Drawn to Murder (Parts 1 & 2) | "48 Hour" Full Episodes | Forensic Files

Now, a special two-part edition of 48 hours. I think he'd seen her quite a bit before
this night. It had been building up for a long time. It was late at night, coming home,
probably 1:00 in the morning or later. She was walking down the curb line. She had no clue that the attack was coming.
He circled around, came up behind her, stabbed her. >> One deep stab by a long knife into her
back which killed her very quickly. >> You could see a bloody drag trail in the furrows.
The body had been displayed. Then there was sexual mutilation. >> Fort Collins in 1987. It very much had a
small town feeling. So when Peggy Hedrick was killed, it was shocking to this community.
She was a highly intelligent person, very artistic. Peggy was my older sister. She traveled all over the world.
Just an amazing person. Really an amazing person. A bicyclist spotted the body early this
morning in a field on the south side of Fort Collins. >> I was called on the case within the
first hour that it occurred. >> I was the one who tied to Masters to this case. >> This is just a 15-year-old kid. He lives
right next to the crime scene. He discovered the body and never reported it. The investigation basically centered
around Tim Masters. >> It's important you tell the truth. I have told the truth. I didn't do
nothing. >> Would we bring you in here without some kind of proof? >> This was a kid when we searched his
residence that had all kinds of graphic drawings, mutilation, dismemberment. >> I remember being overwhelmed with a
sense of, "Oh my god, this is the guy that killed Peggy Hetrick." This was more than just a passing fancy of a
teenage boy. This is a window into his mind. >> There was not enough evidence to make an
arrest. >> Through the years, they focused on Tim Masters. >> The Hedrickk homicide was opened and
closed, went cold. It was Lieutenant Brick that reopened the case. >> He was a suspect in my mind from the
very first day and nothing ever changed. This was a single-minded investigation.
There was one man after one suspect. >> Year after year, it was like a personal vendetta for him to come after me.
>> He was told it wouldn't end, that we'd continue working this case. >> I didn't think it was possible to be
convicted for something I didn't do when there's not even any physical evidence.
>> There was evidence at the crime scene that eliminated Tim Masters, and it was
not told to the jury. Every single piece of exculpatory evidence is withheld. >> I've been locked up for 10 years.
>> I'm a police officer. I'm a homicide investigator. And all of a sudden, I went, the system failed.
>> Drawn to murder. Tonight's 48 hours mystery. Heat. Heat. 9 years, 4 months, 21 days so far.
Tim Masters went to prison in 1999. And for much of that time, lived in this cramped, dreary cell,
sentenced to life for a grizzly murder he swears he did not commit. >> I'd be laying in my bunkets and I it
still astounded me that I was there. I couldn't believe it. >> It just didn't seem real.
>> No. >> Nor does any of this seem real. The Fort Collins police, you don't have
a secret file. It's over. Well, that's their assertion. They're in that position
>> because after years of hearings and petitions and unsuccessful appeals, >> it is clearly a concerted effort to hide
evidence. >> It's mindboggling. >> A judge at last is about to make a ruling that could set Masters free.
>> People of the state of Colorado versus Timothy Masters. >> To me, it's not over yet. But I'm still
dressed in orange. I'm still in a in a jail. It'll be over when I walk out the door.
>> If he does, he'll have a small army of unlikely supporters to thank. >> He's been innocent and then they put an
innocent man in jail. >> Not just his gigantic extended family. >> I couldn't find that piece of evidence
that told me how this kid got convicted, >> but also lawyers. >> I'm convinced in my mind Tim Masters
didn't do this. Even former cops, all of them claiming they've been sure for years now. Tim Masters didn't do it.
>> Nine and a half years he's spent in prison. He's been under this cloud of suspicion for 20 years.
>> Masters, 37, has walked in the shadow of this murder since he was 15 years old.
On the morning of February 11th of 1987, the half naked body of a 37year-old woman named Peggy Hetrich was found in a
field in Fort Collins, Colorado, a stones throw from Tim Masters house. >> There were a lot of people who really
felt strongly that Tim Masters was a very viable suspect. >> And among them back in 1987 was veteran
cop Linda Wheeler. I think it was like 7:13 in the morning. The body had just been discovered.
>> The passerby who spotted it first mistook it for a mannequin. >> The body was very clean to look at it. I
mean, there was no blood on the body. >> There was a deep stab wound to Peggy Hedrickk's upper back.
>> You could see a a bloody drag trail in the furrows. It was pretty apparent that
the victim was dragged out to the to the final resting point. And >> when officer Jim Brick arrived at the
scene, he was struck by footprints along that trail leading back to a pool of blood by the
curb and he was struck by the body itself. >> The positioning of the body is something
to pay attention to. Her pants were pulled down to her knees, her shirt pushed up to her chin. Part of
one of her breasts had been removed. >> It was in fact a sexual homicide. >> The prospect of a mad man sexually
mutilating his victims created near panic and Jim Brick and the Fort Collins police went into overdrive.
Among the early persons of interest, Peggy Hetrick's one-time boyfriend, Matt Zner.
>> I think she was seeing somebody else. She had mentioned it. >> Zner was questioned for hours. Even took
a polygraph. >> Are you the one who's dead piggy head? >> Then was released. Police, meanwhile, were canvasing every
house near the crime scene, talking with businessmen, housewives, even with a prominent eye surgeon. Dr. Richard
Hammond. Years later, Dr. Hammond would figure in this case, but back then, he was just
another neighbor who'd seen nothing suspicious. But Linda Wheeler was sure someone must
have seen something. And the first house I went to on the corner was Clyde Masters.
>> Home to Clyde and his 15-year-old son Tim, who had few friends, but no history
of trouble. He >> was a very quiet kid, a very introverted kid. >> Tim's mother had died four years earlier
when he was only 11 years old. Usually Tim cuts straight through the field to catch the school bus, but his
father told police that on that morning he'd seen his son hesitate >> and had veered to the left as he was
walking through the field and had stopped for a few moments. It it became very obvious to me that his son must
have seen the body. >> Tim's footprints were in the field, but he hadn't reported a thing.
>> We need to focus on him. A few hours later, police appeared at Tim's high school and yanked him out of class for
questioning. As Brick recalled in this interview in 2000, >> his explanation for not reporting it was
that he thought it was just a mannequin and somebody was playing a trick. >> I didn't believe it was real. It was a
15-year-old kid. But all morning long as I'm at school, I was thinking about it.
Well, what if it was a really body? The passer by who called in the crime also first thought he'd seen a mannequin.
But police weren't buying that story from Tim. Brick searched the master's trailer and
hit pay dirt. >> And there on his dresser he's got um seven knives, six of them survival
knives, all sequentially displayed. >> And one of them Brick assumed could be the murder weapon.
This is similar size knife as the knife that killed Peggy Hetrickch. >> Tim Clyde, I wonder if either one of you
would have any problems if I talked with Tim alone. >> No, I don't. >> With Tim's father's permission, Roderick
and a team of cops interrogated the 15year-old for more than 10 hours without a lawyer.
>> Can you tell me what happened? I don't know what happened. >> And I think you know some more than what
you're telling right now. >> You think I did it? >> Well, everything's pretty much looking
that way, Kim. >> Right away, uh, they started saying, "I know you did this and just fess up to it,
asking the same questions over and over." >> You sure you've never seen this lady
before? You feel sorry for that girl? >> Yeah. Huh? Yeah. Is your girl alive? >> I don't know. Was she walking by? Was
she driving by? What happened? >> I don't know. >> She's dead. That chick died. Thank God we got you
here. >> You know, I I have a hard time believing that you didn't know it was the body.
