ST JOSEPH, Minn. — The lives of the Wetterling family were forever changed on Oct. 22, 1989, when 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was pulled from his bicycle on a remote road near his home in St. Joseph by an unknown man. The boy would never be seen again.

Today marks the 36th anniversary of that day, an event that shook the sense of safety and innocence held by many Minnesotans and changed the way parents went about keeping their children safe.

It would be 27 years until his abductor was identified and arrested. Danny Heinrich would eventually confess to molesting and killing Jacob. In exchange for pleading guilty and leading investigators to the place he buried the boy, federal prosecutors agreed not to charge Heinrich with murder.

Instead, he is serving a 20-year sentence for child

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