TN - Alisha Quillen, 19, shot to death, Knox County, 28 July 2005

In a matter of weeks, authorities had identified 11 suspects, confiscated four potential murder weapons and located three cars used in the crime they were probing.

They established a motive and garnered a slew of incriminating statements. They even had an eyewitness.

It would seem the perfect case. But last week, that proved an illusion as two of the men accused in the July 28 fatal shooting of 19-year-old Alisha Quillen went free and testimony from two key witnesses failed to provide evidence of a plot to kill or even open fire.

So what went wrong?

Authorities clearly built the foundation of their case on Christopher "Corey" McNew and his crew of country boys from Morristown. McNew, the son of a deputy working for the agency that investigated the slaying, was the first to be identified and the first to cooperate, testimony showed.

He led Knox County Sheriff's Office detectives to the rest of the posse he rounded up to go to South Knoxville on the night Quillen was shot, testimony showed. There were 11 young men in all. Eight lived in or around the Morristown area. Three were from Knoxville.
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_4071359,00.html

Alisha Quillen was a hero. She died while shielding a small child from that bullet.

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I think what went wrong is that the killer was the son of an LE officer of the agency investigating the case.