Mary Higgins heard about the pink notebook in February 2002. Her friend Tracey Richter had just returned to Early, Iowa, after a trip to Australia. According to Higgins, Richter said police had found the notebook in the vehicle left outside her house after she shot Dustin Wehde. Richter told Higgins enough about the notebook to explain why it could implicate Richter’s former husband, John Pitman. Police hadn’t publicly disclosed what it said. [1]
Bill Whittaker ( talk ) · Image source · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Geographic or historical context; not authentic crime evidence.
The story in the driveway
On December 13, 2001, Richter told police that men had come into her home and that she fired after being choked. She had struck Wehde nine times with shots from two guns. Her eleven-year-old son, Bert, testified in support of her account, though some details he recalled at trial hadn’t been in the interview he gave within hours of the shooting. An examiner reviewing a photo of the mark on Richter’s neck testified that it was inconsistent with the way she said she’d been strangled. [1]
The notebook contained claims that Pitman had arranged an attack. Prosecutors argued that Richter got Wehde to write false entries to make a staged home invasion look like a plot by Pitman, with whom she was in a custody dispute. They offered the notebook as evidence of the alleged frame-up. Higgins testified that in 2004 Richter told her to forget about it. [1] [2]
User:Magicpiano · Image source · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Geographic or historical context; not authentic crime evidence.
The reconstruction and the blue dot
Richter was charged in 2011. The state had to prove the shooting wasn’t justified. Higgins told jurors that Richter had described firing again after Wehde moved and continuing until he stopped. Jurors also heard a reconstruction expert on the direction of the shots. They convicted Richter of first-degree murder, and she received a life sentence. The Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed in 2013. [1]
Richter later pointed to a blue dot on a model that marked a bullet exit on the wrong shoulder. It was a defense exhibit. The witnesses, photographs and medical examiner’s report had the location correct. The court found the mistake hadn’t prejudiced the verdict. It also considered Richter’s argument that her former lawyer could explain how she knew about the notebook. He had learned that it existed in civil discovery. He hadn’t learned what was inside it. [2]
Robert W. Wood · Image source · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Geographic or historical context; not authentic crime evidence.
The later petitions
The Iowa Court of Appeals upheld the denial of post-conviction relief in 2017. The public federal docket records a habeas petition filed in February 2018. The docket I could verify contains the filing and gives no ruling on it. [2] [3]
Case brief
Early, Iowa · 2001
- Recorded outcome
- Tracey Richter was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life. Her conviction was affirmed in 2013, and denial of state post-conviction relief was affirmed in 2017. A public docket confirms a federal petition filed in 2018; its disposition was unverified as of November 12, 2026.
Key moments
People in this case
- Dustin Wehde
Murder victim
Photo at source · Oxygen · case photograph - Tracey Richter
Convicted of murdering Dustin Wehde
Photo at source · Oxygen · labeled case photograph
Look closer · 9 visuals
Inside the evidence.
Open a visual to explore what it contributed to the case—and the limits of what it shows. Photographs, historical reproductions and original illustrations are individually labeled. Open the notes for each image’s source, credit, and limitations; setting photographs do not depict crime scenes.
The notebook’s contents were withheld
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Her detailed knowledge supported the prosecution’s staging theory.
Illustration, not the original notebook or a reproduced confession.
An accusation is not a verified plot
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The court did not find the allegations against the ex-husband true.
No real confession by Pitman is claimed.
The first account and later testimony
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Omissions in the early account affected assessment of the defense.
No invented transcript or accusation that a child fabricated everything.
The sequence of force mattered
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Expert interpretation challenged continuation of force after incapacitation.
No graphic images or exact second-by-second reconstruction.
A real model error, correctly bounded
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The 2017 court acknowledged the error but found no prejudicial change to the opinions.
No prosecution fabrication finding is asserted.
Existence is different from contents
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Counsel could not supply the detailed knowledge Higgins described.
The civil-discovery explanation was examined and rejected on this distinction.
A street in Early, Iowa
Context photograph — not an actual crime exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
A street in Early, Iowa. Geographic context photograph; not a crime-scene photograph or an original evidence exhibit.
Geographic or historical context; not authentic crime evidence. The source and reuse terms are linked below.
Bill Whittaker ( talk ) · Image source · CC BY-SA 3.0
Sac County Courthouse in Sac City
Context photograph — not an actual crime exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Sac County Courthouse in Sac City. Geographic context photograph; not a crime-scene photograph or an original evidence exhibit.
Geographic or historical context; not authentic crime evidence. The source and reuse terms are linked below.
User:Magicpiano · Image source · CC BY-SA 4.0
Historic downtown Fort Dodge in Webster County
Context photograph — not an actual crime exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Historic downtown Fort Dodge in Webster County. Geographic context photograph; not a crime-scene photograph or an original evidence exhibit.
Geographic or historical context; not authentic crime evidence. The source and reuse terms are linked below.
Robert W. Wood · Image source · CC BY-SA 3.0
★ Key evidence used in a conviction · ✓ Exclusion or reversal · ◇ Disputed evidence · ⊘ Excluded at retrial · ◆ Identity / investigative finding, not a conviction. A symbol does not mean one item proved the whole case.
Follow the locations
Put the story on the map.
Follow the dated entries, then select an event to find its regional setting. Shared-location pins open a group of events. Evidence symbols identify important findings and their limitations.
Open the map in its own window ↗Sources & further reading
- State v. Richter — Iowa Court of AppealsShooting, conflicting accounts, physical interpretation, Higgins, withheld notebook contents, justification burden, psychologist ruling, life sentence and affirmance.
- Richter v. State — Iowa Court of AppealsPostconviction ruling: defense exhibit’s wrong dot, correct testimony, civil attorney’s knowledge of existence only, notebook use and denial affirmed.
- Richter v. Dahm, No. 5:18-cv-04017 — Northern District of Iowa docketRecords Tracey Anne Richter’s federal habeas filing. The public snapshot does not show a disposition.
Editorial review: 2026-11-12 · 424 words