Suspect - Daniel Heinrich #2

[Red Viewfinder]

Extremely brave. To go out in the middle of the night with a flashlight looking for a boy who was abducted, when no other police officers are up there helping you takes a lot of courage. At that point the boys had not known that the abductor had driven off. Dan was very, very brave to head into those sheds, by himself, when he could have easily been killed if the abductor was hiding on his property. That act alone deserves high recognition.

Papashango - are you DR? I understand your right to throw your support behind this guy, but this seems a little over the top!

 

[papashango]

No. Though I'm from the community that he's a part of.

Why is it over the top? Think of the nasty posts Sasquatch, Human and others created about him on this forum and the absurdity of their sleuthing. It just seems over the top after the years and years these fellow forum members created these false ideas as to what Dan had done to Jacob. They were 100% wrong in the end, and i fact, they were just as likely to have kidnapped Jacob. Because 100% of the evidence that LE had been sitting on pointed to Heinrich. Even the evidence made public pointed to someone other than DR. It takes sick and twisted individuals to imagine DR putting Jacob in a furnace, under a wood pile or the countless other false and fake scenarios they attempted to paint him as doing.

Dan deserves his day in the sun for all the BS that's been said about him.

Papashango - are you DR? I understand your right to throw your support behind this guy, but this seems a little over the top!

 

[dexter75]

Patty's mind was skewed by the horrible police work, and she actually resented Dan. Why would he talk to Patty about solving the crime? He was working with LE to do that. Patty is not a detective or in LE.

18 miles is nothing in rural Stearns county. You must not have ever lived out of the St Cloud region. Cold Spring and Paynesville are directly connected on 23 and are neighboring towns with a population of 1K. Many folks commute from Paynesville to St Cloud for work.

It doesn't take parents to come to the conclusion that two abductions that took place 15 miles apart with the same "raspy voice" perpetrator were done by the same individual. For 100 years before those incidents and the 25 years since those incidents those acts haven't taken place since. You have to be extremely naive or uneducated to not make that connection.

I totally 100% agree with this. Having said that, we all have the benefit of hindsight. I too, have felt many times the ball was dropped where Jacob was concerned. I've often asked myself looking back, " how in the HELL could SO many PROFESSIONALS miss SO many clues?! " To be honest, and trying to be fair, maybe when you're smack dab in the middle of the s*** storm, things aren't so easy?. IDK. Still doesn't excuse crucifying DR & tormenting his elderly parents, IMO

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

 

[papashango]

No, it doesn't excuse that. I have no evidence to back this up, but I believe that LE hadn't even thought of Heinrich in 24 years, and it was the Paynesville connection that made them take another look at him.

 

[ELOCsoul]

I have no evidence to back this up, but I believe that LE hadn't even thought of Heinrich in 24 years, and it was the Paynesville connection that made them take another look at him.

I believe that an objective review of all the available information strongly suggests otherwise.

 

[papashango]

And where is all of the available information to prove that LE has been keeping DH under the microscope from 1991 to 2015?

I believe that an objective review of all the available information strongly suggests otherwise.

 

[pittsburghgirl]

Just finished the book, by the way. Great work and very convincing. The psychological profile is very compelling and shows that while events like the arsons aren't forensic evidence in the case, they do explain why a molester would escalate from attacks in which kids were released to abduction and release and then to abduction and murder. It's not all just tire tracks and footprints; it's the patterns of behavior that mark the "career," if you will, of the serial offender. The book is so well put together and shows, in retrospect, how the pieces were there for so long but unassembled.

 

[pittsburghgirl]

Regarding Sasquatch's request to see the footprint evidence: That's for the court trial, not for the satisfaction of the general public. Let's see what comes out at trial. Sorry this didn't go where I intended it.

 

[ELOCsoul]

Just finished the book, by the way. Great work and very convincing. The psychological profile is very compelling and shows that while events like the arsons aren't forensic evidence in the case, they do explain why a molester would escalate from attacks in which kids were released to abduction and release and then to abduction and murder. It's not all just tire tracks and footprints; it's the patterns of behavior that mark the "career," if you will, of the serial offender. The book is so well put together and shows, in retrospect, how the pieces were there for so long but unassembled.

