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The Case of Ryan Ferguson
📻 Episode #37
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Oct 16, 2017
About This Episode
Ryan Ferguson was a 17-year-old high school student when Kent Heitholt, a sportswriter for the Columbia Daily Tribune, was found beaten and strangled in Missouri. Heitholt's murder went unsolved for two years until police received a tip that a man named Charles Erickson could not remember the evening of the murder and had told a…
The Case
Ryan Ferguson was a 17-year-old high school student when Kent Heitholt, a sportswriter for the Columbia Daily Tribune, was found beaten and strangled in Missouri. Heitholt's murder went unsolved for two years until police received a tip that a man named Charles Erickson could not remember the evening of the murder and had told a friend that he thought he may have been involved. Erickson, who had spent that fateful evening partying with Ryan Ferguson, was interrogated by police and despite initially seeming to have no memory of the night of the murder, eventually confessed and implicated Ryan as well. Police offered Erickson a plea deal in exchange for testimony against Ryan at his trial in 2005. Despite the lack of any physical evidence tying Ryan Ferguson to the crime, he was convicted of second-degree murder and robbery and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
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In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:06:45“Speaker 3: was beaten to death with a tire iron or something Speaker 3: like that. I don't even know if they even know Speaker 3: to this day, but it was a heavy metal object. Speaker 3: Of some sort. And when that Crimestoppers piece ran, Charles Speaker 3: Rickson was affected by it in some way.”
00:24:57“Speaker 5: you get back into prison. Right, And so they're doing Speaker 5: for their own existence. But there's no reason the police Speaker 5: of the prosecutor should be doing these things to people, right, Speaker 5: They're they're manipulating and taking advantage of these people and uh,”
00:42:48“Speaker 5: make them aware of it. So to me, it is Speaker 5: it is being active and creating awareness. The best thing Speaker 5: you can do. Write a family member, right the person Speaker 5: that you support, and then get involved and start spreading Speaker 5: awareness to your friends and family. Tell them about the case,”
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Also on the podcast: #31 Brian Ferguson · #559 Ryan Ferguson