The man who abducted, sexually molested and killed 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling in 1989 stood before a judge Tuesday and gave chilling details of the Minnesota boy’s final moments.
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Heinrich pleaded guilty to an unrelated child pornography charge and will not be charged in the Wetterling 1989 kidnapping, sexual assault or murder.
“I said, ‘I can’t take you all the way home, ‘” Heinrich said. “To us, Jacob was alive until we found him”.
“This was not an opportunity we could pass up”, U.S. Attorney Andy Luger said.
Heinrich panicked upon hearing a police auto, loaded his revolver, shot the boy and buried him in a place finally uncovered last week, federal authorities said. Authorities named him as a person of interest in Jacob’s disappearance last October when they announced the child pornography charges. Some 20 minutes after he first saw them, he got out of his vehicle, put on a mask and confronted them with a revolver, he said.
She released a statement on Sunday saying the family was grieving: “Everyone wants to know what they can do to help us”. Though Heinrich at the time drove a similar vehicle, no charges were ever brought in those cases. 3, 2016, Patty Wetterling announced that the remains of her son, Jacob Wetterling, had been found almost 27 years after his abduction.
2006: Patty Wetterling again runs for Congress but loses to Republican Michele Bachmann.
Heinrich said he went home after killing Wetterling, but returned a few hours later with a shovel. The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office said Jacob’s remains were identified Saturday. In 2014, almost 25 years after the abduction, they agreed to launch what the Federal Bureau of Investigation called a “cold case review” and a new investigator was assigned to the case.
Scheierl has spoken publicly for years about his case.
New advances in DNA technology provided the opportunity for authorities to retest some evidence – including a sweatshirt worn by a then-12-year-old boy, Jared Scheierl, who was abducted and sexually assaulted in nearby Cold Spring just nine months before Jacob’s abduction.
After their son vanished, Patty and Jerry, became advocates for missing children.
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September 3, 2016: Authorities confirm that Jacob’s remains have been found and positively identified.