Thank you for your kind words - your conclusion is exactly what I intended!

 

[ELOCsoul]

I have no evidence to back this up, but I believe that LE hadn't even thought of Heinrich in 24 years, and it was the Paynesville connection that made them take another look at him.

And where is all of the available information to prove that LE has been keeping DH under the microscope from 1991 to 2015?

Your original statement, shown in red above, is what I responded to. It was a very broad, generalized statement, and therefore would require careful dissection to accurately answer.

For the sake of being brief, there were four main groups of LE involved - Paynesville Police, Stearns County, The BCA, and The FBI. I'll address each individually:

Paynesville Police - When you read the court documents and study the timeline in "Answers In The Sand," it's pretty clear that the Paynesville Police led the way when it came to the Paynesville assaults, Jared's case, and Jacob's case. Danny Heinrich was clearly on Paynesville's radar for the Paynesville assault cluster, and that's why Heinrich stopped for a time, then moved his activities out of town. Jared was abducted 1/13/89. Three days later, on 1/16/89, Paynesville Police, through a Stearns deputy, informed Stearns County investigator Doug Pearce that Heinrich should be considered a suspect in Jared's case. Paynesville Police once again fingered Heinrich for Jacob's case soon after he was abducted. Now, some media, as well as Joy Baker and Patty, have promoted the idea that the Paynesville police did not properly follow up on the Paynesville cases. The evidence strongly suggests otherwise. Media accounts, particularly those of Jenna Ross, have touted this without providing and factual basis to support it. If there is such a basis that anyone is aware of, please present it here. There were at least 5 references to the Paynesville cases in the Paynesville Press, all of them sponsored by the Paynesville Police.


Stearns County - Stearns was aware of the Paynesville cases early on, IMO. The very first Paynesville Press article, in 1986 I believe, that addressed the Paynesville assaults, asked people to call the County's Crimestoppers number with tips. That's a strong indication that Paynesville had reached out for help from the beginning. Also, there was a Stearns County sub-station in Paynesville that was staffed by sheriff's deputies. I don't have proof that it still existed in the late 80's, but it was there throughout the 70's and much of the 80's. Stearns had fast, easy access to issues going on in Paynesville. It's my opinion that Stearns only lost sight of Heinrich in 2003, when Kevin came forward. As I pointed out in the book, the change in theory of the case corresponded with a change in Sheriff. Remember also, that when Sanner was proclaiming a car was not likely involved, former Sheriff Kostreba contested that notion, but it was subtly ignored.

BCA - Here is something that nobody in media has pointed out, and it amazes me. On July 8, 2012. The BCA got DNA results back on Jared's clothing, and found that there was an unidentified male. That means that the clothing was sent in for testing some time before that, perhaps a year or more. The net result is, the BCA, whether at their own behest or that of Stearns County, was actively seeking the perp in Jared's case and related to Jacob's. It would be very interesting to learn who was driving the bus on this, because by then Stearns was saying the cases were not related. Also of note here, is that this clothing was being tested long before myself, or Joy Baker had been talking to Jared or about the Paynesville cases.

FBI - Obviously the FBI knew about Heinrich from the beginning, as they moved to arrest him. Stearns County resisted, and I think it's because they realized their evidence was weak due to possible contamination when that had Jared sit in the back seat of Heinrich's car two days before they sampled for fibers. The other key here is that it was the FBI that settled on Heinrich, not Stearns County. All the Paynesville case tips coming in from Joy Baker went to Stearns, and Stearns has said many, many times that they were well aware of the Paynesville cases. Sanner said it, the newspapers said it, and Stearns Attorney Janelle Kendall said it. They actually had a name for the Paynesville cases, as Kendall described when she said "the Paynesville Assault Cluster, as we've referred to them for years." It was the FBI that opened up the files and within days settled on Danny Heinrich as the perp in all the cases. It's no secret that all of Baker's efforts centered around Duane Hart, she told me that herself several times, and it was quite apparent in her blogging, in interviews Jared did on TV, etc. Remember the podcast that was published? It was actually mentioned during the podcast that Jared's dad knew Duane Hart (I did not include in the book because I felt it was tacky).

