Minnesota man confesses to 1989 assault, murder of boy (2024)

MINNEAPOLIS --A Minnesota man confessed Tuesday toabducting and killing 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling nearly 27 years ago, puttingto rest a mystery that had haunted the stateand led to changes in national sexoffender laws.

Danny Heinrichmade the admission as he pleaded guilty to afederal child p*rnography chargethat could put him behind bars for decades.

Asked whether he abducted, sexuallyassaulted and murdered Jacob, Heinrichsaid: “Yes I did.”

Heinrich, 53, of Annandale,led authorities to Jacob’s buried remains in a central Minnesota field lastweek, officials said Tuesday. The Stearns County Sheriff’s Officesaid Jacob’s remains were identified Saturday.

Appearing in court, Heinrichadmittedabducting Jacob from a road near the boy’s home in the central Minnesotacommunity of St. Joseph on Oct. 22, 1989. Authorities named him as a person ofinterest in Jacob’s disappearance last October when they announced the childp*rnography charges.

Heinrich took the stand and gave disturbing details of the attack.

With the boy’s parents Patty andJerryWetterlingin a packed courtroom, Heinrichdescribed donning a mask and confronting Jacob and two friends with a revolver.Heinrich said he told the twofriends to run, handcuffed Jacob and put him in his car.

He said the child asked him, “What did I do wrong?”

He then drove the boy to agravel pit nearPaynesville, where he sexually assaulted him. Afterward, Jacob asked whether hewas taking him home.

“I said I can’t take you all theway home,” Heinrich said.“He started to cry. I said, ‘Don’t cry.’”

Heinrich said at some point apatrol car with siren and lights passing nearby caused him to panic. He said hepulled out his revolver, which had not been loaded, and put two rounds in thegun. He said he told Jacob to turn around. He held the gun to the boy’s headand pulled the trigger. The gun didn’t fire. Heinrichsaid he pulled the trigger a second time, the gun fired and Jacob fell to theground.

He said he buried Jacob about 100yards away.He said he later threw the child’s shoes into a body of water because he had forgotten to bury them, CBS Minnesotareports. He confirmed he acted alone.

Heinrich said he returned to the site about a year later and saw thatJacob’s jacket and some bones had become exposed.

“I gathered up as much as I couldand put it in the bag and transported it across the highway” to a field,and reburied the remains, he said. Sobbing could be heard in the courtroom as Heinrich described the crime.

Heinrich had long been underinvestigators’ scrutiny. They first questioned him shortly after Jacob’sabduction, but he maintained his innocence and they never had enough evidenceto charge him. They turned a renewed spotlight on him as part of a fresh lookinto Jacob’s abduction around its 25th anniversary.

As part of that effort, investigatorstook another look at the sexual assault of 12-year-old Jared Scheierl, of ColdSpring, nine months before Jacob’s disappearance. Investigators had longsuspected the two cases were connected.

Using technology that wasn’t availablein 1989, investigators found Heinrich’sDNA on Scheierl’s sweatshirt, and used that evidence to get a search warrantfor Heinrich’s home, where they founda large collection of child p*rnography.The statute of limitations had expiredfor charging him in the assault on Scheierl, but a grand jury indicted him on25 child p*rnography counts. Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to one of them.

The AP typically doesn’t identifyvictims of sexual assault, but Scheierl has spoken publicly for years about hiscase, saying it helped him cope with the trauma and that he hoped it could helpinvestigators find his attacker and Jacob’s kidnapper.

“Danny Heinrich is nolonger a person of interest,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of MinnesotaAndrew Luger. “He is the confessed murdererof Jacob Wetterling, and nearly 27years after he committed this heinous crime, he has been brought to justice.And Jacob is finally home.”

Luger said federal prosecutors negotiated formonths with Heinrich’s defense team after he was taken into custody on thechild p*rn charges, hoping he could help them find out what happened toWetterling. But Luger said Heinrich was “a volatile and unpredictable man whowould want to talk one minute, and clam up the next.”

Ten days ago, according to Luger, Heinrichreached out through his defense attorneys, claiming he was ready to talk.Knowing they needed to move quickly in case he changed his mind, prosecutorsdrafted a plea agreement they presented to Wetterling’s family on Aug. 30.

All agreed any deal they presented to Heinrichwould have to include a lengthy prison sentence, a confession that could beindependently verified, and “of course, we needed to bring Jacob home.”

“This was not an opportunity we could pass up –after almost 27 years, Danny Heinrich was willing to talk, and we had to grabthe moment,” Luger said.

The next day, Aug. 31, Heinrich ledinvestigators to a burial site in rural Stearns County and investigators beganto excavate. That afternoon, Luger said, investigators unearthed a portion of ared St. Cloud hockey jacket that matched the description of the one Wetterlinghad been wearing on the day he disappeared.

It wasn’t until two days later, however, thatinvestigators would uncover human remains. Along with them, Luger said, theydiscovered a T-shirt that said, “Wetterling.” Later, they would be positively identified as Jacob.

“Finally, we knew the Wetterling family couldlay their son to rest,” Luger said.

Under the terms of the agreement, Heinrichadmits to abducting, sexually assaulting and killing Jacob Wetterling and abductingand sexually assaulting Scheierl. He also admits to possessing between 10 and 150 childp*rnography images including images of children under the age of 12, a felony.

The agreement recommends a sentence of 20 years infederal prison.

Heinrich has waivedany rights to appeal the sentence and may be subject to civil commitment afterserving jail time, CBS News’ Jamie Yuccas reports. No further stateprosecutions are planned for Wetterling’s murder of for Scheierl’s assault.

Heinrich is set to besentenced Nov. 21.

Speaking Tuesday, Stearns CountyAttorney Janelle P. Kendall said Minnesota statues of limitations leaveher unable to prosecute for Scheierl’s1989 sexual assault. While it wouldn’t bar state prosecutors from pursuing amurder prosecution, in the Wetterling case, her team couldn’t prove a murderwithout Wetterling’s remains.

“Until last Friday,proof that Jacob Wetterling was no longer alive did not exist,” she said.

She said she hoped asubstantial prison sentence on the federal child p*rn charges would be the bestway to further Heinrich’s cooperation in the Wetterling investigation.

“What was most important to the Wetterlings was to bringJacob home and to find out what happened tohim,” Kendall said. “…We neverstopped looking for Jacob and none of us will ever forget the moment we foundhim.”

Jacob’s abduction shattered childhoodinnocence for many rural Minnesotans, changing the way parents let their kidsroam. His smiling face was burned into Minnesota’s psyche, appearing oncountless posters and billboards over the years.

His mother, Patty Wetterling, alwayskept hope her son would be found alive. She became a national advocate formissing children, and with her husband, Jerry Wetterling, founded the JacobWetterling Resource Center, which works to help communities and familiesprevent child exploitation. In 1994, Congress passed a law named after Jacobthat requires states to establish sex offender registries.

The Wetterling family was in courtduring Tuesday’s proceeding.

“It is incredibly painful to know his last days, last hours, last minutes,” saidPattyWetterling after the court hearing.

“We love you Jacob. We will continue to fight, our hearts are hurting,” saidPatty Wetterling. “For us, Jacobwas alive until we found him. We need to heal.”