>> Did you fall? Did she trip into the night? What happened to her? I don't know that.
>> Yeah. Do I? >> Yeah, you do. >> I don't know. >> Yeah, you do. >> It was you. I didn't do nothing. I
didn't do it. I didn't do it. I told him you did it. >> They gave him a lie detector test
>> yesterday. Did you murder that girl? >> No. Are you the one who stabbed that girl?
>> No. >> The official report of the test results is lost today, but Brick says Tim
failed. He definitely needed to be looked at. Yes, definitely he did. And it was very
easy for everybody kind of a pack mentality >> to start focusing on him. >> And leading the pack was Jim Brderick.
>> The victim's going to pass right there where he lives. Perfect opportunity under the cover of darkness to go out
there and commit the crime. And Brderick was about to find evidence that for him erased all doubt. Tim
Masters killed Peggy Hedrik. Every single notebook had some sort of horrific drawing in it.
You think that I did it? >> Well, everything's pretty much looking that way, too.
>> She's dead. >> Fort Collins police began their intense interrogation of Tim Masters the very
day Peggy Hetrick's body was found. >> You guys think that I did it? >> It's It's past that, guy. It's past
that. We know that you did it. >> And that evening, another officer miles away in Florida quietly made his way to
the Hetrich family home. >> The gentleman looked real somber. I mean, he big guy. He had to been all of
64 or 6'2. I remember him. Huge, towering. >> There to break the terrible news to her
father and brother, Tom. and he looked down and he he uh took a moment and he looked up and he said uh um your uh your
daughter is expired. >> At those words, he says time stopped. >> You think no, we can we can maneuver
this back and have him say something else. >> Mhm. because you think in that moment of
time, that second of time, you have the power to maybe change something and that
this is not this can't be happening to you. >> The gruesome details were doubly hard to
grasp, he says, because his older sister had been such a force of nature. >> Yep. That was her prom night.
>> And this is in Libya. >> That's in Libya. Yes. >> The Hetrics had lived all over the
world, moving as Mr. Patrick's job in the oil business required. >> How many different countries did you
live in? >> Oh my goodness. Uh uh Libya, Malta for a short time in Spain, Hawaii, just
everywhere. >> Peggy was red-haired, independent, and he says, delightfully eccentric. Out
west, she developed a keen interest in Native American culture, >> especially the Hopy Indians, and she
really lived and breathed it. What she was not interested in, he says, was getting married. Although she'd had
boyfriends, among them her ex, Matt Zner. >> I remember asking the policeman, "Are do
they have the boyfriend?" >> Zolder's on again, offagain relationship with Peggy had been stormy at times.
>> You think immediately that it may be somebody close. That's the first thing that my dad and I both thought. We
suspected uh the boyfriend right off the bat. >> Your whole evening made you quick.
>> Police did question Zoler. His date confirmed his story that he'd been with her until around 300 a.m. However, he
was among the last people to see Peggy alive. He'd run into her in a bar parking lot at around 12:30. He said the
first time he'd seen her since they'd broken up a week before. And she'd not been happy to see him on a date. And
then I offered to give her a ride home. I know she was on foot. She says, "No, I'm just going to wash it."
>> Police believe it was on that walk in the early morning hours that Peggy Hetrick's murderer struck.
>> I didn't do it. >> And despite hours of denials from Tim Masters, >> it's important you tell the truth. I
have told the truth. Detective Brderick was growing more certain Masters did it.
>> Dragged her into the adjacent field and then there was sexual mutilation to her
body. Police were shocked to learn at autopsy that that mutilation also included what
amounted to a female circumcision. All part of Master's deliberate plan, Brderick thought. that you can actually
see the body laying out there in the field by viewing through his window. And I think he positioned the body so you
could then see it from his bedroom window. >> The knives police found lay on the
dresser. One had a scalpel inside the handle and there was another scalpel on a table nearby, but there was no trace
of Peggy's blood on any of them. Nor did they find her blood on any of Tim's clothes or shoes. They even searched the
drains. Nothing. >> There's there's a misconception by a lot of people that because there's a lot of
blood at a scene, it means a suspect's going to get a lot of blood on them. And that just isn't in the case.
>> By contrast, there was no lack of blood in the ghoulish drawings in Master's high school notebooks found in his room,
backpack, and school locker. had all kinds of graphic drawings and narratives about murders, violence against women.
And we find a drawing where a body is being dragged from under the arms with blood dripping from the back.
>> Much as Peggy had been dragged, he thought, but as incriminating as the drawing seemed, the case was completely
circumstantial. Weeks, then months passed with no arrest. >> The evidence is consisted essentially of
the drawings and the fact that he hadn't reported the body. >> Exactly. >> Anything else?
>> No. >> Any hairs, fibers, fingerprints, blood, nothing? >> There was there was never anything that
ever tied him to it. >> Nothing at all. Not a smidgen of of forensic evidence that tied him to it.
>> No, there was nothing. >> Police finally jinned up a plan to get the evidence they lacked. Peggy Hetrick
had been murdered almost exactly four years after Tim's mother died. The theory was that Tim had killed out of
rage at losing his mother. And so the cops thought when that day rolls around again, maybe he can be goated into doing
something incriminating. >> Expectations were that Timothy Masters would go berserk, go crazy, if you will.
Then patrolman Troy Krenn was among the dozen or so officers on the 92 member force assigned to watch Tim Masters. He
was not pleased. It >> was a 24/7 operation that lasted for about a week. We're out chasing these
goofball theories that a 15-year-old kid's going to go berserk and start killing people.
They first scouted out vantage points at neighboring houses, including that of the eye surgeon whose home overlooked
the crime scene. >> It's pathetic. It's embarrassing. >> Krenn watched Tim's house from a
construction trailer. >> Most of the time he wasn't there. He would get up and go to school, come
home, go to bed. >> Others staked out Peggy Hetrick's grave. I remember at this briefing, one of the
things that was talked about was that he might go down to the grave and revisit Peggy Hedrickk's grave and maybe even
lay on the grave. What? Lay on the grave? You know what kind of silliness is that?
>> But the plan went still further. At one point, police duped a newspaper reporter
into writing a phony story, saying an arrest was imminent. Looking back, you almost have to be
ashamed to to admit that you participated. >> They even left a copy of Tim's mother's
obituary on the windshield of a friend's truck. >> That's torture. >> Tim's former attorney, Eric Fiser.
>> They're trying to get this poor kid to relive his mother's death. They're trying to make him snap.
It's a psychological experiment to try to make him snap. And what did this elaborate psychological experiment
produce? Zero. >> He didn't do anything. >> I still remember to this day them planting uh the newspaper articles on my
friend's truck and in my driveway, but I didn't know they were watching me when they did it.
>> At that point, it wouldn't have mattered. He says the investigation already had wrecked his life.
>> So now everyone in the school thinks I'm a murderer. I only had one friend that
stuck with me the whole time. I mean, I had lots of people come up to me and say, "I don't think you did it." but
they still weren't going to go to the prom with me. >> He remembers thinking that someday,
surely, everyone would understand that this had been a terrible mistake. But he'd not counted on one very determined
cop. Four years after the Hetric murder, Tim Masters thought he had finally rescued
his reputation. When I joined the Navy, I figured it was all behind me. I was going on with my career. I thought
thought my life was going well. I just got a promotion. I thought it was over. >> But back in Fort Collins, the case had
gone cold. It sat there until 1991. >> Linda Wheeler learned she'd been picked to reopen the case and her marching
orders were clear. >> See if you can't put enough of the puzzle together to arrest him masters.
