What happened to Dammion Heard?
The body of Dammion Cain Heard was found hanging from a tree on April 2, 2014. In the six months that followed, police would conduct interviews with more than 45 people known to have been with Dammion in the days and hours leading up to his death. Many of them were friends with the cocky college wrestler, whom they described as "one of the happiest guys" they knew. The investigation was far from clear-cut, but police ruled his death a suicide and closed the case on Oct. 21, 2014. This story relies on police documents, private investigator interviews and medical records, as well as reporting done by "48 Hours" producers Claire St. Amant and Alec Sirken.
Part one of a three part series.
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FT. WORTH, TEXAS - On a steamy July morning in a Ft. Worth, Texas suburb, Gary Heard is in his auto body shop, trying to concentrate on the various administrative duties of the day - the insurance reports, the estimates, the parts to order.
But today, like just about every day for more than a year, Gary can't stop thinking about his son. A champion high school wrestler, Dammion went to college on athletic and academic scholarships at Western State Colorado University in Gunnison, Colorado. Inexplicably, the student-athlete went missing during a party in the early morning hours on March 30, 2014 and was found three days later hanging from a tree off a hiking trail, jumper cables around his neck.
Gary was devastated.
"Dammion was my best friend," he says. "We were very close, he told me about everything in his life. I was just stunned to find out he was dead."
Police investigated and ruled it a suicide. But Gary has never believed his son killed himself. And a CBS News/Crimesider investigation reveals many pieces of circumstantial evidence that suggest the possibility of something more sinister. The most glaring is the fact that police determined Dammion's car, a black 2004 Saturn SUV found near the scene of his death, had no identifiable fingerprints at all inside it. And yet, just hours before Dammion disappeared, he drove a carload of wrestlers to a fundraiser.
"How is it possible," Gary asks, "that a kid's car has no fingerprints? Not on the steering wheel, not on the gearshift, not on the door handles? That makes no sense. It tells me the police weren't looking very hard or something very strange happened."
According to police reports on the case, many of Dammion's friends say he was a happy, upbeat young man. The only indication that he may have been unhappy at the time was that he appeared to be upset about a former girlfriend the night he disappeared, and picked a fight with another student about her.
In a public poll in the Gunnison Country Times after police ruled Dammion's death a suicide, 84 percent of respondents said closing the case was not justified.
"There's just no way my son committed suicide," says Gary Heard. "Someone killed him and then they staged this hanging to cover it up. I'm sure of it. "
Dammion Heard was a small, wiry teenager, a two-time state champion wrestler in Texas, dominating his less-than-125-pound weight category at Fossil Ridge High School in Keller. Gary and his wife were divorced and Dammion had a strained relationship with his mother. But it was very different with his father.
"We talked just about every day even while he was at college," Gary says. Gary and his son had been extremely close, as Gary had coached him in wrestling until high school, and remained very involved in his athletic career as well as his life outside it.
"He loved life, he was living his dreams," Gary says.
At college in the small Colorado town of Gunnison, Dammion was well-liked by his fellow wrestlers and seemed to have many friends. Twenty-two year old Courtney Burch described Dammion as "her little brother."
"He was always there for me," she told police. "He was the one person in our house who I could always rely on. He was just a really good kid."
By all accounts, Dammion was very sociable. The night before he disappeared, he exchanged texts with 10 different women, including Amber Simon, with whom he was setting up a lunch date for the following day. He would never see Amber again.
Det. Grace Cowan of the Gunnison Police Department interviewed Amber a month after Dammion's body was found.
"Knowing Dammion, did you get any indication that he would be somebody that would hurt himself?" she asked.
"Not at all," Amber said, adding that their most recent conversations had been about Dammion's plans for the future.
"Finish up school - maybe travel a little bit, and - potentially start a family, if he found someone," Amber said.
The girlfriend who seemed to matter the most to him was Marlena Romero, whom he dated for several months. By the spring of 2014 they had broken up, but Dammion wanted to get back together. He was upset that she had been dating another student, Anthony Rios, a member of the track team.
