What we know about Danny James Heinrich, 'person of interest' in Jacob Wetterling case

• Danny James Heinrich, 52, of Annandale, Minn., was arrested at his home last October on charges of receiving and possessing child pornography.

• At Thursday's news conference, Heinrich was called a "person of interest" in the disappearance of Jacob Wetterling by U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger. Heinrich has "denied any involvement" in Wetterling's abduction, according to Lugar. Heinrich has not been charged in the Wetterling case.

• Heinrich lives in a small, one-bedroom house with a detached garage in Annandale, about a half-hour south of St. Joseph, where Jacob lived. The home is in a residential neighborhood and near a school.

• Heinrich's home was searched July 28 by Stearns County authorities seeking evidence in both the Wetterling case and another separate kidnapping and sexual assault in nearby Cold Spring nine months before Jacob's disappearance. They found nothing to link Heinrich to Jacob. Instead, they found 19 three-ring binders containing 100 images of child pornography, according to the criminal complaint. Also, DNA was discovered on some clothing that may link Heinrich to the Cold Spring case. Other items found at the home include VHS videotapes showing boys riding on bikes and playing on playgrounds, apparently shot by Heinrich from a hidden location, according to Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner.

• At the time of Jacob's abduction in 1989, Heinrich lived in Paynesville, Minn., about a 30-minute drive from St. Joseph. In court documents, investigators made reference to "an assault cluster" in Paynesville, Minn., in the late 1980s involving eight incidents, all within a mile of Heinrich's home. The perpetrator was described by "various victims" as a "heavy" or "pudgy" white male in his 30s between 5 feet 6 and 5 feet 9. The document describes Heinrich as "a white male ... his physical description in the late 1980s was 5'5", 160 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes."

• Heinrich was interviewed in 1989 after Jacob disappeared and again at least twice in 1990. At the time, he told investigators he was unemployed.

• The Paynesville house where he lived with his father, who has since died, also was searched by authorities. Heinrich also has two brothers. Public records provide little information about his mother.

• In 1990, Heinrich gave the FBI permission to take an impression of the tires on the 1982 Ford EXP he had during the time of the abduction. Investigators found that tire marks in a gravel driveway next to the abduction scene had similar marks. However, an FBI special agent, Shane Ball, cautioned in the document that "an exact match" of such impressions would have to be based on unique characteristics of the tire shoe, such as a scuff or wear mark. "No such unique markings were present," Ball wrote.

• Heinrich, called Danny by most who knew him, moved from Paynesville to Annandale in the years after Jacob's abduction, according to public records.

• After deciding to take a "fresh" look at the Wetterling case, authorities tested body hair samples that were provided by Heinrich to the FBI in 1990. Heinrich's profile matched hair samples on the boy sexually assaulted in Cold Spring in January 1989, according to an investigator in a court document. While investigators made a link, Heinrich could not be charged because the statute of limitations had expired.

• Heinrich served as a specialist in the Minnesota National Guard out of Willmar from February 1982 until Nov. 24, 1991, when he was discharged under honorable conditions, according to the Minnesota National Guard. (Although the National Guard was part of the Wetterling search in 1989, it is unknown whether Heinrich was involved in the search.)

• Annandale neighbors described Heinrich as a mostly quiet man who was meticulous with his yard. "He just came right out and told us that things were going to get crazy," neighbor Megan Champlin said. He told Champlin that authorities had found child porn, but that she didn't have to worry because none of it involved her children, ages 5 and 1½. He also said that authorities were trying to connect him to the Wetterling case, she said. Another neighbor, who didn't want to be named said her family did not associate with Heinrich because they got a strange vibe from him.

STAR TRIBUNE STAFF