MINNEAPOLIS -- A court document filed this week in connection with the federal child pornography case against Danny Heinrich spells out why he is considered a “person of interest” in the kidnapping of Jacob Wetterling.

The filing, part of a memorandum in opposition to Heinrich’s motions to suppress evidence and change the venue of his upcoming trial, details the similarities between the Oct. 22, 1989, kidnapping of 11-year-old Wetterling; the Jan. 13, 1989, abduction and sexual assault of a 13-year-old Cold Spring, Minn., boy; and “a string of sexually motivated assaults of young boys in the Paynesville, Minn., area in the mid- to late-1980s.”

“It has long been believed that the Cold Spring and Wetterling abductions were likely to have been committed by the same person,” according to the memorandum, which was filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday. “The abductions were committed in the same geographic area, involved similarly aged boys, were committed by a lone male suspect and occurred within months of each other.”

Retested DNA evidence last year linked Heinrich to the 1989 kidnapping and sexual assault of Jared Scheierl in Cold Spring, nine months before Wetterling’s abduction. The Pioneer Press typically doesn’t identify victims of sexual assault, but Scheierl has spoken publicly for years about his case.

When law enforcement officials searched Heinrich’s Annandale house in July, they found child pornography and photos and videos of young boys. Heinrich was arrested in October and later charged with 25 counts of possessing and receiving child pornography; he pleaded not guilty to those charges in February in U.S. District Court. His jury trial is slated to begin July 11 in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.

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Heinrich cannot be charged in connection with the Scheierl case because the statute of limitations in place at the time has expired. He also has not been charged in connection with the Wetterling abduction.

Wetterling was taken less than a mile from his home in St. Joseph, which is about 20 miles from Paynesville.

Heinrich was questioned in 1989 and 1990 about the disappearance, but authorities say he has denied any involvement.

Wetterling was riding his bicycle with his brother and a friend Oct. 22, 1989, when a masked gunman abducted him from a rural road. Authorities decided to take a fresh look at the case last year.

Although the kidnapping has generated more than 50,000 leads over the years, the crime remains unsolved and continues to haunt Minnesota law enforcement officers. It spurred new federal laws requiring states to create sex-offender registries.

Jacob’s parents, Patty and Jerry Wetterling, founded the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center, which works to help communities and families prevent child exploitation, and Patty Wetterling became a national advocate for children.

Heinrich’s attorneys, chief federal public defender for Minnesota Katherian Roe and assistant federal public defender Reynaldo Aligada, have asked that his trial be moved out of Minnesota and that evidence and statements be suppressed.

In Wednesday’s filing, prosecutors asked the judge to deny the request for a change of venue, saying the defendant “has made no showing that fair jurors cannot be found in … Minnesota through a careful process of jury selection.”

Prosecutors also said the defendant’s motion to suppress his collection of child pornography should be denied because the “evidence was seized pursuant to a valid warrant that was issued by a judge and based upon an affidavit supported by probable cause.”

Statements made by Heinrich to law enforcement officers also should not be thrown out, prosecutors argued.

“Officers are not required to provide Miranda warnings when a defendant is not in custody,” according to the memorandum. Heinrich “voluntarily accompanied police to his own residence and proceeded to engage in hours of conversation while sipping beer, sitting at a picnic table in his own back yard, having been told he was free to leave.”

Heinrich also was not in custody when he invited officers “inside his home and proceeded to speak with them at his own kitchen table,” the memorandum states. “No reasonable person would believe they were in custody in these circumstances.”