>> She worked for a year with masters in her sights before she stumbled on that apparent missing piece of the puzzle.
Something Tim had mentioned to a friend. Tim Astress had told him that he knew that Peggy Hedrickk's nipple had been
either cut off or bitten off. >> She was sure it was a detail police never had made public.
>> And I went, "Oh, right. We got him." >> In July of 1992, armed with an arrest
warrant, Jim Brick and Linda Wheeler hopped a flight to Philadelphia, where Tim ship was in port.
They grilled him again for a day and a half. >> So when they were interrogating me, I I
told them how I knew, what I knew, and they called. >> He told them that their big secret was
in fact common knowledge at the high school because, incredibly, police had enlisted the help of students, explorer
scouts, to search the field for body parts. >> And one of them scouts just happened to
sit at my table in our class. And one day, she says they had been looking for Peggy Hedrickk's nipples.
To the detective's complete shock, the former scout confirmed Tim's story. >> What was thought to be a nice
incriminating piece of information really was pretty diluted. >> My key piece of the puzzle had got blown
out of the water. >> For Linda Wheeler, that was it. >> I started having my doubts.
>> The cop who'd been first to tie Tim Masters to the crime now was the first to think she'd been
wrong. I was very verbal about I'm not sure we're on the right track. I am not comfortable with Tim Masters as a
suspect anymore. >> Okay. When you said that, what did your superior say? >> I wasn't very popular with that with
that opinion. >> Wheeler wanted to reinvestigate, start from square one, enlist the help of the
FBI. >> I was told I could not take it to the FBI. I was not able to look at alter alternate suspects. By the
end of 93, I was back on patrol. >> She says she was fed up and ostracized. She quit the Fort Collins police in
1995. Jim Brderick, meanwhile, had been freshly promoted to supervisor, and he soon reopened the case, focusing on his
favorite suspect. It had always been an interest of mine anyway and now is in a position to to actually do something
about it. >> He had no new evidence, but in 1997 he found an ally, someone who put a new spin on the best
evidence he did have. Tim's eerie drawings and what they meant. >> He was preoccupied with violence, with
sexually sadistic images, with images of domination and degradation of women. Dr. Reed Malloy is an internationally
known expert on sexual homicide interviewed here in 2000. >> In my uh 18 years of doing this kind of
work, I have never seen uh such voluminous productions by a suspect. >> A 15-year-old's twisted musings, bizarre
artwork and stories about violence, torture, and death. disturbing. Sure. Tim said for a nerdy
kid trying to get attention, that was the point. >> My peers seemed to approve of them. They
they like those drawings. They would offer suggestions. So that encouraged me to draw even more
>> and we we would draw horrible, gruesome scenes and share with the guy and they
go, "Oh, that's cool." And pass it back. >> That's all this was. >> Yeah. >> But Dr. Reed Malloy saw much more. I
look for specificity of links between uh Tim Masters and the facts of the homicide itself.
>> He says he found hundreds of links, but two drawings stood out. One shows how he believes Tim Masters
moved Peggy's body. >> In this particular drawing, we have what appears to be a person uh dragging
another person under their arms from behind. And we also have what appears to be blood uh dripping down from the
person. >> And the other graphically depicts what Dr. Mallaloy thinks Tim did to her.
>> Immediately I thought that it was an image of a vagina being cut. The knife appears to be like the one
that was used in the crime. >> Malloy concluded that this was a textbook sexual homicide.
An outgrowth of Tim's fury at being abandoned at 11 when his mother died. >> Timothy Masters is symbolically killing
his mother. >> I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Tim Masters was the killer.
>> Jim Brick felt that finally he had his man. >> Well, I was I actually felt really good.
He headed for California where Tim was working, honorably discharged from the Navy and now 27 years old.
>> And I get a a pounding on my door early in the morning on a Monday morning. A
guy shows up there at the door with a suit and tie on and he says, "Tim Masters, you're under the arrest for the
murder of Peggy Hetrick. This is unreal. Unbelievable." >> When Brick searched the house, he found
guns, knives, and drawings similar to what he'd found in 1987. A few months later, police brought Tim
back to Colorado. >> To me, I think it all came together really nice. >> He went on trial for the murder of Peggy
Hetrickch in March 1999. >> We had all sorts of theories at the beginning. Uh, >> theories, but no physical evidence.
Prosecutors Terry Gilmore and Jolene Blair admitted soon after the trial they thought their case was pretty thin.
Because there were times when Terry and I were looking at each other like, "What are we doing? There's no way we're
going to prove this crime. We got nothing." And that's when Broadick would say, "Wait a minute. Come on, guys. This
is what we needed to do, and it was the right thing." And there was never any doubt in his mind.
>> Tim's changed appearance helped their cause. >> The jurors didn't see this skinny little
15-year-old kid. >> He'd grown into an imposing figure, looking fully capable of the crime. Have
you ever had any doubt that Tim Masters was innocent? >> No. I've always felt he was innocent.
>> Eric Fischer defended Tim at trial. >> I really did not think Tim Masters could
pull this off and leave not a single shred of physical evidence. >> The most compelling argument for me was
who else could it possibly be? Nobody else had a motive. Nobody else had the opportunity.
Nobody else had the weapons. This is the guy. >> Their best evidence, those incriminating
drawings and star expert witness Malloyy's interpretation of what they meant. >> We drew a lot of similarities between
the drawings and our crime scene to such an extent the defense thought that we were crazy.
My stories and drawings were gruesome, violent, but no one was stabbed in the back. No one was sexually mutilated.
>> As for that one incriminating drag drawing, Tim has always said he made it after seeing the body.
>> She didn't get a nail driven through her tongue. She wasn't a skeleton. She wasn't Freddy Krueger. She wasn't a
dinosaur. David Wymore, who represented Masters, said the state built its case not around evidence, but around fear.
>> You bring in the psychologist to basically just scare him to death with these drawings that Tim did. You know,
oh, this is evidence of a sexual homicide and be scared. And they were scared. Terry Gilmore in his rebuttal clothes
held up the photograph that we had of Peggy Hetrick's vaginal area that showed the mutilation to it.
And then we blew up the little drawing that he did and put them side by side and the resemblance was uncanny. I mean,
the jurors were just bowled over. More than a decade after the crime, it took the jury just a day and a half to
convict Tim Masters of first-degree murder. >> I didn't think for a minute that I would
lose a trial. I didn't think I it was possible be to be convicted for something I didn't do.
>> He was sentenced to life behind bars without parole. >> There's no holidays in prison.
No birthdays, no Christmas. >> But many birthdays would go by before a startling revelation that would
challenge Tim's conviction. >> You have a full-blown sex offender who lived 200 yards directly across from
where the body was found. >> He's a pervert. He's a voyer. >> Was there a much more likely suspect?
Nobody else had a motive. Nobody else had the opportunity. Nobody else had the weapons.
>> Prosecutors were delighted with the guilty verdict in the Tim Masters case. >> Which way we going?
>> Who else could it possibly be? >> The answer to that was right under their noses. According to Tim's lawyers, at a
house in Tim's old neighborhood, also bordering the field where Peggy Hedrickk's body was found. 4 years
before Tim's arrest, police were summoned there to another mind-boggling crime scene.
>> I saw what had gone on inside the Hammond house and saw what he did and I was shocked.
Then patrol officer Linda Wheeler helped search the home of a prominent eye surgeon, Dr. Richard Hammond.
>> Highly educated man with a very sick perversion that I just don't understand.
