Peggy Hettrick (Unsolved Murder)

Early on the morning of 11 February 1987 a cyclist on their way to work in Fort Collins, Colorado, discovered the mutilated body of an auburn-haired woman lying in a field. 37 year old Peggy Hettrick had last been seen leaving a local pub, six hours previously, to make the short walk home to her apartment. Several clues were left at the crime scene including finger prints, shoe markings, and two human hairs. Detectives quickly pinpointed a suspect but the investigation was dogged by tunnel vision and confirmation bias. Twenty years later DNA evidence would blow the case wide open.

Sources: For a full list of sources please see the Facebook page 

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.denverpost.com/2011/12/17/key-questions-linger-in-prominent-cold-case-the-killing-of-peggy-hettrick/amp/

https://www.westword.com/news/peggy-hettrick-new-dna-evidence-in-murder-that-led-to-improper-tim-masters-conviction-5850454

law.umich.eduhttps://www.law.umich.edu › PagesTimothy Masters - National Registry of Exonerations

TheCinemaholicthecinemaholic.comPeggy Hettrick Murder: How Did She Die? Who Killed Her?

apps.colorado.govhttps://apps.colorado.gov › apps › c...Peggy Hettrick - Colorado Cold Case Files - Case Detail

https://eu.coloradoan.com/story/news/2017/02/08/peggy-hettrick-murder-cold-case-fort-collins/97378070/

https://innocenceproject.org/special-prosecutors-in-colorado-case-point-to-missing-evidence/

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/co-supreme-court/1377853.html

https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/8616997

http://freetimmastersbecause.blogspot.com/2007/12/peggy-hettrick-murder-victim.html?m=1

TheDurangoHeraldwww.durangoherald.comDetective, suspect in murder case form unlikely friendship

https://eu.coloradoan.com/story/news/2016/02/17/29-years-later-cold-case-haunts-

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Transcript

Peggy Hettrick

It was a little after 9pm on 10th February 1987 when Peggy Hettrick left from her job at The Fashion Bar and made her way back home on foot. The 37 year old accessories manager had just completed another long, tiring shift serving men and women in the popular clothing store. It was dark as she left the mall situated on The Square, near the corner of College Avenue and Horsetooth Road in Fort Collins, Colorado, and made her way to her apartment on Stover Street a short distance away. When she arrived at Aspenleaf apartment complex Peggy found she was unable to get inside her flat. Her regular flatmate Barbara was away in California and another woman, Sharon, was currently staying there. Peggy had loaned her own set of keys to Sharon so her guest could come and go as she pleased during the day. Peggy knocked on the door but there was no answer. Sharon was inside the property but she was fast asleep after having a few too many drinks earlier in the evening. Feeling frustrated, Peggy decided to head for drinks herself in some of the local bars. Periodically over the next couple of hours Peggy used a payphone to call the apartment to see if she could wake Sharon. Eventually at around midnight she was able to rouse her and so Peggy returned to the apartment. When she got inside she changed her clothes, then decided to head back out to a nearby tavern called the Prime Minister Pub and Grill situated on the corner of College Road and Boardwalk Drive. She entered the establishment at approximately 12.30am.

At the pub Peggy bumped into her on-again-off-again boyfriend. According to him, the pair had broken up a week earlier and he was there having a drink with another woman. Despite this fact, several acquaintances witnessed Peggy and her former boyfriend cuddling and kissing in the pub. He offered to drive Peggy home, but she declined and instead decided to walk the short distance back to the apartment. She was used to walking around at night as she did not own a car at the time. Peggy was seen leaving the Prime Minister at 1.15am.

The following morning, shortly before 7.15am, a man was cycling along Landings Drive in Fort Collins on his way to work. This location is 1/2km from the Prime Minister Pub and Grill and 1.6km from Peggy’s apartment. He was passing block 3500 (some reports say 3700, or 3800) when he quickly slammed on his brakes and came to a screeching halt. Clearly visible on the side of the road was a pool of blood. A crimson trail led from the curb into the adjacent field on the west side of Landings Drive. The man alighted his bicycle and, with a sense of foreboding, followed the blood for 30m.  There on its  back, with legs slightly apart and arms over the head lay the mutilated body of Peggy Hettrick.  

