For almost three decades, Minnesotans kept their porch lights burning, hoping Jacob Wetterling might find his way home. 
 
 Those hopes were crushed Saturday when they learned that a longtime suspect in the 1989 disappearance had led authorities to the remains of the 11-year-old, whose abduction from St. Joseph stunned Minnesotans and changed the way parents watch over their children. 
 
 “Our hearts are broken,” Jacob’s mother, Patty Wetterling, texted to the Star Tribune on Saturday morning. “We have no words.” 
 
 Jacob was snatched off his bike, half a mile from his home, by a masked man with a gun on a dark October night. Danny Heinrich, a suspect first questioned shortly after Jacob’s disappearance and now in federal custody on child pornography charges, provided investigators with the information that led to the boy’s grave, hidden on a Paynesville farm. 
 
 At the time of Wetterling’s abduction, Heinrich lived in Paynesville, about 30 miles southwest of St. Joseph, with his father. 
 
 The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday that dental records confirmed that the remains were Jacob’s. Additional DNA testing will be conducted by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. 
 
 Graphic: Map: Key sites in Jacob Wetterling abduction Graphic: Map: Key sites in Jacob Wetterling abduction 
 
 A source with direct knowledge of the investigation told the Star Tribune that Heinrich, 53, led authorities to the remains in recent days. 
 
 Federal and state investigators working the case said little more Saturday about the break in the case, or what prompted Heinrich, who has been in federal custody since last October, to finally disclose what happened to Jacob. 
 
 The Sheriff’s Office said authorities are “reviewing and evaluating new evidence” and expect to provide more details later this week. 
 
 Heinrich’s attorney could not be reached Saturday for comment. 
 
 Jacob’s abduction shattered the entire state’s sense of safety. He became the face of thousands of other missing and exploited children, and his disappearance became the driving force behind the creation of national databases for registered sex offenders. 
 
 The search for him spanned not only decades, but also continents, as investigators chased some 50,000 leads. In the end, the search ended in the same county where it began. 
 
 The Wetterlings, who never gave up hope that Jacob might somehow return to them, struggled Saturday to find words for the mystery that had officially become a tragedy. 
 
 “Our family is drawing strength from all your love & support,” Patty Wetterling said on Twitter. “We’re struggling with words at this time. Thank you for your hope.” 
 
 As they grieved, their hometown grieved with them, with mourners leaving yellow bouquets at the entrance to the driveway of the family’s home and decorating downtown shops with white ribbons. 
 
 Ellie Quarry, of rural Little Falls, who lived in St. Joseph at the time of the abduction, said of Patty Wetterling, “She held out hope right to the very end. God, I prayed for that.” 
 
 A masked man 
 
 Jacob Wetterling was a boy with a big smile, sandy hair and blue eyes who loved his family, played the trombone and was the goalie on his school hockey team. His dream, he once said, was to be a football player when he grew up. 
 
 On the evening of Oct. 22, 1989, he was riding his bike with his brother, Trevor, 10, and best friend, Aaron Larson, 11, on a remote dirt road near the family’s home in rural St. Joseph. It was just after 9 p.m. and they were a half-mile from home with a video they’d rented from the Tom Thumb store when a masked man with a gun appeared. 
 
 He told the boys to lie face down in a nearby ditch and asked each one his age. Then he ordered Trevor and Aaron to run to the woods and not look back. 
 
 The boys did. And then Jacob and the masked man were gone. 
 
 At the time of Jacob’s disappearance, Paynesville had suffered a string of attacks on young boys — a husky white man, his face obscured, would approach and sometimes grope groups of kids on bikes. His voice was raspy, the boys told authorities, and he often made threats. The kids dubbed the menace “Chester the Molester.” 
 
 The remains of Jacob Wetterling were recovered in this tree line area of a cow pasture of Stearns County Road 85 Northeast of town . 
 
 A chilling similarity 
 
 Nine months before Jacob’s disappearance, Jared Scheierl, a 12-year-old from nearby Cold Spring, was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a man who then released him with the warning “not to look back or he would be shot.” 
 
 Heinrich was questioned by investigators soon after Jacob was abducted and several times in 1990. At the time, he denied any involvement. 
 
 Police began building a child pornography case against him last summer, when authorities searched his home looking for evidence in both Jacob’s abduction and the abduction and assault of Scheierl. 
 
 Authorities tested the sweatshirt that Scheierl, now 39, had been wearing that day. They found Heinrich’s DNA. 
 
 Last October, authorities announced they were unable to prosecute Heinrich in Scheierl’s case because the statute of limitations had run out. But the search of Heinrich’s home turned up enough child pornography to land him behind bars. 
 
