FORT COLLINS, Colo.—Peggy Hettrick’s brother says he always had doubts about whether Timothy Masters really was the man responsible for her brutal slaying.
Now Masters’ murder conviction has been overturned after DNA evidence pointed to another suspect, and Thomas Hettrick is wondering what will happen next.
“It’s almost like a circus. I feel like I’m being pulled in all kinds of directions,” Hettrick said Tuesday after Masters was released.
“What will it be tomorrow? This could drag on for a long, long time. I hope it doesn’t. All of a sudden you’re back to square one. You kind of want to get on with your life,” he said.
Authorities say DNA found on Peggy Hettrick’s clothing was not from Masters but from someone else—someone they have not publicly identified but was considered a potential suspect soon after Hettrick’s slaying.
Larimer County District Attorney Larry Abrahamson has declined to discuss any other possible suspects, saying the case is still under investigation.
Thomas Hettrick, 51, Peggy’s only sibling, said his sister was an artist who spent time on the Hopi reservation in Arizona to learn about the tribe’s culture and jewelry-making..
She had been stabbed and sexually mutilated when her body was found in 1987. Over the next 11 years, prosecutors and investigators built a circumstantial case against Masters, based on a psychological analysis, violent pictures he had drawn and the fact that he lived 100 feet from where Hettrick’s body was found. Police said Masters, who was 15 at the time, saw the body but did not report it.
Masters was charged in 1998 and was convicted the next year. His new lawyers challenged the conviction as unfair, and DNA test results released last week ruled him out as a suspect.
“I’m not mad at (the criminal justice system) for making mistakes,” Thomas Hettrick said. “but they owe it to Peggy to get it right this time.”
