Peggy Hettrick’s murder: A complete timeline of events

In February 1987, the city of Fort Collins, Colorado, was shaken by the discovery of Peggy Hettrick’s body in a field. The case would become one of the state's most well-known unsolved murders, according to The Coloradoan (2017). Peggy Hettrick, 37, was stabbed and mutilated in a crime that remained unsolved for decades and even led to a wrongful conviction.

Despite the initial investigation, no suspect was found for years. In 1998, Tim Masters was arrested and convicted, only to be cleared by DNA evidence a decade later. Currently, the case remains open.

The Colorado Attorney General’s Office confirmed in a statement that the investigation is ongoing, and their goal is to find justice for Peggy Hettrick, her family, and friends. Her case was covered in the Crime Junkie Podcast. The episode titled, MURDERED: Peggy Hettrick, was released on their website on May 26, 2025.

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Timeline of the key events in the murder of Peggy Hettrick

February 10–11, 1987: The night of the murder and discovery

• On the night of February 10, 1987, Peggy Hettrick worked a shift at the Fashion Bar, a clothing store at The Square on College Avenue and Horsetooth Road (The Coloradoan, 2017).
• After work, she was reportedly locked out of her apartment and visited nearby bars. She changed clothes at her Stover Street apartment before heading out again (The Coloradoan, 2017).

• Around 1:30 a.m. on February 11, Hettrick was last seen leaving the Prime Minister bar at College Avenue and Boardwalk Drive (The Coloradoan, 2017).
• Hours later, a cyclist on his way to work discovered her body in a field near the 3500 block of Landings Drive. The area was near new housing developments and just 500 yards from the bar (The Coloradoan, 2017).
• Peggy’s body was lying in the field. Her purse was still around her shoulder. A cigarette was found in a pool of blood near the curb. A red trail led through the grass to the body. She had been stabbed in the back and s*xually mutilated (The Coloradoan, 2017).
• Police began the investigation by taking tire and footprint casts using basic tools. Investigators worked without gloves, a practice common at the time (The Coloradoan, 2017).

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1987–1998: Investigation, suspicions, and wrongful arrest

• Linda Wheeler-Holloway, then a Fort Collins police detective, began working the case and later reopened it in the early 1990s (The Coloradoan, 2017).

• A teenager named Tim Masters became a person of interest after his father told police that Tim had paused in the field near the body on his way to the bus stop that morning (The Coloradoan, 2017).
• Masters initially told police he thought the body was a mannequin or CPR dummy. His failure to report it raised suspicion (The Coloradoan, 2017).
• In 1998, after 11 years of investigation, Masters was arrested for the murder. Prosecutors used dark drawings from his youth and psychological testimony to convict him (The Coloradoan, 2017).
• No physical evidence linked Masters to the crime scene at the time of conviction.

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1999–2017: DNA evidence, exoneration, and the ongoing cold case

• In the 2000s, DNA testing had improved. Defense attorneys Maria Liu and David Wymore, along with Wheeler-Holloway, who now believed in Masters’ innocence, helped push for further testing (The Coloradoan, 2017).

• In 2008, DNA tests revealed skin cells on Hettrick’s clothing that did not belong to Masters. Instead, the results pointed toward Peggy’s on-again-off-again boyfriend, who had been with her earlier that night (The Coloradoan, 2017).
• A judge vacated Tim Masters' conviction. He was released after serving 10 years in prison (The Coloradoan, 2017).
• The Colorado Attorney General's Office took over the case after his release and has confirmed that it remains active (The Coloradoan, 2017).
• According to cold case detective Steve Conner of the Aurora Police Department, modern cases rely on physical evidence such as DNA. Confessions or murder weapons rarely appear years later (The Coloradoan, 2017).
• As of now, Peggy Hettrick’s murder is one of 1,343 unsolved homicides in Colorado, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (The Coloradoan, 2017).
• Wheeler-Holloway said:

“I think the getting off track with Tim Masters for so many years really did damage the prosecutability of this case” (The Coloradoan, 2017).

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For more details about Peggy Hettrick's case, listen to the podcast.