by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Sometimes, something unspeakably awful can be transformed into a Christmas gift, and that is what’s happening this week in Annandale.
The gift takes the form of the eradication of a visual reminder. That reminder is the house at 55 Myrtle Ave. S. – the small house where a killer, Danny Heinrich, lived for eight years. Heinrich is the confessed abductor and murderer of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling of St. Joseph, whose disappearance one evening in 1989 baffled and disturbed so many people far and wide for 27 years.
Heinrich’s house, that nagging reminder, is expected to be demolished Dec. 23, just two days before Christmas, thanks to Tim Thone, president of Thone Development, a real-estate company in Woodbury, near St. Paul. To so many people, the demolition will be yet another form of closure to the heartbreaking Wetterling case.
Thone, colleagues and well-wishers raised money to buy the house just so it could be demolished, eradicated from memory. His decision is seen as a “Christmas gift” to many, including the neighbors who lived near that house for years without realizing its resident was the man who murdered Wetterling. They were shocked and horrified when they learned Wetterling’s killer was living right in their midst, and they are happy now that the house will be razed.
The mayor of Annandale expressed that happiness in a recent interview with the Annandale Advocate newspaper.
“I think he (Thone) has proved Christmas miracles do exist, especially for that neighborhood, because after Christmas the visual reminder of what was once there (will be) gone, and that is very important for the healing process,” Annandale Mayor Dwight Gunnarson told the newspaper. “So we’re very grateful, very thankful.”
Patty Wetterling is also pleased about the demolition and told Thone it was a gift of healing during the holiday season. Thone had called her personally to tell her of the plans.
Heinrich was arrested months ago and held in jail on charges of possessing child pornography. After much legal wrangling and multiple interviews, he confessed to being the abductor and killer of Wetterling and told law enforcement in early September where the boy’s body was buried – near a grove of trees on a farm near Paynesville. Within days, the boy’s body was found and positively identified.
Under a legal agreement approved by Wetterling’s family, Heinrich, originally from the Paynesville area, would not be charged with abduction or murder as long as he confessed and revealed where the body could be found.
Recently, Heinrich was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the child pornography-possession charges.
After Heinrich’s arrest, the small, one-story, white house on the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Spruce Drive, suddenly vacant, was eventually foreclosed on by the company that had the mortgage, JPMorgan Chase of New York City.
The City of Annandale tried three times, without success to buy the foreclosed house, including twice with online auctions. The city, too, wanted to get rid of the house. On Dec. 3, Thone was watching TV news with his wife, Michele, in their Woodbury home. When he heard about the city’s problem in trying to acquire the house in Annandale, he decided immediately that he would buy it, so it could be destroyed. Friends, business colleagues and others expressed their strong approval and helped financially. Thone then bought the house for about $60,000.
Thone said he was determined to buy the house because he and his wife recall vividly how the Jacob Wetterling disappearance terrified so many parents, including the Thones, whose children were young, like Jacob, at that time back in 1989. The four Thone children – three sons, one daughter – are now well into adulthood. The Thones consider their decision to buy and raze the house a Christmas gift to their children and to anyone else whose lives were affected sadly by the Wetterling case and its horrifying outcome.
Thone was happy about how many people and organizations were so supportive of his plans. They include DSM Excavating and Red Pine Industries (both donating time and services); and Gov. Mark Dayton and the Minnesota Department of Commerce (both expediting the process with JPMorgan Chase so the sale-and-demolition could be completed before Christmas).
After buying the house, Thone gave it to the city with only one condition – that his own name and the name of the “predator” (Heinrich) cannot be mentioned on the house’s lot during the demolition process.
Thone said he does not want attention focused upon himself. What he does want, he said, is for people to make donations to the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center. To do so, Google Jacob Wetterling Resource Center. On the top bar, click on “How to Help,” then click on “Make a Donation.”
Danny Heinrich
