Jacob Wetterling

Jacob Wetterling
Born	Jacob Erwin Wetterling (1978-02-17)February 17, 1978
Died	October 22, 1989(1989-10-22) (aged 11) Rural Paynesville, Stearns County, Minnesota
Cause of death	Gunshot
Body discovered	September 1, 2016 (2016-09-01) Paynesville, Minnesota, U.S.
Parents	Jerry Wetterling (father) Patty Wetterling (mother)

Jacob Erwin Wetterling (February 17, 1978 – October 22, 1989) was a boy from St. Joseph, Minnesota, who was kidnapped from his hometown at the age of 11 on October 22, 1989. His disappearance remained a mystery for nearly 27 years.

On September 1, 2016, the FBI recovered human remains from a pasture near Paynesville, Minnesota, about 30 miles (48 km) from the site of the abduction. On September 3, the family announced the remains were those of Jacob, and local law enforcement stated that confirmation of their identity had been obtained through dental records.^[1][2] The location was revealed by Danny Heinrich, a longtime person of interest in the case. On September 6, Heinrich confessed to kidnapping and murdering Wetterling.^[3]

Kidnapping

Red circle: Convenience store
Black circle: Kidnapping location
Blue circle: Jacob Wetterling's home

On Sunday, October 22, 1989, just after 9:00 p.m. (CDT), Jacob Wetterling (11), his younger brother Trevor (10), and a friend, Aaron Larson (11), were biking home from a Tom Thumb convenience store where they had gone to rent a video,^[4] when Danny Heinrich, who was wearing a stocking cap mask and was armed with an unloaded revolver, came out of a driveway and ordered the boys to throw their bikes into a ditch and lie face down on the ground. He then asked each boy his age. Jacob's brother was told to run toward a nearby wooded area and not look back or else he would be shot. Heinrich then demanded to view the faces of the two remaining boys. He picked Jacob, and told his friend to run away and not look back otherwise he would shoot.^[5] This was the last time Jacob was ever seen alive.

Investigation

Ten months prior to the Wetterling abduction another boy had been kidnapped, placed into a car and sexually assaulted before being released. The modus operandi was similar to the Wetterling case: the man used a gun and upon releasing the boy told him to run and not look back or else he would be shot. That incident occurred ten miles from the location where Wetterling, his brother, and friend were stopped.^[6]

In early 2009, the Milwaukee Police Department discovered child pornography and an alleged video of Wetterling taken before the abduction in the home of Vernon Seitz, 62, of the St. Francis, Wisconsin, area. Seitz had died in his house, but officers asked for additional assistance after the pornography was discovered. Along with the child pornography, articles involving missing children and maps of the cities from which children had disappeared were found in Seitz's home. Seitz claimed that he had been abducted, sexually assaulted, beaten, and forced to kill a 14 year old boy in 1959, but family members and local police doubt that this had occurred.^[7]

On June 30, 2010, investigators with search warrants descended upon a farm near the abduction site. "Items of interest" were found and hauled away in six truckloads of dirt from the site to search for evidence. Forensic testing was unable to "establish, distinguish or identify potential evidence".^[8]

Person of interest

In May 2014, investigators confirmed that they were taking another look at a series of attempted and actual child molestations that occurred in the Paynesville area in the two years leading up to the Wetterling abduction and murder. Between the summer of 1986 and the spring of 1987, five teenage boys were attacked. No one was ever arrested. The authorities re-interviewed some of the victims and worked with the Internet blogger who brought the information to light. After months of research and interviews with some of the victims, investigators believed that these attacks were not random and that the culprit could be connected to the abduction of Wetterling, located just 40 minutes away from the other crime scenes.^[9]

Danny James Heinrich

In October 2015, a person of interest, Danny James Heinrich, was publicly named in regard to Wetterling's disappearance. He had been questioned by the FBI on December 16, 1989 and a DNA sample was taken, but he was not charged with a crime and was let go. ^[10][11][12] Heinrich's DNA was matched to an abduction of twelve-year-old Jared Scheierl, in Cold Spring, in January 1989.^[13] The statute of limitations in effect in 1989 had expired for the Cold Spring kidnapping, meaning Heinrich could not be arrested and charged with that crime.^[14] A search warrant was granted, however, with child pornography being found during the search of Heinrich's house, which resulted in him being arrested on October 28, 2015. ^[11][12][14]

Plea and discovery

Heinrich reportedly decided to cooperate with authorities as part of a plea bargain and, on September 1, 2016, led investigators to a burial site.^[15] Jacob's clothing (the jacket that has the number 11 on it, he wore the night of the abduction) and human remains were unearthed from a pasture near Paynesville, about 30 miles away from Wetterling's home and abduction site, and a short distance from where Heinrich was living in 1989.^[1] On September 3, the remains were confirmed through dental records to be Jacob's. Jacob's mother, Patty Wetterling, told television station KARE, a local NBC affiliate, that the remains found were indeed, those of Jacob's. She said: "All I can confirm is that Jacob has been found and our hearts are broken. I am not responding to any media yet as I have no words."^[16][17][18]

At a court hearing before Judge Jack Tunheim of the United States District Court in Minneapolis, as part of a plea agreement in which he pled guilty to one count of the 25 federal child pornography charges brought against him, Heinrich testified that he kidnapped and killed Jacob Wetterling. He described kidnapping and handcuffing the boy, driving him to a gravel pit near Paynesville, molesting him, shooting him, and burying his body. Heinrich said he was able to avoid police that night by listening to a police scanner.^[19][20] He said he came back to the site a year later and moved the body, after noticing Wetterling's jacket had become exposed.^[3]

During the court hearing, Heinrich also admitted to kidnapping and sexually assaulting another young boy earlier that year.^[19]

According to Judge Tunheim, the sentencing recommendation will be for 20 years, the maximum for the offense to which Heinrich pleaded guilty. As part of the deal, Heinrich will not be charged with Wetterling's murder.^[21] In accordance with the plea agreement, Heinrich was sentenced to 20 years in prison by Judge Tunheim, who said:

"We won't pretend that this crime and sentence is about child pornography. It is also about changing the lives of so many children and parents, who prayed for Jacob's return, and also feared you coming out of the dark... every child knows the story of Jacob Wetterling. You stole the innocence of children in small towns, in the cities of Minnesota and beyond."

Although in theory Heinrich could be released in 17 years, Judge Tunheim told him that was unlikely, as "this crime is so heinous, so brutal and awful that it is unlikely society will ever let you go free."^[22]

Legacy

Four months after Wetterling's abduction, his parents, Jerry and Patty Wetterling, formed the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, an advocacy group for children's safety. In 1994, the federal Jacob Wetterling Act was passed and named for Jacob.^[23] It was the first law to institute a state sex-offender registry.^[24] The law has been amended several times, most famously by Megan's Law in 1996 and the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act in 2006.^[25]

In 2008, the foundation started by Jacob's parents became the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center.^[26] It carries on the work started by the Wetterling family—"to educate the public about who takes children, how they do it and what each of us can do to stop it".^[27]

The Bridge of Hope, a crossing of the Mississippi near St. Cloud, is named in Jacob's honor.^[28]

See also

• Michael Dunahee

References

External links

• Jacob Wetterling Resource Center
• Jacob Wetterling's listing with the Polly Klaas Foundation.
• In the Dark, a 2016 podcast about the Wetterling case, produced by American Public Media