On a side note, some media had suggested the Paynesville cases were never investigated for Jacob's case. Absolutely untrue, as we all know now. I recall one criticism being that only two police reports of the Paynesville incidents were kept, and only two children talked to by investigators. Some media would have you believe that this was oversight by LE, and sloppy work, that kids were ignored. Baloney. I've read those two police reports, and they were very detailed and specific. I'm sure that investigators looked at all of these reports and selected the best two based on the details offered in those reports, and talked to those 2 kids. This would also be done to spare some of the kids from having to talk about it. This selection process would have been based solely on the quality of the information in the reports, and not on whether or not the child was willing or wanting to talk about what happened to them.

Bottom line, be very wary of conclusions that are drawn from media coverage. I've worked with every major media outlet in the Twin Cities except for Channel 5 (even though they were all "banned" from speaking to me, they all did so anyhow - it's actually been quite comical, really). Some of these stations were reprimanded for doing so, and maybe someday that story will be told, we'll see. While most reporters "talk good," and present themselves as qualified professionals, most of them are really clueless on the Wetterling case. Some are worse than clueless, actually, and that's kinda scary. Most often, it's because they're all competing with each other, duplicating each other's efforts, etc - very little original or thought provoking reporting or investigating going on, IMO. Some reporters, unfortunately, just aren't very smart.

Now, I will say that it was probably the Paynesville connection that prompted Patty to ask Stearns / BCA / FBI to look at the case again. But, that's because Patty said she didn't know about them previously. Obviously, all of LE knew about them. Human remembered them when she posted about them in 2010. I found out about them in August 2013, as did Joy Baker, as did JBrown. Why didn't Patty know? It's because the families of victims are not kept in the loop about all suspects as much detail as many of us would be led to believe. Mostly, families are informed of imminent arrests or threats, or leads followed up on dismissed, etc.

IMO, Stearns coddled the Wetterlings over the years, and in doing so sidetracked their own investigation. The FBI did it right, work the case, tell the family a day before the arrest, and take care of business. Sorry to those who disagree or think it's heartless - it's what it takes to get the job done correctly.

Sorry for rambling...hope this all makes sense. Holler if questions!!

 

[human]

I simply cannot believe the Wetterlings did not know about Paynesville.

I remember that it was Jerry in a newspapaer article saying that Duane H was not the culprit. Hard to imagine if he knew about Duane, Paynesville was not mentioned.

I imagine their heads were spinning from all kinds of info. People calling them, fake calls, on and on and on,

 

[cGorg]

I have no evidence to back this up, but I believe that LE hadn't even thought of Heinrich in 24 years, and it was the Paynesville connection that made them take another look at him.



Your original statement, shown in red above, is what I responded to. It was a very broad, generalized statement, and therefore would require careful dissection to accurately answer.

For the sake of being brief, there were four main groups of LE involved - Paynesville Police, Stearns County, The BCA, and The FBI. I'll address each individually:

Paynesville Police - When you read the court documents and study the timeline in "Answers In The Sand," it's pretty clear that the Paynesville Police led the way when it came to the Paynesville assaults, Jared's case, and Jacob's case. Danny Heinrich was clearly on Paynesville's radar for the Paynesville assault cluster, and that's why Heinrich stopped for a time, then moved his activities out of town. Jared was abducted 1/13/89. Three days later, on 1/16/89, Paynesville Police, through a Stearns deputy, informed Stearns County investigator Doug Pearce that Heinrich should be considered a suspect in Jared's case. Paynesville Police once again fingered Heinrich for Jacob's case soon after he was abducted. Now, some media, as well as Joy Baker and Patty, have promoted the idea that the Paynesville police did not properly follow up on the Paynesville cases. The evidence strongly suggests otherwise. Media accounts, particularly those of Jenna Ross, have touted this without providing and factual basis to support it. If there is such a basis that anyone is aware of, please present it here. There were at least 5 references to the Paynesville cases in the Paynesville Press, all of them sponsored by the Paynesville Police.