THE PARTY SATURDAY NIGHT
On the night of Saturday, March 29, 2014, a friend and fellow wrestler, Kyle Piatt, was throwing a party at his house, where Dammion had lived the previous summer with Kyle when he was being recruited to come to Western Colorado. Kyle lived with his 3 roommates, Andrew Morris, Elliott Copeland, and one woman, Courtney Burch.
The Saturday night of the party, Dammion had done something a bit audacious - he had invited Anthony Rios to come to the party - with the intention of confronting him. When Anthony arrived, Dammion approached him and immediately began punching him, unprovoked. Anthony did not fight back vigorously, but he was not badly injured. Dammion, however, missing a punch, smashed his fist on the ground and feared it might be broken. Back inside the party, he iced his hand and talked about the injury. He sought no medical help.
Although the timeline is murky, according to several attendees, the fight occurred around midnight. And it was the beginning of a turbulent series of events.
Almost immediately after Dammion punched Anthony, Kyle Piatt, the host and captain of the wrestling team, confronted Dammion and reprimanded him.
"I had him up against the wall in the kitchen," Kyle told told one police officer. Earlier he had told another cop there was "no physical contact." Another student who witnessed the confrontation, Morgan Lambert, told police that Kyle had Dammion "in a headlock," but said Kyle wasn't holding Dammion "super tight to the point where he couldn't move."
Kyle told CBS News he never had Dammion in a headlock.
Kyle told police he was angry at Dammion for starting a fight at his house and for embarrassing the wrestling team with his aggressive actions.
WRESTLERS' REPUTATION
The wrestling team has a reputation for brawls and violence. One Gunnison restaurant, Timbers Sports Bar, has even banned Western State wrestlers and coaches from dining there because of repeated fights.
"With the wrestlers up here, it is kinda a stigma that we get into fights," Kyle told police. "I was pretty pissed. I had him up against the wall and the only thing I really remember is him yelling, 'What the hell? What the hell?' and then trying to snap my hands."
Kyle continued, "And, then, I was just trying to tell him, you shouldn't have been fighting at the house, and you shouldn't have been fighting over a girl. "
By several witness accounts, Dammion was not injured and seemed fine physically after his encounter with Kyle. The brawny wrestler, far bigger than Dammion, was visibly emotional during his interview with police, tearing up at one point, saying Dammion was one of his good friends. Kyle's first interview with police took place the day Dammion's body was found and he was also interviewed one week later.
DRINKING AND DRUGS
Dammion was drinking and possibly smoking marijuana, according to several people at the party that night. Zach Shank, another wrestler, told police Dammion often smoked pot and was the kind of kid who liked to experiment.
"He just always seemed like he wanted to do everything," Zach said. "He was down to do anything. Like he always just wanted to have a good time."
There were also rumors that he had taken LSD. A text message found on Dammion's cell phone indicates he was trying to buy some that night.
"Do you have that kid's number that has acid??" Dammion wrote. "Just looking for some fun sh*t LOL."
Party attendees said by 1 a.m. Dammion was in Andrew Morris' bedroom, lying on the floor on his stomach with a blanket over his head. Dammion had asked Torrie Boyle to come over, and she arrived around 1:15 a.m. with her friend Alison Forlenza.
Torrie characterized the conversation she had with Dammion as casual, and said he seemed fine.
"He was lying on his stomach, and he rolled over and started talking to us," Torrie told police. "The talk was probably at the most seven minutes. When we were done, he just rolled over and put the blanket back over his head and we left."
In her interview with police, Alison also recalled seeing a sleepy, tipsy Dammion.
"He was just laying on the floor. And he had the blanket over him and stuff. And we were like, 'Hey dude, like, what's up?' You know? And he was just 'Oh, I'm - like, I'm going to bed.' But he seemed okay. He just seemed like he was drunk. Like, trying to go to bed, you know?"
No one saw Dammion leave the house that night, but an electronic trail would prove that he did.
Parts 2 and 3 of the Dammion Heard story will run on Crimesider Tuesday, Aug. 18th and Wednesday, Aug. 19th.