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Peggy Hettrick was born on the first of March 1949 in Lovell, Wyoming. Her father worked for an oil company and the family spent some time in Libya. Peggy went to high school there between 1964 and 1967. She is described by school friends as being popular, fun and vivacious. As a young adult she spent time living on a Hopi reservation in Arizona and immersed herself in Native American culture. Peggy then moved to Loveland in Colorado to join her family and take care of her sick mother. Her mother passed away from cancer shortly afterwards. 

In a 2017 Coloradoan newspaper article  Linda Wheeler-Holloway, who was a detective on the case in 1987, said Peggy had a good relationship with her family and was close with her father, brother, uncle and grandmother. Only weeks before she died, Peggy had considered moving in with her father and brother as a way of cutting her living expenses. The day Peggy was murdered she had plans to go shopping with her grandmother.

Peggy was a lover of the Arts and enjoyed music, theatre, philosophy, poetry and movies. She loved to read and was a frequent patron of the local public library. She was a gifted creative writer and her dream was to one day pen a novel and become a published author. At the time of her death she was working on her first book, a fictional story about diamond smugglers. The unfinished manuscript lay near her typewriter when police searched her apartment. 

Former detective Linda Wheeler-Holloway said, although she had never met her, she was able to piece together a good picture of the type of person Peggy was as she went through the apartment looking for clues. She mused that Peggy would have been someone she would have liked and been good friends with. She was gentle and quiet and had a warm smile.

In recent months, Peggy had expressed to friends that she was bored at work. Her role as accessories manager at the Fashion Bar was not inspiring her, but she had been struggling to find the motivation to try something new. Peggy was not well-off by any means, but enjoyed being generous with what little money she had. At Christmas she had thrown an extravagant party for her friends. Peggy saved money by walking everywhere, she didn't own a car, although she had talked about getting one. She did have a driver's licence and, as I will go on to explain, this fact could be significant in the case. 

In terms of romantic relationships, Peggy had a casual boyfriend, who I have already mentioned. Their relationship was described as open and not exclusive. The boyfriend said they had borken up yet again a week before the murder. A local pastor said Peggy had come to him for relationship advice, as she said she had a bad habit of picking rough men who were often drinkers. An acquaintance of Peggy said she had asked her for counsel regarding relationships in the past. At the time of her murder many people in Peggys life also mentioned another man named Derek, who she may have been dating. More on him later. 

7.37 move?Physically Peggy was petite, standing at 157cm, or 5 feet 2 inches, and weighing 52kg, or 115lbs. She had blue eyes and red or auburn hair. 

Peggy’s body was found with her clothes partially pulled down. The right breast and the pubic area were exposed. A Larimer county coroner determined that Peggy had been stabbed in the back, which resulted in the left lung and left pulmonary artery being lacerated. She had  been stabbed only once, and  would have died within minutes of the injury due to massive blood loss. A serrated knife with a 12.5cm, or 5 inch, blade was used to inflict the wound. Time of death was estimated as between 1.30am and 3.30am on February 11th. 

The body had also been sexually mutilated. The left nipple had been removed as well as a portion of the vagina. These details were not released to the public at the time. The weapon used to inflict the mutilations was an extremely sharp straight-edged blade like a scalpel. There were also distinct scratch marks on the right side of the face. As far as I can tell no semen was found at the scene, though two human hairs that did not belong to Peggy were found on her body. 

Landings Drive was not a well-lit road and was not the quickest route back from the Prime Minister pub to Peggy’s apartment. Why did Peggy choose to walk home this way? Peggy was used to walking alone at night but it is unclear how often she had used this route before. It could be that someone had offered to walk with her, or perhaps she had been surprised from behind. The wound in the back could suggest this. Police speculated that the attack had occurred by the curb and then Peggy had been dragged through the field either by her wrists or by under her arms to where she lay and eventually bled out. Investigators came to this conclusion based on mud left on the heels of Peggy’s boot and the markings in the soil. 