Stearns County - Stearns was aware of the Paynesville cases early on, IMO. The very first Paynesville Press article, in 1986 I believe, that addressed the Paynesville assaults, asked people to call the County's Crimestoppers number with tips. That's a strong indication that Paynesville had reached out for help from the beginning. Also, there was a Stearns County sub-station in Paynesville that was staffed by sheriff's deputies. I don't have proof that it still existed in the late 80's, but it was there throughout the 70's and much of the 80's. Stearns had fast, easy access to issues going on in Paynesville. It's my opinion that Stearns only lost sight of Heinrich in 2003, when Kevin came forward. As I pointed out in the book, the change in theory of the case corresponded with a change in Sheriff. Remember also, that when Sanner was proclaiming a car was not likely involved, former Sheriff Kostreba contested that notion, but it was subtly ignored.

BCA - Here is something that nobody in media has pointed out, and it amazes me. On July 8, 2012. The BCA got DNA results back on Jared's clothing, and found that there was an unidentified male. That means that the clothing was sent in for testing some time before that, perhaps a year or more. The net result is, the BCA, whether at their own behest or that of Stearns County, was actively seeking the perp in Jared's case and related to Jacob's. It would be very interesting to learn who was driving the bus on this, because by then Stearns was saying the cases were not related. Also of note here, is that this clothing was being tested long before myself, or Joy Baker had been talking to Jared or about the Paynesville cases.

FBI - Obviously the FBI knew about Heinrich from the beginning, as they moved to arrest him. Stearns County resisted, and I think it's because they realized their evidence was weak due to possible contamination when that had Jared sit in the back seat of Heinrich's car two days before they sampled for fibers. The other key here is that it was the FBI that settled on Heinrich, not Stearns County. All the Paynesville case tips coming in from Joy Baker went to Stearns, and Stearns has said many, many times that they were well aware of the Paynesville cases. Sanner said it, the newspapers said it, and Stearns Attorney Janelle Kendall said it. They actually had a name for the Paynesville cases, as Kendall described when she said "the Paynesville Assault Cluster, as we've referred to them for years." It was the FBI that opened up the files and within days settled on Danny Heinrich as the perp in all the cases. It's no secret that all of Baker's efforts centered around Duane Hart, she told me that herself several times, and it was quite apparent in her blogging, in interviews Jared did on TV, etc. Remember the podcast that was published? It was actually mentioned during the podcast that Jared's dad knew Duane Hart (I did not include in the book because I felt it was tacky).

On a side note, some media had suggested the Paynesville cases were never investigated for Jacob's case. Absolutely untrue, as we all know now. I recall one criticism being that only two police reports of the Paynesville incidents were kept, and only two children talked to by investigators. Some media would have you believe that this was oversight by LE, and sloppy work, that kids were ignored. Baloney. I've read those two police reports, and they were very detailed and specific. I'm sure that investigators looked at all of these reports and selected the best two based on the details offered in those reports, and talked to those 2 kids. This would also be done to spare some of the kids from having to talk about it. This selection process would have been based solely on the quality of the information in the reports, and not on whether or not the child was willing or wanting to talk about what happened to them.

Bottom line, be very wary of conclusions that are drawn from media coverage. I've worked with every major media outlet in the Twin Cities except for Channel 5 (even though they were all "banned" from speaking to me, they all did so anyhow - it's actually been quite comical, really). Some of these stations were reprimanded for doing so, and maybe someday that story will be told, we'll see. While most reporters "talk good," and present themselves as qualified professionals, most of them are really clueless on the Wetterling case. Some are worse than clueless, actually, and that's kinda scary. Most often, it's because they're all competing with each other, duplicating each other's efforts, etc - very little original or thought provoking reporting or investigating going on, IMO. Some reporters, unfortunately, just aren't very smart.

Now, I will say that it was probably the Paynesville connection that prompted Patty to ask Stearns / BCA / FBI to look at the case again. But, that's because Patty said she didn't know about them previously. Obviously, all of LE knew about them. Human remembered them when she posted about them in 2010. I found out about them in August 2013, as did Joy Baker, as did JBrown. Why didn't Patty know? It's because the families of victims are not kept in the loop about all suspects as much detail as many of us would be led to believe. Mostly, families are informed of imminent arrests or threats, or leads followed up on dismissed, etc.

IMO, Stearns coddled the Wetterlings over the years, and in doing so sidetracked their own investigation. The FBI did it right, work the case, tell the family a day before the arrest, and take care of business. Sorry to those who disagree or think it's heartless - it's what it takes to get the job done correctly.