>> A perversion with some eerie similarities to the Peggy Hetrich case secretly played out in the guest
bathroom of the Hammond house. There was a young uh college student who was housesitting and as she's sitting on the
potty, she thought that it was strange that there was a lot of lights in there. She thought she could see something in
the vent right in front of the toilet. She was right. Behind that vent and two others, Dr. Hammond's bathroom video
cameras were woring away. When you walk in the bathroom and hit the light, it activates the camera.
>> Each of them says master's lawyer David Wymore positioned with loving care. It
>> shows shower cam and toilet cam. So you sit on the toilet and this camera is directly across from your crotch. And he
would calibrate this so that he could actually read the fine print on a Lysol can.
>> You mean when he was trying to set it up? >> Yeah, he's setting it so that he could
get a really good closeup. Why did he put the toilet roll there? >> He couldn't really figure out who's on
it unless he could get you to lean over to go for the toilet roll and stick your
face in the camera. >> Apparently, autofocus was the doctor's undoing. >> I was a policeman in Fort Collins when
it happened. David Michaelelsson says that when the puzzled houses sitter heard an unmistakable sound,
>> she started investigating >> and she moved her hand and she heard it go and then she moved it back and it was
and then when she got down on the floor and looked in the the louvers of the false heat duct, then the camera would
go and to focus in on because she's so close. Then she knew it was a camera. a gasast. She called the police.
>> This is the inside of that secret room. >> In a locked room next to the bathroom,
they found an elaborate taping system. In a nearby storage locker, an estimated $13,000
worth of pornographic material. >> Yeah, he had kept the receipts >> and everywhere detailed files and stacks
of videotapes. >> These are some of the 300 tapes of these victims. >> He's keeping records of every single
one. >> Meticulous records. He would rate them. He would make a compilation tape so that
if you came over to the house, he would splice on, you would have your own tape.
So as you grew, he could follow you. >> A file for each victim, houses, family, friends,
78 victims in all, Wymore says. Among them, this woman, >> his daughter and I went to high school
together, >> who asked us to obscure her face. >> I felt sick. I felt physically sick
and I just thought, "Oh my god. I'm not over it. I don't know that I ever will be over it."
After his arrest, Dr. Hammond spent several days in a psychiatric unit and then was released on bond. Days later,
he checked into this Denver motel, hooked himself up to an IV filled with cyanide, and committed suicide.
>> Have you ever seen anything like this? I mean, you've been doing this for a long
time. >> No, this this guy's a over-the-top uh obsessive voyer pervert. >> But the most astonishing thing, Master's
lawyers say, is that police never investigated Dr. Hammond in connection with the Hetric murder. So could Dr.
Hammond see the location of the body from his house? >> You could oversee the field where Peggy
Hedrickk's body was. Dr. Hammond, a voyer with surgical skills, obsessed with female body parts who lived as
close to the crime scene as masters did. Despite this handwritten note in the Hammond file, look into Hetric, Brick
was running the show. >> I talked to Brick in the house because we looked out the master bedroom
>> and did you say the words Peggy Hetrick and my god, this is look at this. How
can this not be related >> numerous times? >> And he said, >> "No answer." Special prosecutor Don Quick, who years
later would review this entire case, says that camera receipts provided by Hammond's wife, show he'd started the
taping years after the Hetric murder. No reason police should have linked the two.
>> There's no physical evidence tying Dr. Hammond to the crime. >> The same could be said about Tim
Masters, but when it came to circumstantial evidence, >> Dr. Dr. Hammond wasn't standing next to
the body the morning that that she was killed. Dr. Hammond didn't then go to work and not call the authorities.
Dr. Hammond's briefcase wasn't opened up and a picture of a person being dragged
with blood coming from their back and heels on the ground much like the victim was dragged. Dr. Hammond, when you go
back to his house, they didn't find grizzly drawings of people being stabbed and slashed.
You have a full-blown sex offender lived right across the street from where her body is found who has an obsession with
the most intimate parts of the vagina and breasts and you have a body in the field missing those parts and he's an
eye surgeon and you're acting like it doesn't connect. Whether or not Dr. Hammond really had
anything to do with Peggy Hedrickk's murder probably never will be known in part because of what police did here at
the Lammer County landfill just 6 months after Dr. Hammond's suicide. >> They're out at the landfill mashing up
with a grater all these tapes. >> They destroyed all the evidence. >> Every bit of it.
>> Why? >> Pass Broadick. He's the one that ordered it. >> They were destroyed and we should talk
about why they were destroyed. You've got all these victims that are on those tapes that were calling us and had
legitimate concerns about the transfer of those images, which is a real issue in today's digital world. It had nothing
to do with the master's case or the murder of Peggy Hetrickch. There's no connection between the two of them.
>> When I found out they were going to destroy him, I just I lost it >> because Detective Michaelelsson wondered
what if Dr. Hammond had been secretly videotaping years earlier than police thought. What if in all those hours of
stored videotapes, you thought Peggy Hedrickk might be on those tapes? >> Yes. I wanted to watch every one of the
tapes seized because I thought she could have been there. >> Anybody do that? >> No.
>> Why not? >> I don't know. He was taking pictures of what was removed from Hedrickk.
>> But at the time of Tim's trial, his lawyers had never even heard of Dr. Hammond. And Eric Fiser isn't surprised
that prosecutors didn't enlighten him. >> If we have a pervert living across the
street, their complete argument that nobody else could have done this, which is their whole closing argument, goes
away. They cannot make that argument and their case falls apart. >> Fort Collins police kept the specifics
of Dr. Hammond's activities from the public. His name never was brought up in court. That alone, Tim's outraged
attorneys say, justifies a new trial. >> Comparing Tim Masters to Dr. Richard Hammond, Dr. Richard Hammond would be a
super suspect. Tim Masters would be a ridiculous suspect. >> Convincing a judge of that is Tim
Masters only hope for freedom. >> This special two-part edition of 48 Hours will continue.
this. special two-part edition of 48 Hours continues drawn to murder. February 11th, 1987.
I was walking through a field on the way to catch a school bus. I saw a body. I didn't believe it was real. I thought
it was a mannequin and that someone was playing some kind of sick joke on me. Peggy Hetric, a woman who lived in Fort
Collins, was found brutally murdered in a field. When the Fort Collins police began to investigate the case, they
looked at a number of suspects. One of those suspects was a 15-year-old Tim Masters, who lived next to the field. He
had gone up to the body that morning, hadn't reported it. >> Tim was very introverted and very shy
and very quiet. Didn't have a lot of friends. They went to his house and they found
very graphic drawings and writings as well as a large knife collection. >> Would we bring you in here without some
kind of proof? >> Right away they started saying, "I know you did this. >> She's dead."
>> We thought the right thing to do is to cooperate with the police. >> Tim was branded the lead suspect in a
horrific sexual mutilation and murder at age 15. Tim has not had a life since age
15. Through the years, they focused on Tim Masters. >> I think that the lead detective,
Detective Broadick, in this case, was so obsessed and so convinced of Tim Masters
guilt, he was willing to do anything to get a conviction of Tim Masters. In this
case, >> the real hope was that there'd be some physical evidence. There'd be a fingerprint. There'd be something that
we'd come up with that would match up with him. And that just didn't happen. He works for 10 11 years.
>> There were obviously other avenues that should have been explored that were not.
>> They got an arrest warrant for Mr. Masters and charged him with first-degree murder of Peggy Hetrickch.
>> I really did not think Tim Masters could pull this off and leave not a single
shred of physical evidence. >> Much of the prosecution's case is expected to come from a psychologist.
