John Ferak

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

"What it's going to take to solve the thing would just be luck at this point."

MANITOWOC - The Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department, which has been accused of framing Steven Avery for a 1985 rape and planting numerous clues to convict Avery for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach, has also been dogged by allegations it mishandled the 1999 hit-and-run death of a 17-year-old boy, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin has learned.

The homicide of Ricky Hochstetler, who was struck by a vehicle while walking to his home along a frontage road, remains unsolved. The crime occurred at about 2:20 a.m. on Jan. 10, 1999 during a snowstorm.

Weeks after the boy's death, a number of sheriff's department employees began to suspect that an off-duty deputy — after a night of drinking — struck and killed the rural Manitowoc teenager.

Even the traffic patrol lieutenant who was in charge of the investigation was aware of the allegations, indicate reports reviewed by USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. However, both Lt. Mike Bushman and then-Sheriff Tom Kocourek's administration declined to probe the activities of the two deputies who were being mentioned as possible suspects — Lt. Rob Hermann and his brother, Sgt. Todd Hermann.

Rob Hermann is now the sheriff of Manitowoc County.

Hermann denies wrongdoing

It was only through the persistence of Debi Hochstetler, Ricky's mother, that the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation agreed to independently review the case. By then, the crime had already gone unsolved for five years. The Division of Criminal Investigation would twice launch a criminal investigation of Rob Hermann, first in 2004, and again in 2009. At the time he was questioned in 2004, Rob Hermann was the under-sheriff/inspector for Sheriff Ken Petersen.

Who's Who in Ricky Hochstetler homicide

Ricky Hochstetlerhit-and-run homicide | Timeline

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"Inspector Hermann stated that this was not the first time he had heard about the rumors of his alleged involvement in the accident," Division of Criminal Investigation reports revealed. "Inspector Hermann stated that he was not involved in the accident, nor did he have any knowledge about who might be responsible."

Hermann, 52, is now in his 10th year as sheriff. He acknowledged that the Division of Criminal Investigation interviewed him several years ago, but maintained he had nothing to do with the crime.

"There were rumors that were false," Hermann told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin recently. "It was really nothing. ... I don't really know where it came from."

According to Hermann, it "makes no sense" to suggest that he may have been involved in the hit-and-run fatality because "I'm the one who responded to the accident."

The veteran sheriff also dismissed allegations that his younger brother, Todd, may have been involved in the crime.

When reached on his work cellphone by USA TODAY NETWORK, Todd Hermann declined to comment. The 49-year-old Cleveland, Wis., resident directed all questions about the case to Rob Hermann. After his brother was elected sheriff, Todd Hermann was promoted to the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department's deputy inspector of operations, the third-highest position in the department.

Rob Hermann said there was no sheriff's department cover-up surrounding Hochstetler's death.

"There is no evidence to even indicate that," he said. "We're not even looking at that. Those were rumors posted on a website."

A tragic death

On Jan. 9, 1999, the parking lot at the Club Bil-Mar banquet hall was full. Copps Grocery Store and Manitowoc Ice were holding holiday parties for their employees and special guests at the well-known supper club along Manitowoc County CR, on the southern edge of Manitowoc.

By 2 a.m., Hochstetler was walking home after watching movies and eating pizza with friends. A fierce snowstorm was underway.

While making his normal rounds during his overnight patrols, Bushman saw Hochstetler's fresh footprints in the snow along the shoulder of the rural county highway. According to Division of Criminal Investigation reports, Bushman later told special agents that "he was going to check on the condition of the person to make sure they were OK considering the snowstorm. Deputy Inspector Bushman decided to get gas first before following the footprints in the snow ..."

About 2:20 a.m., just down the darkened road from the Bil-Mar, a vehicle barreled into the 6-foot-2, 218-pound former high school football player. The driver fled the scene, heading south of Manitowoc.

At about 2:25 a.m., a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel delivery driver came upon the body, and she called 911.

Bushman, the night-shift patrol commander, heard about the hit-and-run pedestrian collision on his squad car radio while at the gas pumps about a mile away. He arrived on the scene at 2:28 a.m. Hochstetler's body was in the middle of the road.

Bushman decided to preserve the death scene rather than chase after the fleeing driver, the Division of Criminal Investigation report stated.

