Suspect - Daniel Heinrich

[Sigrun]

Wow, astonishing news! If it is him, I only hope (if I were a believer, I'd pray) he finds it within himself to confess and tell the poor Wetterlings where Jacob's body is.
Hmm, this guy was 26 at the time of the abduction. Based on the witness descriptions in both Jared's and Jacob's cases, I always figured we'd be looking for a much older perp.

Well, I think it is great that what looks like the real perp has been caught and he will not be on the streets anymore. We still don't know what happened to JEW and he deserves our attention and a decent burial, imo. He needs to be found and a full accounting of what happened to him needs to be made. I somehow doubt this POI is going to do much singing unless perhaps his sentence on other charges is for life with no chance of parole. He vehemently denied the JS assault but we know what the DNA says. Now he vehemently denies any involvement in the JEW case.

Regarding the age, this is troubling. Clearly, he was "precocious". If he had escalated his behavior to homicide by 26 I wonder what he has been up to for the 26 years that followed. But what is truly nauseating in this case is to realize that this guy had no means of keeping JEW alive and it severely limits JEWs odds. He also looks very APD which also limits JEWs odds. This news is a very mixed bag from where I sit.

 

[livstabler]

I am so sorry because I have super slow limited internet access. ButI think I read that he had a 1982 white fordexplorer and that LE took the tires off of that and those are the tires that matched. 3 of the same tires and one different?

It is a blue Ford EXP, not an Explorer

 

[Dave K]

Wow, astonishing news! If it is him, I only hope (if I were a believer, I'd pray) he finds it within himself to confess and tell the poor Wetterlings where Jacob's body is.
Hmm, this guy was 26 at the time of the abduction. Based on the witness descriptions in both Jared's and Jacob's cases, I always figured we'd be looking for a much older perp.

I agree, I'm really pretty surprised at finding out he was only 26, presuming he's the guy.... also, from the sketch that was done with Jared, which I had always presumed was a really good sketch, and turns out to be quite accurate, I thought the guy was in his mid-late 30s or so....

 

[Cappuccino]

I'm gobsmacked. I've always thought that Jared and Jacob were attacked by the same man, and it seems that Jared's abductor has now been found. So......?

I'm tempted to drop my total conviction that torture is wrong in all circumstances and advise waterboarding this man to find Jacob.

I'm also relieved that DR, who I've always felt was unfairly suspected, is most likely about to be exonerated from suspicion. That's a secondary importance to Jacob's family though, finding out what happened to him comes first.

 

[livstabler]

Here's this; hope it works.... I snipped images from post I'm quoting because they hadn't worked....

View attachment 83665

Adding link: http://kfgo.com/news/articles/2015/oct/30/neighbors-describe-person-of-interest-in-wetterling-case/

In this photo, he is a very old looking 27 year old. Also, what is with the red splotching on his face? Skin condition? He doesn't have it now. Maybe he didn't have it when he took JS, but did in the photo and physical lineup which made it difficult for JS to identify him. Maybe he did something to his face on purpose?

 

[katydid23]

With all of this matching evidence- his resemblance to suspect drawing, tire tracks, whereabouts, past history---how did he slip out of the LE dragnet?

 

[MotherOcean]

I recall us once discussing that children often think adults are older than they actually are. You know, when you are 11 or 12, someone in their mid to late 20's looks like they are older and someone in their 30's can look ancient!

 

[Cappuccino]

I recall us once discussing that children often think adults are older than they actually are. You know, when you are 11 or 12, someone in their mid to late 20's looks like they are older and someone in their 30's can look ancient!

I vaguely recall that discussion too. And I think the same could be said about a suspect's size - if a child sees an adult as very frightening, he could also over estimate that adult's height or weight.

 

[Cappuccino]

With all of this matching evidence- his resemblance to suspect drawing, tire tracks, whereabouts, past history---how did he slip out of the LE dragnet?

That's what usually happens when LE gets tunnel vision about the wrong suspect. I'm not sure that did really happen here though - I think they may have had this guy in their sights all along and just used DR as a red herring while they were gathering evidence.

 

[Arnie M]

There are so many unique parallels to the Jacob situation

(Taken from the Criminal Complaints and Affidavits file of Daniel Heinrich)

8 incidents of 7 victims involved a very similar pattern
--- boys approximately 12 years old
--- outside in a public place
--- the boys were walking or biking

Took videos of
--- children delivering newspapers
--- playing in public playgrounds
--- riding bicycles
--- participating in sports

The assailant would
--- attack the children , knock them off their bikes
--- grope their genitals
--- ask the boys their age and grade
--- said he had a gun
--- threaten to kill the child
--- sometimes told child keep laying down for 5 minutes or he would kill them
--- attacker usually wore a some type of mask
--- kidnapped 12 year old and then parked on a gravel road

I am sure he stalked some of his victims and did a lot of planning. He had school yearbooks and would snip faces and morph them onto nude boys bodies . I bet he selected some of his victims from yearbooks and found out where they lived . There had been reports of a blue car going from mailbox to mailbox in rural areas to read the names of the family ... He was probably looking for certain boys he found in the yearbook.

 

[MotherOcean]

In this photo, he is a very old looking 27 year old. Also, what is with the red splotching on his face? Skin condition? He doesn't have it now. Maybe he didn't have it when he took JS, but did in the photo and physical lineup which made it difficult for JS to identify him. Maybe he did something to his face on purpose?

