(This introduction or outline was written by the "Angel" of the case and copied from a PDF file housed at FreeTimMasters.com because of doubt about how long that site will be accessible. Since it was written, much progress has been made in clearing up various questions raised here.)
Thank you for your interest in this case. The following is a brief outline detailing the terrible injustice done to this innocent man. After you read this outline, I am sure you will see what I saw when I started researching this case; in short, the Fort Collins Police Department made a terrible mistake. Tim Masters is serving a life sentence in a Colorado prison because in 1998, eleven years after this brutal murder, Fort Collins wanted to close the only open cold case on their books. They decided to do this without regard for right or wrong. Unfortunately, there were several police involved in the case who didn't believe Tim was guilty of this crime, but their opinions were stifled by one overzealous, rogue Detective, James Broderick. Detective Broderick went after Tim to further his own career. This detective believes that Tim does not matter in this world. He believes Tim has a throwaway life. That could not be further from the truth. Tim has a sister sho loves him very much as well as dozens of aunts, uncles and cousins. Tim also has two nephews and a niece who miss him terribly. Those who know him know that he could not have committed such a crime. However, I will not try to persuade you on my opinion. Research this case on your own and form your own opinion.
INTRODUCTION
On the morning of February 11, 1987, at approximately 7:05am 38-year-old Linwood Hodgdon discovered the body of a murder victim who had been left in an open field in Fort Collins, Colorado. The victim was a 36-year-old woman named Peggy Hettrick. Peggy had been stabbed in the back, dragged more than a hundred feet into the field, partially disrobed, and sexually mutilated.
Police conducted a background investigation into Peggy's activities and whereabouts from February 10th to February 11th. They found that Peggy worked at the Fashion Bar from 12:00 to 9:00 pm nightly. Her time card from Feb. 10, 1987 showed that she clocked out of work at 9:01 pm. Peggy was next seen by witnesses between 9:00 and 9:15 pm at the Laughing Dog Saloon, a nearby establishment. She told these witnesses that she was locked out of her apartment because she had given her keys to her temporary roommate Sharon Deconick. She further explained that she was there looking for Sharon at the bar. Apparently, she was only there for about 15 minutes.
Next, Peggy was seen at the Prime Minister bar, where she stayed from about 9:30 until 9:45 pm. The next time that we are certain of Peggy's whereabouts was at approximately midnight, when a neighbor in her apartment building was woken up by Peggy pounding on her door and calling out to her roommate "Sharon, let me in."
Shortly after midnight, witness Leslie Gaines spotted someone matching Peggy's physical description walking southbound in the bicycle lane at the 3700 Block of Landings Drive. At around 12:30 to 12:45, she is seen by boyfriend, Matt Zoellner, in the Prime Minister parking lot. Peggy and Matt had drinks at the bar until Dawn Gilbreath, who was meeting Matt, arrived. Then, Dawn and Matt moved to a table, leaving Peggy at the bar.
Zoellner later offered Peggy a ride home. She at first refused the ride, but later (Zoellner estimated at 1:00, Gilbreath estimated at 1:20) she accepted. He went to use the restroom first and when he came back out, he saw Peggy at the door as she walked out.
During the course of there investigation police learned from Clyde Masters that his 15-year- old son Tim had walked through the field, where Peggy's body was left, at 6:55 that morning. Tim Masters had walked along his usual route, heading northeast, then he suddenly veered due west and looked at something for between 3 and 5 seconds before he went on and caught his school bus.
Police had received no report from Tim, so at 10:00 Det. Frank Gonzales was sent to Tim's school to question him. Tim told Officer Gonzales that he had seen the body that morning, and that he believed it was a mannequin and that someone was playing a sick joke. Tim said that although he thought it was a mannequin, he had doubts about it all morning long and it was bothering him. Because Tim failed to report seeing Peggy's body right away, he became the police's prime suspect.
Over the next few days Tim was interrogated over 12 hours by several police officers. A consensual search of Tim's home and the surrounding property was conducted, revealing Tim's knife collection and a volume of stories and drawings that can generally be classified as war and horror productions.
The investigation of Tim Masters failed to establish any connection between his property and the crime. There was no blood matching Peggy's on any of Tim's clothing or property in his home. There was nothing of Peggy's, including the removed body parts, found on his person or in his home. Although Tim's productions contained many examples of graphic violence, there was not a single instance of a woman being stabbed in the back and/or having sexual body parts removed. Despite the complete lack of physical evidence, in 1999 the State charged and convicted Tim Masters of this horrendous crime of which he is innocent.
The following is a brief synopsis of the State's hypothesis used at Tim's trial, and an outline of this case. All the information in this outline was obtained from police reports, trial transcripts, Tim's trial discovery, and Tim himself.
THE STATE'S HYPOTHESIS
The theory of how this crime was committed that the State presented at Tim Master's trial is that at sometime after 1:20 am, Peggy Hettrick walked from the Prime Minister bar to the 3800 block of Landings Drive. The State claims that 15-year-old Tim Masters "Picked out Peggy Hettrick as a victim" and "left his bedroom that morning through the screen window, to take with him his survival knife, scalpel, and his red-covered flashlight to surprise her, to come up on her from behind, to thrust the knife deep into her back, lower her to the curb, drag her into the field, partially disrobe her, and remove her nipple and vaginal skin."
I. The State claims that sometime after 1:20 am., on Feb. 11, 1987, Peggy Hettrick walked from the Prime Minister bar to the 3800 block of Landings Drive
A. It is unclear what time Peggy Hettrick left the bar. Matt Zoellner said he thought she left at 1:00 am. Dawn Gilbreath thought Peggy left at 1:20 am.
B. We don't know if Peggy walked when she left the bar, it is just assumed that she walked because she had walked to other places that night and that is the only way the State can include Tim Masters in a scenario. No witnesses saw Peggy's mode of travel when she left the bar. No one knows if she left alone or if she met someone outside the bar. Dawn Gilbreath said she saw Peggy talking "to that other gentleman at the bar." Dawn also said that at 1:20 Peggy was talking to some people "which were standing up and talking like they were leaving."
C. Matt Zoellner testified that Peggy had accepted a ride home from him, but when he returned from the restroom she was at the door with, what he described as "I don't know, it was a-not a happy look" and she left. Since Peggy accepted a ride from Zoellner we can surmise she didn't want to walk home at 1:30 in the morning. Peggy's roommate told police that if Matt had another date at the bar she was at, she would sometimes leave with someone else. She also said "Peggy has been picked up in bars before and left with strangers, but this was usually only when she was mad at Matt." At trial, Matt Zoellner first claimed Peggy was not mad at him that night for being there with another woman, but later he admitted that she was upset with him. In fact, Matt told police in 1987 that he and Peggy had had a fight.
D. A shoe impression was found in the dirt somewhere around the 200-300 block of Boardwalk Drive. F.B.I. experts could not say for sure that it was Peggy's shoe impression. The evidence seems to indicate that it was Peggy's footprint. However, police did not record the orientation of the footprint, so if it was Peggy's we don't know what direction she was traveling when she left it. Since Peggy was seen walking south down Landings Drive, and seen a while later in the Prime Minister parking lot, we can confidently say that she walked down Boardwalk Drive sometime between 12:00 and 12:45 am. This print was most likely left at that time.
II The State Claims Peggy was stabbed at the 3800 block of Landings Drive.
A. We don't know if Peggy was stabbed in the Street at 3800 Landings Drive. Several investigators originally thought Peggy had been stabbed elsewhere and transported to the scene. Dr. Allen, the county coroner and bloodstain pattern expert Tom Bevel hypothesized that Peggy was stabbed somewhere near the 3800 block of Landings. The State, at trial, once again, asserted that she was stabbed in the street because that was the only way to implicate Tim Masters. The State's expert witness in bloodstain pattern analysis could only testify that Peggy had been laid down in the street for a short period of time, as evidenced by the large pool of blood at the curb, and that because of the velocity required to make some of the blood drips at the scene she would have had to have been in an upright position. He further testified that she may have been transported to the scene in a car, or running away from an attacker, but he didn't "have any evidence to rule that one way or another." On top of this, the State had also asked the F.B.I. to look at photos of the bloodstains. In a report dated June 3, 1987, the F.B.I. stated, "The submitted photographs and negatives were examined for information of value with regard to incident reconstruction through bloodstain pattern analysis. No conclusion could be reached as to the mechanism by which the bloodstains were deposited on the curb adjacent to the field where the victim's body was found." Officer Jack Taylor stated in his police report, "F.B.I. advised that they were not able to make any definite conclusion on the blood splatter photographs as to whether the incident occurred in a car, on the street, or an exact location."
