Two stories dominated newspaper headlines throughout Minnesota in October 1989. On October 12, star running back Herschel Walker was acquired by the Vikings in a blockbuster NFL trade; ten days later, a story of greater importance captivated the Gopher State and soon America as eleven-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted at gunpoint near his St. Joseph home, approximately seventy miles northwest of Minneapolis.

Minnesotans were hopeful that Herschel Walker was the missing piece that would get the Vikings to the Super Bowl. That did not happen. They were more hopeful that Jacob Wetterling, an avid Vikings fan, would soon be home. That did not happen either.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports approximately 800,000 children go missing each year, but ninety-seven percent are returned unharmed within a few days. The vast majority either run away or are abducted by a relative, generally the non-custodial parent; most of the rest are taken by someone they know. Every once in a while, though, there is a rare and sensational exception, such as the kidnapping of Jacob Wetterling, of which the FBI found no similar abductions.

Jacob’s fate remained a mystery for nearly twenty-seven years.  Although his kidnapping was unique, the end result, like most of the three percent of abducted children who do not return within a few days, was all too common.

Jacob Wetterling

Jacob’s friend, eleven-year-old Aaron Larson, was staying overnight at the Wetterling home on the evening of October 22, 1989. The boys were excited; it was a Sunday, but because of a teacher’s conference the following day, they would not have school and were permitted to stay up later than usual.

Shortly after 9:00 p.m. Jacob called his parents, Jerry and Patty, who were attending a dinner party. He asked if he, Aaron, and Jacob’s ten-year-old brother, Trevor, could ride their bicycles to the Tom Thumb convenience store to rent a video. The store was only one mile from the Wetterling home.

Aaron, Jacob and (Front) Trevor

After a little pleading, Jacob convinced his dad to let them go to the store. The boys left the home shortly after 9:00 p.m. It was dark, but they all had lights on their bikes. Jerry told the boys to be careful and to watch out for cars. The thought of a lurking kidnapper never crossed his mind.

Jacob, Trevor, and Aaron, arrived at the store, purchased a video, and proceeded to return to the Wetterling home.

The Video Store

At the approximate half way mark, a masked man jumped in front of the boys from the crops on the side of the road and ordered them off their bicycles. The boys laughed, believing it was an early Halloween gag: Aaron even said something to the effect that Halloween was still over a week away. But when the man repeated his instructions, this time brandishing a gun, the chuckles instantly turned to fear.

The masked man ordered the youths to toss their bikes to the side of the road and lie face down. He then asked each boy his age and each boy answered. The man then ordered Trevor to run into the woods, saying he would be shot if he looked back. The gunman then ordered Aaron and Jacob to turn over; when they complied, he looked at each boy and groped their privates.

The gunman then ordered Aaron to run from the scene as well. Aaron caught up with Trevor, and when the two no longer heard voices, they looked back and saw nothing but darkness.

 

Trevor and Aaron Are Ordered to Run

The masked man, and Jacob, were gone.

The Raleigh 10-Speed Bicycle Jacob Was Riding

At the Spot of the Kidnapping

With their hearts pounding and still in shock, Aaron and Trevor ran to the Wetterling home and summoned neighbor Merlyn Jerzak who called 911. Police arrived within minutes and immediately mounted a search, confident they wound find the culprit and that Jacob would be home that evening. They were wrong on both counts.

The kidnapper was not identified and Jacob was not found.

Listen to the 911 call.

https://www.apmreports.org/story/2016/09/07/wetterling-911-call-audio-transcript

 

The Wetterling Home 

As the days passed, police received thousands of tips of possible sightings of Jacob from across America, Canada, and even overseas.

None panned out.

No Trace of Jacob

Jacob Wetterling’s kidnapping continued to be profiled on crime shows and featured in news magazines.

Despite the continued publicity and the offer of a $200,000 reward, few substantive leads surfaced for nearly a quarter-of-a-century.

In May 2014, investigators announced they believed Jacob’s 1989 kidnapping was related to the sexual assaults of five teenage boys which had occurred southwest of St. Joseph in 1986 and ’87. The assaults occurred in and around Cold Spring and Paynesville, eleven and twenty-eight miles, respectively, from St. Joseph.

All of the boys, like Jacob, were kidnapped from a roadside, although they had been taken in daylight. All were sexually molested and, unlike Jacob, were then released. No arrests were made and no suspects were publicly named.

Google Maps Image

One of the Cold Spring’s victims, twelve-year-old Jared Scheierl, had been abducted and sexually assaulted in January 1989, seven months before Jacob’s kidnapping.

Jared Scheierl

The DNA of Danny Heinrich, a lifelong area resident who was living in Paynesville at the time Jared was violated, was among those taken shortly after the attack. It was nearly twenty-seven years, however, before a match was made to that found on Jared Scheierl.

In October 2015, advanced DNA tests identified the fifty-two-year-old Heinich as Jared’s molester. He could not be charged, however, with the sexual assault because the statute of limitations for the crime had elapsed.

