Heinrich confesses to murder of Jacob Wetterling

The family of Jacob Wetterling finally knows what happened to their 11-year-old son and brother who was abducted nearly 27 years ago near his home in rural St. Joseph.

On Sept. 3, the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the remains of Jacob, missing since 1989, had been found. They were identified by the Ramsey County Medical examiner and a forensic odontologist.

Jacob’s remains were found after Danny Heinrich, who authorities had named as a person of interest in his 1989 kidnapping, agreed to cooperate and provide information. 

Heinrich led investigators to an undisclosed location in Central Minnesota where the remains were found. DNA tests confirmed the remains belonged to Jacob.

Jacob, the oldest son of Jerry and Patty Wetterling, had been missing since Oct. 22, 1989. He had been riding  bicycle with his brother, Trevor and best friend, Aaron Larson, when a masked gunman abducted him from a rural road. Authorities said the man held on to Jacob and told the other boys to run.

Since that time, the Wetterling family (his parents, brother and sisters, Carmen and Amy) continued to search for Jacob, hoping to bring him home...hoping to know the answers to what happened to their son and brother that fateful day.

On Sept. 6, the man who kidnapped Jacob Wetterling confessed to abducting, sexually assaulting  and killing the 11-year-old boy in 1989, providing the family with answers they had waited to hear for nearly 27 years. 

In exchange for his confession and agreement to a plea deal involving child pornography charges against him, however, Danny James Heinrich, 53, will not be prosecuted for Jacob’s murder.

Heinrich is expected to be sentenced on Nov. 21 to 20 years in prison on the federal child pornography charge.

This message was written at the Facebook page of the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center after the news of Jacob was released:

“We are in deep grief. We didn’t want Jacob’s story to end this way. In this moment of pain and shock, we go back to the beginning. The Wetterlings had a choice to walk into bitterness and anger or to walk into a light of what could be, a light of hope. Their choice changed the world. 

This light has been burning for close to 27 years. The spark began in the moments after the abduction of Jacob Wetterling, when his family decided that light is stronger than darkness. They lit the flame that became Jacob’s Hope. All of Central Minnesota flocked to and fanned the flame, hoping for answers. The light spread state-wide, nationally and globally as hearts connected to the 11 year old boy who liked to play goalie for his hockey team, wanted to be a football player, played the trombone; and loved the times he spent with his sisters, brother, and parents.

Today, we gather around the same flame. The flame that has become more than the hope for one as it led the way home for thousands of others. It’s the light that illuminates a world that Jacob believed in, where things are fair and just. 

Our hearts are heavy, but we are being held up by all of the people who have been a part of making Jacob’s Hope a light that will never be extinguished. It shines on in a different way. We are, and we will continue to be, Jacob’s Hope. 

Jacob, you are loved.”

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