When Danny Heinrich confessed in court on Sept. 6 to abducting and murdering Jacob Wetterling and assaulting Jared Scheierl 27 years ago, investigators declared that at last, the public had the truth. But despite Heinrich's excruciatingly detailed accounts, the truth remains elusive. Many questions remain unanswered.
October 25, 2016
One person sitting in court that day was Scheierl, who had done much to try to find the man who attacked him when he was 12 years old. He was angered by what he heard, especially Heinrich's claim to have said, "If you throw up, I'll kill you." Scheierl is certain Heinrich never uttered those words. He wondered what else was being misrepresented or ignored regarding Heinrich and his life after 1989. Perhaps, he thought, there were other victims.
Touting Heinrich's confession, officials were quick to declare the matter closed. There wasn't much interest in looking back at what went wrong with the investigation or even what Heinrich might have been up to for the last three decades. As part of Heinrich's plea deal, the police agreed not to ask him about other crimes.
In fact, there had been incidents in the Paynesville area shortly after the Wetterling abduction. Some involved a man following boys, including one in which Heinrich was identified by his license plate but not questioned. This was just a year after he had been interrogated as a lead suspect in the Wetterling case.
To hear the authorities talk today, Heinrich was a master criminal, nearly impossible to catch. They described him as a man who kept to himself and covered his tracks remarkably well. But the people who know him paint a different picture.
Heinrich was no loner in the years that the Wetterling case went unsolved. He moved around central Minnesota and held a variety of jobs. He had friends, one of whom described him as nervous and indecisive. He talked freely to co-workers about being questioned in the Wetterling matter. He even made a number of calls to the police to complain about vandalism and noise in his neighborhood. In 2003, after reporting a burglary, he invited an officer into his home.
But few people he associated with were ever contacted by Wetterling investigators. That meant no one ever checked out a shallow depression on a property just outside Paynesville. The property, near a gravel pit right off a main road into town, was well-known to Heinrich's friends as a party spot. They even gave it a name: the Big Valley. A nearby landowner had wondered about the spot because of a small, unusual clearing among the brush.
This was the property, it turned out, where Heinrich said he sexually assaulted and killed Wetterling and buried his body. Not far away was the place where he reburied the remains a year later and where, when investigators looked, they found Jacob's red jacket sticking out of the sod for anyone to see.
Danny Heinrich was not a master criminal. He was simply lucky to have committed his crimes in a county where the Sheriff's Office made wrong move after wrong move. There are no perfect crimes, only failed investigations.
The life of Danny Heinrich
Danny James Heinrich is born at Paynesville Hospital. His parents, Corrine and Howard Heinrich, had married in 1956 and had one other son. Nine years later, they have a third son.
Heinrich is in seventh grade at the public school in Paynesville. He's in the choir, and his yearbook photo shows him with dark, thick-framed glasses and dark hair.
Howard and Corrine Heinrich are divorced.
Heinrich is in eighth grade, and his yearbook photo shows him looking significantly older. His dark hair is short, a little wavy.
Heinrich is a freshman at Paynesville High School, looking a little heavier than the previous year.
Heinrich drops out of the 10th grade at Paynesville High School.
Heinrich spends time with Duane Hart, a man later convicted of sex offenses against boys in central Minnesota. Hart sometimes parties with boys at a place on farmland outside Paynesville that they referred to as the Big Valley. It's the place Heinrich later assaulted and murdered Jacob Wetterling.
The Paynesville police receive nearly a dozen reports of thefts of bicycles, tools and other items from yards, garages, homes and businesses. Some police reports include handwritten comments "Danny" and "admitted to." Others make no mention of Heinrich but were included by the police in response to an APM Reports request for documents involving him. Some also referred to a friend named Scott.
Heinrich, 16, and a friend sign statements to the Paynesville police acknowledging a series of break-ins and thefts.
