by Frank Lee
operations@thenewsleaders.com
The man who confessed last year to killing Jacob Wetterling is serving his sentence at a federal prison near Boston.
Danny Heinrich, 53, of Annandale, was sentenced on Nov. 21 in a federal court to 20 years in prison for receiving child pornography but not for killing the 11-year-old boy from St. Joseph, a cold case that garnered national attention.
Wetterling was abducted in 1989 but his remains were recovered last year at a Paynesville farm after Heinrich finally admitted to kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing the boy.
Heinrich is listed as an inmate at the Federal Medical Center Devens in Ayer, Mass., with a release date of March 28, 2033.
Heinrich had been charged with 25 counts of child pornography. In return for leading authorities to Wetterling’s remains and admitting to his involvement in the boy’s kidnapping and death, he was not charged with Wetterling’s murder.
Heinrich’s foreclosed house in Annandale was demolished Dec. 23 last year due to the efforts of Tim Thone, president of Thone Development, a real-estate company in Woodbury, and others who raised the money to buy the house for about $60,000 just so it could be demolished.
Gov. Mark Dayton, who attended the Jacob Wetterling Memorial Service in St. Joseph last year after the boy’s remains were recovered, stated in an official proclamation that Oct. 22, 2016, was to be “Jacob Wetterling Day” – 27 years to the date after Wetterling was abducted in 1989.
Dayton mentioned in his proclamation how the boy’s abduction profoundly affected the lives of Minnesotans and that Wetterling’s parents dedicated their lives to children’s safety by helping to create the Jacob Wetterling Act of 1994, the start of a state registry to help keep children safe.