The doodles are the evidence. I never thought there was a chance in the world that they would convict me without
evidence, but they did. It was just totally surreal. How could this happen? How could I end up in here for something
I didn't even do? After being pursued for years, Tim Masters now was in prison for life
without parole. >> Yeah. Jeez. How do you describe that to someone who hasn't experienced it? It's
just unbelievable. >> At his lowest point, he says he even considered suicide, but it just seemed
too much like giving up. >> I didn't do this. I couldn't let him win that easy. I couldn't leave my family like that.
He appealed his conviction. He lost. He appealed that. He lost again. Finally, in a lastditch effort, he
appealed again. This time claiming ineffective counsel. >> Every day, I'd work on it a couple hours
a day. People would be walking past my cell on the way to child, and there'd be papers and books spread all over my bed.
But I didn't expect anything to come from it. But then, uh, Maria got appointed. This was actually one of my
first postconviction cases. >> Then 36-year-old courtappointed attorney Maria Lou says that when the gigantic
master's file landed on her desk in 2003, she had no idea what to think. >> So, you sort of have to work unravel the
mystery basically as to whether or not this person deserves a new trial. >> She hunkered down and started reading
>> and I didn't think he was innocent right off the bat. >> Then she watched those police
interrogation tapes. You shocked the hell out of everybody. >> I believe it was five different police
officers tag teaming him, doing everything. Good cop, bad cop, military cop, nice cop.
>> That's the one that is dead. Was she walking? What happened? >> It was you. >> You did it. What happened?
>> I don't know what happened. I didn't do nothing. I didn't do this. >> That's when I was like, "Oh my god, he
is innocent." And then when I met Tim in the prison, he was more focused on us proving his innocence than he was on
getting out, which to me says a lot. >> You're pretty much Tim Masters's only hope at that point,
>> right? >> What's that like? >> Stressful. It's really overwhelming because you
know in your heart that somebody is wrongfully convicted. With so much at stake and with little
trial experience, Maria called in flamboyant defense attorney David Wymore. >> Usually, there's some evidence that
indicates somebody, right? This there was no evidence in this case. >> Even so, he knew that requests for new
trials almost never are granted. When you went into this, what did you think the odds were?
>> 100 to one. Then 100 to one I'd lose. >> 100 to one you'd lose. >> Yes. Wymore nevertheless joined Lou in
digging through 10,000 pages of police and court files, some 20 years old. It >> was just a lot of hard work.
>> To their amazement, they soon realized that there were important items of evidence never given to Tim's original
lawyers, although by law they were entitled to them. >> Uncovering this stuff, I mean, I don't know how to
put it other than just it's an aha moment, you It's not, you know, it's like ah,
>> a man claiming he was wrongly convicted of murder fights for a new trial. >> People of the state of Colorado versus
Timothy Masters. >> By November 2007, hearings were well underway. Tim Masters best shot at
winning a new trial. >> There was no physical evidence linking Mr. Master to the crime.
>> Good afternoon. I'm Don Quick. I'm the district attorney for Adam. Special prosecutor Don Quick and his team
representing the state of Colorado were new faces in court, but the original investigator Jim Brderick was there as
well to advise. He told a local interviewer at the time he had an open mind. >> Hey, if there's evidence out there,
let's see it. But there's nobody that's come to me, and I haven't seen yet anybody that can controvert all these
facts that point to his guilt. It is clearly a concerted effort to hide evidence in order to convict Tim
Masters. >> It's mindboggling. >> On the stand, Tim's original lawyers, Nathan Chambers and Eric Fiser, who lost
the case, defended the job they had done, given all they didn't know. >> Rodri knew about Hammond and just
ignored it, >> especially about the existence of Dr. Richard Hammond. When you're looking into Dr. Hammond,
you're looking into a sex offense, right? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. >> Dr. Hammond, a neighbor of Tims, was
arrested some years after the Hedrickk murder for secretly videotaping women in his bathroom.
This guy set up a studio to get closeup of vaginas and nipples. And you have a body in the field missing
those parts. >> A great alternate suspect, the defense says, but his name was never mentioned
in the original trial. >> Got to give me the biggest sexual pervert in the history of South Fort
Collins. >> He is a superb suspect. >> Jeez, that's funny. One guy was a doodler and the other guy's a sex
offender. Did anybody say that? >> And David Wymore argues that Dr. Hammond's very existence.
So close to the crime scene defines reasonable doubt. >> They have the same alibi. Uh Tim Masters
dad says that he's home all night in his trailer. Dr. Ham's wife says he's home all night in the house.
The difference is is that Tim Masters doesn't have 300 videootapes of people's vaginas and nipples at his house and
he's also not an eye surgeon. >> Court has to impress on the Fort Collins police. It's over.
>> In court, Wymore presents a long list of other crucial evidence he says was withheld from the defense and as it
turns out from prosecutors as well. It includes Brick's notes on conversations with a former FBI profiler,
>> Roy Hazelwood. I mean, he's raising the questions we're raising. >> Roy Hazelwood, according to the defense,
questioned the very meaning of Tim's drawings. >> Hazlewood looked at these drawings and
said, "No, these are just doodles and they don't reflect what happened to Peggy Hetric."
>> Extremely important, extremely relevant. We should have had it. Then there was the testimony of the
state's star witness, Dr. Reed Baloy, who analyzed the drawings. >> I have absolutely no doubt in my mind
that Tim Masters was the killer, >> but he now says his opinion was based on incomplete information provided by the
authorities. Dr. Malloy also had written that Peggy Hetrick's wounds appeared to be
surgical, an opinion the jury never heard because Jim Brick didn't turn over the doctor's
full 300page report. >> All I know is we should have gotten them. They knew they existed.
>> Without question, the wounds to her vagina are surgical. >> And that big question of surgical skill
came up with yet another expert police consulted. Dr. Choy basically said it would be hard cut for him to make and he
was a plastic surgeon. >> But the views of Dr. Richard Choy never surfaced in court either.
Not says former cop David Michaelelsson that it takes all these experts to see the obvious.
>> It wasn't done by a boy with a del flashlight in his mouth and a pocketk knife.
crawl out of his window, stab a lady, circumcise her. Didn't happen. Impossible.
The defense says police never revealed to either side exactly how far they went to get Masters to incriminate himself.
>> Planting newspapers suggesting that they were close to finding the killer. They were actually planting his mom's
obituary on his friend's truck. >> They schemed and planned this elaborate psychological experiment on him and he
passed it. >> This is outrageous. I strongly believe that this police department
framed Tim Masters. >> But this was equal opportunity withholding. material wasn't turned over
to the defense, but not to prosecutors either. Brderick concedes it may not look very good.
>> So, you're just sitting there listening to them say there's this, this, this,
and this, and this looks like a frame job. >> That that's that's a position and a
strategy they took without a doubt. >> And it wasn't. >> Oh, absolutely not. You know, there was
no effort to to pinpoint just Tim Masters on this case. He says that while he may not have
turned over all his notes, the defense had the same information in reports he did turn over.
>> I made detailed, thorough notes, detailed, thorough police reports. My notes were represented inside those
police reports. >> One special prosecutor's report called aspects of the police investigation
disturbing. We have repeatedly said that we will go where the evidence takes us.
>> But Don Quick insists that not only was it not a frame up, the work of Brderick,
a 29-year veteran cop, was meticulous and detailed. >> But all the things that didn't get
turned over, >> yes, >> are things that potentially could have helped the defense.
>> Yes. >> I mean, it doesn't seem to be any omission of things that hurt the defense.
>> I would agree with your characterization. And the question is why was just exculpatory stuff withheld?
