Thats the question that still haunts. He said i remember 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 hed never see again. Back with his family. In the place he loves. Im lester holt and this is dateline. Heres Keith Morrison with a story of the wrong man. No one knows how many there are. Sprinkled through the populations of americas bursting prisons. The innocent, the falsely convicted. The tiny percentage we have to 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, youd think, to hear the news, show hes innocent. Out he comes. But that as youre about to see, isnt how it works in the 21st century america. Ryan ferguson has been a preoccupation here at dateline for years. The prison here on no more victims row, our familiar destination. Its been 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, to tourist in his own hometown. You recognize your town . I do recognize it. Ive always wondered where 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. Lard 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 under age, had gained entry to a college bar, a hangout that is pretty young to be able to get into a club. Its a college town. University. Its the way that people live in college towns. Everybody wants to be in the mix, hang out, yeah. It was ryans older sister, kelly, who helped sneak them in. I remember seeing ryan and chuck one time in there. And ryan was talking to a flamingodressed girl. He was very tall. He seemed to be having lots of fun. Outside, raucous 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. The Sports Editor 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. What is your emergency . We need someone here at the daily tribune. Whats going on . Theres somebody hurt outside. Daily tribune was suddenly at the deadly center of the biggest story in town. The Sports Editor, chip, laying in the ground, in a pool of blood. Just rocks you back on your heels. Managing editor Jim Robertson got the call. His friend, heidi, the belonged Sports Editor, was dead. We were in shock. The whole news room, the whole building was in shock. Because everybody knew kim. It wasnt pretty, it never is. Somebody smashed kents head, maybe with Something Like a tire iron and 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 i saw two guys in the area. Were they white or black . White. Id say 19, 20. Do you remember any kind of description at all on these guys . I dont, they were close to six feet. Thin. One of them had blonde hair. Really, really short blonde hair. The trail of bloody footprints, two sets of footprints, led from the parking lot towards 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. They vanished 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, you remember hanging out on halloween a couple of years back going to the club . Yeah. He says, 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. Its night, im outside, its past midnight. And that guy was talking about do i know if hes involved in a murder. Ryan shook it off. He said, it had to be chucks idea of 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. We now theyre reported at the tribune that was murdered and no one found out who it was . Uhhuh. I know what happened and i know the murderer. 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 hovering over this guy and i think i asked him if he was dead and ryan said yes, hes dead. Another, from Ryan Ferguson. I had nothing to do with this crime whatsoever. For two years, they had come up empty. Not one solid lead in the kent hidel murder. And now was this kid, so they had been told, who knew the whole story, chapter and verse. Lets go over it just one more time, okay . They brought Chuck Erickson in for questioning. But in the chair, he went all vague on them. So was he backing out . I can just be sitting here advocating all of this like, i dont know. I dont. But they talked. There are ways to ask questions. And during a long conversation, chuck seemed to remember a whole lot of things. Detailed things. Where did you hit him . Had the head. In the head with . A wrench. Did you see blood coming from him . Yeah. Okay. The motive, he said, was robbery. Money to buy more drinks back at the bar. Was this at closing time . This was before that. Okay. It made perfect sense, fairskinned teenager drinking a few blocks from the newspaper. But remember, the custodian saw two young men in the parking lot, and the Police Tracked two sets of bloody footprints. And so here it was. The moment Ryan Fergusons fate was sealed. I remember seeing ryan hovering over this guy, and i think i asked him if he was dead and ryan said, yeah, hes dead. Things began happening very, very fast. Ryan, remember, was at college, was living in a different town. And was puzzled 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 like, oh, my goodness. This is absurd. They asked about that halloween, and ryan told detectives he left the bar at closing time, 1 30 a. M. , and dropped chuck off at his house, and went home to bed. I knew i had nothing to do with this crime whatsoever. But even as he sat here in an interrogation room, denying anything to do with the murder, the news of the arrest was on tv. There is a big break tonight in the murder of Sports Editor kent heighthold. Ryans father got the news from a reporter and a friend watching it tv called leslie. My first reaction was just oh 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 just didnt have that sort of a mentality. And so all of a sudden for him to be accused of a heinous murder is beyond comprehension. You have the right to remain silent. But just like that, Ryan Ferguson slipped from fairfree 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 had repressed your own memories . That youre just in a fog, you didnt know what you had done. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Pretty sure of that memory of yours. Absolutely. No doubt. 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 heighthold. Hit him on the head with a tool from ryans car. Then ryan strangled him with a belt. He had his foot on his back, on the victims back. And he was pulling him up on the belt. Like this. Strangling 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. Ive got to tell what that man did. And he had. This man. His name . Jerry trump. My 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. They were close to 6 feet. At the time of the killing, trump told police, he wasnt sure he had been 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 wringing and determined denial. Did you go to the tribune parking lot . No. Did you see kent heighthold anywhere . No. Did you participate in this murder . No. How could a jury believe otherwise, he thought . There was evidence of 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 defend 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 heightholds felt they were getting that thing people like to call closure. Im glad that finally i can remember him as just my dad and someone that was loved by everyone. Kent heightholds paper put the story to bed, perhaps for good. I think everyone will feel some relief now that its over. But ryans family felt the polar opposite of relief. Thein dull jent sister who sneaked him into the bar wrestled with debilitating remor remorse. Of course, i feel 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, yourselves, 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. And i said, so, the person you saw, was that ryan it had all happened so fast. 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 give you, what, how many years . 40 years. 40 years. 40 years. Life was on hold for his stunned family. The whole they think thing is just so scary to me. That this could actually happen to someone. How do you get over a thing like that . You dont get over it. You get busy. 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 the whole thing. Make a difference. It was often nighttime when Bill Ferguson wandered through columbias downtown, returning to where the murder happened, 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 it at this place. The bar closed at 1 30. Why would ryan and chuck commit a 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 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 the witness. Bill tracked her down. And here was the kind of bingo bill was looking for. And i said, so, the person you saw, the person you do the composite of, was that Ryan Ferguson and she said no, was that. And i said was it Chuck Harrison and she said no, it was. She was sure of that . She was absolutely sure. And she told prosecutors this years earlier, before the trial. With that new information, ryan 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. But 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, thats just my thought on it. Youve just taken another two or three years of my life for nothing. And still, nearly four decades to go. 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 Kathleen Zelner agreed to take a hook at the case. She met with ryan. And decided to take it on. Pro bono. Nothing is as riveting as this. When the trial has been lost, everything has been lost, and youve got somebody in there that is innocent. Its like the ultimate challenge, i think. What made you think this person definitely is innocent . It was really ryan. It was really my interaction with him. 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 carries tremendous weight. Its almost sacred in the legal system. To overturn ryans conviction, zelner would have to find new information that the jurors could not have heard. Or so that the prosecution in 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. And 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. I would like to have forgiveness from ryan. And his family. [ sports announcer ] heres another one, alyson dudek. Hales corners, wisconsin. Nice pass by alyson dudek. Can she hang on to that spot . And she does [ male announcer ] with the uverse wireless receiver, your tv goes where you take it, allowing inspiration to follow. [ dad ] looks pretty good, right . [ girl ] yeah. [ male announcer ] switch to uverse and add a wireless receiver today. Ryan ferguson had been behind bars for five years. Put there after Chuck Erickson told a tale of murder, said they killed a man together, one halloween night. This condemning fingerstabbing 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 mailroom from chuck. Basically just says send an attorney, and dont tell anybody that youre doing it. Send an attorney to see him . Yeah. That was in 2009. And as luck would have it, Kathleen Zelner 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 the 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 heigthol heitholt . Thats correct. It must have been a great day for you. It was. But i know how much work it is to do these things. To me, it was just the first step. And it was puzzling too. Zelner was absolutely convinced neither chuck nor ryan was anywhere near the murder. She and ryan believed chuck was still confused. It shows the reality that he doesnt know what happened that night. And hes trying to put these things together. Did that change everything . Not really. The attorney did more research,