At about 4 a.m., Bushman and Deb Kakatsch, the Manitowoc County coroner, walked 50 yards down the road. They knocked at the door of a small white farmhouse, waking Debi Hochstetler, a mother of three in the midst of a divorce.

A sea of bright flashing lights greeted her. The idling vehicles were operated by Newton's volunteer fire and rescue squad. The others were from the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department and Manitowoc City Police Department.

Her oldest child and only son, age 17, had suffered a skull fracture, brain trauma, spinal cord injuries, neck fractures, broken bones in his back, and internal and leg injuries.

Debi Hochstetler was devastated.

"He loved his rap, his Green Bay Packers and he loved his football trading cards," she said. "He was a very comical guy once you got to know him."

It became apparent that the fleeing motorist knew the back roads of Manitowoc County. Three miles south of the deadly crash site was Interstate 43, but rather than taking 43 toward Green Bay or Sheboygan, the driver remained on the country roads.

The damaged vehicle passed a swath of farmland and encountered no traffic during the driver's getaway.

A source of suspicion

The Bil-Mar social hall was an obvious place to start the homicide investigation, but little, if any, progress was made by Manitowoc sheriff's deputies.

On Sunday, Jan. 10, 1999, a pair of deputies interviewed two of the Saturday night bartenders. Summaries of the interviews contained in the sheriff department's case file were only a couple lines each — even though one bartender, Alvin Mrozinski of rural Cato, said he drove past the victim minutes before the teen was struck and killed.

The other bartender's name wasn't mentioned in the deputy's report because "he could offer no information."

Two days later, Ken Petersen, undersheriff at the time, assured the Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter that the hit-and-run driver had not been drinking at the popular club. "I don't know if the person could have gotten up to a speed that would have caused that kind of injury to the victim or damage to the vehicle," Petersen told the newspaper.

The front entrance to the Bil-Mar was close to a quarter-mile from the Hochstetler tragedy.

Although the high-profile crime became the talk of the town, Kocourek decided not to seek help from the Wisconsin State Patrol's technical crash-scene reconstruction experts. And the Division of Criminal Investigation wasn't asked to help, either.

Kocourek did not return a phone call seeking comment for this story.

Before the autopsy — and prior to any daylight searches in ditches and along adjacent roads for more broken vehicle parts — Rob Hermann, Manitowoc County's juvenile jail administrator at the time, set a course that would later prove unsuccessful in finding the person who killed Hochstetler.

"I determined the vehicle would have to have a gray painted grill, being a model year from 1985-1988," Hermann stated in his reports. "This vehicle ... would include Chevrolet pick-up, Chevrolet K5 Blazer and Chevrolet Suburban."

Weeks later, after conferring with Hermann, Bushman also alerted the media that the broken grill fragments may also be from a 1988 to 1991 full-size van.

But over the past 17 years, no van, truck, Suburban or Blazer was ever located.

Whispers of a cover-up

As the hit-and-run investigation floundered in 1999, Bushman continued to hear whispers suggesting Hochstetler's death was part of a sheriff's department cover-up.

Bushman's investigative reports show he raised the issue of a cover-up during a face-to-face interview with Rick Wetenkamp, a rural Newton resident, who had been the hit-and-run victim's stepfather. By that point, the homicide had been unsolved for 11 months.

"I decided to question him about a statement he made ... reference the opinion that the police may have been involved in the accident and are attempting to cover it up," Bushman wrote in his report. "I wished to catch what type of reaction this would bring."

It was evident from Bushman's report that he did not want the victim's stepfather believing that police corruption might be the root cause for the lack of an arrest.

"I stated to (him) that there are over 300 complaints that I worked on and many turned out to be just rumors like the one for example that the police were somehow involved in the incident and were intentionally covering it up," Bushman stated.

According to Bushman's report, the victim's stepfather looked away and muttered, "Yes, I heard that rumor myself."

Bushman sensed his interview technique was working, according to his report. He had put the victim's stepfather on the defensive by bringing up the notion of a police cover-up. "The desired response was received and the redness (in his face) indicating he was embarrassed at that point indicating he, himself, had been the source of that type of rumor," Bushman wrote.

Key personnel moves

Months later, in 2000, there was a changing of the guard. Kocourek retired and Petersen took over as sheriff.

Petersen elevated Rob Hermann to under-sheriff/inspector. Bushman was promoted to third in command, supervising the road patrol division and the detectives bureau. That bureau included James Lenk, the same detective who was later accused of planting Avery's blood and a spare key during the 2005 Halbach murder case.

