The Murder of Jacob Wetterling
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On October 22nd, 1989, Jacob Wetterling was biking home with his younger brother and their best friend. The three boys had gone to a nearby convenience store to rent movies and buy snacks. Only two of the boys returned home safely that night. For many years, no one knew the specific details of what happened to Jacob. The case came to a tragic end 27 years later. Jacob’s family was finally able to learn what happened to their son, after the only details they had was that a man had kidnapped him.
Jacob’s abductor, Danny James Heinrich, told investigators that he was driving on a dead-end road when he spotted the three boys on their bikes. Danny, wearing a mask and armed with an unloaded revolver, ordered the boys to throw their bikes into a ditch and lay face down on the ground. After asking each boy their age, Jacob's brother was told to run away or else he would be shot. Danny then demanded to view the faces of the two remaining boys. He picked Jacob and told Aaron to run away or he would be shot. This was the last time Jacob was seen alive.
Danny forced Jacob into the passenger seat of his car and handcuffed him. Jacob asked what he did wrong, but did not get any response from his abductor. Danny made Jacob duck down into the seat as he listened to a police scanner. He drove Jacob to a nearby gravel pit. It was there, that he removed the handcuffs and Jacob’s clothes, and molested him. When Jacob asked to go home, Danny had told him that he couldn’t take him all the way home. At that point, Jacob began to cry. Danny told investigators that he panicked and pulled out a loaded revolver. He claims he told Jacob to turn away from him because he had to use the bathroom. After raising the revolver to his head, he shot Jacob repeatedly. A year later, he moved the body after he returned to the burial site and noticed Jacob’s jacket had begun to show through the soil.
In 2014, investigators announced that they were taking another look at Jacob’s case file. Around the same time Jacob was abducted years prior, five teenage boys were attacked in the same neighbourhood, but no one was ever arrested. After months of research and interviews with some of the victims, investigators believed that the offender could be connected to Jacob’s abduction.
In 2015, Danny was publicly named as a person of interest in Jacob's disappearance. He had been questioned by the FBI in 1989 and a DNA sample was taken, but he was not charged with a crime as no body was ever found. His DNA however, was matched to the abduction of twelve-year-old Jared Scheierl. Though the statute of limitations had expired by then, a search warrant was granted and child pornography was found in Danny's house, leading to his arrest.
Danny decided to cooperate with authorities as part of a plea bargain and led investigators to where he buried Jacob. His remains were discovered in Paynesville, about 30 miles from Jacob's family home. On September 3rd, the remains were confirmed to be Jacob through dental records.
Source: https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/jacob-wetterling-killer-gives-chillingdetails-abducted-year-old-final-moments-alive/OQXUNMZy2wPpfGmqAfVVCM/
