> Editorial
Lives of two local boys altered by murder
by Shawn Davis

Often times, in a community such as Columbia, there is an event so tragic, and so shocking, that an entire community is affected by it. On Oct. 31, 2001, Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt was brutally murdered in cold blood. Heitholt was a community figure. People, such as myself, looked forward to reading his column every Sunday. He was a genuinely nice guy. While feeding the cats that lived outside the Tribune building in downtown Columbia, just as he did every night, he was killed in cold blood. I remember thinking, “Whoever did this must be a heartless, terrible person, a person I would never want to be associated with.”

After two year of waiting for the Columbia Police to make an arrest, they did. Just like many in the community, I thought the suspect was going to be a heartless drifter looking to get some extra cash. It turned out it wasn’t a drifter; it was two teenagers, two kids who I had grown up with.

The two people arrested — Ryan Ferguson and Charles “Chuck” Erickson — were then 17-year-old boys attending Rock Bridge High School here in Columbia.

The two had gone to By George, a local nightclub in Columbia, on that Halloween night. They were just looking to have a good time. What transpired was a life-changing event.

When I heard the news, I wasn’t only shocked by the fact that two 17-year-old kids had committed this murder, but it was Ryan and Chuck. Two kids who I grew up with and graduated with. I have been going to school in Columbia since I was 10, and since that time, I knew Ryan, and three years later I would come to know Chuck.

When I found out that the killer was not a heartless drifter, and that the suspects were two of my peers, it was hard to believe. The two guys didn’t match my profile at all. It was two kids, with families and friends just like mine. For the rest of the community it was closure, it was a face on the killers that they so desperately needed. For me and the rest of the 2003 RBHS graduating class, it was something else. It was taking two kids, seemingly just like us, and labeling them murderers.

It’s been almost four years since the murder. Chuck has already pled guilty to second-degree murder, a lesser sentence in exchange for telling a jury that Ryan was the one that actually killed Heitholt. Ryan’s case starts Oct. 14, and he will be tried for first-degree murder. Ryan still claims his innocence, and says that Chuck made it all up. Ryan's father has spoken publicly about witness testimony changing and the lack of forensic evidence.

Now, I’m not writing to argue guilt or innocence. I’m not going to argue whether it was Ryan or Chuck, and I’m not here to defend what they supposedly did. I’m here to tell you that this tragic event goes beyond the Heitholt family. It extends deeper into a community, one that could never picture its neighborhood being shattered by two seemingly normal high school kids.

Growing up as teenagers, there have been times where we have all felt invincible. We felt like no one could bring us down; we were on top of the world. We were growing up. Part of growing up is making mistakes and learning from them; it’s just human nature.

Ryan and Chuck are really no different from any high school kid, except that the mistake they made wasn’t just a growing pain. They had killed a man, a mistake that they will have to live with for the rest of their lives. It was easy for everyone in the community to say that the kids were crazy and heartless, and that the parents were not there for their kids when they needed them the most. But in reality it was the choices that two normal kids made while they were drunk that led to that awful incident.

When I look at Ryan I don’t see a vicious murderer like many people see. I see the kid that I played my first round of golf with. I see him as one of the kids that I met during my first year at Fairview Elementary School. I see a kid that I played peewee basketball against. Sure, he and I weren’t the best of friends; we were casual acquaintances at best. But through my eyes, he is no malicious killer, he’s a teenager who made a terrible mistake.

I see the same with Chuck. He was the new kid on the bus when I started going to Smithton Middle School. He lived three blocks from my house and I saw him everyday. We had the same friends and the same classes. His family shopped at the grocery store that I worked at. He was a regular kid, a kid with dreams and aspirations. 

I’m not asking that you forgive these two for the crime they are accused of committing. All I ask is that you look at it through my eyes and the eyes of everyone that grew up with them. I want you to see the genuine sorrow that the RBHS community feels for our peers. Everyone that attended school with Ryan and Chuck had memories of them.

Let’s not remember them for that stupid mistake that they made four years ago. Let’s not think of them as brutal murderers or kids that ventured down the wrong path. Let’s not label their families that have been devastated by all this.

More importantly, let’s remember them for the dreams that they have lost and all the opportunities that they could have had. Let’s remember them for the impact that they had on all the kids that they grew up with. Remember them as two kids who were loved by their families and respected by their peers. Remember them as that same kid I met while playing my first round of golf, or that new face the first day he stepped on the bus.

Murder is a tragic event to start with, but when you look at the potential of these two kids and realize everything that they threw away, the event becomes even more tragic. Their lives have been tainted by one mistake. Their dreams, for both them and everyone around them, have been shattered.

When you look at the situation, look at them as your son or daughter, your classmates, your best friend. Look at them as kids, no different from me, who just made an awful mistake. I know I wouldn’t want to be remembered for a mistake that I made, so let’s not remember them for one of theirs.

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