Crime & Safety
Highland Park Murder Victim was 'Getting Life on Track'
Colin Nutter, 20, was "right on the verge of making some big changes in his life," at the time of his murder in Highwood on June 3, according to his father.
By Paula Skaggs
Colin Nutter was "right on the verge of making some big changes in his life," at the time of his murder on June 3, his father said in a Chicago Tribune article.
His father went on to describe Nutter as a gentle, funny and creative boy who struggled with attention deficit disorder and always had a lot of close friends. After running into trouble in school — including a retail theft charge — Nutter decided to become a social worker so that he could help at-risk-teens. He had returned home from Lincoln College in December after falling behind on credits, and planned on attending the College of Lake County in the fall.
According to Lake County State's Attorney Mike Nerheim, the accused — Benjamin Schenk, 20, Philip Vatamaniuc, 17, and Michael Coffee, 17 — met with Nutter early on the day of June 3 to buy marijuana from him. All three suspects are Highland Park residents.
Colin Nutter was "right on the verge of making some big changes in his life," at the time of his murder on June 3, his father said in a Chicago Tribune article.
His father went on to describe Nutter as a gentle, funny and creative boy who struggled with attention deficit disorder and always had a lot of close friends. After running into trouble in school — including a retail theft charge — Nutter decided to become a social worker so that he could help at-risk-teens. He had returned home from Lincoln College in December after falling behind on credits, and planned on attending the College of Lake County in the fall.
According to Lake County State's Attorney Mike Nerheim, the accused — Benjamin Schenk, 20, Philip Vatamaniuc, 17, and Michael Coffee, 17 — met with Nutter early on the day of June 3 to buy marijuana from him. All three suspects are Highland Park residents.
Schenk, Coffee and Vatamaniuc got into Nutter's Dodge Stratus, with Schenk sitting behind Nutter. Both Vatamaniuc and Coffee gave statements indicating that they watched as Schenk shot Nutter in the head, according to Nerheim.
Michael Nutter, 65, a manager of the cartography department at Encyclopedia Britannica planned on retiring soon to spend more time with his son. "It feels like a part of your life has been ripped away," he told the Tribune. "In a stronger sense, it feels like my life has been destroyed," he said. "I feel like I'm holding together by a few threads that could come apart at any minute. And I have to rebuild with what I have left."
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Read Patch's previous coverage of Collin Nutter's murder here.
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