When a 4-year-old boy named Derrick Robie was found brutally murdered in Savona, New York in August 1993, residents were stunned. They assumed that a stranger driving through Savona must have killed young Derrick, as he was beloved in the town. Some locals had even called him the "unofficial mayor" because he loved to sit on his bike and wave at passersby. A manhunt quickly ensued, and authorities were shocked when they uncovered the true perpetrator: a 13-year-old boy named Eric Smith. Marlene Heskell, a friend of Eric's family, had grown suspicious that the young teen had witnessed the murder when he started asking her about DNA testing and what would happen if Derrick's killer had been another child. Heskell went to Eric's mother with her concerns, and the two women took him to the police station to speak with investigators. They assumed that Eric had been threatened to keep quiet by whoever had murdered Derrick — but they never imagined that the teen would
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