The crime scene did give up several clues. A total of 28 footprints were found in the vicinity of Peggy's body from a total of eight different shoes. Five were found along the drag trail of the body and three within a metre or so of the body. Plaster of Paris casts were made of these eight prints.One of the prints came from a tennis shoe or trainer,  four were never able to be identified, and three came from a shoe with a very distinct pattern. This shoe had three small parallel lines running across the print with an oval where the maker's logo or name was displayed. On one of the prints  part of the logo was visible. Experts determined that there were twelve shoes that had been produced with the exact pattern. Police visited ten stores in Fort Collins to look for shoes that matched. The Thom McAn store in the Foothills strip mall only a stone's throw from the crime scene sold a men's dress shoe with the exact tread. This was the same strip mall where the Fashion Bar where Peggy worked was located.

When Peggy’s body was discovered her handbag was slung over her left arm. Over fifty items were inside the bag including, nail polish, lipstick, store coupons, a cheque book, three packs of cigarettes, a library book, her passport and a total of $2.47 in change. The bag was handed over to the FBI who undertook extensive fingerprint examinations of the contents. They found a total of 21 fingerprints plus two useful impressions. Four of the finger prints belonged to Peggy and one to her on-again-off-again boyfriend. His print was found on a receipt for a video rental. The video shop was able to confirm that the boyfriend had rented the video so it was understandable that his prints would be on the receipt. The other prints could not be identified.

One item that was missing from the bag was Peggy's drivers licence. As I have mentioned, Peggy did not own a car but did have a valid licence. She had obtained the current one in 1984 and it was valid until March 1988. About two months before the murder, Peggy had used the licence as ID while writing a cheque. It was not found in the handbag and a thorough search of the apartment found no trace of it. This led to speculation that the attacker had taken the licence from the handbag as a trophy or memento. Of course the police could not be sure of this. Peggy may have lost it at some point during the previous 10 weeks and simply hadn’t gotten around to reporting it missing or replacing it.

Peggy had recently reported another item missing. At the beginning of January 1987, she had gone to the Fort Collins police station to report a gold bracelet as lost or stolen. The bracelet was estimated to be worth $700 and was a family heirloom. The strange thing was that when Peggy was found she was wearing the bracelet. Again, perhaps she had found it and simply forgotten to inform the police. This was a riddle to which no-one had the answer. 

Local investigators had the difficult task of seeking answers to these questions and finding the killer. Violent crime was not commonplace in the college town of Fort Collins. As a general rule people felt safe walking alone late at night and the murder came as a shock to the community. The operation was led by Detective James Broderick of the Fort Collins police. Peggy’s on-again-off-again boyfriend was questioned. He was the last person to officially see Peggy alive. He had left the Prime Minister Pub shortly after Peggy in the company of the woman he had gone there with. They went back to her apartment. She said he was with her until at least 3.00am or maybe as late as 3.30am. As police suspected that Peggy had been killed shortly after leaving the pub (they gave a window of 1.30-3.30am) this gave the man an alibi. Police seemed content with this and began to focus their attention elsewhere. 

Within an hour of the body being discovered Detective Linda Wheeler-Holloway was tasked by her superior with canvassing the resident of Landings Drive to find out if anyone had seen or heard anything suspcious. In the course of her enquiries Detective Wheeler-Holloway and a colleague called on the home of Clyde Masters, who lived in a trailer only one hundred metres from the location where the body had been found.  As they chatted to Clyde their curiosity was piqued when he mentioned that he had noticed his fifteen year old son, Timothy, standing in the field on his way to school that morning. Some reports say that Timothy mentioned to his father that he had seen something strange in the field. Either way the officers were very keen to speak to Timothy as soon as they could.