B. A half-smoked Merit brand cigarette was found in the blood pool at 3800 Landings. The State claims this proves Peggy Hettrick dropped the cigarette after being stabbed at the curbside. Actually, the cigarette does not prove that.
1) Tom Bevel testified "The cigarette that is on the blood flow [the blood pool] appears to have had the blood flow up to it, as opposed to the cigarette falling into an already existing pool of blood." The bottom half of the cigarette had blood on it. So whether it had just been dropped before the blood pool was formed, or it had been dropped hours, days, even weeks before Feb. 11th. I believe they thought she was stabbed nearby because of the amount of blood in the street and along the drag trail. If she were stabbed far away, one would expect her to have bled to death before being deposited in the field. However, she was obviously bleeding when she was deposited in the field.
2) The State said that Merit was the brand of cigarette that Peggy smoked. Police reports show that actually Peggy smoked Merit, Merit Ultra Lights, Newport, and Benson & Hedges. It seems Peggy smoked many brands of cigarettes.
3) Saliva tests performed on the cigarette showed that it had been smoked by someone with a "non-secretor status" and Peggy Hettrick had a non-secretor status. Of course, 25% of the population has a non-secretor status. That means that of the 100,000 or so people who lived in Fort Collins in 1987 only 25,000 could have smoked that cigarette.
4) It is possible that the cigarette was smoked by Peggy Hettrick. Leslie Gaines saw a woman matching Peggy's description walking down Landings Drive at approximately 12:15 am. Ms. Gaines testified that this woman was walking in the bicycle lane on the West side of the street. This is the side of the street where the cigarette was found. If this cigarette belonged to Peggy Hettrick, it may have been discarded then.
C. If you think about the location of the fatal stab wound, scratches on her face, lack of blood splatter from a weapon being inserted and removed, and the blood drips that Tom Bevel testified showed the victim had been held upright sometime after being stabbed, it is all consistent with her having been stabbed in a car. There is no blood splatter at that location to indicate where she was stabbed; it would have all remained inside the car. She was stabbed in the left side of her back, at an upward angle of 10 to 15 degrees that tracked from left to right, consistent with her being stabbed as she attempted to exit the passenger side of a car. Her being dragged out of a carcould cause the low velocity blood drops. She was set down on the ground long enough for a large blood pool to accumulate (possibly so that the assailant(s) could shut off a cars headlights, engine, etc.). This theory makes more sense than the scenario of a 15-year-old kid, who was 5'10" and weighed less than 120 pounds, who didn't know the victim and had never seen her before to have, on a school night, killed her with a single stab wound and with such force that it broke one of her ribs (in the cases I have heard of where a juvenile stabbed someone they stabbed them over and over, not just once), and, despite the fact that this was a bloody crime scene, left absolutely no physical evidence.
III The State claims Tim snuck out through his bedroom window sometime after 1:20 am. to surprise attack Peggy Hettrick.
A. Assuming Peggy walked to Landings Drive, for Tim to have committed this crime, he would have to have known she would be coming by sometime after 1:20 am., lay in waiting or he would have to have seen her going past his house and then quickly get dressed, grab a knife, scalpel and flashlight and egress his home.
1) Somehow he would have to have known that Peggy would be coming past his home at some time after 1:20 am. The State claims that Peggy walked in that area all the time, so Tim must have seen her walk by before. Officer Ray Martinez, when speaking of the 1987 interview with Tim, told jurors "At different times during the interview he said he'd never seen her; but at one point he said well maybe I did, but it might have been in a crowd." His actual words from the 1987 interview follow:
Officer Hal Dean: "Did this lady look familiar to you at all?"
Tim: "Nope."
Dean: "Had you ever seen her before?"
Tim: "Not that I know of. I might have seen her in a crowd or something but..."
Dean: "Not that you can remember?"
Tim: "I didn't recognize her."
Dean: "Had you ever seen her around your home?"
Tim: "No."
Peggy worked from 12:00 to 9:00 pm. Neither Clyde Masters, Bridget and Lloyd Masters, (Tim's Aunt and Uncle who lived next door) or Tim had ever seen Peggy Hettrick. Since she worked until after dark, none of them would have had the opportunity to see her. Apparently, with the exception of Matt Zoellner, no one near Tim's house had ever seen Peggy before. Scott Regan lived in an apartment complex directly north of the field where Peggy's body was left. He stated that he had never seen Peggy. Leslie Gaines said "There's nobody usually walking around there that late" and that she'd "never seen Peggy Hettrick before." Hal Gundlech was a bouncer at the Laughing Dog Saloon, a bar Peggy was said to frequent. When shown a picture of Peggy, he did not recognize her. Jimmie J Defece lived at Foothills Meadows, the same apartment complex as Peggy, and he had never seen her before. If no one in the area has ever seen her before and, as Leslie Gaines said "there's nobody usually walking around there that late" then we can realistically say that it was unusual for Peggy to have been in that area that late at night. If Peggy walked when she left the Prime Minister, there was no way Tim could have known she would be walking by that late and on a school night and stay up late waiting for her. Furthermore, Officer Gonzales testified at Tim's trial that there were no indications of somebody kneeling down in the dirt, as if lying in waiting.
2) If she walked past Tim's house, he would not have been able to see her. There were no streetlights in 1987 near Tim's home. Both Landings Drive and Boardwalk Drive lacked any lighting, making it a very dark area. Bill Becker had walked south on Landings Drive on Feb. 11, 1987 shortly after 6:00 am, and he said that it was dark at that time even though there was a full moon out. Police described Landings Drive as a "dark road" in their affidavit to arrest Tim. You just could not see someone walking in that area at nighttime. To top it off, Tim Masters had, and still has, poor eyesight. In 1988, when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was sent to have a physical examination, it was determined that his eyesight was around 50/20 in one eye and 40/20 in the other. He was diagnosed with astigmatism, a refractive defect of the lenses of the eye that prevents focusing of sharp, distinct images. It takes a while for eyesight to deteriorate from 20/20 to 50/20, so this defect in Tim's eyes didn't just occur in one year. He had bad eyesight in 1987. Darkness of nighttime only exacerbates the effects of astigmatism. Had the area been free from obstruction, and minimal light present, Tim still would not have seen Peggy walking by. For the sake of argument, let's say that someone walked past Tim's home in broad daylight. Tim's bedroom window faced due north. Right outside his window was a large Elm tree (see attached maps and diagrams). Along the east property line, at the apex of the hill Tim lived on, stood a 20-foot row of small Elm trees. If someone were walking north on Landings Drive, because of these obstructions, even with 20/20 vision Tim would not have been able to see them until they were near the end of his property line, about 80 yards from his window. For Tim to catch that person to "surprise attack them from behind" he would have to get dressed, grab his "survival knife, scalpel, and his red-covered flashlight" exit the house so quietly that his father (a light sleeper who woke when Tim got up to use the bathroom) would not hear and wake. In order to catch the person before they reached the spot where the blood pool was, Tim would have to sprint all the way, yet be quiet enough not to be heard by the person walking. This is very improbable. Both of these scenarios are unlikely. If Tim had waited for Peggy, there would have been impressions in the dirt. Where were the footprints? Where were the incriminating scents that the K-9 units didn't find? Where was the physical evidence; the bloody clothes, bloody knife, bloody knife sheath, or blood-covered shoes? Why was there no blood on his red covered flashlight, in Tim's house, around Tim's windows or doors? Why was no blood found in any of the sink drains that were taken from Tim's home? Why were no footprints found outside Tim's window? None of these things were found because Tim Masters is innocent of this crime.
