaluate new evidence” and provide more detailed information next week.