At 10.00am that morning detectives went to Fort Collins high school where Timothy Masters was in his sophomore year. They took him out of class and asked if he wanted to tell them anything. He nodded and said it had been bothering him all day. He said that when he had been on his way to catch the school bus he had followed a trail of blood and seen something that looked like a body laying in the field. All morning he had been asking himself, did I really see that? He couldn't believe it. He said he thought the object was a mannequin or resusci-annie doll.  Masters later explained that he believed his classmates had been playing a trick on him.  Almost exactly four years previously his mother had passed away, and he thought it was bullies attempting to prank him and elicit a repsonse from him. He hadn’t told anyone about it as he didn’t want to show that the mean joke had worked and he was rattled.

The detectives were dubious of Timothy's explanation and he was questioned further, for a total of nine hours. During this time he never changed his story and insisted he had nothing to do with Peggy’s murder.  A day or so later, with the permission of his father, police searched the Master's trailer. In Timothy’s bedroom they found a collection of knives, including six military style survival knives with serrated blades. One of the knives had a compartment in the handle which housed a scalpel. Police also found a suitcase containing a large amount of pornograhic material. In particular many of the images suggested an interest in female genitalia. On the desk in the bedroom was a newspaper clipping about Peggy’s murder.

Along with the photographs, a collection of drawings and writings penned by Timothy Masters himself were discovered. These were  violent and misogynistic in style and content. Details of what these pictures and writings contained were later made known in court documents. Suffice to say they were graphic and with a focus on death and torture. Knives featured heavily as the weapon used in the drawings and the victims were often women. Some displayed racist and white supremecist ideas and sentiments. Similar material was found in his school locker and backpack. According to 2002 documents from the  Supreme Court of Colorado, the backpack also contained two maps of the crime scene. Another drawing in the backpack depicted a person dragging a body under the armpits.  Altogether a total of 2200 such writings and drawings were found. All of this meant that the teenager was now the prime suspect in the murder of Peggy Hettrick.

Other pieces of circumstantial evidence were presented by police as pointing towards Timothy Masters. The first being that the field was so close to where Masters lived and in  fact that the murder scene could be secne from his bedroom window. Police determined that the wounds found on the body had most likely been inflicted by a perpetrator who was left handed. Timothy Masters was left handed. When being questioned by officers, they asked him if he had ever thought about committing a similar murder. He answered that he had. He was asked what he remembered about finding Peggy’s  body on the way to school. He said she had pink shoes on. This wasn't the case but Peggy was wearing pink socks. He wouldn't have known this fact if he had stumbled upon the body, as the socks were not visible; her clothes were pulled down over them. Police asked Timothy what he would do if he was in their shoes to help solve the case. He suggested that they search a ditch near the field containing the crime scene. Six months later a knife with a serrated blade was found in that ditch. It was thought the wound on Peggy's back could have been made with this knife, though this was not a certain fact. The tennis shoe imprint found at the scene matched a pair of trainers that Timothy owned.

Police speculated that the root cause of the  murder was the death of Timothy’s mother and the abandonment he felt following this tragic event. The anniversary of his mother's death was very close to the day the murder occured and police found mother's day cards written by Timothy for his mother in his backpack. Apparently Peggy was similar in appearance to his mother, and both women had red hair. Timothy denied knowing Peggy but did add he might have seen her around town.  

The police were sure they were on the right trail, but the fact remained there was no direct evidence linking Timothy to the crime. No blood  was found on any of the knives in his possession. No blood was found on any of his clothes or in the Master's trailer. While a shoe print was found at the scene which matched a pair of tennis shoes owned by Timothy, this was consistent with his version of events. The print itself was pointing away from the curb towards the field which it would have been if he had walked towards the body. There were no prints matching Timothy's shoes pointing towards the curb, which they would have been if he had dragged the body while walking backwards. Although the images drawn by Timothy were violent in nature and often depeicted murder there were none that mirriored the attack exactly. For example, there were no drawings showing a person being stabbed in the back or having their nipple cut. Timothy's fingerprints did not match any from the handbag and the two hairs found on Peggy did not belong to Masters. In 1987 DNA analysis was still in its infancy, so at the time there was no DNA evidence that could be used. It would be another two decades before DNA would prove vital to the case.