 Searchers found 19 three-ring binders full of pornographic images of children, including some under the age of 12 and photos of known child victims. Authorities said there was even more child pornography on Heinrich’s computer hard drive. 
 
 When authorities arrived at Heinrich’s house with a search warrant, he described himself as “a dirty old man” but denied creating pornography or sharing it with anyone, according to a federal agent who testified in court. 
 
 Brian Schulte, a neighbor of the Wetterlings, paused for a moment over a memorial at the end of their driveway Saturday evening. Schulte says he hopes the family can finally find closure now, "after all them years, they deserve it." 
 
 The search turned up nothing to connect Heinrich to Jacob. But the similarities between the two cases — both in the description of the suspect and how he approached his victims — gave authorities reason to suspect that the same person might be responsible for both. 
 
 Heinrich has been held on charges of receiving and possessing child pornography. He was indicted in December on a total of 25 child pornography charges — five from October, plus an additional 20 related to possessing and receiving child pornography both in print and digital images. 
 
 Jacob’s abduction sparked an extensive search that never truly ended. It was the kind of senseless, cruel crime that made parents across the state hug their kids a little tighter, and over time, it turned the Wetterling family into tireless advocates for missing and exploited children. 
 
 In 1994, the federal government enacted the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children Act, which required states to create registries to track sex offenders and those who commit crimes against children. 
 
 Held on to hope 
 
 As the years passed, the Wetterlings never gave up hope. Every year, they marked Jacob’s birthday. Every Oct. 22, they grieved his loss and studied the age-progressed pictures of the child they still hoped to find. There were pictures of Jacob as a teenager, and Jacob as a 35-year-old man. 
 
 Jacob would have turned 38 this past February. His parents are grandparents now and founders of the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center, dedicated to helping other missing and hurting children. 
 
 On the center’s website Saturday morning was the following message: 
 
 “We are in deep grief. We didn’t want Jacob’s story to end this way. In this moment of pain and shock, we go back to the beginning. The Wetterlings had a choice to walk into bitterness and anger or to walk into a light of what could be, a light of hope. Their choice changed the world.” 
 
 Over the years, a porch light, left on in the hope it would someday lead Jacob home, became the symbol of the search for Jacob. 
 
 Every autumn, on the anniversary of his disappearance, thousands of Minnesotans flipped on porch lights in his memory. 
 
 “This light has been burning for close to 27 years,” the resource center’s message continued. “Today, we gather around the same flame. … 
 
 “Our hearts are heavy, but we are being held up by all of the people who have been a part of making Jacob’s Hope a light that will never be extinguished. It shines on in a different way. 
 
 “We are, and we will continue to be, Jacob’s Hope. Jacob, you are loved.” 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ||||| GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. - Officials have confirmed the remains of Jacob Wetterling have been found, nearly 27 years after his disappearance. 
 
 The Stearns County Sheriff's Office says the Ramsey County Medical Examiner confirmed remains that were discovered are that of Wetterling. They say authorities are reviewing new evidence in the case and expect to provide more information early next week. They did not say where exactly the remains were found. 
 
 Below is the full statement: 
 
 The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office today confirms that Jacob Wetterling’s remains have been located. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner and a forensic odontologist identified the remains as Wetterling’s earlier today. Additional DNA testing will be performed at the BCA. The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office, assisted by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the FBI, the Stearns County Attorney’s Office and the United States Attorney’s Office are currently in the process of reviewing and evaluating new evidence in the Jacob Wetterling investigation. Authorities expect to be in a position to provide more detailed information early next week. We are asking for your patience and respect for the Wetterling family’s privacy until that time. 
 
 Earlier on Saturday, Patty Wetterling confirmed that news to KARE 11's Caroline Lowe via text saying, "All I can confirm is that Jacob has been found and our hearts are broken. I am not responding to any media yet as I have no words.” 
 
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 Sources tell KARE 11 a "person of interest" in the Wetterling case, Danny Heinrich, led investigators to the spot where Jacob's remains were found. Still, there have not been any charges filed in Wetterling's case. 
 
 Patty Wetterling took to Twitter Saturday afternoon saying, "Our family is drawing strength from all your love & support." 
 
 Our family is drawing strength from all your love & support. We're struggling with words at this time. Thank you for your hope. #jacobshope — Patricia Wetterling (@pattywetterling) September 3, 2016 
 
 The Jacob Wetterling Resource Center released a statement on its Facebook page saying, "We are in deep grief. We didn’t want Jacob’s story to end this way ... Our hearts are heavy, but we are being held up by all of the people who have been a part of making Jacob’s Hope a light that will never be extinguished. It shines on in a different way. We are, and we will continue to be, Jacob’s Hope." 
 
