NEWS BRIEF The remains of Jacob Wetterling, the 11-year-old boy whose abduction in Minnesota almost 27 years ago helped lead to the creation of a national sex-offender registry, have been found and identified through dental records.
"For us, Jacob was alive until we found him. we need to heal". Afterward, Jacob asked whether Heinrich was taking him home.
Heinrich's pending case of 25 counts of child pornography would also drop to one count of receipt of child pornography, which carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years.
August 30: Federal prosecutors meet with Wetterling family to discuss the terms of the plea deal.
Heinrich said he took Jacob, handcuffed him in his vehicle and drove near a gravel pit, where he assaulted him in a grove of trees. He said the child asked him, "What did I do wrong?"
He used a Bobcat to dig a grave and bury him.
Heinrich said his shovel wasn't big enough, but he remembered there was a construction company nearby, so he went to see if a shovel was there.
Heinrich said he went home for a couple of hours, then went back to the gravel pit and buried Jacob about 100 yards away. The deal contains two parts: The first is that Heinrich lead authorities to Jacob's body and provide a detailed confession.
Jacob's mother, Patty Wetterling, sobbed as Heinrich recounted the details of the night that has for so long remained a mystery.
Authorities named Heinrich as a person of interest last October when they announced the child pornography charges.
According to the Star Tribune, Heinrich said he was driving on a dead-end road outside St. Joseph on the evening of October 22, 1989 when he saw three young boys on their bikes. After that, he'll be evaluated for sex offender commitment - "and may never be released from custody again", Kendall said. But last summer authorities searched his house for ties to the boy's disappearance.
January 1990: Heinrich is interviewed again and his father's house searched.
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No one has been arrested or charged in Jacob's abduction, including Heinrich.
Heinrich said he panicked later in the day and killed Wetterling.
Heinrich, who has been in custody since his arrest previous year, detailed the abduction and killing of Wetterling in court on Tuesday. But he led authorities to the boy's remains last week, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing case. Investigators revisited the site again Friday for crime-scene purposes.
A Minnesota man admitted in court on Tuesday to the 1989 abduction and killing of an 11-year-old boy whose remains he helped police locate last week as part of a plea agreement, authorities said.
In court Tuesday, Heinrich pleaded guilty to one of those counts. Federal sentences do not allow for parole, so he will serve the entire 20.
In the Strib, Pam Louwagie and Jennifer Brooks write, "Heinrich described the 11-year-old's final, terrified hours in graphic and heartbreaking detail before a crowded courtroom in Minneapolis".
"From the beginning, finding Jacob Wetterling was the point of this investigation".
Heinrich described a cold and terrified boy who began to weep after the abductor said he couldn't take him all the way home, CNN-affiliate .
A status conference in the child-pornography case against Heinich, 53, of Annandale, is set before Chief Judge John Tunheim.
The case of Jacob Wetterling came to a close after his killer's admission of the crime nearly three decades from the time the 11-year-old had gone missing.
About a year later, Heinrich returned to the site and noticed the spot where Jacob was buried was partly uncovered.
Heinrich laid in wait for the three boys to return, and when they did, he put on a mask and confronted them with a revolver.