Without any clear evidence the police could not arrest Timothy. They decided to bide their time and hatched a plan to try and smoke out their prime suspect.

A year later, in early 1988, police deliberately fed a false story to a local newspaper saying that they knew who the killer was and were on the verge of an arrest. They then set up round the clock surveillance on Timothy in the hope he would make a mistake, or simply crack and give himself up. Timothy did no such thing and the police went back to the drawing board. 

In 1992 police interviewed former classmates of Timothy who said he had told them disturbing details about the crime scene. Timothy had mentioned the sexual mutilations, specifically the removal of one of the nipples. As you will remember, this information had never been made public. Police were sure this revelation was the breakthrough they were looking for. In July 1992 a judge signed an arrest warrant and investigators, including Detective Linda Wheeler-Holloway, travelled to Philadelphia to question him. After leaving high school Timothy had joined the US navy and was currently stationed there.

Timothy admited telling his school mates about the sexual mutilations but said he had been told this information by a friend in his art class. This friend’s girl scout group was involved in a search of the field shortly after Peggy's body was found. Police had recruited help from various volunteers to search the field for clues, including the murder weapon, and some had been told by police of the details concerning the state of the body. 

Timothy's friend was traced and she confirmed the story. It was at this point that Detective Wheeler-Holloway began to question the narrative the investigation had taken from day one. She realised that Timothy Masters was not the person they were looking for. Many of Detective Wheeler-Holloway’s colleagues disagreed, including the lead detective, Jim Broderick. Although it was true there were no grounds for an arrest at this time, Broderick was undeterred in his pursuit of Timothy Masters. 

In 1996 Detective Broderick turned to help from a former FBI detective who was an expert in sexual murders. This led Broderick to meet with a forensic psychologist, J. Reid Meloy, about the case. Meloy studied the violent drawings and writings of Timothy Masters that the police still had in their possession. He was convinced based on these alone that Timothy had killed Peggy Hettrick. 25.47 Meloy claimed the drawings and writings evidenced “displaced sexual matricide”. In other words, Timothy had committed the murder due to feelings of abandonment after his mother's death. The expert opinion of Dr Meloy plus the circumstantial evidence meant that in August 1998 Timothy Masters was arrested for the murder of Peggy Hettrick. At the time of his arrest he was living in California, having been honourably discharged from the navy after eight years service. He was currently working as an aircraft technician for Learjet. 

Timothy went to trial in February 1999 at Larimer County Court. While police still had no direct forensic evidence linking him to the crime they did hone in on the tennis shoe foot print found at the scene. Conveniently the Thomas McAn shoe prints were not focused on, as it was proven he did not own a pair and thus it didn't fit the prosecution's narrative. 

You will remember that when questioned Timothy had suggested police look in the ditch near the field for clues. Six months later a knife was found. It turned out that when the knife was found the tip of the blade had broken and the piece could not be located. Police suspected it may be found embedded in one of Peggy's bones. Police had Peggy's remains exhumed to search for the knife tip. It was not there. It was yet another piece of circumstantial evidence that led nowhere and proved nothing directly against Timothy Masters.

Jury members have since said that they were not all sure of the guilt of Timothy based on the evidence provided, but it was the expert testimony provided by forensic psychologist Dr Meloy that convinced them. What is quite extraordinary is that Dr Meloy had never interviewed or even met Timothy. His evidence had been based solely on the writings and drawings. On the 26th March 1999, Timothy was found guilty for the murder of Peggy Hettrick. In a 2021 Durango Herald Timothy says it was like his stomach dropped when he heard the guilty verdict and the sentence of life without parole.