B. Tim had to get up for school daily at 6:00 am during the school year. His weekday schedule kept him awake from 6:00 am until 11:00 pm. Tim was never awake past 11:30 on school nights. It is unlikely that Tim would be able to function normally for the next few days if he were to be awake after 1:20 am on a school night. If the States scenario were true, Tim would have been dozing off to sleep during police interviews on Feb. 11, 12, and 13, 1987. States scenario leaves Tim less than four hours and forty minutes of sleep the night of Feb. 10, 1987.
IV The State claims Peggy Hettrick was stabbed with a survival knife by a left handed assailant.
Peggy Hettrick was stabbed with a large, rigid blade. She was stabbed with so much force that the knife went into her 5 inches while simultaneously breaking a rib.
A. Larimer County Coroner Dr. Pat Allen, who testified as the States medical expert at Tim's trial, stated, "It takes a good force, a considerable force to fracture a rib." In 1987 Tim Masters was 15-years-old, 5' 10" tall, and weighed less than 120 pounds. He was very skinny, and not very strong. In an interview with Ben Henderson, a neighbor of Tim's who is two years older than he is, Ben told police he didn't believe Tim could commit this crime. Ben said he didn't believe Masters was strong enough to commit that type of violent act." He described Tim as a "very thin, weak-looking individual." Police tell us that Ben told them he wouldn't have believed Masters if he had said he had done the homicide, and then made a semicircle with his fingers, stating that Masters arms were that big, indicating that Tim was not at all muscular at that time. There was no way that Tim's 15 year old skinny frame could have mustered the force required to drive a knife 5 inches into someone while simultaneously breaking a rib. Tim was just not strong enough.
B. The reason the State claims a survival knife was used is: Tim had six survival knives in his knife collection. Their "evidence" to prove a survival knife killed Peggy is:
1) Dr. Allen, when describing the blunt end of the knife wound said "It has a little bit of an irregularity to it." (see diagram below) When asked his opinion regarding what caused the little irregularity Dr. Allen stated "That could come from a number of things. For instance, an irregular back of a knife, a saw edge on the back of the knife, sometimes it can be caused by some twisting motion of the knife. Now I'm not a knife wound expert, but if a five inch long serrated blade had inflicted the wound I would expect to find more than just a "little bit of an irregularity" on the top, or blunt end of the knife wound. I would think that a 5 inch long serrated edge-would cause extensive damage coming out of the wound.
2) Police asked the F.B.I. to do a Knife Test Cut Comparison. Basically this test consists of making cuts in a victims clothing with various knives and comparing these cuts to the original cut made during a crime. This test failed to eliminate all six of Tim's survival knives as the possible weapon used to stab Peggy. At first look, this sounds like something significant, until you actually look at how different the blades were on the knives that were not eliminated. Tim owned six survival knives in 1987.
This test was worthless. Look at the differences between the three knives. One of them is 10 inches long. This test can't even determine that two of the three very different blades were not the weapon used to kill Peggy. This test just tells us what we already knew from the County Coroner; a large, rigid blade at least 5 inches long killed Peggy.
C. The F.B.I. and C.B.I. crime labs tested all of Tim's knives for blood, skin, DNA, etc. The only thing found on any of Tim's knives was his blood. If one of his knives were the murder weapon, you would expect to find some sort of physical evidence. Blood or skin on the blade or inside the sheath--there would have to be something. The only explanation for the complete lack of physical evidence is that Tim did not commit this crime.
D. In August 1987, a 13-year-old boy named Greg Shade found a survival knife in a ditch that fed water into Warrens Lake. Because it was similar in style to some of Tim's knives, the State claims that it was Tim's knife and the murder weapon. As previously stated, Tim owned six survival knives in 1987. He was such a pack-rat that he still had all six of the corresponding boxes each knife had come packaged in from the manufacturer. Tim had also drawn pictures of his knife collection showing clearly six survival knives. There was no seventh empty box in Tim's home. There were no pictures of Tim's knife collection showing seven survival knives. There was always just the six. Furthermore, the knife Greg Shade found in the lake inlet was never proven to be the murder weapon. Greg said that he found the knife on top of the dirt and it was very clean (i.e. no dirt, mud, rust, etc.) Greg did not think the knife had been there very long because he played there everyday and he felt he would have seen the knife before unless it was just recently placed there. This knife was tested for blood, skin, DNA, etc. and nothing was found on it. Police admitted at Tim's trial that they don't know if that knife is the murder weapon, and they have no evidence to conclude that it was the murder weapon. All they can say is that it could not "be eliminated."
V The State claims that Tim Masters dragged Peggy Hettrick's body 103 feet into the empty field.
Peggy Hettrick's body was dragged over 103 feet from the curb at Landings Drive into an empty field, leaving behind a furrowed drag trail described by some as "the bloody drag trail." At least half of the drag trail had blood in and around it.
A. Peggy Hettrick was never actually weighed. She was 5'2" and the County coroner estimated her body (which had been bled "dry") to weigh about 110-115 pounds. Once again, in 1987 Tim Masters was 5' 10" and weighed less than 120 pounds. At school he was called such names as "Beanstalk" and "Toothpick." People had told him that he was nothing but "skin and bones" and that his arms were the same diameter from wrist to shoulder. Greg Shade was only 13-years-old and in 1987, although he was four inches shorter than Tim, he weighed 130 pounds, or 10 pounds more than Tim. Greg was not considered to be a big kid, yet he weighed more at 13-year-old than Tim Masters did at 15-years--old. Former classmate Wayne Lawson testified that in 1987, he was small and he thought that Tim was little. With Tim's size and strength in 1987, there was no way he could have dragged someone who weighed as much as him over 103 feet into a field. Tim may have been capable of dragging someone who weighed the same as him a few feet at a time, then set them down for a minute before picking them back up and continuing on. In this way by dragging them a few feet at a time, Tim could have dragged someone 103 feet. But that is not what happened to Peggy Hettrick. The drag trail went 103 feet into the field with no pauses, or breaks in the trail. By looking at the drag trail we can see that she was dragged the whole 103 feet without any stops.
B. Officer Jim Broderick implied that Tim Masters was strong by stating that Tim did a lot of exercises every day and was involved in lifting heavy weights. He said this because Tim had a "things to do" chart on his bedroom wall with a list of daily exercises such as "do 10 pushups, do 10 sit ups" etc. As we all know, making a chart of exercises you want to do that you know you should do daily, does not mean you actually do them. Even if Tim was able to do these exercises daily, sets of 10 pushups is not exactly strenuous. It doesn't take much strength to do 10 pushups. When I was in the sixth grade I did sets of 10 pushups in GYM along with my entire class. Even the weakest kids could do 10 pushups. As far as the lifting of heavy weights, Tim's father had just bought him a 90-pound barbell set to try and put some "meat on Tim's bones". Obviously, from other witness statements, Tim had not yet actually "put any meat on his bones."
C. I will go into more detail on this subject later, but it is highly unlikely Tim Masters could drag the bleeding body of Peggy Hettrick over 103 feet yet have none of Peggy's blood on his person or property.
VI The State claims Peggy Hettrick's body was intentionally positioned so that it faced Tim's Home.
A. In their affidavit to arrest Tim and during his trial the State claimed that Peggy Hettrick's body was positioned so that it faced Tim's home in full view from his bedroom window. They claimed the drag trail traveled west and then turned sharply north in order to position the body. I challenge anyone reading this outline to research this for them self. Look at the photographs of Peggy Hettrick's body and the drag trail in the field. Look at the pictures submitted by the State that show the view from Tim's bedroom window.
1) The State claimed Peggy's body faced Tim's home. The truth can be verified through pictures the State submitted into evidence at Tim's trial. Peggy's body did not face Tim's home. Her body had been laid down with her head to the northwest and the feet to the southeast. Tim's home was directly south of her body.
2) Peggy's body was not intentionally positioned anywhere. The drag trail was a meandering S-shape. It did not take any sharp, deliberate turns as the State maintains. Again, pictures entered into evidence at Tim's trial can easily verify this.
