Matched his. So why did he end up in prison . Thats the question that still haunts i lied. I said i remembered things i didnt remember. Locked behind bars for almost a decade. Everything you love has been taken from you. Now, the ending hes been dreaming of. Ryan the reunion with grandparents he was afraid he would never see again. Back with his family in the place he loves. Im lester holt, and this is dateline. Heres Keith Morrison with the story of the wrong man. No one knows how many there are. Sprinkled through the population of americas bursting prisons, the nbt, the falsely convicted. The tiny percentage who have hope, most with names well never know. But sometimes, rarely, we learn their stories. Ryan ferguson will soon be a free man. Like the one about Ryan Ferguson, the young man in the news recently. For a missouri man whose murder conviction has now been overturned. Ryan ferguson is now a free man. His conviction wiped clean. Easy, you would think, to hear the news, show hes innocent. Out he comes. But that, as youre about to see, isnt how it works in 21st century america. Ryan ferguson has been a preoccupation here at dateline for years. A prison here on no mores victim road, our familiar destination. Gave you what, how many years . 40 years. Tonight well show you the inside story of his long saga and how he went from College Student to convicted murderer to prisoner and, finally, the tourist in his own hometown. You recognize your town . I do recognize it but i always wondered was this particular building over here was, you know. I see it on tv a lot. Its been a trip all right. Sort of trip that on the wrong night at the wrong place, could happen to almost anyone. This is the cautionary tale of what happened to him. Easy to get convicted of something. Absolutely. Hard to get out again. Incredibly difficult. The night back when it all began was a rare combination, halloween under a full moon. It was 2001. A college town, columbia, missouri. Ryan ferguson and Chuck Erickson, both at 17, considerably underage, had gained entry to a college bar, a hangout during the by george. Its pretty young to be able to get into a collelub. Its a college town, university. Thats the way everybody lives in college town. Everybody wants to be in the mix, yeah. It was ryans older sister kelly that helped sneak him . I remember seeing ryan and chuck one time in there. Ryan was talking to a fa mink go dressed girl who was very tall. They seemed to be having lots of fun. Outside rockets music carried through empty streets until closing time, 1 30 a. M. Four blocks away it was nearly quitting time at the local paper, the Columbia Daily Tribune. He headed to his car after a long day at work. It was just about 2 30 when two night janitors from the paper called 911. 911, what is your emergency . We need someone here at the Columbia Daily Tribune. The Columbia Daily Tribune was suddenly at the deadly center of the biggest one in town. The Sports Editor laying on the ground in a pool of blood. It just rocks you back on your heels. Manager editor Jim Robertson got the call. His friend, heidi, the beloved Sports Editor, was dead. We were in shock. The whole newsroom, the whole building was in shock because everybody knew ken. It wasnt pretty, murder never is. Somebody smashed kents head, maybe with Something Like a tire iron and then strangled him. Investigators found fingerprints on his car and in the victims hand, strands of hair which he must surely have pulled from the head of his killer or perhaps two killers . In that call to 911 those night custodians reported this. Two guys in the area. Were they white or black . White. I would cia 19, 20s. Do you remember any kind of description at all on these guys . I dont think i dont think so. They were close to six feet, thin. One of them had blond hair. Really, really short blond hair. A trail of bloody footprints, two sets of footprints, led from the parking lot toward a college dorm a few blocks away. But a search there turned up nobody suspicious. Ditto for this composite sketch based on the janitors descriptions. Its like a pair of ghosts at halloween. In columbia, i dont think anybody could have gotten around and not heard about it. This is leslie, ryans mother. When you live in a town and theres been a murder and they dont know who committed the murder, youre wondering, you know, is this person still out there . But, life goes on. Ryan went to college. Chuck struggled, booze, drugs, the usual cocktail of trouble. And then two years after kents murder, the tribune ran an anniversary story printed what details were known all over again. And a couple of months later, chuck was in the sauce and he ran into ryan home from college for the holidays. He says, hey, man, remember hanging out on halloween a couple years back going to the club . Yeah. He said, do you know if i had anything to do with that crime that was committed against this guy who was killed. And at that point, you know, im kind of freaked out. It was night. Im outside. Its passed midnight. And this guy is talking about do i know if hes involved in a murder. Ryan shook it off. He said, had to be chucks idea, a morbid joke. But it wasnt. Chuck told other friends about his weird dreamlike notion. And before long, someone took him seriously and called the police. You know the reporter at the tribune that was murdered and no one found out who it was . Uhhuh. I know what happened and i know the murderer. And a dead case came roaring back to life. What happened next . Now, thats where the real mystery lies. When we come back, youll hear two very different stories about that night. One from Chuck Erickson i remember seeing ryan huddling over this guy. I think i asked him if he was dead. Ryan said, yes, he was dead. Another from Ryan Ferguson. I had nothing to do with this whatsoever. The arteries of your dishwasher are constantly clogging up with grease and lime scale. Use finish dishwasher