WetterlingJacobMINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota man has confessed to kidnapping and killing 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling nearly 27 years ago.

Danny Heinrich made the admission Tuesday as he pleaded guilty to child pornography charges in federal court in Minneapolis.

Heinrich led authorities to Jacob’s remains last week, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing case.

He admitted abducting Jacob near the boy’s home in the central Minnesota community of St. Joseph on Oct. 22, 1989.

The 53-year-old Andover man described donning a mask and confronting three children with a revolver near Jacob’s central Minnesota home. He says he took Jacob, handcuffed him and assaulted him in a grove of trees.

Afterward, he shot Jacob and later buried him in a gravel pit, and reburied him a year later.

Heinrich says when he took Jacob, the boy asked, “What did I do wrong?”

Authorities named Heinrich as a person of interest last October when they announced the child pornography charges.

Prosecutors say they consulted with Jacob Wetterling’s family and got their approval for a plea deal that means their son’s killer faces a recommended sentence of just 20 years in prison.

U.S. Attorney Andy Luger told reporters after Danny Heinrich pleaded guilty to a single child pornography count Tuesday that the 53-year-old Minnesota man isn’t getting away with anything.

Luger pointed out that Heinrich accepted the plea deal knowing that state prosecutors could seek to have him civilly committed after he finishes his federal prison sentence, so he could spend the rest of his life in custody.

Jacob’s mother, Patty Wetterling, and other family members appeared at the same news conference with Luger. She thanked all the law enforcement officials who helped solve the nearly 27-year-old mystery of her son’s abduction.