3) Pictures showing the view from Tim's bedroom window in 1987 were also entered into evidence by the State. These pictures clearly show a good-sized tree directly outside Tim's window that blocked his view of the field. Before this picture was taken, a 2-foot tall 2 x 2 board was placed in the field where Peggy's body had been the day before. To prove Peggy's body was clearly visible from Tim's window the District Attorney showed Officer Broderick this photo and asked him to describe it. Their testimony follows:
"That's a photograph I directed the lab technician to take from the window from the inside of Timothy Lee Masters bedroom looking north into the field where the body was found the day prior."
"And peoples exhibit 84?"
"That's a photograph of the same field from the fence line... You can barely make out the body."
The District Attorney asked Officer Broderick if he determined whether or not a body in that field could be seen from Tim Masters's window. His answer: "...I took an approximately two foot piece of 2 x 2 and put it where the body was so I'd get some sort of visual marker when I was in his bedroom to see if I could see the body."
"Could you see your visual marker?"
"I could."
Then why wasn't his visual marker clearly visible in exhibit 83 (the photo taken from Tim's Bedroom) You can bet that if it really was visible they would have pointed it out in the photo. Peggy's body was not visible from Tim's home. On February 11, 1987 Detective Wheeler had to bring Clyde Masters all the way to fence at the end of his property line to point out Peggy's body to him.
B. Throughout the course of Tim's trial the State said "Tim knew that area like the back of his hand. He knew every street, and every ditch." If Tim Masters "positioned" Peggy's body in that field so that she faced his home and would be visible from there, why wasn't her body positioned somewhere that actually faced and was visible from his home? Like the State said "Tim knew that area like the back of his hand," so why wasn't her body in one of the many places that were visible from Tim's home?
VII The State alluded there was incriminating footprint evidence in the empty field.
A. During closing arguments at Tim's trial, District Attorneys told the jury there should be a path through the field if Tim walked through it daily. Consider this; from September 1986 to February 1987 Tim had walked through the field daily to catch his school bus. There was no path there when Tim began the school year. When you walk through an empty field (ie: one with no path), do you walk in the same spot every time? No, you might walk close to the same spot, but always to the left or to the right of where you previously walked. This is because there is no path so you don't know where you walked previously. In order to make a path through that field Tim would have to had taken the same exact route, or at least walked within inches of the course he had taken the last few days. Tim did walk through that field everyday. There were hundreds of his footprints in the field coming and going to and from his bus stop. If you take a look at a map of the area (see map) that shows the locations of Tim's home and his bus stop you will see that the most direct--the most logical route--from Tim's home to his bus stop is right through the empty field where Peggy's body was left. It would not make sense for Tim to take any other route to catch his bus.
B. The State spoke in particular of four photographs of footprints. These were labeled exhibit 11 (also called footprint #2), exhibit 12, exhibit 13, and exhibit 14. 1 will briefly detail these photos:
1) Exhibit 11, or as it was most often referred to Footprint #2 was an athletic style shoe print that was on top of the drag trail in the middle of the field, oriented from east to west, and between Peggy's body and the street curb.
2) Exhibit 12 was a photo of a footprint somewhere in the soft dirt. Officer Swihardt said, "As I recall, I believe that was the one that was found toward the sewer lid." The sewer lid was estimated by Officer Swihardt to be 30 feet form the blood pool. He believes exhibit 12 was oriented to the north, or facing towards the drag trail.
3) Exhibit 13 was a photo of a footprint of what appears to be an athletic style shoe. When asked if he was able to "determine, generally" where the print was, he said, "I believe they were to the right side, or the north side of the drag trail." He thought this because "This appears to be the second photograph from the roll - it would have been in this area right here, right around the - fairly close to the beginning of the blood trail."
4) Exhibit 14 was a photo of a footprint in the dirt. Once again, the testimony was that it appeared to be "some type of athletic shoe." Officer Swihardt said "What's significant about this particular photograph is you can see there's some red in the blood----or in the dirt here, which is part of the blood trail which led from the sidewalk to the victim's body." In general, he said, this print was slightly west of the previous photo (exhibit 13). All of these footprints may have been Tim's. We don't know for sure because the F.B.I. was unable to make a positive association between photographs, castings, and Tim's tennis shoes from 1987. Even if all four of these prints were Tim's, none of them are incriminating. Footprint #2 may have been Tim's footprint from when he walked through the field at 6:55 am February I Ith on the way to catch his school bus. Footprint #2 was oriented from East to West, with the toes pointing towards the body, not the other way
around as if it were left by someone running away or dragging a body. Officer Taylor said that because Footprint #2 was on top of the drag trail, his assumption was that it was left after the drag trail was created. If that print had been made by someone dragging Peggy's body, it would not be on top of the drag trail. Peggy's feet would have furrowed right through it, obliterating it. Footprint #2, along with Clyde Masters statement that Tim I veered off' from his usual course proves that Tim did not commit this crime. Had Tim committed this crime, he would have known a body was in the field and walked straight towards it. But Tim only altered his course when he noticed something unusual in the field. We can tell this by the sudden transition from north to west between Footprint #2 and the one before it. If exhibits 12-14 were Tim's prints, they were most likely left when Tim had walked through the field everyday for the past five months. Exhibit 12 was oriented to the north, the direction of Tim's normal daily travel. Unfortunately, we don't know the orientation of exhibits 13 and 14, but a safe assumption would be that they were also headed north, towards Tim's bus stop. When questioned about the footprint evidence, Officer Swihardt testified, "There were some problems as far as determining the exact location of each one because we did not use numbered markers to keep track of the footprints". He goes on to say that "We are not able to precisely document where each footwear impression was." He was also asked "When you look at these photos, you can't say precisely where they are found?" to which he replied, "That's correct." The police did not measure them from a known point of reference nor did they use markers to keep track of which print was which, and they did not document the orientations of the impressions. If we are to rely on Officer Swihardt's memory of where shoe impressions (of which 100's were photographed.) castings, and orientations were, then consider this; when asked if there was a sidewalk along the west curb of Landings Drive he said, "I believe there was." Not 20 minutes before, he had been shown a photo of the area that clearly showed a sidewalk only along the east side of the street. Consider this as well; The State took every pair of shoes that Tim owned and sent them off for analysis. No blood was found on any of Tim's shoes (top or bottom, inside or out). The State used this fact, which should have helped prove Tim's innocence, to bolster their case by claiming that there should have been blood on Tim's shoes, and since there was none, he must have cleaned them and therefore must be guilty. The footprint in exhibit 14 may have had blood in it, but that's because the print was days, weeks or even months old. Tim didn't step in blood, blood dripped into his already existing footprint. Even Footprint #2, the print that was on top of the drag trail that Tim may have made when he walked through the field to catch his bus the morning of February 11, was in a section of the drag trail where there was no blood. There was no blood on Tim's shoes because Tim never stepped anywhere where there was blood. The person(s) who committed this crime most assuredly had blood all over their shoes, top and bottom.
C. The drag trail was over 103 feet long and Tim's footprints do not correspond to the assailants anywhere. His prints were all over that field from where he walked through it daily. There were hundreds of his prints traveling from his house to the north, where his bus stop was. Yet none of his prints were near the soft shoulder dirt by the blood pool, along the drag trail (except for Footprint #2 which I've already discussed), or near the body. There were none of Tim's footprints going from the blood pool to the body, from the body to the blood pool, or from the body to Tim's home.
D. Police did find shoe impressions in the soft dirt at the curb near the pool of blood made by Thom McAn dress shoes. At trial, District Attorney Jolene Blair attempts to downplay the significance of these shoe impressions by saying, "The Thom McAn prints were about six feet away from where Peggy Hettrick was stabbed." She also stated, "Nowhere else on the drag trail do you find the Thom McAn shoes."
1) Officers Gonzales and Wagner, who were actually at the crime scene on February 11, 1987, noted 12 prints made by the Thom McAn shoes. They did not indicate these prints were "At least six feet away." Officer Gonzales said, "When I was reviewing the pictures from the Hettrick homicide I looked at picture #28. It is a picture of a footprint that was taken near the curb line where the blood trail starts from the 3800 block of Landings Drive.
