Family of Jacob Wetterling to Speak Tuesday

The parents of Jacob Wetterling will speak publicly Tuesday on the new developments in their son’s disappearance. 

Patty and Jerry Wetterling will hold a news conference at 12:15 p.m. to comment on police naming a “person of interest” in Jacob’s disappearance. 

Last week,  52-year-old Daniel Heinrich was arrested on unrelated charges of possessing child pornography.  

He has not been charged in connection to the Wetterling case, but was identified by police as a person of interest. 

Investigators revealed advanced DNA technology linked Heinrich to a kidnapping and sexual assault case of a young boy in Cold Spring, Minnesota that occurred just ten months before Wetterling was abducted. 

Police say there were similarities between the two cases.  

The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office says Heinrich may also be connected to multiple sexual assault cases that occurred in the Paynesvile area between 1986 and 1989. 

Police say there were enough similarities between Wetterling’s abduction, the unsolved sexual assault cases and the alleged criminal actions of Heinrich, to label him as a person of interest in Jacob’s disappearance. 

Heinrich has denied any involvement in Wetterling’s abduction.  

Wetterling was abducted at gunpoint on October 22, 1989 while riding his bike home from a convenience store with his brother and a friend in St. Joseph, Minnesota.