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2010-02-09

2010-01-19

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Friday, May 08, 2009 10:40 PM

Photo courtesy of Kevin and Debbie Heidt

Derrick Heidt, then a 22-year-old Ottawa University student, is shown with his boat in front of his Ottawa rental house in 2005. His body was found Feb. 27, 2006, at Pomona Lake. “Derrick fell in love with fishing there in Ottawa,” his mother, Debbie Heidt, said. “For him to die at the lake where he loved to fish was kind of crazy.” Heidt’s death was ruled an accident, but his parents believe their son was murdered and have pushed authorities to continue to investigate case.

Mother who lost son: 'Somebody knows something’

Questions linger for parents of OU student found dead at Lake

By JODIE GARCIA, Herald Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Kevin and Debbie Heidt

Mother’s Day is a heavy-hearted day for Debbie Heidt.

When Sunday arrives, this mother of three will wake up, have a “good cry” before going to church and spend time talking to her son Derrick, who, at 22 years old, was found dead at Pomona Lake in 2006.

Though the acute pain and anger have lessened in the past three years, Heidt said what happened to her son never goes away.

“Not a day goes by I don’t think about him and hope that someday, some justice will be found,” she said.

“I don’t want to be 80 and find out who killed my son.”

A body is found

Derrick Heidt, an Ottawa University student and avid fisherman, was found dead at Pomona Lake Feb. 27, 2006. His death was ruled an accident.

But as his parents began to learn more about the circumstances surrounding their son’s death from authorities — and their own personal experiences and conversations with him in the days leading up to Feb. 26 — the Heidts quickly became skeptical of the official ruling of accidental death.

Since then, they have pressured Osage County and state authorities to re-examine the case.

Unanswered questions are many, the Heidts said.

Namely, the night he died, Derrick had called his father to say he couldn’t shake off a vehicle that was following him and that he was driving around lost near the lake, Kevin Heidt said.

“He said, ‘I can see the farmhouses and lights, but I can’t find the roads to get up to the houses,’” the elder Heidt said.

He said both cell phones kept losing reception.

During one of the calls, Heidt said he told his son to get to Ottawa and go straight to the police department.

“We never got to that point,” he said. “I was the last one to talk to Derrick.”

The Heidts believe their son could have been killed by drug dealers who believed he reported them to police.

A push for answers

Following months and even years of what the family saw as unsatisfactory progress, the Heidts hired an attorney and began to push harder for results.

Kevin Heidt said the family was prepared to file a civil lawsuit last fall against local and state authorities.

“We were prepared to go to court,” he said.

A new agent was assigned to the case, and the family met with KBI and other officials in October to discuss it further, Heidt said.

“Since then, we have backed off,” he said.

Though they have been critical in the past of the Osage County Sheriff’s Office and KBI, the Heidts said they are happier with recent KBI communication and progress in their son’s case.

“I think now we finally have them convinced it was not an accident,” Debbie Heidt said.

Kevin Heidt said KBI authorities have told him they have gathered information they can’t share with the family yet because it could jeopardize the case.

He and his wife have taken this as a good sign.

“I think they have more information than what they’re telling us,” he said.

Mark Malick, KBI special agent on the case, would not specify whether Heidt’s case is being investigated as an accident, homicide or something else.

“It remains an open investigation,” he said. “It is a case we’re taking seriously.”

Malick said he continues to investigate leads in the case, some as recent as this year.

The ‘right’ person

As the weeks and months pass without solid answers, the Heidts are urging people to come forward with information that might help solve Derrick’s case.

Debbie Heidt said she thought the passage of so much time might make people who were close to the case more likely to open up and share what they know.

“Somebody knows something,” she said. “You never know when you’re going to hit someone at the right time.”

Kevin Heidt said Derrick’s body was covered in thick, tacky “lake-bottom” mud, and he suspects that whoever was involved may have went home that night with muddy shoes or clothes.

Other people connected to the case recently have been interviewed, he said, though the KBI is unable to share much from those interviews.

Malick said while the current evidence in the case is helping investigators, someone from the public needs to come forward with any information they have surrounding Derrick’s death or final days in Ottawa.

A seemingly small or insignificant detail could very well be the missing link that will bring the case together, Malick said.

Those with information can call Malick at (785) 296-7785.

Moving on, looking back

Debbie Heidt said even if Derrick’s killer or killers are never brought to justice, she thinks that, through her faith, she can make her peace with the situation and hopes her family can do so, too.

“I have to teach them how to go on,” she said.

But the family continues to hold out hope, especially in light of recent progress, that justice will be served.

“Somehow we’re going to find a resolution — whether it takes a year, whether it takes two years,” Debbie Heidt said.

“No matter what we do, we’re not going to be able to bring Derrick back,” Kevin Heidt said.

“The ultimate goal for us as a family is to catch those who did it and hold them responsible — and to prevent them from doing it to someone else.”