John Ferak

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

MANITOWOC - Tuesday marks 18 frustrating years since Debi Hochstetler got the knock on her front door that she'll never forget: her oldest child, her 17-year-old son, was killed in a hit-and-run crash during a snowstorm.

The fatality occurred just before 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 10, 1999. It remains unsolved.

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A junior at Manitowoc's Lincoln High School, Ricky Hochstetler was killed as he walked home along the shoulder of Manitowoc County CR. The teenager had spent that Saturday night eating pizza and watching movies at a friend's house with other teens.

Broken vehicle parts recovered in the snow showed the driver was heading away from Manitowoc. More debris was later discovered at a rural intersection that led toward the village of Cleveland.

Even though there were strong suspicions that the hit-and-run driver had roots in far southern Manitowoc County — given the driver's path of travel — sheriff's officials put in charge of the case by then-Sheriff Tom Kocourek focused their attention elsewhere, and the case went cold.

The lead investigator, traffic Lt. Mike Bushman, directed fellow road patrol deputies to chase after leads as far away as Appleton, Fond du Lac, Green Bay, Neenah and Waupaca.

There were multiple parts from a newer model car that were found within days of the crime in the thawing snow near the edge of the driveway of Ricky Hochstetler's house. His body was found in the road about 50 yards from his house along the rural highway.

On the morning after the crash, Bushman and Lt. Rob Hermann informed the news media that the hit-and-run vehicle was a late model truck or van.

No such vehicle was ever found.

Weeks after the boy's death, a number of Manitowoc sheriff's department employees began to suspect that an off-duty deputy — after a night of drinking — struck and killed Hochstetler. However, Bushman and Kocourek's administration declined to probe the activities of the two deputies who were mentioned as possible suspects.

Last year, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin produced a three-part investigative series examining the investigative missteps in the most high-profile unsolved homicide case of Manitowoc County.

"I still want the person who was involved to come forward and talk to me, even if anonymously" Debi Hochstetler told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin on Monday. "And I really want to thank everybody for all of the support. I am grateful for all the support that Ricky's case has been getting."

In recent months, Debi Hochstetler said, a number of people have joined social media discussion groups seeking answers to her son's death, including Reddit and Facebook.

Most recently, someone launched a Facebook group called "The Offical Ricky Hochstetler hit-and-run Theory Group And Support Page."

"Above all, I would ask these people to get me any info," she said. "My ultimate goal is to get someone to investigate this sheriff's department for mishandling the evidence and to find out exactly what is going on in that sheriff's department. As far as the investigation, they are not investigating it at this point at all unless they have some tips or leads."

Debi Hochstetler said a year has passed since she spoke with the sheriff's department.

Last January, she reviewed her son's case file at the sheriff's department in Manitowoc. She met with Andrew Colborn, lieutenant of the detective bureau, and Larry Ledvina, deputy inspector of support services. Colborn, she said, is currently assigned to her son's case.

"He treated me with respect and he seemed very compassionate," she said.

But short of the culprit coming forward to clear his conscience by confessing, Colborn told Debi Hochstetler that her son's homicide will probably never be solved.

She finds that an unacceptable attitude for the agency responsible for solving the brutal crime.

Colborn did not return a call seeking comment on the case.

In 2004, the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation gave a five-page memorandum to Manitowoc County with recommendations for rejuvenating the case.

One suggestion advised the sheriff's department to send tan paint chips with black primer that were recovered from the victim's clothes to a laboratory in Canada, to narrow the make and model of the suspect's vehicle.

However, the paint chip testing fell by the wayside.

"I would really like to see those paint chips sent out to the laboratory in Canada; that's what the DCI recommended," Debi Hochstetler said Monday.

She also wants to hear from anybody in Manitowoc law enforcement, past or present, who can shed light on the newer model car parts that were recovered from the snow at the edge of her driveway on the day of her son's funeral.

Sheriff's Sgt. Jason Jost collected the car parts and returned them to his agency's evidence storage unit, his reports reflect.

However, Bushman later told Jost the parts were not relevant to the hit-and-run investigation, their reports show.

When she reviewed her son's evidence files last year with Colborn and Ledvina, Debi Hochstetler said that those particular car parts were not in the files.

"I never got any answers," she said.

John Ferak of USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin: 920-993-7115 or jferak@gannett.com; on Twitter @johnferak