Straight away Timothy's legal team went about building an appeal. In February 2001 the Colorado Court of appeals upheld the conviction. A year later the Colorado Supreme court upheld the conviction 4-3. It looked as though this was the end of the road, but Timothy wasn't giving up. The following year he filed a motion for a new trial, based on the premise of ineffective counsel at the original trial. Timothy argued the drawings and writings should not have been sued as evidence against him. In 2004 a new defence team was appointed by the state and began to re-examine all the evidence in the case. The team was led by attorneys Maria Liu and David Wymore. Soon after Detective Linda Wheeler-Holloway, who was now retired, began to assist the defence efforts. She had been required to give evidence for the prosecution at the original trial, even though she had made her doubts about Timothy's guilt known to her superiors. 

As the defence team dived ever deeper into the case they uncovered facts about the investigation into Timothy Masters that gave them concern. By 2007 they were alleging police and prosecutor misconduct and said vital evidence was withheld from the defence at the trial.  This contravened the 1963 Brady ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States. This withheld  evidence included the professional opinion of two experts who had disagreed with the findings of Dr Meloy and, even more shockingly, the knowledge of another potential suspect. 

In 1995 an eye surgeon, Richard Hammond, was arrested for voyeurism. For years he had been covertly filming women’s genitalia. He had set up secret cameras behind grills and vents in women's toilets and captured images of strangers and members of his own family. In 1987 Richard Hammond lived 100m from the field and his bedroom overlooked the spot where Peggy’s body was found. In storage lock ups rented by Hammond they found thousands of dollars of pornographic material often focused on womens gentilaia. At the time of his arrest he was connected by police to Peggy's murder and seen as a potential suspect. As a surgeon he had the skill and equipment to carry out the mutilations on Peggy's body. At the trial in 1999 the exact details of the mutilation of the vagina were not disclosed. A plastic surgeon told Fort Collins detective Marsha Reed the mutilation of the vagina could be described as a partial vulvectomy. The expert doctor said the wound displayed a great deal of skill and that a precise surgical instrument had most likely been used. This information was never written down and the defence counsel were never made aware of this fact.

Just two days after Richard Hammond was arrested he died by suicide. After being released on bail he was found dead in a hotel room. He had injected himself with cyanide. Although he was a potential new lead for Peggy's murder, police and Jim Broderick in particular, were already sold on Timothy Masters’s guilt and were busy building a case against him. After Hammond died all the evidence against him, including the video cassettes he had made, was destroyed. He was not mentioned at the trial. There is some speculation that Peggy Hettrick may have been one of the women he had secretly filmed in the past, as he had been doing it for years,  but there is no way to prove this. According to the Investigation Discovery documentary Crime Scene Confidential: A promise to Peggy, the shoe prints believed to come from a Thom McAn dress shoe matched a pair of shoes owned by Hammond. 

The forensic psychologist Dr Meloy whose opinions on the drawings and writings had been so influential at trial said he had not been told about Richard Hammond. If he had, the Dr said Hammond would have been his prime suspect. 

With all this new evidence and accusations against the police and prosecution team, in August 2007 Judge Joseph Weatherby began hearings on a new trial. The Colorado Attorney general's office paid a Dutch firm  $100,000 to undertake testing for touch DNA. In December 2007 the Colorado Bureau of Investigation announced that they had DNA evidence extracted from the cuffs of the blouse Peggy was wearing when she died and the waistband of her underwear. Just weeks later, at the beginning of 2008, it was confirmed that the DNA did not belong to Masters. Some of the DNA material they found belonged to Peggy's on again off again boyfriend, the man she had seen in the pub just before her fateful walk home. The presence of the boyfriend's DNA was obviously not surprising  as they had been in a relationship for at least several months. As witnesses pointed out, the pair had  been kissing and cuddling in the pub that night which provides even more reason why his DNA would be found on her clothing. I have also read that another unidentified DNA profile was found. 

