Murder of Jacob Wetterling

Also known as: Jacob Wetterling abduction

Active: 1989–1989
Region: St. Joseph, Minnesota, USA
State: MN
Kind: Single
Status: Identified, never tried
Victims: 1

On the night of October 22, 1989, 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted at gunpoint by a masked man while biking home with his brother and a friend from a convenience store in St. Joseph, Minnesota. The case went unsolved for nearly 27 years and led to the federal Jacob Wetterling Act of 1994, which required states to keep sex-offender registries. In 2015 investigators linked Danny Heinrich of Annandale by DNA to the January 1989 kidnapping and assault of Jared Scheierl in nearby Cold Spring and charged him with child-pornography offenses. In September 2016 Heinrich led investigators to Jacob's remains near Paynesville and, under a plea deal, admitted in federal court that he had abducted and killed Jacob; he was never charged with the murder and was sentenced to 20 years on one child-pornography count.

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

Jacob Erwin Wetterling, 11 · October 22, 1989
A sixth-grader from St. Joseph whose parents, Jerry and Patty Wetterling, went on to found what became the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center.

Timeline of locations

October 22, 1989
Abduction near the Wetterling home, St. Joseph (Abduction, approximate area)
Jacob, his brother and a friend were biking home from a convenience store in St. Joseph just after 9 p.m. when a masked gunman stopped them, ordered them to throw their bikes into a ditch, and took Jacob.
July 2015
Heinrich's home (Annandale) (Killer's residence, approximate area)
A July 2015 search of Heinrich's Annandale home, prompted by a cold-case review of the Wetterling file, found child pornography. He was arrested on federal charges that October.
September 1, 2016
Farm pasture near Paynesville (Recovery site, approximate area)
Heinrich led investigators to a burial site on a Paynesville-area farm, about 30 miles from St. Joseph and a short distance from where he lived in 1989. The remains were identified as Jacob's on September 3, 2016.
September 6, 2016
U.S. Courthouse, Minneapolis (Court / trial)
Heinrich pleaded guilty to one federal child-pornography count and admitted under oath to abducting and killing Jacob. He was sentenced on November 21, 2016, to 20 years in prison.

Watch, listen, read

Listen

In the Dark, Season 1 (2016, APM Reports (Madeleine Baran))

Read

Dear Jacob: A Mother's Journey of Hope (2023, Patty Wetterling with Joy Baker (Minnesota Historical Society Press))

Sources

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.