>> Well, I mean obviously the defense um is free to make that argument. >> So any mistakes that were made here were
honest mistakes. >> Sure. >> When you know that you have evidence that indicates it's innocent and you
don't turn it over, uh you don't get the benefit of doubt from me that it was a mistake.
I want to draw your attention to page 1242 on a police report. >> Toward the end of the hearing, the sheer
volume of Brick's material became an issue itself. >> David Wymore in Rio. They would be
questioning an witness and they would see Lieutenant Brick go over to a box and David Wymore asked one day and says,
"What is that box and why is he pulling stuff out of that box and why don't I have it?"
>> Personal files just sitting there in court. Frustrated, the judge decides it all should be turned over immediately.
>> Every time I'd come into court, we'd get a new piece of evidence. We just kept
finding stuff that's hidden. Super secret file after super secret file. >> Where was this on April 12th, 2006? I
mean, where did this thing come from? And I went and looked. >> But ironically, because Brick kept
everything. >> Footprint number four looks like Tom McCo. The defense is able to produce
what it says is the most convincing argument yet, that he and the prosecutors had this murder all wrong.
There was no effort to pinpoint just Tim Masters on this case. It just doesn't add up that there was
anything other than to just do the best job we could with a case that could have
remained unsolved. >> I'm Jim Jim Broadick. How you doing? >> In 1987, Jim Brick knows in his own mind
that Tim Masters committed this homicide. Veteran crime scene investigator Barry
Gets, now working for Master's Defense, says he realized the extent of Jim Brick's tunnel vision only as the
hearings to win a new trial for Tim neared an end. >> Do you ever recall ever seeing a
photograph of foot impression number four in the ground? >> We're in open court and Dave Wymore is
talking to Eric Fischer, one of Tim's original defense attorneys. From my understanding, Brick had these in his
file and he didn't give them to us. >> The showstopper emerges from Brick's box of personal files.
>> Where did this thing come from? >> This whole envelope. >> Yeah, the whole envelope. I never saw
it, judge, until today. >> In that envelope, enhanced photographs of footprints from the crime scene. Two
of which, the defense says are consistent with a Tom McCann dress shoe. There's two tomic ants along the blood
trail. One at the curb and after making several turns 30 ft in there's the Toman
again next to the blood trail in blood. >> Tim Masters never owned a pair of Tom
McCann's. How much of this did the original defense know? >> Well, they don't know this. We didn't
have a photograph of number three or four where you could see horizontal lines, but the FBI did and Lieutenant
Brick did and had they given it to us would might have made a huge difference at trial.
>> They got all of that. Everything was turned over to him. >> On this point, Lieutenant Brick is
adamant Fiser, under oath or not, is flatout wrong. >> Every enhanced picture there was of
every footprint was turned over to them. Yes. The problem, he says, is that the prints
aren't clearly identifiable as Tom McCann's. To this, the defense pulls out another
note from that treasure trove of documents. >> He definitely knew cuz he wrote a note
to himself that he knew. >> He writes, "Number 105 is messed up. Brand pattern looks like Tommy can
shoe." >> If the jury saw that, how do you convict him after that? Now armed with all this new evidence,
Master's lawyers have come up with their own scenario of what they think really happened to Peggy Hedrickk.
>> Who did this is two people, one of them wearing a Tomakan shoe doing this. >> David Wymore thinks it all began in a
car. >> She's being abducted. Somebody's got a knife to her cheek around her like that.
She knows the gigs up. She opens the t car door, starts getting her right foot out. He grabs her and stabs her.
>> Key to Wymore's theory are Peggy Hetrick's boots. >> If you look at these two boots, you'll
see that this boot has normal wear. >> But in this police photo, abrasions are clearly visible on the sole of the right
boot. >> What the right boot shows us is that she stuck her foot out of the car.
In tests, the Master's Defense team was able to reproduce these abrasions. >> You have somebody stick their foot out
of the car door putting pressure on it. Then you only have to drive like about five or six miles an hour for 10 ft and
you'll reproduce that scuff mark on the right foot every time. >> And they believe Peggy Hetric is stabbed
being pulled back into the car because Barry get says the holes in her clothing prove it. The cut in the coat, the cut
in the blouse, and the cut in her body do not line up. You have to move the blouse one inch to her left. You have to
move the coat two inches to her left in order for that wound to line up. You have pulling on your coat and blouse. I
stab you one time in the back. >> So, she's killed in the car, >> right? And the car then could be
anywhere. Wymore theorizes that her killer or killers next took her somewhere that
gave them privacy, light, and room to work. >> They lay her on a table, they wash her,
they excise her. Then they carry her and dump her in the field. >> Back at the field, Barry Get says the
evidence leads him to conclude that the body was dragged only a short distance down the embankment.
Where you have drag marks, you have no blood. Where you have blood, you have no drag marks.
>> You would expect, were she being dragged to find heel marks. >> And on her jeans, you would see the
marks that the grass makes and the dirt makes and the blood makes. >> Marks like these on Get's own daughter
after she helped him reenact a dragging scenario. >> You don't see those on her because her
legs are not in contact with the ground when she goes through there. No. Get says two people carried Peggy
Hetrick's body to its resting place. Her bloody coat painting a trail. She is carried. Her heels are not in
contact with the ground except for that run down the slope. That's what happened to her. It is as
clear as the nose on your face. If true, that makes Tim Master's drag drawing, a lynch pin of the
prosecution's case, a lot less relevant. >> There's nothing accurate about his drawing.
>> I think the footprints alone deserve to give him a new trial. I thought Dr. Hammond alone deserved to give him a new
trial. The psychological experiment alone deserved to give him a new trial. The non-disclosure of all these things,
but I never count my chickens before they hatch. You know, I got to hear it from the court. trial they gave him.
>> Because as damning as that list sounds, these hearings are far from over. The
prosecution has yet to present its answers to the defense's many charges. >> This is at the end of the day a search
for the truth. >> The bar for granting a new trial is very high. >> It's so hard to undo a conviction.
>> I just want them to fix the >> Wyomore and Lou would love some new evidence to lower that bar a bit and
modern science could provide it. The two individuals that carried her would have
transferred their DNA onto her clothing as they carried her into the field. >> But can investigators retrieve DNA after
all this time? >> We're one month shy of 20 years. Are we still going to find the DNA? We don't
know, but we're going to try. >> With Tim Master's future hanging in the balance, the defense team is about to go
halfway around the world and risk everything to find out. This was a very emotional case, I I
think for on so many levels >> you have a woman murdered in a small town, some sort of mutilation going on.
>> Bad case. >> Lots of pressure to solve it. >> Oh yeah. >> It wasn't their job to solve it.
>> I believed in him and I believed in the case. >> But Tim Master's attorneys, David Wymore
and Maria Lou, knew that new evidence of another killer might be the only way to
get their client out of prison. So, in the winter of 2007, they took a huge gamble, betting that there would be DNA
on the clothes Peggy Hetrich wore when she was killed, and that it would help identify her murderer. DNA was such an
infant science back then that although investigators did analyze hair, blood, and fibers, no DNA tests ever had been
done on the clothing. But now that testing was possible, was it also smart? Would it help Tim
Masters? >> My job was to exclude Tim. >> There's not a moment when you said yikes. You know what? If what if this
DNA comes back and it's and it's Tim's? >> I'm a trial lawyer. There's always a chance. And always in the back of your
mind is yikes. >> If it's Tim Masters, it's Tim Masters. >> Former Fort Collins cop Linda Wheeler by
now a firm believer in Tim's innocence, was all for it. >> Go where the evidence leads you.
>> This is what what got from this location on the panties. Plus, she knew just the
man to do it. >> You compare the numbers. >> He has developed such an expertise of be
able to find the evidence, the trace evidence. If it's still there on the clothing, then Richard can find it.