Under Lenk's leadership, little progress was made in bringing Hochstetler's killer to justice, and Petersen's administration wasn't optimistic about an arrest.

"What it's going to take to solve the thing would just be luck at this point," Petersen told The Associated Press in January 2002. "I doubt if that truck exists anymore, especially in any kind of evidentiary form."

But not everyone at the sheriff's department shared Petersen's pessimism about solving the high-profile homicide. A former sheriff's employee confirmed resigning from the department, disgusted by what the employee felt was a shoddy investigation.

Sources with ties to the Hochstetler investigation told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that it was evident Bushman and Rob Hermann had compromised critical evidence recovered at the scene of the crime, jeopardizing the prospects of a criminal prosecution.

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin learned that under Bushman's direction, broken vehicle parts deposited at the scene along County Highway CR were not properly tagged, logged, photographed with a ruler, videotaped or placed into secured evidence by a trained evidence technician. At the sheriff's department, Bushman kept debris from the vehicular homicide inside an unsecured cabinet that other employees could access.

In addition, Bushman and Rob Hermann violated fundamental chain of custody standards for handling crime scene evidence, sources said.

At the scene, Bushman allowed Hermann to transport several small pieces of the broken grill in one of Hermann's personal vehicles. Hermann had permission to drive around with the evidence for several hours with no supervision. Hermann wrote in his report that he canvassed several auto dealerships and local businesses with the broken grill pieces in his possession.

Critical trace evidence — perhaps paint chips or clothing fibers — were likely lost or compromised by their careless handling, police officials and national forensics experts told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.

Their conduct, said one police official, would warrant an unpaid suspension and possibly dismissal from a reputable law enforcement agency that held professional standards.

"You can get fired for that stuff. That piece of evidence might not as well exist," said Brent Turvey, forensic scientist from Forensic Solutions in Alaska. "You have made that evidence have less value or no value at all."

The irregular evidence collection at the Hochstetler death scene also raises questions about whether pieces were tampered with or possibly swapped, Turvey said.

"Legitimate law enforcement agencies develop these protocols for a reason," Turvey told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. "It's all reputation and if (Manitowoc County) had a good reputation, you don't have to defend it. Because of their bad reputation and continually bad decisions, it's a lifestyle. It's not a mistake. It's who they are."

Bushman, who retired in 2005, told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin during a recent interview that it was his understanding that Rob Hermann drove the vehicle parts from the hit-and-run crash back to his family's "boneyard" in nearby Cleveland.

Hermann had also worked as an auto body repair technician and mechanic at Cleveland Auto Sales & Salvage.

Given the fact that Hermann had access to his family's salvage yard business, Turvey said, "I think that makes it even worse. You don't take parts from a crime scene home with you because you don't know who's going to potentially become a suspect."

Bushman said he never investigated Rob Hermann and Todd Hermann as potential suspects. He said he was convinced the brothers did not own the type of truck, van, Blazer or Suburban being sought in the boy's death.

Bushman insisted that neither he nor Rob Hermann mishandled the crime-scene evidence. He also dismissed allegations of a police cover-up. He suggested that a news story examining problems with evidence or flaws in the case would do nothing to help solve Hochstetler's homicide.

"I did the best I could under the circumstances," Bushman said, his voice rising during the phone interview. "I did the best I could on this complaint. You say cover up? Find a witness for me. You can grab any police report and tear it to pieces."

Looking back, Rob Hermann said he had no criticisms of Bushman's performance on the Hochstetler case.

"I think he did well. He was always a go-getter," the sheriff said.

State probe focuses on investigation's flaws

This past April, for the first time, Debi Hochstetler filed a request seeking access to any reports the Division of Criminal Investigation did on her son's case. In July, she received a stack of 40 investigative documents in the mail. Reports show that Special Agent Eric Szatkowski considered it his primary duty during his initial probe to "make suggestions as to additional leads and or resources that could be utilized to help resolve this incident."

DOCUMENT: State gives Manitowoc County suggestions to solve Hochstetler hit and run

To a lesser extent, back in 2004, Szatkowski explored the credibility of allegations that an off-duty sheriff's deputy might be the culprit. The victim's mother had suggested that Bushman "might fear some type of reprisal or professional retaliation from (Rob Hermann) if the matter was taken seriously," Szatkowski stated.