As mentioned previously, we don't know the geographical location where Peggy was stabbed, but we will assume that Ms. Blair meant the blood pool in the street. Officer Wagner said the Thom McAn prints "Started at the roadway near the victim's blood, traveled towards the body, and stopped after going over the crest of the hill where the small berm near the body in the field was." She also said the prints were spaced from 1.1 feet all the way to 5.4 feet apart. These officers' statements seem to imply the Thom McAn prints were very close to where the blood pool in the street was.
2) We only find 12 Thom McAn prints because the dirt in the field farther out than the 12th print becomes hard packed in places. You don't see any prints in and along the drag trail because, most of them, were obliterated by Peggy's feet furrowing through them. There were only two or three prints along the drag trail that were not obliterated, and they were of such poor quality that no match could be made.
Tim Masters never owned a pair of Thom McAn shoes. Tim's father never owned a pair either. Whose were they? Who made those footprint impressions? Whoever it was that made those footprints: got closer to the blood pool than Tim Masters did. By Ms. Blair's account, the Thom McAn prints were "about six feet" from the blood pool. None of the footprints alleged to be Tim's were within six feet of the blood pool. It seems odd to me that someone would run/walk through a dirty field while wearing dress shoes when there was a sidewalk along the east side of Landings Drive. Also odd was the fact that these prints did not run along Landings Drive, but went into the field. They were only in the area of the crime scene. I would think that Thom McAn dress shoes would be the kind of footwear someone would wear if they were dressed up and patronizing a nightclub, such as the Prime Minister. Barb Kohlner said, "Peggy was attracted to good dressers or flashy dressed men- those being younger men." We can assume that someone wearing dress shoes would be "dressed up."
E. Logic would dictate that if there really was footprint evidence that incriminated Tim Masters, the State would have charged him in 1987, rather than waiting until 1998.
VIII The State claims Peggy Hettrick was mutilated with a scalpel.
A. Peggy Hettrick's left nipple and skin from her vaginal area had been excised with a sharp instrument.
1) Dr. Allen testified that the area of the brown skin of her left nipple, approximately 30mm x 26mm had been removed. He further stated "The margins are relatively sharp in most areas, a little bit ragged towards the upper medial ends." He also notes "The knife has been repositioned to take only brown skin."
2) Dr. Allen testified that from Peggy's vaginal area an inverted "Y' shape, approximately 45mm x 25mm had been removed.
He said there were "Several superficial cuts to the crotch." He called these cuts "Tracing" or "Hesitation cuts." Dr. Allen said that to excise the skin in this area "The skin would definitely have to be manipulated and moved around."
Dr. Allen is used to making incisions to the human body using a scalpel. So it stands to reason that the first thing that would come to his mind when examining Peggy's body is a scalpel made the excisions. Dr. Allen said that in 21 years as a coroner he had never observed mutilations like this. How qualified is Dr. Allen to give an opinion regarding the method of mutilation of something he has never seen before? He did admit that Peggy's nipple might have been removed with a knife. However, he felt that a knife could not have removed Peggy's vaginal skin because he did not believe there was enough room to fit a knife between Peggy's legs. Remember that he had testified, "The skin would definitely have to be manipulated and moved around" to make the excision. This means the assailant had to be able to fit at least one hand down there along with a "sharp instrument" to remove her skin. If he could fit a hand between her legs, then he could fit an inch and a half wide blade as well. Perhaps the "tracing" or "hesitation cuts" he spoke of were from the assailant trying to maneuver a large blade in a confined area. One very interesting comment about what Dr. Allen said, If you would have to exert a force on the skin (i.e. pull on it) while cutting, you would need two hands to do so. How could Tim have held his "Red-covered" flashlight that the district Attorneys said Tim used to commit this crime?
B. One of Tim's knives came from the manufacturer with a scalpel included as part of the survival kit. The State argued at Tim's trial that his scalpel excised the body parts. There was no blood, skin, DNA, fiber evidence, etc. on Tim's scalpel blade. The only certain fact in this case is that a sharp tool removed the body parts. I've known many people who kept their knives sharp enough to have accomplished cuts in the clean manner we see in this case. I have a survival knife that I keep today that could easily make these types of cuts. Also, a scalpel blade by itself is fairly small. Would it be capable of making the clean excisions like we see in this case in one pass? How hard would it be to wield a scalpel blade without the handle on a cold February morning? On February 11, 1987, at 8:00 am it was only 39 degrees Fahrenheit outside. How much colder was it outside during the early morning hours before the sun had risen?
C. Forensic Psychologist Reid Meloy states, "It is likely that he [the assailant) would still have the missing body parts as souvenirs." In 1998 a man in his thirty's names Wayne Ford walked into a Kern County Sheriffs office in Bakersfield California and confessed to killing women. He brought with him a Ziploc baggy with a woman's severed breast inside. Over the years he had killed dozens of women and excised their body parts. He still had his victim's body parts at his residence in Northern California. If Wayne Ford fits the profile of a typical sexual murderer we see that:
~ He was in his thirties
~ He began killing in his mid to late twenties
~ He was a serial killer
~ He kept his victims' body parts
Another case involving a sexual homicide is described in John Douglas's book "Mind Hunter." He tells of a 90-pound woman who was found murdered, tied up spread eagle on the roof of her apartment building with her breast eviscerated. Her wallet was found in the apartment stairwell by a 15 year-old boy. Mr. Douglas, a famed Forensic Psychologist, said, "I was willing to rule out the 15 year old boy who found the wallet based solely on this. Based on my experience, I could not imagine someone of that age treating the body this way. This advanced sexual fantasy would take years to develop." What was the profile of the person Mr. Douglas believed committed that crime?
~ White male age 25-30, disheveled appearance
~ Unemployed
~ No military experience
~ High School dropout
~ First murder, but if not caught, not his last
A thorough search of 15- year-old Tim Master's residence was conducted in 1987, and later in 1998. No physical evidence has ever been found to link Tim to this homicide. People don't just murder and mutilate a human being and then go on to live a normal life. Tim is accused of killing and mutilating Peggy Hettrick and then living a normal life for the next 11 years.
D. Despite their own expert's testimony that it would have "required some skill to remove the skin", the State claims a 15-year-old boy who had never skinned and animal and never had sex with a woman, would know enough about a woman's anatomy from seeing 2-dimentional photos in pornographic magazines to be able to commit this mutilation. Whoever did this was not some 15-year-old kid. It had to be someone who had "been around." They made neat, clean excisions. They took just what they wanted and they knew enough about the female body to know just what they wanted.
IX The State says Peggy was "Blitz" attacked from behind by a left handed assailant.
A. The State's "Proof" that Peggy was attacked by a left handed assailant was the location of the wound in Peggy's back, the lack of defensive wounds, and some minor, linear abrasions on Peggy's left check.
1) Peggy Hettrick's fatal stab wound was in her left side, shoulder blade region; 13 3/4 inches from the top of her head. The blade proceeded from back to front, and from 20 degrees left to right at an upward angle of 5 degrees. District Attorney Blair said, "Now if you come square on behind somebody and you try to leave a stab wound in the left shoulder blade that's slightly left to right in a slightly upwards angle, which hand are you going to use?" Well, Ms. Blair, in that particular scenario you would use the left hand. However, the fact that Peggy was stabbed in the left side does not prove a left-handed assailant killed her. There is no evidence that somebody was square behind Peggy when they stabbed her. If Peggy were turning to her left when the assailant struck her, you would have the same knife angle we see here. If the assailant attacked her from sideways, or from her left side, or if she was turned to her right in an attempt to exit the passenger's side of a car when she was stabbed the wound would be consistent with the one in Peggy's back. If we knew where Peggy and the assailant were positioned when she was fatally stabbed, then we could make some inferences as to which hand the assailant used. However, we have no idea where either of them were when the stabbing occurred. Neither the F.B.I. nor the state's privately retained expert Tom Bevel could reconstruct the crime scene.
2) Peggy may have had some defensive wounds. There was a cut on her left finger and a tear in the fabric of her left blouse cuff.
