I was not referring to the false confession of Charles Erickson.
If one was to listen to the link I provided,
there was an African American male that stated he was responsible for the murder. Again, the information can be found at this link.
As well at this link, they not only discuss what was being done for Ryan Ferguson but as well they discussed various steps being taken on behalf of Charles Erickson.
One simply has to listen to the panel discussion.
http://mediasite.law.umkc.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=aa07f080a00040569739a774099f024b1d
Thanks for sharing this. I recently became interested in this case due to the pure insanity of it all, but seeing this was by far the most jaw-dropping thing I'd seen/heard about it. It seemed a foregone conclusion that Ryan Ferguson wasn't guilty, and likely that Chuck wasn't either, so I kept wondering "If those didn't do it, who did?" And to think that the police were potentially that close to finding the real killer and dismissed it outright because it didn't line up with what they thought at the time is just incomprehensible.
I went back and read through some of the articles Heitholt had written in October of 2001 to see if there was anything that might have "sent someone off the deep end", so to speak (you can view the archive here:
http://archive.columbiatribune.com/...FromYear=2001&ToDay=30&ToMonth=10&ToYear=2001).
There's not a whole lot, although he was quite critical of MU football that month - of Coach Pinkel in particular - and following one game he singles out a few bad plays on the part of one player in particular (Tay Jackson). Nothing that would cause those individuals to seek revenge (at least not someone like Coach Pinkel), but maybe something to make a deluded "superfan" want to shut him up? There was one letter to the editor scolding Heitholt for his critical coverage of Pinkel, noting that his lead mentioning something about Pinkel "choking to death" was, in the writer's words, "disgusting" (although reading that specific phrase gave me a shudder).
Heithold also satirically lambastes the athletic department for being under the thumb of an anonymous donor who coughed up $25 million for facility development, I believe. It's pretty tongue and cheek, but certainly would have irked anyone at the school who took issue. But again, not the kind of thing that would drive any sane person into a murderous rage.
I've read many, many people's comments - here and elsewhere - stating that this never seemed like a random murder. So what could the motive possibly be? Other than Heitholt's involvement in drugs, gambling, or some other seedy activity, I would have to think it would involve either his role as a writer (which, being public content, welcomes speculation), or some kind of relationship at work or at home (which is obviously private and hard to speculate).