Timothy was released from prison at the end of January 2008. He went on to file a civil rights lawsuit against Fort Collins police and Laimer County prosectioners. In 2010 the suit was settled, with Timothy receiving over ten million dollars in total. The following year, after a grand jury investigation, the Colorado Attorney, General John Suthers, who had been placed in charge of the investigation after Timothy’s release from prison, announced that Timothy Masters was exonerated of any suspicion in relation to the murder of Peggy Hettrick.

 Detective Jim Broderick was twice indicted for perjury as he was accused of lying in order to obtain Timothy Masters conviction, but on both occasions the charges were dismissed. He retired from the police force in 2013. The prosecution council from the 1999 trial, Terry Gilmore and Jolene Blair, were censured by the Supreme Court of Colorado. They had  both since become judges. They were subsequently voted out of their positions in the 2010 elections.  As a result of the miscarriage of justice perpetarted against Timothy Masters the law was significantly tightend to ensure evidence cannot be hidden by the prosectuion.

When the revelations regarding the DNA evidence came out in 2008 the on-again-off-again boyfriend was looked into a second time. As far as I can tell his alibi remained consistent. He was never arrested or charged.  His whereabouts now are unknown.

Although he is deceased, Richard Hammond is a prime suspect in the eyes of many in this case. There are, however, additional persons of interest. The first is someone I alluded to at the beginning of the episode; the man who reportedly went out on some dates with Peggy in the weeks before she died.

Early on in the investigation, detectives heard from several people about a mysterious man named Derrick. Just as a note the name Derek was spelt several different ways in police notes. Peggy’s friend Sharon, who was staying at the apartment at the time of the murder, mentioned him, as well as Peggy’s regular roommate Barbara. Peggy had gone on some dates with this man but it appeared she was trying to end the relationship. Some of Peggy's other friends had also heard of a man that Peggy was trying to break up with. The story was that the pair had first met in the Laughing Dog saloon in Fort Collins. Friends of Peggy described him as a kid who said his plan was to live out in the wild in a tent with his friend. 

Other friends described a 24 year old male who Peggy had complained she didn't want to see again. Apparently he called at her apartment on the 30th January and Peggy told him she wasn't interested in seeing him anymore. Another acquaintance who barely knew Peggy said Peggy had told her she was worried about someone she had dated. 

A close friend of Peggy named Timothy Matthews (not to be confused with Timonthy Masters) told police he and Peggy had  bumped into a young man at the Laughing Dog Saloon a few weeks before her murder. The young man came to Peggy's apartment uninvited later that evening. Peggy didn't want to see him and had asked Timothy Matthews to lock the door to prevent him from entering. 

All these reports are believed to be about the same man. Physical descriptions were given by the friends; they were all slightly different but did share certain characteristics. He was in his 20’s, 178-183cm, or 5 10 to 6 foot, well built and had slightly long hair or hair that was longish on the side. Its colour was blonde, reddish brown or brown. Police were never able to track this man and in 2018, which is the most up to date reference I can find about him, he remained unidentified. 

Another name that has been attached to this case is that of the serial killer Scott Lee Kimball. Kimball was born in 1966 in Boulder, Colorado. He had an unstable childhood and was sexually abused by a neighbour during his teens. As he got older he gradually fell into a life of crime. Kimball had the gift of the gab and became a con man who committed several acts of theft and fraud by his early twenties. At 23 he attempted suicide but survived a gun shot wound to the head, the bullet just grazing his forehead and leaving a scar. It was only after this incident that the abuse he had suffered at the hands of the neighbour stopped. Over the next couple of years he was in and out of jail for passing fraudulent cheques and other scams. He was briefly married before getting a divorce. Around this time his ex-wife accused him of rape, though he was never convicted on this charge.