>> Come here. Joy. Richard is Richard Illandbal, a DNA expert who with his wife Selma, a forensic medical examiner,
loves nothing more than a chance to use hard science to far it out the sorted secrets of crime.
>> And Linda was very persistent. She says this is a wrongful conviction. >> Pretty um uncommon to start a DNA
laboratory in in a farm, I think. >> Show me around a little bit. The only problem for the defense, why did you
want to bring this out here? They had to travel thousands of miles to, of all places, here in the Netherlands to a
tiny lab in this quaint farmhouse some 60 miles from Amsterdam. >> We have our DNA trace recovery in in
this building. We also have DNA isolation or DNA extraction. >> What's here? >> This is our uh blood stain room. And
>> is there somebody in there? >> Yeah, we have our our testing doll. We do training courses for judges and
criminal law. >> What is all that? What you see there is an arterial gush. >> The Illan bombs jokingly call it the
crime farm. >> Crime farm. >> The crime farm. Yes. >> What was the biggest challenge as you
approached this >> to to get this evidence to Holland? I think this was quite unique.
>> I believe never never happened that case in the States went out the states. >> David Wymore and Maria Lou said, "Linda,
they'll never let that evidence out of the United States. Never happened before." The prosecution fought hard to
prevent it happening this time, but in the end, >> Judge Weatherbe went, "Okay, I'm going
to allow that." >> The judge did insist that someone had to escort the clothes to Holland. Barry
Gets volunteered. >> I I assume you didn't you didn't check this, right? This was
>> this was carry on. >> Get with the Colorado State Crime Lab for 22 years. In January of 2007, clutching his
priceless suitcase of evidence, he flew to Amsterdam, took the hour-long drive to the Illan
Bomb crime farm. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. You had a boot trip? >> I did. That's it.
>> And began helping Richard carefully unpack Peggy Hetrick's clothes. Jeans, a blouse, underwear.
>> This is all the victim's clothing. >> Okay. readying the individual pieces for
testing. >> So, we've got the bra. So, the bra is it's JT47. Yep. >> As usual, Richard Ianbomb would use a
most unusual approach. >> What he's looking for is not the blood stains, not the saliva stains, not the
semen stains. He's looking for skin cells that are transferred onto clothing when someone uses a lot of force.
>> Skin cells and so-called touch DNA are Richard's specialty. He's a pioneer in
this approach. The same that finally cleared the parents of John Benet Ramsay of her murder.
>> We finally found skin cells on the on the um under the armpits. >> The technique which they've used in
dozens of cases involves not just being able to retrieve the skin cells, but in knowing exactly where to look. How
important is force to this? Like if I if I just reach over and go like that, have
I left DNA? you you will leave DNA but there's no laboratory in the world you will get a good profile out of that
>> that's very important because the upper skin th those cells are dead the DNA there is not very good and by using
force you shed those cell layers and then you come to good layers where the DNA is better and by using force on
something you leave those cells behind and it are those cells where we get the DNA from
>> the way the Dutch uh forensic scientists look at it is you have to understand the
crime first, where are the most likely places that a perpetrator or perpetrators would touch her in an
aggressive manner. >> And we need as much information as we can get. >> Before he even looks for the DNA,
Richard tries to reconstruct the murder step by step. >> He looks where it's most likely logical
that a perpetrator has grabbed and possibly has applied force to clothing or to a victim.
Richard and Selma often will even reenact the crime as they did here with the help of Barry Gats.
>> Where would I grab somebody? One to stab them, one to carry them, one to pull
their pants and panties down, etc. And that's where we collected samples. photo. We worked 10 days collecting
samples from these clothing and looked at them and you know with different lighting, infrared, UV, normal lighting,
etc. We did more than 60 samples and we did more than 400 DNA profiles. >> And remarkably, more than 20 years after
the murder, it all paid off. What exactly did he find? >> Full profile of a male on the inside of
the underpants of Peggy Hendrick. right where he had hypothesized where somebody would with force pull
down the underwear. >> Not only was there DNA, there was enough to analyze >> and the results were uh it's not Tim on
any place. >> His DNA is not on the clothing, >> just as his supporters expected. But
they also knew that not finding Tim's DNA wasn't by itself going to set him free. So when the DNA came back and it's
not him, why isn't that alone enough to vacate the conviction? >> Because they could always hang their hat
on that Tim Masters, he was such a good murderer that he didn't leave any evidence behind. They've said that from
day one. >> This DNA was on incriminating uh uh sites on her clothing. And then if you
really want to make it clear that Tim Masters didn't do it, you have to find the the one
>> the person who left the DNA. Let him tell. >> Was it perhaps from Tim's neighbor, Dr.
Richard Hammond, who 8 years after Peggy's murder was arrested for videotaping women in his bathroom?
>> Everybody was thinking, I think in the defense side that that Dr. Hammond was
involved in this and we thought the same. >> You did. So yeah, at that time I think
>> he looked like a good candidate. >> Yeah, >> but they didn't have a sample of Dr.
Hammond's DNA for comparison. And without it, the Dutch couldn't rule him in or out. The thing is that was just
fine with the master's defense because they needed to keep suspicion of Dr. Hammond alive. If DNA cleared him, then
the spotlight would be right back on Tim. Putting Dr. Hammond aside then, the Dutch ran more tests on DNA samples from
cops, investigators, even from Matt Zolner. Remember him? Peggy Hedrickk's ex-boyfriend.
>> Are you the one who's dead, Peggy? >> Whose date gave him an alibi for the night Peggy was killed. You basically
tested the ex-boyfriend's DNA in order to rule him out. >> To exclude him. >> No, that's why he was so shocked when he
entered the room. >> Yeah. shocked because the DNA didn't exclude him. And >> I was sitting behind my computer and the
door opened and Richard said, "It's Zner. It's Zner." And I thought, "What is he talking about?"
Matt Zner, who told police that except for that brief encounter in the parking lot, he'd not even seen Peggy Hetrick
for a week. Not only was Zner's DNA on the inside waistband of Peggy's underpants,
it also turned up on the cuffs of her blouse, where one might grab if picking up a body.
>> There's no question this is the ex-boyfriend's DNA inside the waistband of her underpants.
>> Yes. >> Okay. Where does that leave him? >> Explain that one. This is him and only
him. No question. No question. Clearly Zner has many questions to answer. But what, if anything, does this
bombshell mean to Tim Masters in prison for the last 9 years? >> To me, it's not over yet. I mean, I'm
still dressed in orange. I'm still in a in a gel. For Tim Masters, that old cliche finally
is true. This really could be the first day of the rest of his life. What's the word of the day, Tim?
>> Uh, freedom. >> Tim is waiting for word on whether the Dutch DNA findings will persuade the
judge to grant him a new trial. Certainly, his excited lawyer thinks they should.
>> What they didn't have in 1999 was the DNA evidence. The person who killed her
touched her. >> Tim's gigantic family packs the courtroom, joining legions of other
supporters. Do you have a cell phone on? Please turn it off. Check your cell phones.
>> Not on hand is Jim Brderick called out of town on a family emergency. But from
their crime farm in Holland, Selma and Richard Einbomb are here. >> I would ask you to reserve any emotional
outburst. >> There's DNA from an alternate suspect on her body in a couple of places and not
Tim Masters. That's evidence that a jury, if it had been available back in 99, a jury should have heard.