3) There were linear abrasions on her left cheek with the skin plied upwards from chin to head. There was one large abrasion and two smaller ones. These abrasions occurred before Peggy died. We have no idea when or how these abrasions occurred. They may have been made with the assailant's fingernails. Fingernail scrapings were taken from Tim Masters during his 1987 interview. The States case gets a little murky here, but basically Officer Broderick testified that he remembered Tim's fingernails being very short (implying they were clean from having recently been cut). Then, they put a C.B.I. analyst who had analyzed Tim's fingernail scrapings, on the stand. She testified that she found cotton fibers that where microscopically consistent with Peggy Hettrick's jeans. During the 1987 interview while taking fingernail scrapings Tim made the comment, "They look dirty right now," because he was embarrassed about how dirty his fingernails were Officer Broderick responded, "They're all right, but you got stuff up there, make sure it goes in [the bag]." Tim would not have made the embarrassing comment that his fingernails were dirty if they were as clean and short as Jim Broderick implied when he testified in 1999. There is no mention in the 1987 interview transcripts or in Jim Broderick's police reports that Tim's fingernails were short and clean. We are supposed to rely on Jim Broderick's assertion that eleven years later he remembers that Tim had short fingernails. If Tim's fingernails were as short as insinuated, why was a C.B.I. lab technician called to testify about cotton fibers found in Tim's fingernail scrapings? Now I will talk about the cotton fibers found in Tim's fingernail scrapings that the State pretended were somehow incriminating. The C.B.I. lab technician went on to say the cotton fibers in Tim's fingernails "would be consistent with many other blue jeans also". The blue that is used in blue denim is a common dye used by most manufacturers and therefore, would be a fairly common color. The cotton fiber is, likewise, common." Tim Masters wore blue jeans everyday in 1987. These cotton fibers were from the jeans that Tim was wearing during the 1987 interview when they took his fingernail scrapings. It is unlikely that someone could commit this crime without getting any blood, skin, DNA, etc. from the victim on them or under their fingernails and yet, somehow have cotton fibers from the victims jeans. There was blood all over Peggy's jeans. If jean fibers from her were under Tim's fingernails there would be blood there too.
B. The State came up with this "left handed assailant" theory because they believe Tim Masters is left-handed. They say that Tim is left handed but somewhat ambidextrous. That couldn't be farther from the truth. Ambidextrous is defined as, "Capable of using both hands with equal facility." Tim writes with his left hand. When he was five years old he broke his right arm, so while his arm was in a cast he had to learn to write with his left hand for school. Everything else he does right handed. He plays sports right handed. He throws a ball right handed. Police have never found a single pair of left-handed scissors in Tim's home. Tim earned a living working as an Aircraft Mechanic. A commonly used tool of his trade is a pair of tin-snips. Although left- handed tin-snips are available, all of Tim's tools are for a right-handed individual. If Tim really were left-handed, wouldn't it be reasonable to expect him to at least do things left-handed?
X Tim Masters saw Peggy Hettrick's body at 6:55 am and did not tell anyone until 10:00 am.
A. Tim Master's initial reaction was that he saw a mannequin and that someone was playing a sick joke. Linwood Hodgdon, the 3 8 -year-old bicycle rider who reported Peggy's body, thought that he was seeing a mannequin also. He said, "My initial reaction when I looked into the field was that it was a mannequin, there was a mannequin lying in the field." He goes on to say "I glanced down and saw a pool of blood in the street..."
His observation of the pool of blood is what changed his impression from "mannequin" to "body." Linwood Hodgdon was a 38-year-old man, with all of the acquired knowledge that comes with age. At 15-years-old Tim was still just a kid. He did not have Mr. Hodgdon's years of acquired knowledge. The pool of blood that changed Mr. Hodgdon's mind was not visible from the path that Tim took every morning. Furthermore, Tim's not immediately telling somebody about seeing something disturbing was consistent with his personality. In 1984, Tim had been propositioned by a pedophile who, had been masturbating in his car. Tim says this shocked the hell out of him; He never told anyone about the incident until 1987.
B. The State claimed that Tim's reaction to seeing the body was "emotionless" My first question for them would be, "Where were you hiding?" Because Tim says he does not remember seeing any of the District Attorneys out there in the field at 6:55 in the morning when he saw the body. Tim's reaction was not emotionless. He was in a state of shock as he caught his school bus. He says he was thinking, "Did I just see a body? No! There's no way a body would be in a field behind my house. This is Fort Collins Colorado, not L.A. or New York. Things like that don't happen here." And after he was on his school bus he says that all that morning he thought, "Maybe it wasn't a mannequin. Maybe I should go back after school and double check." Tim's reaction to seeing the body and not believing it was real might seem pretty dumb to us, but kids don't believe bad things like murders will happen near them. You can bet that Tim's reaction to seeing something that might be a body would be much different today.
C. The State says Tim "blurred fantasy with reality" because he could not accurately describe Peggy's attire and he did not see her excised breast.
1) Tim was pretty much wrong about all of Peggy's attire. He thought she had been wearing pink boots, blue jeans, and a dark shirt with the number 10 on it. Her boots were actually red (so he was close on the boots), she had blue jeans on, and she had a light colored blouse and a dark denim jacket on. Throughout all of his conversations with police Tim told them he was not sure about Peggy's attire. It was understood in 1987 that Tim was, guessing' about her attire.' When asked to describe what he saw Linwood Hodgdon described her attire as "I noticed that the individual had on some shoes" and "I noticed what I thought was a white sweater or a white blanked." Neither 15-year-old Tim nor 38-year-old Hodgdon were trained police officers. They had not been trained to remember everything they saw at a crime scene. This does not mean either of them blurred fantasy with reality. They just did not pay attention to Peggy's attire.
2) Mr. Hodgdon did not see any breast exposed on Peggy Hettrick's body. Officer Swihardt (the first police officer at the scene) never states that he saw her breasts exposed when he approached Peggy's body. What he does say is he noticed her excised nipple after he checked and found the body cold to the touch. This man was close enough to touch the body before he mentions seeing the left breast. Furthermore, all of the police officers saw Peggy's body later in the morning than Tim did, so the sun was much higher in the sky giving them more light than when Tim saw the body at 6:55 in the morning. They also all approached Peggy's body from the west, while Tim had seen the body from the east. When shown a photo taken from an easterly angle (similar to Tim's approach that morning) Officer Jack Taylor testified "...not visible is the nipple having been removed. The coat kind of covers-or the picture doesn't show it real well from that particular angle."
3) The State claims Tim stood within five feet of Peggy's body and looked at it for 10 seconds. He actually told police the he thought he looked at the body for 1-10 seconds, and estimated he was 4-6 feet away. These were the estimates of a kid. Officer Swihardt said that there were no footprints near Peggy's body when he first approached it. Then he later points out some footprints in a photo taken after other officers had been in the field that showed footprints around her body. So the area around her body was soft enough dirt to see footprints, yet there were none there when Officer Swihardt first approached. So Tim did not get within 5-feet of the body, or footprints would have been near the body.
D. They accuse Tim of being so smart that there was not a single piece of physical evidence to link him to the crime. At the same time they accuse him of killing someone and leaving the body in a field he had to walk through daily to catch his bus. Not immediately reporting having seen the body must be some part of Tim's "master plan." So Tim is so smart as to leave no physical evidence, but the best he could come up with is he thought the body was a mannequin. If Tim was so smart that he left no evidence behind he is not going to leave a body in a field he has to walk through everyday. He is also not going to walk along his usual path to his bus stop and only alter his course after seeing something unusual in the field. As stated before, If Tim killed Peggy Hettrick, he would have known a body was in the field and walked straight to it. This is what a peer of Tim's had to say about his intelligence; Ben Anderson told police Tim "seemed to have an I.Q. of about 70." Tim's grades in school were C's, D's, and F's. He was a below average student.
XI The State claims Peggy Hettrick looked like Tim's mother and this crime was a displaced matricide.
