Eleven-year-old Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped in front of two other boys by a masked gunman in October of 1989 in Minnesota. He was never seen alive again.

For nearly 27 years, the little boy's family never gave up hope that someday the truth of what really happened would be known. Well sadly, that truth is out.

Recently a person of interest led authorities to the missing boy's remains. Saturday it was confirmed that the remains were those of Jacob Wetterling.

Tuesday afternoon, 53-year-old Danny Heinrich admitted in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to taking Jacob Wetterling's life in 1989. It was a confession made as part of a larger plea agreement. He was in federal court to plead guilty to child pornography charges unrelated to Jacob's killing.

He said he abducted and molested the boy, fatally shot him and buried his body near a gravel pit on Oct. 22, 1989. Jacob was with his brother and best friend near his home in St. Joseph, Minnesota when Heinrich, wearing a mask, told the two other boys to leave and took Jacob at gunpoint.

He then confessed to handcuffing the boy in his car and driving into a grove of tress near a gravel pit and sexually assaulting him.

The boy, who had been forced to strip, said he was cold, and asked if he could go home. At one point, Heinrich said, Jacob asked him: "What did I do wrong?"

The even sadder part of all this is that the confessed killer will not face murder charges in the Jacob Wetterling case as part of his plea deal in the child pornography charges.

Source: NBC News

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