cleaner every month to keep your machine in sparkling health. For shining results, finish dishwasher cleaner. [ ding ] i sense youve overpacked, your stomach. Try pepto togo. Its peptobismol that fits in your pocket. Relief can be yours, but your peanuts. Are mine. Prove it. Enough is enough. Dcon baits are specially formulated to kill in one feeding. Guaranteed. Dcon. Get out. For two years had come up empty. Not one solid lead in the kent heithholt murder and now was this kid, so theyve been told, who knew the whole story, chapter and verse. Lets go it just one more time, okay . They brought Chuck Erickson in for questioning but in the chair he went all vague on them. Its just so foggy. So, was he backing out . I could just be sitting here advocating all of this and not know. Like i dont know. I dont. But they talked. There are ways to ask questions. During a long conversation chuck seemed to remember a whole lot of things, detailed things. Okay. Did you see blood coming from him . Yeah. Okay. The motive, he said, was robbery, money to buy more drinks back at the bar. Is this at closing time . This was before that. Okay. It made perfect sense a fairskinned teenager who went out drinking a few blocks from the newspaper. But remember, the custodian saw two young men from the scene and they tracked two bloody footprints. And here it was, Ryan Fergusons fate was sealed. I remember seeing ryan hovering over this guy. Things began happening very, very fast. Ryan, remember, was at college, in a different town. And was puzzled, he said, when a strange van followed him home from school. It was when he pulled up to his door that he was surrounded by police. What happened when you got to the Police Department . They tell me theyre arresting me on suspicion of a murder. And at that point im just like, oh, my goodness, this is this is absurd. They asked about that halloween and ryan told detectives he left the bar with chuck at closing time, 1 30 a. M. , and then dropped chuck off at his house, went home, and went to bed. I knew that i had nothing to do with this crime whatsoever. But even as he sat here in an Interrogation Room denying he had anything to do with the murder, the news of his arrest was on tv. There is a big break tonight in the murder of former columbia tribune Sports EditorKent Heitholt. Ryans father got the news from a reporter and a friend watching tv called leslie. My first reaction was just, i said, well, its not our ryan. It has to be another Ryan Ferguson. Impossible, not sweet, loving, loveable ryan. Not a violent bone in that boys body, said his father bill. He didnt have that mentality. All of a sudden for him to be accuse of a heinous murder is beyond comprehension. You have the right to remain silent. But just like that, Ryan Ferguson slipped from care free College Student to the towns most heinous murder suspect and still, he failed to understand what was in store. As he waited eagerly for his trial, convinced a jury would see that he was telling the truth, and chuck was clearly confused. Isnt it possible that you did have enough to drink that you would repressed your own memories, that youre in a fog, you didnt know what you had done . Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Are you sure of that now, ryan . Absolutely. No doubt in my mind. I know exactly what i did that night. Chucks fate was determined quickly. He took a plea deal, 25 years in exchange for agreeing to testify against ryan. And thats what he did. At ryans trial in 2005 chuck reenacted what he said they did to poor Kent Heitholt. Hit him on the head with a tool from ryans car and then ryan strangled him with a belt. He had his foot on his back, on the victims back. And hes pulling up on the belt like this. Strangled him to death. The prosecutor didnt present dna or fingerprint evidence linking ryan to the bloody scene but perhaps he didnt have to because he had chuck. And he had this man. His name jerry trump. Might want to remember that name. Jerry trump is one of the janitors who called 911 the night of the murder, the man who reported seeing two young men lurking near the victims car. Do you remember any kind of description at all on these guys . I dont think i dont know. They were close to six feet. At the time of the killing, trump told police he wasnt sure he would be able to pick out a suspect. But now in court, his memory had improved. Would you point to that individual or individuals, please . Yes. Ryan took the stand in his own defense, a ringing and determined denial. Did you go to the tribune parking lot . No. Did you see kent h,itholt anywhere . No. Did you participate in this murder. No. How could a jury believe otherwise, he thought . There was evidence at the crime scene, after all, footprints, fingerprints, the hair in the victims hand and none of it matched ryan. It was a friday evening when the jury went out. And that same friday evening when they came back, a brisk preweekend deliberation. We the jury find defendant ryan William Ferguson guilty of murder in the second degree. He didnt show much on the outside, but now finally he understood what had happened to him. The sentence was 40 years. And the heitholts felt they were getting that thing people call closure. Im glad that finally i can remember him as just my dad and someone that was loved by everyone. Kent heitholts paper the tribune put the story to bed, perhaps for good. But ryans family felt the polar opposite of relief. The indulgent sister who sneaked him into the bar wrestle with debilitating remorse. Of course, i felt very guilty because not only was he down there because of me but i also got him into a bar under age. So it just looks really bad. And ryans parents slipped into a world in which life did not make sense at all. You almost feel like youre stepping back from yourself. Yeah. And youre watching other people, yourself, going through this because it cant really be your life. It cant be you going through this. But no one in this case was about to give up. Ryans dad fights to prove his innocence and finds a witness with a new story. I said, so, the person you saw, was that Ryan Ferguson . She goes, no, it was not. When dateline continues. The arrest, the trial, the verdict. But now a convicted murderer at 21, Ryan Ferguson was, as they say, down for a very long time. They gaye you, what, how many years . 