A. It is not debatable that Peggy Hettrick was murdered near the anniversary of Tim's mother's death. Tim lost his mother on Saturday, February 12, 1983. Peggy was murdered (depending on how you look at it) on the night of February 10 or the morning of February 11, 1987. Did Tim even realize the significance of the date, February 12th? During his February 12, 1987 interrogation, Officer Hal Dean asked Tim "When did your mom die?" Tim replied, "About four years ago." Tim's mother had died exactly four years ago to the day, but Tim didn't even realize it. Perhaps, that's because, with the exceptions of birthdays and Christmas, most kids do not pay much attention to dates. Also, Tim always recalled the time of his mother's death as "We took her to the hospital on a Friday, and she died the next Saturday." Tim says that in 1987, neither him nor his father realized any significance about the date until his father brought out and looked at Margaret Masters death certificate.
B. I don't believe I need to go into this much, but the idea that Tim would have known Peggy Hettrick would be near his home, near the anniversary of his mothers death is ludicrous. I've already spoken of this; there is no way Tim could know that Peggy would be in the area that night.
C: The State decided that Tim had anger towards his mother, so he must have killed an innocent woman that they say looked like Margaret Masters (Tim's Mother).
1) Would a 15-year--old boy commit a displaced matricide and/or remove sexual body parts?
2) Peggy Hettrick did not look like Tim's mother. Peggy had red hair, stood 5' 2", weighed somewhere around 115 pounds, and was 36-years-old in 1987. Margaret Masters had brown, graying hair, stood 5' 8", weighed around 150 pounds, and was 43-years-old when she died. These two women looked nothing alike.
3) The State decided Tim had anger towards his mother for dying and leaving him. They have no evidence to support this theory; they just say it is so. One of the States witnesses, Pamela Sachs-Kapp, who was Tim's High School counselor explained to Tim that being angry at the person who died is part of the normal grieving process. She didn't think Tim had properly grieved over his mother's death because Tim was never angry with his mother for dying.
XII The State argued Tim possessed some sort of knowledge of the crime known only to the killer and the Fort Collins police.
A. It is very disturbing to a 15-year-old kid to see the body of a murder victim. As a child, Tim would often draw pictures of things that shocked or frightened him in such a manner as to make light of them. For instance, in October 1986 a former classmate named Nick Mize was hit by a car and killed. Tim was shocked and disturbed over Nick's death. He drew cartoons of a person being hit by a Volkswagen Bug, thereby lessening the impact of his friend's death. Just because Tim drew pictures of a VW Bug hitting someone doesn't mean that Tim killed Nick. A Volkswagen Bug killed Nick, not Tim. The day after seeing the body of Peggy Hettrick, Tim was understandably shocked and disturbed by what he had seen. In class the next day (February 12, 1987), Tim drew a picture of a man with arrows sticking out of his chest being dragged. Twelve years later the State claimed the drawing was some sort of confession because there was no way for Tim to know the victim was dragged into the field.
1) Officer Gonzales spoke to Tim at 10:00 am the day he saw the body. While speaking to Tim he asked if Tim had seen the "drag trail." In fact, several Police Officers spoke of "the drag trail" to Tim that day. The drag trail made by Peggy's feet looked as if someone had plowed the ground. Peggy's feet faced the street. It does not take a genius to see that she was dragged into the field. Once Linwood Hodgdon realized it was a body in the field he says he saw "The blood pool and the drag trail." This civilian had no problem identifying the deep furrow as a drag trail.
2) The drawing Tim made depicted one character dragging another by the armpits. No one is sure what way Peggy was dragged into the field. Most of the original investigating Officers thought that Peggy was dragged by her hands. Both Dr. Allen and Officer Taylor thought Peggy had been dragged by her hands because of the way her arms were positioned above her head. Officer Broderick stated in one of his reports that the dirt on the heal of Peggy's boot was "exactly where you would have it accumulate if you were dragged by the arms with the heals creating furrows in the dirt."
3) Many witnesses testified at Tim's trial as to how detailed his drawings were. In the drag drawing the characters have no knife. There is no "red-covered" flashlight. The character being dragged is a male with arrows sticking out of his chest. The characters do not look even close the Peggy Hettrick or Tim.
B). The State entered into evidence a notebook page with a small, abstract drawing Tim had made of a knife cutting the piece of paper it was drawn on. This drawing is reproduced below. The State claims this is a drawing of a knife cutting a vagina. Consider the following:
~~ The State showed dozens of drawings Tim had made of knife cuts and gunshot wounds.
Witnesses testified as to how detailed Tim's drawings were. His horror and war productions were graphic but there was not s single knife wound or gunshot wound that did not show a detailed body, and blood. The knife cutting paper does not show any blood, pubic hair, skin, does not have a body, and if you look at the size of the hand and the knife you will see they are way out of proportion for the drawing to be what the State says it is (not to mention the States theory that a scalpel was used to excise Peggy's body parts).
~~ This was just a tiny little picture drawn in the middle of a page full of math problems. Of course, we all know that math makes a child think about a vagina!
~~ This page was inside one of Tim's Jr. High School notebooks. It was probably a couple of years old in 1987.
C) On February 12, 1987, Tim's former classmate, Wayne Lawson asked Tim where he had seen the body. Tim drew two maps of the area to show him. The State says that these maps and the fact that Tim knew his area of town well are somehow incriminating.
~~ Wayne testified that Tim drew both maps for him on February 12, 1987 because he was curious about where the murder had taken place.
~~ Of course Tim knew the area well. All of the kids knew that area well. Greg Shade was 13-years-old in 1987 he testified that he knew all the streets and ditches in the area.
D. During his 1987 interrogation Tim made a comment about a serrated blade not being a good weapon because it would stick in somebody if you stabbed them with one. The actual conversation between Tim and Jim Broderick went like this:
Broderick: "... The serrated part of it? I mean, is it for ... ?'
Tim: "For cutting through things like trees and stuff. And they say that some of them are supposed to be capable of cutting through the fuselage of an airplane."
Broderick: "Oh yeah?"
Tim: "That's ... That's one of the main purposes I can think of ... cutting through trees."
Broderick: "Well, the other one obviously does a lot of damage when you stab somebody."
Tim: "That'd be kind of hard, though, to pull it back?" Broderick: "Maybe ... maybe not."
The District Attorney ran with Tim's comment, saying, "Now who would come up with that idea?" (That a serrated blade would be hard to remove from a human body) I'll tell you who would come up with that idea, the author of the book "All Quiet on the Western Front." Tim's sixth grade class watched this movie and read the book. One of the characters in this movie/book showed up at the front lines with his bayonet serrated. He is chastised by the experienced soldiers who claim that a serrated blade would get stuck in the enemy soldier's body.
E. In 1992 police talked to Wayne Lawson who told them he had heard somewhere that the victim's nipples had been removed, and he thought he had heard this from Tim. Immediately police sought and obtained an arrest warrant for Tim based on Wayne's statement. Police went to Philadelphia where Tim was serving in the Navy aboard his ship, The U.S.S Constitution to re- interview and arrest Tim. During the interview police learned that many people had heard about Peggy's nipples having been removed. Young Explorers, who were high school kids, helped in the line search of the empty field where Peggy's body was left. They were instructed to look for Peggy's missing body parts. One of those Young Explorers was a girl named Kelly Charvet who sat at Tim's table in art class. She told the five of them who sat at Tim's table that she had participated in a line search of the field and had been instructed to look for the victim's nipples. Rumors like that spread like wildfire throughout the school. Wayne was spoken to again and admitted that he was not sure when or where he had heard about the removed nipples because rumors had been all over the school. It bears reiterating that in 1987 Tim was tag-team interrogated for over 9-hours, and questioned by other officers on other occasions. If 15- year-old Tim had known about Peggy's body being mutilated he would surely have let something slip during these questionings. Tim didn't know about Peggy's removed nipple until Kelly Charvet told him about it.
F. The Prosecution claims Tim knew Peggy Hettrick had pink socks on. They say since Peggy's socks were not visible Tim must have seen her socks during the commission of this crime. Tim never said Peggy had pink socks on. He said he thought it looked like she had blue pants and pink shoes on." Peggy's shoes were light red. Tim saw them at 6:55 in the morning in the poor light of a winter morning. Since Peggy was still wearing her boots, and her pants had been pulled down to her knees, even the assailant would not have known what color socks she was wearing. Officer Broderick's testimony confirms this:
Blair: "And have you had an opportunity to review all of the crime-scene photos, specifically the ones that show Peggy Hettrick's body as it was found in the field February 11th?"
