Update: September 3, 2016 Breaking News

Jacob Wetterling’s Remains Found in Central Minnesota

“This area is dedicated to our friend Jacob and other missing children”
Inscribed stone slab in Jacob’s Garden at North Junior High School, St. Cloud, taken Oct. 9, 2008. (Photo: Aubrey Immelman)

October 29, 2015 Update

On Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015 law enforcement authorities named 52-year-old Danny James Heinrich of Annandale, Minn., as a “person of interest” in the October 1989 abduction of Jacob Wetterling. Heinrich has been arrested on child pornography charges.

During a news conference in Minneapolis detailing the charges against Heinrich, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger and other officials stressed that Heinrich has not been charged in relation to the Wetterling abduction or the kidnapping and sexual assault of a Cold Spring boy named Jared nine months earlier in 1989.

However, forensic analysis established a DNA match between Heinrich and trace evidence on the clothing worn by Jared, the Cold Spring boy, on the night of his kidnapping and sexual assault in January 1989.

Furthermore, investigators have long suspected a link between the cases of Jared and Jacob and it is probable circumstantial evidence in the Wetterling case points to Heinrich as the likely offender in Jacob’s kidnapping.

News and updates at the St. Cloud Times

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CNN Show Elicits 11 New Wetterling Tips

Jacob Wetterling

By Kari Petrie
St. Cloud Times
March 2, 2011

Investigators are going through 11 new tips in the 1989 Jacob Wetterling abduction after the case was featured on a national television program Monday night.

CNN’s “Nancy Grace” featured the 21-year-old case Monday as part of its “50 People in 50 Days” series. Eleven-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted Oct. 22, 1989, when a masked gunman stopped him, his brother and a friend as they returned home from a St. Joseph store. Wetterling’s brother and friend were released, but the man took Jacob.

The hourlong program revisited the case and looked at its effect on the community. The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office phone number was posted throughout the show, asking people with information to call with tips.

Sheriff John Sanner said 11 tips came in and investigators will look into them for potential leads. The investigation is active and ongoing.

This past summer, investigators searched a St. Joseph Township farm near the abduction site. They took six truckloads of dirt and several other items.

In September Sanner said preliminary tests at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension lab did not identify any potential evidence. Other items are still being tested.

Sanner said Tuesday that he doesn’t know how long it will take before more results come in.

Taking the story to the national media is a way to give the case exposure and perhaps generate new information, Sanner said.

A person could have information that they think is insignificant, but could be quite important to the case, Sanner said.

“Let us decide if it fits in the bigger puzzle,” he said.

Anyone with information on the case can call the sheriff’s office at [320] 251-4240.

Note: Links not part of original article.

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Related report

Nancy Grace: America’s Missing — Jacob Wetterling

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Related reports on this site

New Book on Wetterling Abduction, Search, and Suspects (April 17, 2015)

On Facebook: Searching for Jacob Wetterling

Refer Joshua Guimond Case to FBI (Nov. 10, 2010)

Josh Guimond: Latest News (May 24, 2010)

What happened to Josh Guimond?

Jacob Wetterling: Latest News (Oct. 5, 2010)

Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner said items recovered in a search could not be identified as evidence. (00:46)

Josh Guimond: New Developments (May 24, 2010)

Josh Guimond (Photo credit: KMSP-TV Fox 9)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — March 2, 2010

Iraq-Afghanistan Casualties

One year ago today, I provided my weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Army Staff Sgt. William “Seth” Ricketts, 27, Corinth, Miss., died Feb. 27, 2010 at Bala Murghab, Afghanistan, on his fifth tour of duty, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with small-arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.

Ricketts joined the Army the day after the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001. He spent two tours in Iraq, and was killed in action on his third deployment in Afghanistan. At the time of his death, Staff Sgt. Ricketts was the father of two boys — 3-year-old Aiden and 10-month-old Cullen. His  his wife, Rosie Jones Ricketts, was expecting their third child.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Two Years Ago — March 2, 2009

Bachmann Retort ‘Kind of Stupid’

Two years ago today, on March 2, 2009, I reported that Rep. Michele Bachmann raised eyebrows at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. when she congratulated the new African-American chairman of the RNC with the words, “Michael Steele, you be da man, you be da man!”