The search warrant states that JS said he had "rough, wrinkled skin, darker complected with dark hair". I wonder if there was something distinctive about his skin that led him to wear the nylons that he has been described as wearing by some of the victims. Some said he had a mud like substance on his face. I can understand why he was described by the boys as being older than he was. The description of him in the search warrant just doesn't sound like a young man at all.

 

[bessie]

In this photo, he is a very old looking 27 year old. Also, what is with the red splotching on his face? Skin condition? He doesn't have it now. Maybe he didn't have it when he took JS, but did in the photo and physical lineup which made it difficult for JS to identify him. Maybe he did something to his face on purpose?

He does appear to have a skin condition, maybe something like seborrheic dermatitis.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-...eborrheic-dermatitis-on-the-face/img-20007906

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...-Joseph-22-Oct-1989-6&p=10114591#post10114591

 

[JerseyJo]

If you look at pictures of DR's driveway, you can't see that there is a house at the end since the driveway is on an incline. I believe that DJH thought this was a dirt road that he could drive up and assault Jacob in the darkness. Perhaps his plan changed when upon cresting the hill he realized it was a home and had to turn around in the driveway to exit the property. This is where DR saw him under the light that was on in that location. I wonder what happened next?

I would have to think the perp wanted to get out of the area ASAP. I don't see him remaining in the area, with Jacob, for any period of time considering that there were 2 other witnesses no doubt going for help. The perp had to know that LE would be swarming the abduction location in a very short time.

 

[Sigrun]

I would have to think the perp wanted to get out of the area ASAP. I don't see him remaining in the area, with Jacob, for any period of time considering that there were 2 other witnesses no doubt going for help. The perp had to know that LE would be swarming the abduction location in a very short time.

Agreed, but there is a point in this. By all appearances, and for whatever reason, the car appeared to have been parked facing in toward the property. If that were true, the perp had no choice but to drive through the turnaround. So, that DR could have seen both the perp and JEW is not all that far-fetched. But I agree in that I don't think the perp did anything there. He fled right away. But perhaps being seen could have influenced his behavior after.

 

[MotherOcean]

He does appear to have a skin condition, maybe something like seborrheic dermatitis.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-...eborrheic-dermatitis-on-the-face/img-20007906

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...-Joseph-22-Oct-1989-6&p=10114591#post10114591

Oh, wow! Now I remember reading that before. :freakedout:

 

[just jen]

I'd agree except many believe the same perp who attacked Jarred also attacked and abducted JW. And the DNA has proven Heinrich attacked Jarred so... (plus all the other evidence like matching (though not 100% definitive) tire tracks, shoe prints, etc. Also the same (or strikingly similar) M.O. in all of the attacks including Paynesville.

 

[livstabler]

The original FBI profile of the perp (Oct. 25, 1989):

"Agents assigned to the FBI Academy’s Behavioral Science Unit at the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime compiled a profile of Jacob’s kidnapper: The offender is likely to be a white male between the ages of 25 to 35 years old; very low selfimage; likely to have committed a similar crime in the past; may have some physical deformity (such as scars or acne) and is likely to have had a recent stressful event in his life which would have precipitated the high-risk approach taken in this crime. The high-risk approach also indicates the offender may have attempted similar acts recently and failed. The offender is likely to be in an unskilled or semi-skilled job that does not include contact with the public. Persons who know the offender would likely notice heightened anxiety on the offender’s part since the crime occurred."

source: https://saintautumn.wordpress.com/

 

[bessie]

A new link to Jacob? String of similar assaults in late '80s near Paynesville draws fresh scrutiny
By Jenna Ross and Pam Louwagie Star Tribune
October 31, 2015 — 11:16pm

[...]
In May 1987, the Paynesville Press alerted residents to the assaults, including the death threats. A sergeant said that police needed “all the help we can get” in apprehending a man who they believed was targeting boys downtown and following them home or lying in wait and accosting them after dark. The attacks were scattered, taking place by a river, a hockey rink, a store, a middle school playground and an alley, the article said.

“The kids are scared,” Sgt. Bill Drager told the newspaper.

The article’s author, Darlene Thyen, now 73, said Saturday that even after covering the story, she never considered a connection between the assaults and Jacob’s abduction, which took place about a half-hour away.

[...]
On the night Jacob disappeared, a masked man with a gun appeared on a rural road leading to the Wetterling house. He told the boys to lie face down in a nearby ditch and asked each his age. He then ordered Trevor and Aaron to run to the woods and not look back. By the time the two boys looked back, Jacob and the masked man were gone.

The Paynesville assailant also was often masked. One boy described the mask as looking like it was made of indoor-outdoor candy-striped carpeting. Another time the man had “blackened everything — so that you couldn’t make out anything on his face,” the Paynesville newspaper reported.

 

[dexter75]

WOW! Read this twice. Made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up:gasp:

The original FBI profile of the perp (Oct. 25, 1989):

"Agents assigned to the FBI Academy’s Behavioral Science Unit at the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime compiled a profile of Jacob’s kidnapper: The offender is likely to be a white male between the ages of 25 to 35 years old; very low selfimage; likely to have committed a similar crime in the past; may have some physical deformity (such as scars or acne) and is likely to have had a recent stressful event in his life which would have precipitated the high-risk approach taken in this crime. The high-risk approach also indicates the offender may have attempted similar acts recently and failed. The offender is likely to be in an unskilled or semi-skilled job that does not include contact with the public. Persons who know the offender would likely notice heightened anxiety on the offender’s part since the crime occurred."

source: https://saintautumn.wordpress.com/

 

[Sigrun]

WOW! Read this twice. Made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up:gasp:

Yea, and he has some kind of skin condition on his face as well.