Ryan W. Ferguson

Ryan W. Ferguson (born October 19, 1984) is an American man who spent nearly 10 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of a 2001 murder in his hometown of Columbia, Missouri.

At the time of the murder, Ferguson was a 17-year-old high-school student.

Kent Heitholt was found beaten and strangled shortly after 2:00a.m. on November1, 2001, in the parking lot of the Columbia Daily Tribune, where he worked as a sports editor.

Heitholt's murder went unsolved for two years until police received a tip about a man named Charles Erickson who had spent that evening partying with Ferguson.

Erickson could not remember the evening of the murder and was concerned that he may have been involved in it.

Despite failing to recall having killed Heitholt, Erickson eventually confessed and implicated Ferguson in the crime as well.

In the early morning hours of November 1, 2001, 48-year-old Kent Heitholt was murdered in the parking lot of the Columbia Daily Tribune, where he worked as a sports editor.

He was last seen alive by co-worker Michael Boyd, who told police that he had a work-related conversation with Heitholt in the parking lot between 2:12 and 2:20 a.m.

Minutes later, janitor Shawna Ornt stepped outside for a cigarette break and saw two shadowy figures near Heitholt's car.

She ran back inside to get her supervisor, Jerry Trump.

Both janitors witnessed two college-age men near Heitholt's car.

The janitors reported that one of the men yelled "Someone's hurt out here, man" before both men walked away through a nearby alley.

The janitors notified other employees and called 9-1-1 at 2:26 a.m. Heitholt was found severely beaten with a blunt object and strangled.

On the same evening, 17-year-old high-school junior Ryan Ferguson and classmate Charles Erickson were attending Halloween parties in the area.

Ferguson and Erickson later proceeded to meet Ferguson's sister at a bar called By George, where a bouncer who worked there would admit them despite their age.

After the two men had spent all of their money at the bar, Ferguson's sister bought them a few additional drinks before they departed.

Erickson was under the influence of cocaine and alcohol that night, and the following day, he had no memory of what had happened.

At a later hearing, attorneys asked Erickson whether he had noticed anything unusual on the morning of Nov. 1, such as injuries or blood on his clothing, but he stated that he had not noticed anything out of the ordinary.

Ornt told police that she got a good look at the young men, while Trump reported that he was unable to see them clearly.

Police recovered unidentified fingerprints on and inside Heitholt's car, as well as an unidentified hair in his hand.

Police also recovered footprints from the blood at the crime scene.

Ornt provided police with a description of the men and a composite sketch was drawn.

The crime had been unsolved for two years when, in October 2003, local media again covered the murder.

Erickson had reportedly experienced several dreams about the crime after having seen a newspaper article, and a few days later, Erickson asked Ferguson whether Ferguson believed that Erickson may have been involved in the murder.

"It was crazy that someone had been murdered a couple blocks away from where we had been partying," replied Erickson.

Ferguson reassured him that he was not involved in the crime.

Erickson says that over time, he began to increasingly ponder the murder and the fact that he could not remember that evening.

In November 2003, Erickson read an article in the local newspaper that included a sketch of a possible suspect.

Erickson thought that the sketch resembled him and became more concerned.

He asked a friend, Nick Gilpin, for advice, who mentioned something to another friend, John Alder.

John Alder then called the police on his two friends, Erickson and Ferguson.

In the recorded interrogation, Erickson seems to have little knowledge of the crime.

He told police, "It's just so foggy... I could be sitting here fabricating all of it."

At one point he was asked questions about the weapon used to strangle Heitholt.

Erickson replied that he thought it was a shirt.

Ferguson was convicted in the fall of 2005 on the basis of Erickson's testimony as well as that of a building employee.

Both witnesses later recanted their testimony, claiming that police and prosecuting attorney Kevin Crane, now a circuit court judge, had coerced them to lie.

The 2005 conviction was vacated on November 5, 2013, by the Western District of the Missouri Court of Appeals, and Ferguson was released on the evening of November 12 after spending nearly a decade in prison.

He won $11 million in a civil suit against Missouri police.

The case has been featured on 48 Hours, Dateline and in numerous other newspapers and media outlets.