>> The state confirmed the Dutch DNA results. And with that, the prosecutor takes bold action,
instructing his deputy to move for Tim Master's immediate release. >> And so, we would respectfully ask that
the court grant this motion. The court has reviewed the motion and the court grants the motion to vacate
the conviction and sentence and orders the uh release of the defendant. >> With that, the hearing abruptly ends.
The state's witnesses never even testify. And after more than nine years, Tim Masters is suddenly a free man.
Jim, what do you think? >> He is almost speechless. >> Jim, what do you think? >> It's not crowded, guys.
>> Still seeking it. >> Okay, let's clear a path here. Clear path. >> Not so his delirious family. Yes,
>> we did it. >> It's just a great feeling for me today. I'll tell you that. It's a long time
coming. >> I just want to uh thank my family and my friends who stuck with me all these
years. Without their support, I don't know if I could have made it through this.
>> We as a family have stayed together so much to support Tim and we continue to
support Tim and will. >> We never turn our back on him. Not once. We never will.
>> Guys, move. Thank you. Good luck, man. Thank you. >> How would you describe what this feeling
is like? Just imagine. Well, I don't even know if you if you could imagine spending all
that time up there in prison and finally being free after all these years. I don't even know how to answer that
question. >> What has surprised you the most? >> Surprised me the most? the price of
everything. I was not ready for that. >> Do you avoid sort of thinking about what
this cost you? >> No, not not necessarily. >> How would you quantify it? >> What I've lost.
Jeez. I mean, damn near 10 years of my life. I don't know how you put a price tag on
that. I mean, what's 10 years of your life worth? Especially 27 to 36. All I know is that you you can never get those
years back. >> But Tim Masters is determined to try. >> HCZ. >> So my vision is actually to the point
where I could legally drive. >> You can legally drive. >> 3 days after his release in 2008, the
state dropped all charges against Tim Masters. >> Do you think we'll ever know who killed
Peggy Hatrick? >> God, I don't know. I really don't know. I know who didn't. You know,
>> the DNA that freed Tim Masters leaves lingering questions about Peggy's ex-boyfriend, Matt Zner. He today lives
in Fort Collins, keeping a low profile. >> If he did it, he better get out of town.
>> Zner did not respond to repeated attempts to contact him. I mean, we're talking about skin cells
inside her underpants. This is not just, you know, >> the DNA materials were found in a couple
of places on the body that we had tested. >> Exactly. And that was enough to get Tim
Masters free. >> It's not enough to get anybody else arrested. >> You would have to ask the attorney
general on where he is on the arrest. >> The Colorado attorney general now has the hattrick case, but won't comment on
any aspect of it. Do you think realistically anybody absent a confession could be convicted for this
crime? >> No. I really don't. Since Richard Hammond is deceased, their defense attorney is going to say, "Look at this
guy. He's the one that did this. There's no way." He still may be the defense's favorite
suspect. But using a sample of Dr. Hammond's DNA provided by his wife, the state says he has been ruled out as the
killer. >> There is no evidence tying Dr. Hammond. He just happened to live in the
neighborhood. The court never ruled on whether the original defense lawyers did their jobs,
but Eric Fischer accepts some blame. >> Great day for Tim Masters. Not really a great day for me.
I am upset that this happened and happened on my watch. >> If the original prosecutors are upset,
they're not talking. Both were publicly reprimanded and fined for failing to disclose information to the defense.
But Tim doesn't blame them for what happened. >> It's pretty obvious who did this to me.
One detective, Jim Rodri. >> If Jim Brick were sitting where I'm sitting right now, what would you tell
him? >> Uh, I wouldn't talk to Jim Brick at this point. There's not a whole lot of love
between him and me. So, it'd be best if we just didn't speak to each other. >> But what would you like to say to him?
>> I'm not going to say on camera. What it really comes down to is I'm accountable to God and I'm I'm I'm
accountable to Peggy Hetrick. >> Looking back, Jim Brick, the man who pursued Tim Masters across decades, made
absolutely no apology for his actions. Do you believe he did it? >> Well, I I believe that I followed the
evidence. Okay. And the evidence pointed to Tim Masters. They find the exboyfriend's DNA inside her underpants,
on the cuffs of her blouse. Does that not give you any pause? >> Well, you can find DNA evidence um and
it may have an innocent explanation. So, >> ironically, Brick says Tim's lawyers
only had that crucial information because of him and his passion for saving everything. That
characterological trait of mine of wanting to hang on to information not knowing its future use has helped Tim
Masters because had I not done that it wouldn't have been a available to be tested.
>> Peggy Hedrickk's clothes would have been destroyed. >> Everything everything would have been
destroyed. >> That may not mean much to Tim Masters struggling to put together a new life.
>> Everybody ready? >> He's got some unlikely new friends. >> Thank you. Linda Wheeler, the first cop
to ever suspect he was guilty. >> This young man is going to lead a good, productive life.
>> Hey, my favorite uncle. What are you up to? >> Barry Gats, who travels with him in
Europe, beginning with Amsterdam, for an appearance with Richard and Selma on Dutch TV.
>> And they helped set them free, the innocent man who was imprisoned for 10 years. Very warm welcome for you, Tim
Masters. >> Thank you. and his lawyer, Maria Lou. >> Hey, what's up? >> Hey, what's going on?
>> Whose office he still visits regularly. >> So, what are you guys going to do today?
>> I have no idea. >> Without all of these people, there's no way that we would be where we are today.
>> He seems to regard you as a really good friend. >> Yeah. >> All of your stuff is now centralized.
>> He will be dear to me. Um, it took an entire village of people to free Tim Masters.
This is the kitchen to my mansion. >> He found a new apartment. >> Little utility area right here. Home
sweet home. >> No guards, no orders, no rules. >> For the last two years, I was in a 6x8
cell, which was about from this wall to that wall and about to here. >> Not surprising then that he relishes
walks in the great outdoors. I always love this place. I like the mountains, period.
There's a part of me that doesn't even want to start rebuilding my life because I'm afraid of losing it again.
>> I'm glad for him. I'm glad for him that he has his freedom. >> Peggy's brother, Tom Hrik, who has long
doubted Tim Masters was his sister's killer, greeted the news of his release with mixed feelings. But I'm also
measured because I want I want people to realize this is not over yet. Peggy is the ultimate victim in this.
Tim Masters got to go home. Peggy's not coming home. She's never coming home. She comes home
in in your heart and in your mind. And the murder that so shocked this peaceful town more than 20 years ago
seems as big a mystery now as it was back then. >> You've reached the Peggy Hetrich
investigation hotline at the Colorado Attorney General's office. Please leave any information you wish to provide.
Hey, hey, hey.

A teen is hunted for murder for over a decade. Now, some of the cops who helped put him away want to set him free. "48 Hours" correspondent Susan Spencer reports in this two-part episode from December 2011. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Tim Masters is exonerated for the 1987 murder of Peggy Hetrick after DNA evidence implicates her ex-boyfriend instead.

Key points

The Investigation's Dark Turn. The investigation into Peggy's murder took a dark turn as police focused on Tim Masters without solid evidence.
Tim Masters: The Unlikely Suspect. Tim Masters, a 15-year-old living near the crime scene, became the prime suspect in Peggy's murder.
The Psychological Experiment. Police conducted a psychological experiment on Tim Masters, trying to provoke a confession.
A Key Piece of Evidence Blown Away. Tim's claim about a detail of the murder was confirmed, but it undermined the case against him.
The Shocking Discovery. A sex offender living nearby raises questions about the investigation into Peggy's murder.
Tim's Resolve. Tim reflects on his determination to prove his innocence despite being imprisoned.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's mindboggling.

Detective reflecting on the case's complexities.

5:13WatchJul 16, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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