Sorry for rambling...hope this all makes sense. Holler if questions!!

Thanks very much for the rambling

 

[Sasquatch321]

The filing provides the full details of the description Scheierl gave of his attacker, which includes a height of 4’6″ to 5’7″ and “fat ears that stuck out,” a fat nose, bushy eyebrows, broad neck, and crooked bottom “cheese teeth.”

In July of 2015, new DNA tests matched Heinrich to Scheierl’s case.

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/06/02/heinrich-person-of-interest-wetterling/

 

[papashango]

It's easy to "not believe" someone. Many on here didn't believe DR. I believe Patty was unaware of the Paynesville assault cases. Hell, that news didn't even make it to Cold Spring. I know of no one who was familiar with those assaults.

I simply cannot believe the Wetterlings did not know about Paynesville.

I remember that it was Jerry in a newspapaer article saying that Duane H was not the culprit. Hard to imagine if he knew about Duane, Paynesville was not mentioned.

I imagine their heads were spinning from all kinds of info. People calling them, fake calls, on and on and on,

 

[human]

It's easy to "not believe" someone. Many on here didn't believe DR. I believe Patty was unaware of the Paynesville assault cases. Hell, that news didn't even make it to Cold Spring. I know of no one who was familiar with those assaults.

You may wish to read the citations ELOC made re Paynesville. Since you were a child, you may not have been reading the newspaper.

 

[papashango]

Reading the Paynesville newspaper in Cold Spring? You do realize their circulation doesn't reach there, right? Are you calling Patty a liar?

You may wish to read the citations ELOC made re Paynesville. Since you were a child, you may not have been reading the newspaper.

 

[human]

Reading the Paynesville newspaper in Cold Spring? You do realize their circulation doesn't reach there, right? Are you calling Patty a liar?

You may wish to read what Eloc wrote. You said that you never heard of it. No one heard of it. So there is a discrepancy on what the reality is because it was in the paper.

 

[shergal]

It's easy to "not believe" someone. Many on here didn't believe DR. I believe Patty was unaware of the Paynesville assault cases. Hell, that news didn't even make it to Cold Spring. I know of no one who was familiar with those assaults.

This article from The Paynesville Press Jan. 30, 1990, refers to 5 incidents of the “1987 Paynesville accostings” - so these accounts were in the media by 1990.

http://s100.photobucket.com/user/shergal1/media/belgradeDAHarrest90.jpg.html?sort=4&o=44

 

[shergal]

Just to clarify Jared’s description of his attacker that was available to the public at the time… This is a copy of the Cold Spring Record that featured info on Jared’s assault. It’s dated 2/7/1989. This was the info that was available to the public (such as a height of 5'8"). The investigative report was not made public back in 1989 or 1990. ( (The scan at the link below was made by ELOC at the library, that’s his writing at the top. He sent me a scan of it a couple years ago to put in my photo bucket of “Jacob related articles and pics”.)

http://www.deadzoom.com/member/samiping/ColdSpringRecord.jpg

I have blown up the article in two parts for easier reading:

http://www.deadzoom.com/member/samiping/ColdSpringRecord2.jpg

http://www.deadzoom.com/member/samiping/ColdSpringRecord3.jpg

Source links:
http://s100.photobucket.com/user/shergal1/media/ColdSpringRecord.jpg.html?sort=4&o=11

Jared’s description was also mentioned in the St. Cloud Times:
http://s100.photobucket.com/user/shergal1/media/Jaredarticle.jpg.html?sort=4&o=9

 

[ELOCsoul]

This article from The Paynesville Press Jan. 30, 1990, refers to 5 incidents of the “1987 Paynesville accostings” - so these accounts were in the media by 1990.

http://s100.photobucket.com/user/shergal1/media/belgradeDAHarrest90.jpg.html?sort=4&o=44

Also of some interest with regard to this article - When the whole thing about the Paynesville incidents was heating up in fall 2014, no one in media bothered to contact the reporter who wrote this article. I called him shortly after finding the Paynesville articles, and he told me this news was all over town. He was later quite dismayed when media suggested the cases had never been investigated, and was actually a little angry about further suggestion that the Paynesville Police overlooked those cases.