Judge Willard Lorette grants custody of Heinrich to Stearns County Social Services for placement at a Willmar State Hospital youth unit. Lorette writes, "Danny is in need of emotional help, which he is not receiving at home. He is presently having problems at school. Danny has difficult(y) accepting authority and social relationships. It is felt that an out of home placement is necessary. Danny is in need of a setting where he will be treated for his emotional problems." Heinrich, now 17, is ordered to pay restitution.
Heinrich joins the National Guard in Willmar.
Heinrich is arrested and cited for drunken driving in Willmar.
Heinrich is caught after breaking into the Twice's Nice consignment store in Paynesville. He acknowledges breaking into the same store and stealing items several times over the previous year in addition to breaking into another business the same night to look for money.
Heinrich pleads guilty to two counts of third-degree burglary in connection with the March break-ins. The plea document says Heinrich had received psychological testing or treatment at Willmar State Hospital in 1981.
In a letter to the prosecutor, the owner of Twice's Nice consignment store, Cecelia Eliason, expresses her wish that Heinrich get help. "I want for him whatever would most help him to become a productive member of our society. Perhaps psychological testing would be in order to determine Danny's working difficulties. I would urge the court to use any available means to get job training for Danny and personal counseling. I think that Danny will need a friend to help him become an honest, self-supporting and upstanding citizen."
A judge sentences Heinrich in the burglary case to 30 days in jail with provisions for work release. He is placed on probation for up to five years. His attorney, Phil Prokopowicz, told the judge, "I don't really know what Danny's problem is. I don't think anybody can put a pinpoint on it ... he sent a letter to the victim fully apologizing for what he did and reasserting that he intends to make good on it. ... I don't think you will be seeing Danny committing burglaries in this Court again."
Thomas G. Lehman, district supervisor from the Department of Corrections in Willmar, reports to Judge Roger M. Klaphake that Heinrich has paid $621 in restitution and "his adjustment has been satisfactory for the past year."
Heinrich is arrested after a Paynesville police officer spots him driving erratically. Heinrich flees and later tries to fight the officer. A police scanner in his car is confiscated. A breath test showed Heinrich has a blood alcohol content of 0.17 percent.
An FBI affidavit later says that during this time there are eight assaults on seven boys, all within a mile of Heinrich's residence at the Plaza Hotel, 121 Washburne Ave. in Paynesville, Minn. The attacks typically involve an assailant approaching boys about 12 years old in public places, then attacking and groping them. Sometimes the attacker threatens to kill them. The incidents are noted regularly in the Paynesville Press, which publishes warnings to parents. No one is ever charged. Years later, as part of Heinrich's 2016 plea arrangement, law enforcement agrees not to ask him about any assaults other than the two he confesses to involving Jacob Wetterling and Jared Scheierl. 
Heinrich is convicted of a traffic offense in connection with the August 1986 arrest. He is subsequently placed on probation, fined and required to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Charges of assault, drunken driving and having illegal radio equipment are dismissed.
At the request of the Department of Corrections, Judge Roger Klaphake discharges Heinrich's third-degree burglary conviction. A corrections report says Heinrich's "adjustment has been excellent. He has been on supervision for 32 months of a 60-month sentence and discharge does appear to be realistic. No violations have occurred."
Heinrich kidnaps and sexually assaults Jared Scheierl in Cold Spring, Minn. (NOTE: APM Reports is identifying the victim of a sexual assault because Scheierl has made his case public.)
Heinrich tells investigators later this was about the time he bought a blue 1982 Ford EXP.
Heinrich's last day of work at Fingerhut Corp.
Heinrich kidnaps and kills 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling, burying him on farmland just outside Paynesville. Witnesses near the St. Joseph, Minn., abduction site report seeing a blue car.
Heinrich moves out of his Washburne Avenue residence in Paynesville to his father's house on County Road 124 outside Paynesville.
Heinrich begins a job at North Star Mailing in St. Cloud, Minn.
Heinrich works for Cold Spring Granite for about three years.
Heinrich is interviewed by two FBI agents on the Wetterling case. Heinrich says he can't remember where he was on Jan. 13 or Oct. 22.
Paynesville Police Chief Robert Schmiginsky tells Wetterling investigators he believes Heinrich should be considered a suspect in the Paynesville assaults.