On Aug. 11, 2004, Szatkowski interviewed Hermann at the undersheriff's office. "Szatkowski informed Inspector Hermann that his name had been associated with rumors in the Manitowoc area that he might be involved in the hit-and-run death of Richard Hochstetler," Division of Criminal Investigation reports show.

Hermann told the Division of Criminal Investigation agent he was home sleeping when he was awakened "somewhere around 3 a.m." by a phone call from work.

"Inspector Hermann said he was called into work on the case, possibly by Deputy Michael Bushman because Inspector Hermann was experienced in accident reconstruction," Division of Criminal Investigation reports show.

According to the Division of Criminal Investigation, Hermann said he drove his 1998 Chevrolet truck to the scene after having stayed home the entire night with his live-in girlfriend and their small child. "Inspector Hermann stated that he never owned a vehicle matching the description of the suspect vehicle, specifically a Chevrolet truck or van manufactured between 1985 and 1988," Szatkowski stated.

A month later, the special agent from the Division of Criminal Investigation closed his probe, noting that "a DOT vehicle history check on all the Hermann brothers showed no vehicles matching the 1985-1988 make and model that struck Hochstetler. ..."

Five years later, in July 2009, the Division of Criminal Investigation reopened its investigation of Rob Hermann, the state agency's reports reflect. By then, Hermann was Manitowoc's sheriff.

"The caller wanted to remain anonymous and would provide no information on the source of the allegations other than the individuals who provided the information were high school friends of the suspect that did not want to get involved in the investigation and did not know the caller was providing information to authorities," the late Division of Criminal Investigation Craig Klyve wrote in his report.

According to Klyve's report, "the caller said that Robert Hermann had an early- to mid-1980s Chevy pickup truck that has not been seen since the time of the accident. The caller believes this vehicle was the one that struck and (killed) Ricky Hochstetler."

Three months later, the Division of Criminal Investigation traveled to Two Rivers to interview Laura (King) Lee, the former live-in girlfriend of Hermann, who was also the mother of his child. Lee worked as a school counselor and was a reserve part-time deputy with the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department.

DOCUMENT:DCI interviews Rob Hermann's ex-girlfriend

Lee told the pair of Division of Criminal Investigation investigators, Szatkowski and Michael Hoell, that she didn't remember whether Hermann was awakened around 3 a.m. by a phone call alerting him to respond to the Hochstetler fatality. At the time of Lee's interview, it was now more than a decade after the tragedy. Days later, in late October 2009, the Division of Criminal Investigation's probe came to a halt. Dennis Hebert, president of the Club Bil-Mar banquet hall, told Szatkowski that the club no longer had any records showing who the Bil-Mar's guests were on the night of the Hochstetler tragedy.

Lee, the former girlfriend, had suggested the Division of Criminal Investigation ask whether Rob Hermann was at the popular social hall on the night in question.

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

THE HOCHSTETLER INVESTIGATION: A 3-PART SERIES

On Jan. 10, 1999, high school student Ricky Hochstetler was killed along a dark county highway in rural Manitowoc while walking home from a friend's house. The hit-and-run driver was never caught. The investigation has been marred by long-standing suspicions of a Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department cover-up.

This year, Manitowoc County's most high-profile cold case has drawn renewed interest, particularly from "Making a Murderer" viewers; many of the same Manitowoc sheriff's officials who were involved in the 1985 and 2005 convictions of Steven Avery also had roles in the Hochstetler unsolved homicide.

During the past eight months, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin has investigated the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department's handling of the hit-and-run homicide. We inspected close to 1,000 pages of reports generated by either Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department or the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation. Current Manitowoc County Sheriff Rob Hermann was investigated by the Division of Criminal Investigation as a suspect while he served as an undersheriff/inspector, state reports show.

Part 1: Suspicions of a cover-up: Within weeks of Ricky Hochstetler's death, several employees at the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department start to suspect that an off-duty deputy may be the hit-and-run driver.

Part 2: Mistake-riddled homicide probe: Though broken parts from a newer style car were discovered in the thawing snow near the site of Ricky Hochstetler's hit-and-run fatality, ex-Sheriff Tom Kocourek's administration dismissed the evidence, insisting that an older model truck or van was involved.

Part 3: Mother wants to forgive her son's killer: After 17½ years of heartache, Debi Hochstetler longs for the truth regarding her son's hit-and-run homicide.