 Wetterling disappeared in October of 1989 after he was on a bike ride home from a convenience store near his home. Wetterling, who was 11 years old at the time, was kidnapped by an armed masked man who approached him, his brother and a friend on a rural Stearns County road. The man threatened the other two boys at gunpoint and told them to run into the woods and never look back -- or they would be shot. 
 
 When the boys did, both Jacob and the masked man were gone. 
 
 RELATED: Timeline of events in Jacob Wetterling abduction 
 
 Despite an intensive investigation and non-stop efforts by Patty Wetterling and her husband Jerry to keep Jacob's case in the public eye, he has never been found -- until this possible development. 
 
 Authorities arrested 53-year-old Heinrich of Annandale last fall, and at that time, declared him a "person of interest" in the Wetterling abduction. They recovered 19 three-ring binders of child pornography, and a DNA sample tying Heinrich to the kidnapping and sexual assault of another Stearns County boy from the same time period of Jacob's abduction. No charges can be filed in that case, however, as the statute of limitations has passed. 
 
 David Heinrich, Danny's brother, told Lowe that he learned about Wetterling's story Saturday morning. 
 
 "I want the Wetterlings to know I had no idea," a very emotional David Heinrich said to Lowe. "My prayers are with them. I am happy for them that they know, not that he’s passed, but at least they have closure." 
 
 Danny Heinrich remains incarcerated, awaiting trial next month on child pornography charges. 
 
 Heinrich lived in Paynesville, about 30 miles southwest of Wetterling's hometown of St. Joseph. At the time of Jacob’s abduction, he was first questioned by investigators after it happened, and several times in 1990. He said at that time that he was not involved in the case, authorities have said. 
 
 Authorities said that when they searched Heinrich’s home last summer, they found nothing to connect him to Jacob. 
 
 Danny Heinrich (Credit: KARE 11) 
 
 Last October that DNA evidence found at Heinrich's property conclusively linked Heinrich to the January 1989 abduction and assault on Jared Scheierl. All along, investigators have believed the Wetterling and Scheierl abduction cases may be linked. 
 
 Saturday morning, Scheierl told KARE 11's Karla Hult, "My heart goes out to the Wetterling family in all of this.” 
 
 Dan Rassier, a Cold Springs music teacher and neighbor to the Wetterling family, told Lowe on Saturday the news of Wetterling's remains brings mixed emotions. 
 
 “It’s a very sad situation, and I feel for the Wetterling family," he told Lowe. "It’s a miracle they found his remains, but I’ve always hoped that Jacob would be found alive.” 
 
 Rassier came under a cloud of unwanted attention when authorities dug up his family farm and searched the farmhouse and as well as Rassier's bedroom, looking for information in the Wetterling case. The night the masked gunman took Jacob, it all happened near the Rassier's mailbox. 
 
 "I had no idea what was happening up by the mailbox," Rassier said in 2010, in a two-part interview with KARE's Julie Nelson. 
 
 WATCH: Julie Nelson's interview with Dan Rassier in 2010 
 
 Still, he was named a "person of interest" and has long maintained his innocence for decades. Rassier was home when Jacob went missing but told Nelson, he had "absolutely nothing to do with the disappearance." 
 
 Rassier said he was interrogated more times than he can remember. 
 
 RELATED: Patty Wetterling writes to Jacob on birthday
– The remains of a boy missing since 1989 appear to have been found this week in Minnesota, USA Today reports. While authorities aren't confirming the identify of the remains, Patty Wetterling and another source tell the Minneapolis Star Tribune the remains are those of Wetterling's son Jacob, who disappeared when he was 11. "Our hearts are broken," Wetterling says. "We have no words." The remains were found with information from Danny Heinrich, a 52-year-old man arrested last October on child pornography charges and a person of interest in Jacob's disappearance. "I am happy for them that they know, not that he’s passed, but at least they have closure," Heinrich's brother tells KARE. Jacob was on the way back from the store with his friend and brother in 1989 when they were accosted by a masked man with a gun. The man had the other boys run into the woods and is believed to have kidnapped Jacob. Heinrich says he had nothing to do with Jacob's disappearance, but DNA evidence tied him to the sexual assault of another boy around the same time and place. The statute of limitations has passed on that crime, so no charges were filed, but Heinrich became a person of interest in Jacob's disappearance due to similarities in the incidents. In the wake of his disappearance, Jacob's family created the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center for families of lost children. “We are in deep grief," the Star Tribune quotes a statement from the center. "We didn’t want Jacob’s story to end this way."