In the early noughties Kimball found himself in prison once again and did his utmost to pull off the persona of a hard man, even boasting to fellow inmates that he was a hitman. He gave himself the nickname Hannibal, after the cannibalistic serial killer from the Thomas Harris stories. At the end of 2002 Kimball’s powers of persuasion were used to full effect when he made a deal with the FBI to become an informant. I won't go into all the details as it is very complicated but he agreed to help uncover an alleged murder for hire plot  involving a one time cellmate and that cellmate's girlfriend. He also was supposed to provide information concerning the transportation and sale of ecstasy. He was released from prison for this purpose at the end of 2002. Despite his claims of being a hitman the authorities did not view him as particularly violent or as a threat. 

How wrong they were. Kimball went on to murder at least four people between January 2003 and August 2004. His first victim was 24 year old LeAnn Emry disappeared just weeks after he came out of prison. Over the next 18 months he went on to kill the girlfriend of his ex-cellmate, 25 year old Jennifer Marcum, his uncle Terry Kimball, 60, and a nineteen year old woman, Kaysi Mcleod.

By 2006 the Colorado Bureau of Investigation suspected Kimball's involvement in the disappearances of these four people as he could be linked to each of them. At this point none of the bodies had been found, though police did believe they had all been murdered.

After a long process of cat and mouse and some amateur detective work undertaken by family members of Jennifer Marcum and Kaysi Mcleaod, police finally arrested Kimball, who went on to plead guilty to the murders in 2009. Kimball had shot his victims and hidden the bodies in remote locations across Colorado. As part of his plea bargain he helped locate the remains of three of his victims. Marum’s remains have never been found. He was sentenced to 70 years in prison. As part of his plea deal there is a possibility Kimball could be released on parole one day, although at the nearest possible opportunity he would be 89 years old.  

Kimball has boasted many times that he has killed many more people. He has been linked to Peggy Hettrick’s case because he is a suspect in the 2004 murder of Catrina Powell. Catrina's beaten, strangled and mutilated body was found behind a strip mall in Westminster, Colorado. Catrina was not stabbed but her nipple was removed and her genital area had been slashed in a similar way to the mutilations on Peggy’s body.

In 1987 Kimball lived in the state of Montana but spent a lot of time in Fort Collins, Colorado. His whereabouts for the time Peggy was killed cannot be verified but he was arrested just a few days later in Hamlin, Montana for the offence of smashing up mail boxes some weeks earlier. In August 1987 he was ticketed by police for causing trouble at an amusement arcade situated less than 1km from the field where Peggy’s body was found. 

Kimball wasn't a local and therefore if he was in the area he probably would have had a car with him. There had always been questions about why Peggy chose to walk the route she did to get home that night. Perhaps actually she didn’t walk and had been picked up in a car before being murdered elsewhere. Her body could then have been driven to the site, dumped on the curb and dragged into the field.

Other circumstantial evidence linking Kimball to Peggy's murder is that he was an experienced hunter. The stab wound inflicted on Peggy showed the culprit had knowledge that one blow in that spot would be all that was needed to kill a person. It is believed his background in hunting meant he was also very familiar with anatomy and had become skilled at taking apart the carcasses of animals. 

44.37 When the revelations regarding the DNA evidence came out in 2008 the on-again-off-again boyfriend was looked into a second time. As far as I can tell his alibi remained consistent. He was never arrested or charged. His name is in the public domain but I have chosen not to mention it. I cannot find out his current whereabouts. 

Timothy Masters is now 50 and  lives in northern Colorado.He and former detective Linda Wheeler-Holloway have become good friends. They see each other every few months and speak regularly on the phone. They share a love of horses and enjoy each other's company. While Timothy makes the most of his life and freedom, the mental scars are still there. He continues to suffer bouts of depression following the eleven years he spent behind bars being viewed as a sadistic killer. 

I’m not sure why Timothy made those violent pictures and writings as a teenager. Perhaps it was a way of dealing with the grief and stress of losing his mother. In a way it's completely irrelevant. That is in the past. Tunnel vision and confirmation bias derailed this investigation from the very first hour but justice is not beyond hoping for in this case. Linda Wheeler-Holloway continues her  quest and says she will not rest until she has found the killer of Peggy Hettrick.