ST. PAUL — A man called a person of interest in the 1989 abduction of an 11-year-old boy will remain in custody on unrelated child pornography charges, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Daniel James Heinrich, 52, was charged last week with four counts of possessing child pornography and one count of receiving it. While authorities call Heinrich a person of interest in the unsolved abduction of Jacob Wetterling, he has not been charged and has denied involvement.

Authorities said they found nearly 100 images of child pornography in Heinrich’s Annandale home in July as they sought evidence in the Wetterling case.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Tony Leung said the amount found and evidence of Heinrich’s longstanding fixation on boys support the child pornography charges, and he allowed the case to proceed.

Jacob Wetterling was riding his bicycle with his brother and a friend on Oct. 22, 1989, when a masked gunman abducted him from a rural road. He hasn’t been seen since.

Last year, authorities decided to take a fresh look at the case.

FBI Special Agent Shane Ball testified Wednesday that Heinrich matched the general description of a man who assaulted several boys in Paynesville from 1986 to 1988. Earlier this year, Heinrich’s DNA was found on the sweatshirt of a 12-year-old boy who was kidnapped from Cold Spring and sexually assaulted nine months before Jacob’s abduction.

Tire tracks and a shoe print at the site of Jacob’s abduction in nearby St. Joseph were consistent with Heinrich’s, but couldn’t be ruled an exact match, Ball said.

Investigators got a search warrant for Heinrich’s home, where they found 19 3-ring binders that contained pictures of naked boys. Ball said investigators also found more than 100 hours of videotape that Heinrich recorded while following neighborhood kids.

Heinrich’s attorney, Assistant Federal Defender Reynaldo Aligada, noted while cross-examining Ball that there were multiple suspects at the time of Jacob’s disappearance, and the assailant in many of the other attacks wore a mask.

He said the man who took Jacob was described as taller than the attacker in the Cold Spring assault — and that victim didn’t pick Heinrich out of a photo lineup.

Aligada said his client has voluntarily participated in several interviews and has denied involvement in all of the assaults.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Schleicher countered that Heinrich was tied to the Cold Spring case through DNA. The statute of limitations expired, and Heinrich isn’t charged in that case.