Nearly 27 Years After Abduction, Jacob Wetterling's Remains Have Been Found

Enlarge this image toggle caption Craig Lassig/AP Craig Lassig/AP

Nearly 27 years ago, Jacob Wetterling was abducted at gunpoint while out for a bike ride with his brother and a friend in St. Joseph, Minn. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota man confessed Tuesday to abducting and killing 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling nearly 27 years ago, recounting a crime that long haunted the state in chilling detail that included a handcuffed Jacob asking him: “What did I do wrong?”

Danny Heinrich, 53, of Annandale, made the admission as he pleaded guilty to a federal child pornography charge that will likely keep him locked up for 20 years, with civil commitment possible after that, meaning he could spend the rest of his life in custody. Heinrich says when he took Jacob, the boy asked, “What did I do wrong?”

A Minnesota man has confessed to kidnapping and killing 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling nearly 27 years ago. Heinrich had been charged with 25 counts of possessing and receiving child pornography; he pleaded not guilty to those charges in February and was set to go to trial in October. Heinrich last year was named as a “person of interest” in the abduction of Jacob Wetterling, the 11-year-old St. Joseph, Minn., boy who was abducted from a rural road near his house on Oct. 22, 1989, and never seen again. Court documents filed earlier this summer in the Heinrich case detailed the similarities between Jacob's kidnapping on Oct. 22, 1989; the Jan. 13, 1989, abduction and sexual assault of a 13-year-old Cold Spring boy; and "a string of sexually motivated assaults of young boys in the Paynesville, Minn., area in the mid- to late 1980s." Using technology that wasn’t available in 1989, investigators found Heinrich’s DNA on Scheierl’s sweatshirt, and used that evidence to get a search warrant for Heinrich’s home, where they found a large collection of child pornography. The AP typically doesn't identify victims of sexual assault, but Scheierl has spoken publicly for years about his case, saying it helped him cope with the trauma and that he hoped it could help investigators find his attacker and Jacob's kidnapper. Last Wednesday, Heinrich led a team of FBI agents and state and county investigators to a pasture near Paynesville where Wetterling's skeletal remains were buried, according to a source with direct knowledge of the search.
About 27 years after his abduction, the remains of Jacob Wetterling are discovered.