MINNEAPOLIS — To crack Minnesota’s biggest cold case — the 1989 abduction of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling — authorities went back to the early days of the investigation.

They turned a renewed spotlight last year on a man who was questioned soon after Jacob’s disappearance but was never charged. That ultimately led to Saturday’s announcement that Jacob’s remains finally had been found.

The case has not lain dormant for those 27 years, said Tom Heffelfinger, former US attorney for Minnesota. To the contrary, he said, it’s been a top priority the entire time.

When authorities last October announced the arrest of Danny Heinrich, now 53, of Annandale, on child pornography charges, they took the unusual step of calling him a ‘‘person of interest’’ in the Wetterling case.

Jacob was riding his bicycle near his home in the central Minnesota community of St. Joseph with his brother and a friend on Oct. 22, 1989, when a masked gunman abducted him and ordered the other boys to run.

The case has haunted Minnesota ever since. Jacob’s smiling face was burned into the state’s collective psyche, appearing on countless posters and billboards seeking clues.

Jacob’s mother, Patty Wetterling, became a nationally recognized advocate for the cause of missing and exploited children.

Associated Press