Highland Park Murder Victim May Not Have Been First Target

A law enforcement source familiar with the Collin Nutter murder investigation has said that Nutter may not have been the first target of the three killers, the Chicago Tribune is reporting.

The unnamed source told reporters that when the first dealer they chose the day of the murder had no marijuana to sell, the three suspects — Benjamin Schenk, 20, Philip Vatamaniuc, 17, and Michael Coffee, 17  called Nutter, a Highland Park 20-year-old, instead. 

Lake County State's Attorney Mike Nerheim said at a press conference held after the incident that the day before Nutter was killed, Schenk told a witness that he planned to rob and murder someone the next day. 

"He asked that witness to help him obtain gloves, masks and duct tape," Nerheim told reporters.

Schenk, Coffee and Vatamaniuc got into Nutter's Dodge Stratus on June 3, with Schenk sitting behind Nutter. Both Vatamaniuc and Coffee gave statements indicating that they watched as Schenk shot Nutter in the head, Nerheim said at the same press conference. 

Schenk, who is the son of a U.S. Army colonel, had previously lived in Germany, where he attended high school, according to his Facebook page. (The page has since been taken down.) 

"We're still in the shock and grief phrase," said Steven Schenk, Ben's father and a defense coordinating officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Tribune reported. Ben had been living with another family in Highwood at the time of the murder. 

Schenk, Vatamaniuc and Coffee are all being held on $5 million bond.