Investigators search Heinrich's father's home, where he is living. They are looking for Wetterling, or evidence related to his abduction or to the assault on Scheierl.
In a police lineup, Scheierl gives Heinrich a 4 on a scale of 10, rating his similarity to the man who assaulted him. He gives another man a 7 and says both are "similar" to his attacker.
Heinrich is arrested in connection with the kidnapping and sexual assault of Scheierl. He says he is not guilty. He is later released without charges.
Heinrich retrieves Wetterling's remains, moves them a short way and reburies them, he testifies in court in 2016.
Authorities give back to Heinrich all the property seized in the January 1990 search at his father's home.
The Paynesville Press publishes an article headlined "Be on the alert!" and reporting that the police had "received three calls in the last three weeks concerning suspicious activity. Schoolchildren have reported seeing a blue mid-size car driven by a medium size person stopping and watching children or trying to make contract with children."
Responding to a request for help from the Paynesville police because they had reports of a tan vehicle following or watching paperboys, a Stearns County deputy spots a car fitting the description and learns it is registered to Heinrich.
Heinrich obtains a GED, according to his court testimony in 2016.
At some point during this period, Heinrich works at Stearns Manufacturing, according to a later supervisor at a different company.
The Waite Park police list Heinrich as a suspect in a fight.
Heinrich works at least for a short time at a Jennie-O poultry processing plant.
Heinrich moves to 507 South St. #1 in Paynesville.
Danny Heinrich's father, Howard, dies in Paynesville.
Heinrich moves from Paynesville to Benson, Minn., 50 miles to the west.
Heinrich files for bankruptcy. He reports assets of $9,810 and liabilities of $22,142. He says he has been working for three weeks at Custom Roto Molding in Benson.
Heinrich calls the Benson police to report someone has broken into his garage. Nothing was taken, but the police report notes that Heinrich had many valuable items, including televisions, VCRs, DVD players, computers, die cast model cars, knives and swords.
Heinrich complains to the Benson police that there are "kids yelling and fighting by the grandstand."
Heinrich, whose address is now listed in St. Cloud, reports to the police that someone has broken the rear window of his car, a 1999 black four-door Dodge Neon Highline-Sport. Heinrich says the car was parked and locked in the parking lot at his residence.
Heinrich begins work as a laborer at Buffalo Veneer & Plywood in Buffalo, Minn.
Heinrich's mother, Corrine, dies at age 69.
Heinrich buys a house in Annandale, Minn., 25 miles south of St. Cloud.
The Wright County Sheriff's Office reports that Heinrich calls to report two drunk and disorderly people.
Heinrich is laid off at Buffalo Veneer & Plywood for about six months, according to the owner.
Heinrich files for bankruptcy a second time. His address is listed in Annandale. He owns his home, which he reports is valued at $63,500. He reports he has been working at Buffalo Veneer & Plywood for six years.
The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension reports a match between Heinrich and DNA on a sweatshirt worn by Jared Scheierl during his 1989 assault.
Investigators search Heinrich's Annandale home, looking for evidence related to the Wetterling abduction or to the Scheierl assault. They find child pornography.
Heinrich admits to investigators he possessed the child pornography they found. He declines to talk about the Wetterling disappearance. He's taken into federal custody in connection with child pornography.
A grand jury indicts Heinrich on 25 counts of possessing and receiving child pornography.
After agreeing to plead guilty to one count of child pornography possession in return for a 20-year prison sentence and for not being charged in the Wetterling case, Heinrich tells investigators where he buried Jacob Wetterling.
In U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, Heinrich spells out the details of how he assaulted Jared Scheierl in January 1989 and then abducted and killed Jacob Wetterling in October 1989.
Heinrich is sentenced to 20 years in prison on a federal child pornography charge.
Natalie Jablonski
Chris Worthington
Catherine Winter
Hans Buetow
Dave Peters
Andy Kruse
Jeff Thompson
Gary Meister
Curtis Gilbert
Tom Scheck
Jennifer Vogel
Emily Haavik
Jackie Renzetti
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