Paynesville 8 victim ‘at peace' after Heinrich's confession

PAYNESVILLE, Minn. (KMSP) - There are finally some answers about what happened to Jacob Wetterling. But the new information also poses more questions when it comes to Jacob's killer - Danny Heinrich.

Several boys were assaulted in the small town of Paynesville in the mid to late 80s. At least one of the boys who was attacked in Paynesville before Wetterling's disappearance is still waiting for answers.

“After he led them to the body I wasn't shocked at all,” said Troy Cole, a sexual assault victim. “It’s about time. I can't believe it took them this long to pinpoint who it was. We said for quite a few years to law enforcement who it was and they kind of blew us off."

Troy Cole never saw the man who grabbed him from behind at knifepoint and molested him while he rode his bike home from a Paynesville pizza place in 1986.

Investigators believe it was one of eight sexual assaults committed by Danny Heinrich in Paynesville where he lived at the time.

Even though Heinrich confessed to kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing Jacob Wetterling in St. Joseph in October of 1989 as well as kidnapping and sexually assaulting Jared Scheirl in Cold Spring nine months earlier, Cole says he doesn't care that prosecutors didn't try to get Heinrich to admit to the Paynesville 8 cases as well.

RELATED: Paynesville assault victim wonders if Wetterling abduction could have been stopped

“I got peace of mind from already,” said Cole. “I know it was him. I don't need a confession from him to know. I had peace of mind with it years ago. They did nothing about it. Yeah it’s in my head every day. You just got to be strong about it and that's what we did - all of us.”

Cole says he drives by the field where investigators found Wetterling's remains on his way to work and he can't believe Wetterling was so close all these years. He also wonders if the land had been searched before.