Danny Heinrich

Danny Heinrich bore a strong resemblance to the composite made based on Jared’s description of his attacker. Jared, however, did not pick Heinrich out of a photo lineup.

Heinrich was also interviewed by investigators in December 1989 and again several months later in relation to Jacob’s kidnapping, but nothing was found connecting him to the crime.

                                                            1989  Cold Ring Suspect      1990 Photo of Danny Heinrich  

 

Following the identification of him as Jared Scheierl’s attacker, police were granted a warrant to search Heinrich’s home. In so doing, they found thousands of images of child pornography involving young boys on his computer.

Heinrich was arrested on October 28, 2015, and charged with multiple counts of possession of child pornography. Because of the similarities between the abductions of Jared Scheierl and Jacob Wetterling, Heinrich was also then officially named as a person of interest in the latter.

With the federal pornography charges certain to imprison him for the rest of his life, Danny Heinrich decided it was time to come clean. In August 2016, he confessed that he was the infamous masked man from that October evening of nearly twenty-seven years ago. He agreed to lead them to Jacob Wetterling’s remains in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Pervert and Killer  

On September 1, 2016, Heinrich led investigators to farmland near Paynesville.

After an hour of digging, the clothing Jacob was wearing on the night of the abduction was found.

The Shirt Jacob Was Wearing When Abducted

 

After Nearly Twenty-Eight Years Underground

Shortly thereafter, human remains were discovered.

On September 3, dental records confirmed they were those of Jacob Wetterling.

Remains Found

Under the terms of the agreement, for revealing the location of Jacob’s remains, Heinrich plead guilty to only one of the twenty-five federal child pornography charges. He had to testify in court to the sexual assault of Jared Scheierl and to the details of Jacob Wetterling’s kidnapping and murder, but he would not be charged with either crime.

In a soft, somber tone far from the demanding and thundering rage the boys heard on October 22, 1989, Danny Heinrich described how he ended Jacob Wetterling’s life and how he had kept his crime secret for so long.

 

Heinrich Apologizes

Heinrich testified that after kidnapping Jacob, he drove him to a remote location near Paynesville where he handcuffed, undressed, and sexually molested him. Afterwards, he uncuffed Jacob and told him to get dressed. As Jacob was doing so, Heinrich said the boy was crying, “What did I do wrong?” and begging, “Please take me home.”

Heinrich claimed he told Jacob he would take him home and planned to let him go, but that he panicked upon hearing the sirens of a police car racing to the kidnapping scene. Instead of releasing Jacob, as he had done with his other victims, Heinrich shot Jacob in the back of the head and buried him at the locale near a gravel pit.

“What Did I Do Wrong?”

Approximately a year later, Heinrich says he returned to the site and found that Jacob’s jacket had risen to the surface, becoming visible.

He then moved the boy’s remains approximately thirty miles from the abduction site, reburying them on the farmland near Paynesville, where they stayed hidden for nearly twenty-six years.

The Cow Pasture Where Jacob’s Remains Were Found

In accordance with the plea agreement, Danny Heinrich was sentenced to the maximum prison term of twenty years for the child pornography charge. He will be eligible for parole after seventeen years, in 2033, when he will be seventy-years-old.

State authorities may seek Heinrich’s civil commitment as a sexual predator at the end of his federal prison term, which could prevent him from ever going free. Should he be released from prison, he will be required to register as a sexual offender for the remainder of his life.

In addition to Jared Scheierl, investigators believe Danny Heinrich sexually molested seven other young boys across the Paynesville/Cold Spring area of south-central Minnesota in 1986 and ‘87, but say they are confident that Jacob Wetterling is the only person he murdered.

Case Considered Closed

Four months after Jacob’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, becoming the first law to institute a state sex-offender registry.

Jerry and Patty Wetterling

Patty Wetterling ran for the congressional seat of Minnesota’s Sixth District in 2004 and 2006, but was defeated both times.

She also served as chair of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Congressional Candidate

In November 2018, a Stearns County Court awarded Jared Scheierl $17 million in damages as compensation for being molested by Danny Heinirch.

The judgment is symbloic as the incarerated Heinrich’s prison wages will probably never near the awarded amount.

 

 

 Judgment for Damages Awarded to Jared

 

Douglas Wood’s song We Are Jacob’s Hope was recorded shortly after Jacob’s kidnapping.

The song has become an unofficial anthem of all missing children.

 

Jacob’s favorite song was Red Grammer’s Listen.

The song resurged in popularity following the discovery of Jacob’s remains.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/199244124/jacob-erwin-wetterling

 

SOURCES:

• ABC News
• Fox News
• The Hunt with John Walsh
• Minnesota Daily
• Minnesota Star Tribune
• NBC News
• NBC Channel 11 KARE Minneapolis
• KMSP Fox Channel 13 Minneapolis
• St. Paul Pioneer Press