Danny Heinrich, 53, of Annandale made the admission as part of a plea agreement. An image the defendant downloaded on March 1, 2014 is the basis for the only charge in the child pornography indictment he is pleading guilty to.
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Heinrich, now 53, described the sexual assault and murder of Jacob and also a separate attack on another boy who survived, as part of plea deal with federal and state authorities created to reveal what happened to Jacob and to recover his remains.
The plea deal was the only way officials were going to find Jacob Wetterling, and help answer questions that have been on Minnesotans’ minds for almost three decades, officials said Tuesday.
U.S. Attorney Andy Luger told reporters that Heinrich isn’t getting away with anything.
Twenty minutes later, they passed him again, so Heinrich got out of his auto, put on a mask, reached for a revolver and confronted them.
Prosecutors say a forensic exam found evidence of child pornography on the computer.
She and her husband Jerry have become national advocates for missing children, founding the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center, which helps prevent child exploitation.
1994: Congress passes into law the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offenders Act.
Heinrich admitted to ambushing Wetterling, as well as the boy’s brother and a friend at gunpoint near Wetterling’s home in St. Joseph on October 22, 1989 after spotting them while driving his auto. “I told Trevor (Jacob’s brother) and Aaron (Jacob’s best friend) to run away, don’t look back or I’ll shoot”.
“I want to say, Jacob, I’m so sorry”.
“I said I can’t take you all the way home”, Heinrich said. “He started to cry”.
“Jared had the courage to stand up and say this happened to me”, Patty said.
Heinrich forced Jacob into the passenger seat of his auto and handcuffed him, the newspaper reported. He said he pulled out his revolver, which had not been loaded, and put two rounds in the gun. Authorities said in the past they believed the cases were connected.
For MPR, Brandt Williams and Jon Collins say, “Asked why Heinrich killed Jacob after sexually assaulting him, Luger said authorities believed he panicked that night after hearing a police auto”.
About a year later, Heinrich returned to the site and noticed the spot where Jacob was buried was partly uncovered.
Heinrich was asked to describe during the court hearing what happened the night of October 22, 1989, the last night Wetterling was seen alive.
Aside from the guilty plea, Heinrich also led investigators last week to Jacob’s remains, which were buried on a Paynesville farm. “It’s incredibly painful to know his last days, last hours, last minutes”, said Patty Wetterling, Jacob’s mother. The remains of Jacob were only recently found thereby ending more than 27 years of speculation over the fate of the boy. Heinrich had built up enough trust with his attorneys, who were critical in resolving the case, Luger said.
On Tuesday, Heinrich, 53, admitted in a Minnesota court to having abducted, sexually assaulted and killed Wetterling as part of a plea deal related to 25 child pornography charges.
Heinrich first came to the attention of investigators in 1990. He was first questioned shortly after Jacob’s abduction, but had always maintained his innocence. They again focused on him as part of a fresh look into Jacob’s abduction around its 25th anniversary. He was suspected of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy named Jared Scheierl elsewhere in Stearns County in 1989.
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Using technology that wasn’t available in 1989, investigators found Heinrich’s DNA on Scheierl’s sweatshirt. 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. And the same statute of limitations problems meant she couldn’t charge Heinrich with kidnapping the 11-year-old St. Joseph boy nine months after Scheierl was assaulted.