40 years. 40 years. 40 years. Life was on hold for his stunned family. The whole thing is just so scary to me, that this can actually happen to someone. And how do you get over a thing like that . I mean you dont get over it. You get dizzy. Thats what we did. Were not over it. Were just busy. Busy from that day forth trying to prove what was plainly obvious to them, that ryan was innocent. His dad, bill, was certain there was evidence out there, if only he could find it. One little piece of information could break it . Make a big difference. It was often nighttime when Bill Ferguson wandered through columbias downtown, returning to the neighborhood where it happened. Puds r puzzling out clues. What is it about this place that tells you your son didnt do it . Well, its not so much this place. Its what happened to this place. The bar closed at 1 30. Why would ryan and chuck commit murder and robbery after 2 00 a. M. To go back to a bar that had been closed for an hour . And there was Something Else that kept nagging at bill, that 911 call the night of the murder. We need someone here at the Columbia Daily Tribune. Only the male janitor identified ryan. What about the woman on the 911 tape . She testified, too, but on the stand, she wasnt asked to point out ryan. I became very suspicious. Im saying, wait a second, shes a witness. Bill tracked her down and, here was the kind of bingo bill was looking for. I said, so, the person you saw, the person you did the composite of, was that Ryan Ferguson . She goes, no, that was not. I said, was it Chuck Erickson . She said, no, it was not. Once more, she said, she told the prosecutor years earlier, before the trial. With that new information ryan fou filed an appeal and his dad was hopeful. We just know if we could ever get in the courtroom and present the evidence, well, ryan will be found innocent. As the fergusons were about to find out, for the first but not last time, overturning a murder conviction is a very difficult thing to do. The appeal was denied. That new story from the janitor deemed not credible. But give up . No. Even when they ran through their life savings, even when a raft of legal appeals went nowhere. Every time they come back and they deny any motion or they deny any appeal, you know, you just have taken another two or three years of my life for nothing. And still, nearly four decades to go. If you have to serve that, you come out a Senior Citizen if youre still alive. Unfortunately. But at the end of the day you never know whats going to happen. Well, you dont, do you . Just when ryan seemed to be almost out of options all together, an attorney named kat tlooen zelner agreed to take a look at the case. She met with ryan and decided to take it on. Pro bono. Nothing as riveting of this, when the trial has been lost, everythings been lost and youve got someone who is innocent. Its like the ultimate chal lech, i think. What made you think this person definite lly innocent . It was really ryan. It was really my interaction with them. Zelner has won the release of 15 men wrongfully convicted of murder and rape. But this, she had never seen anything like it. Because in this strange case, she thought, there were two innocent men, ryan and chuck, his accuser, a confused young man, but not a killer. What was put on at this trial was a completely fabricated case and the reason it worked was because the jury could not understand why someone would confess to a crime they didnt commit and then take a 25year sentence. And a verdict rendered by a jury of ones peers is, its almost secret, zelner would have to find new information that the jurors could not have heard, or show that the prosecution of the case was not fair. She had just begun investigating when a gift arrived. Sort of thing an attorney can only dream about. It was a letter, not to her, to ryan. I get this letter and its from Charles Erickson. Im like, what could this possibly say. Oh, now, this, this could change everything. Just maybe not in the way anyone expected. Coming up i lied and said i remembered things i didnt remember. Chuck erickson is back on the stand, but hes not the only one who has changed his story. Id like to have forgiveness from ryan and his family. Is is i cant always keep my kids socks clean. But at least i can help keep their underwear clean. With charmin ultra strong. Ill take that. Go get em, buddy [ female announcer ] charmin ultra strong has a duraclean texture and its four times stronger than the leading bargain brand. Enjoy the go with charmin ultra strong. Behind bars for five years, but thereafter Chuck Erickson told a tale of murder, said they killed a man together one halloween night. This condemning finger stabbing accusation in court was the last time ryan had seen or heard a single word from his former friend. So it was a shock the day that letter arrived in the prison mail room from chuck. Basically just says, send an attorney. Dont tell anybody that youre doing it. Send an attorney to see him . Yeah. That was in 2009. As luck would have it, Kathleen Zellner had just signed on to the case. She went to the prison where chuck was doing time, and he handed her a written statement. I thought, oh, my god, hes retelling this story but now ryan is not the killer. He read his new version of events on camera. I made up what i said about ryan being on top of the victim. Are you saying today that you are the sole murderer of Kent Heitholt . Thats correct, yes. It must have been a great day for you . It was. But i know how much work it