For nearly 27 years, one man knew where Jacob Wetterling was.
Late last month, Danny Heinrich agreed to confess to killing the 11-year-old boy, setting in motion a flurry of difficult negotiations between defense attorneys, investigators and prosecutors that would put him behind bars for decades and finally unlock the secrets to a mystery that has long haunted the state of Minnesota.
"This was not an opportunity we could pass up,'' US Attorney Andy Luger said. "After almost 27 years, Danny Heinrich was willing to talk, and we had to grab the moment.''
Heinrich, 53, admitted on Tuesday that he abducted, sexually assaulted and shot Jacob to death in 1989, then buried the boy's body in a field in rural central Minnesota. The confession came as part of a plea agreement in which Heinrich will likely get 20 years in prison on a federal child pornography charge when he's sentenced in November, but will not be prosecuted on state murder charges. Following his prison sentence, a civil commitment is possible, meaning he could spend the rest of his life in custody.
As part of the deal, which the family approved, Heinrich led authorities to Jacob's remains last week.
Some questioned whether the deal was enough punishment for the crime, which shattered childhood innocence for many rural Minnesotans, changing the way parents let their kids roam. Jacob's smiling face was burned into Minnesota's psyche, appearing on countless posters and billboards over the years.
Last year, authorities found images of child pornography at the Annandale home of Heinrich, who had long been under investigators' scrutiny in Jacob's disappearance.
Stearns County Attorney Janelle Kendall said too much time had passed to charge Heinrich with kidnapping or assault. A murder charge could still apply - but not without a body.
"To prove murder, we had to be able to prove that Jacob Wetterling died. Up until last Friday, proof that Jacob Wetterling was no longer alive did not exist.'' Kendall said.
In chilling detail, Heinrich stood before a federal judge on Tuesday and calmly described how he abducted, molested and killed Jacob, as some members of the Wetterling family cried. Heinrich's voice wavered at one point, but he showed little emotion in court and Luger said he has expressed no remorse to authorities.
Heinrich said that on the night of October 22, 1989, he saw Jacob, Jacob's brother, and a friend bicycling down a rural road near Jacob's home in St. Joseph. Heinrich laid in wait for the three to return, and when they did, he put on a mask and confronted them with a revolver.
Heinrich said he told the two other boys to run and not look back or he'd shoot. He said he then handcuffed Jacob and put him in his car, and Jacob asked: "What did I do wrong?''
Heinrich said he drove Jacob to a gravel pit near Paynesville and assaulted him. Afterward, Jacob asked whether he was taking him home.
"I said, `I can't take you all the way home,''' Heinrich said. "He started to cry. I said, "Don't cry.'''
Heinrich said at some point a patrol car with sirens and lights passing nearby caused him to panic. He said he pulled out his revolver, which had not been loaded, and put two rounds in the gun. He told Jacob to turn around, held the gun to the boy's head and pulled the trigger, he said. The gun didn't fire. Heinrich then fired two shots. After the second, Jacob fell to the ground.
Heinrich said he went home for a couple of hours, then went back to the gravel pit and buried Jacob about 100 metres away. He said he returned to the site about a year later and saw that Jacob's jacket and some bones had become exposed, so he gathered what he could and re-buried the remains across the highway in a field.
The buried remains were identified as Jacob's on Saturday.
"It's incredibly painful to know his last days, last hours, last minutes,'' his mother, Patty Wetterling, said after the guilty plea. "To us, Jacob was alive until we found him.''
