New true crime documentary on Jacob Wetterling leaves viewers feeling “sick”

An extensive new YouTube true crime documentary has landed on Jacob Wetterling, one of Minnesota’s most famous missing child cases, and it’s making viewers angry – but not for the reason you might think. (Warning: some may find this content distressing.) 

For the uninitiated, the 11-year-old boy was abducted at gunpoint on the evening of October 22, 1989. He had been riding his bike to go rent a movie in his hometown of St. Joseph, Minnesota, accompanied by his brother Trevor, 10, and their friend Aaron, 12. 

For whatever reason, the attacker chose to kidnap Jacob and make Trevor and Aaron flee. As is described in the new documentary by true crime YouTube channel Explore With Us, it took police nearly 30 years to realize the perpetrator was right under their noses the whole time. 

The man behind the crime was Danny Heinrich, who had previously been a suspect in a separate case. Between 1986 to 1988 in Paynesville, Minnesota, there were at least eight attacks against young boys.

Although they appeared to be carried out by the same individual, with the descriptions of the perpetrator being consistent, the police weren’t immediately convinced this was the case. This was one of many missteps made by law enforcement in their initial investigations. 

The narrator describes one incident which occurred 10 months before Jacob’s disappearance, where Jared Scheierl, 12, was kidnapped by a man with a firearm and sexually assaulted in his car. 

The man allowed Jared to keep his snowsuit, but not before running it through the snow, seemingly to get rid of any DNA evidence. However, during an investigation in 1990, officers confronted Heinrich with clothing from a number of incidents, on which unidentified male DNA was found.

This was “likely Jared’s snowsuit,” as well as a hat taken from the perpetrator in a separate Paynesville attack. “A DNA sample was retrieved from Heinrich,” adds the narrator. “Mind bogglingly though, it doesn’t appear that any comparison took place.”

During the 2015 investigation, Heinrich said he’d been in a lineup too in 1990. Although Jared couldn’t outright identify his attacker, he narrowed it down to two men, one of which was Heinrich. 

But rather than calling Trevor and Aaron in for a second opinion, the police decided to eliminate Heinrich as a suspect. 

There was more evidence found at the time; he had even failed a polygraph test and his car tyres matched the tyre marks found at the site of Jacob’s abduction.

Despite this, he was released from custody, with the Stearns County Sheriff even issuing him a formal apology at the time. What’s more, they continued to follow false leads, even with little to no evidence to implicate them. 

By the time investigators started looking at Heinrich again, nearly 30 years after Jacob’s disappearance, a simple search of his home uncovered a shocking trove of CP, including hundreds of explicit video tapes and images, some of which appeared homemade. 

Investigators were still no closer to finding Jacob’s remains, and so offered Heinrich a deal: if he told them what happened to the missing child, he’d only face prosecution for the child pornography charges. 

In 2016, Heinrich, 53 at the time, finally confessed to the murder of Jacob Wetterling and the abduction and sexual assault of Jared Scheierl. But due to the plea deal, he only received a sentence of 20 years. 

Two years later, Stearns County Sheriff Don Gudmundson held a press conference where he acknowledged the many missteps that led to Heinrich getting away with the crimes for so long. 

“I will accept the responsibility speaking for all of law enforcement in this case,” he said. “All of us failed.”

Since Explore With Us released its deep dive into the case, which includes exclusive interviews with key figures involved, viewers have been sharing their thoughts on the mistakes that were made. 

“So the police had a bunch of evidence pointing to one person but they ignored that and continually harassed a family that had no evidence pointing to them,” wrote one. “Amazing work.”

Another said, “Danny Heinrich will literally spend less time in prison than the 27 years that it took the cops to actually arrest him. What an absolute travesty of justice.”

“Matching face, matching footprints, matching tire tracks, matching textile fibers, matching car, failed polygraph,” added a third. “Nah probably not him, just skip the DNA test and exclude him. Unbelievable incompetence.”

One person even said, “It makes me sick that Danny Heinrich got a plea deal. If anyone deserved a death sentence that monster did.”

Another shared a similar sentiment, writing, “How ABSOLUTELY SICK is this country where you can plead guilty to possesion of child pornography to avoid being charged for the abduction, rape and murder of a young boy? Unacceptable!”

If you’re looking for equally frustrating cases, read about the most infuriating Worst Ex Ever episode. You can also check out the creepiest YouTube documentaries on offer, as well as the smartschoolboy9 rabbit hole and whether he’s been arrested.