Broderick: "Yes, I have."
Blair: "Could you see from any of these photos the victim's socks?"
Broderick: "There's no way you could see her socks."
As Broderick said, "There's no way you could see her socks." And let's not forget, they accuse Tim of using a "red-covered" flashlight to see with. What color would pink socks appear if they were illuminated by a "red-covered" flashlight? They certainly wouldn't appear pink.
XIII Because of the complete lack of relevant Physical evidence the State resorted to
character assassination to convict Tim.
A. Since they had no physical evidence the State relied on the opinions of a Forensic Psychologist named Reid Meloy, who dissected about 2200 pages of Tim's stories, drawings, personal productions, and publications seized from his property and attempted to link Tim to the crime. Reid Meloy was hired to compare all of Tim's productions to this crime and see if he could formulate a relationship between Tim and the homicide. All of these comparisons were made with Meloy having never spoken to Tim. Without ever meeting Tim or seeing the inside of Tim's home he accused Tim of being "obsessed" with weapons and sexual violence. As Tim's friends and family can attest, Tim's only true obsession is with things mechanical. He bought his home because of the size of the garage it came with. Tim owns thousands of dollars worth of tools and automotive parts. Tim owns hundreds of books and magazines on cars. Having never met Tim and with little knowledge of his life, Meloy claims, that "Tim Masters lives in a fantasy world." He goes on to state that "I've never seen such a large volume of productions before" to imply that because Tim produced close to 2200 pages of stories and drawings in 15-years it must be an obsession, and Tim must live in a fantasy world.
1) As a 15-year-old kid Tim had aspirations of being a writer. During his 1987 interview Tim told detectives he would like to someday publish his stories.
2) A popular author, Piers Anthony, claims to produce about three novels a year. These are usually 300 to 400 pages long. In 15-years Mr. Anthony produces at least 12,500 pages of productions (this does not include his work that is not published). In 15-years Tim produced only 2200 pages (this figure was tallied by Jim Broderick and includes school notebooks, half of which are filled with school work). In 15-years Tim produced only 15% of the volume of an average writer. If all 2200 pages were filled with story's and drawings Tim would have had to produce 2.7 pages a day to total 2200 pages in 15-years. Tim would have had to spend a half hour to an hour a day to accomplish this. That's not very much time to have spent on an obsession."
3) Most of Tim's time since joining the military in 1989 was devoted to work and his automotive hobbies. Tim routinely worked 12-hour days. Between his automotive hobbies and his military duty Tim did not have much time left to live in a fantasy world." Tim worked on million-dollar E-2/C-2 and F/A-18 aircraft. Had he made mistakes in his work, or in inspecting others work someone could have lost their life. Tim could not afford to "live in a fantasy world".
B. The relationship in Tim's productions that Meloy and the State Claim exists between Tim and Peggy is "explicit examples of Tim's obsession with sex and violence", multiple examples of "piquerism", a "hatred towards older women" and "similarities" to Peggy's homicide.
1) If 2200 pages of productions actually contained examples of hatred towards older women and similarities to the crime, why would the State have to pay a Forensic Psychologist $300.00 an hour for six months to explain them? If Tim's productions had contained such things they would not need a psychologist to explain them, they would be obvious.
2) Meloy claims the perpetrators of sexual homicides routinely engage in violent fantasy. In other words, Tim must have committed this homicide because he created violent productions.
A. Meloy does not have a "Base Rate" of 15-year-olds who created violent productions in 1987.
B. Teachers at Tim's High School stated that 70-80% of students participated in violent drawings.
C. Results of a study by Prently and Burges concluded that violent fantasy was present in only 23% of single murders.
D. A study by MacCullock states: "the significance of the link between prior fantasy and behavior would be more obvious if normals did not engage in sadistic fantasy."
E. Prently also said "It is commonly accepted that "normal" people often have sexually deviant fantasies." Is Stephen King a murderer? Is Wes Craven (the creator of a Nightmare on Elm Street) a killer? Writing stories and drawing pictures does not make someone a killer.
3) Meloy claims the purpose of Tim's productions was to "express deeply felt hostility to women in a very private way." As the States witnesses testified, Tim's productions were made in plain view of everyone. Tim even exchanged them with classmate Wayne Lawson during class. This does not sound very private to me.
4) In 2200 pages of productions that are supposed to be filled with examples of the pairing of sex and violence, putting their best foot forward so to speak, here are the examples the State came up with:
~ A woman being shot
~ Drawing of a Velvet magazine (Velvet is a pornographic magazine) with two knives drawn elsewhere on the same page.
~ One man having sex with another mans wife.
~ A drawing for a horror story where a woman was raped and murdered and now she has risen from the grave to seek revenge. (This is perhaps the closest example to the pairing of sex and violence that we find in Tim's productions, yet, in this story Tim is obviously on the side of the woman who was victimized.)
~ A war story where one soldier shoots enemy soldiers and says, "It gave me a hard-on to see ten reds drop."
If Tim were really obsessed with sex and violence, isn't it reasonable to expect to see some actual pairing of sex and violence? We all have a pretty good idea of what the real pairing of sex and violence is, so I won't waste time here listing graphic details of examples of actual pairings of sex and violence. Suffice to say, there is no real pairing of sex and violence in Tim's productions.
5) Piquerism is a paraphilic behavior in which a cutting instrument is used on a victim for sexual pleasure. The States best examples of this piquerism in Tim's productions follow:
~ Drawing of Freddy Krugger (so Wes Craven must be into piquerism, as he created Freddy Krugger)
~ Drawings of arrows and knives
~ Knife that has cut something
~ Nail through the tongue of an 80's punk rocker
~ Person cut open
~ Sharp blades
~ Knife cutting a throat
Where is the sexual pleasure from these productions? These are not examples of piquerism,
these are examples of horror and war productions.
6) Meloy and the State claim the motive in this case was a hatred towards women. Here are some examples from Tim's productions that the State quoted either in their affidavit or during Tim's trial
~ "Mace figured the best way to get inside was to knock on the door and then the guy in the room opened it, Mace would slice his throat."
~ "I jerked the knife out of the kids throat and slowly lowered him to the ground."
~ "I drove the bayonet into the back of the kids neck and pulled it out."
~ "Klee opened his mouth and blood spilled out."
~ "I stuck the blade in his stomach as far as it would go."
~ ". . heard him scream and watched him hit the ground."
~ "Mace lowered the man's body."
~ "I let him to the ground slowly..."
~ "while he fell he screamed..."
~ "and shot two rounds into his chest. I pulled him out of the drivers seat and got
~ "Blood was coming out of his eyes...'
Admittedly, these productions are graphically violent. Yet, in these productions that are supposed to show hatred towards older women, the victims are all males. The main story the State used against Tim at trial was about a world where all of the adults had disappeared and the children started wars with each other. Officer Broderick briefly described this narrative:
"There were narratives that spoke specifically of a kind of juvenile guerilla warfare, military person named Mace, and his counterpart Ice, who were adolescents and were involved in guerilla warfare with a group of people called the Reds. "
If a person had hatred towards older women, would they write a violent story in which all the older women were gone so that none of the violence happens to any older women? If Tim had hatred towards older women, and the pairing of sex and violence it would seem likely that in 2200 pages of productions there would be violence directed specifically towards older women, and the subsequent removal of their sexual body parts. Yet in all of his productions there is nothing like that.
7) On the subject of so-called "similarities" between Tim's productions and this crime I'll list some quotes from Tim's most recent motion to the courts:
"Neither the defendants productions, nor Dr. Reid Meloy's interpretations of the productions provide any relevant evidence of a crucial element of the offense charged. As the Court of Appeals observed, "There is no single drawing or narrative depicting a woman being stabbed in the back, nor is there any description or illustration of sexual mutilation that matched the injuries to the victim."
Yet, the State would have everyone believe Tim's productions contained fantasies about the exact way, the exact manner that person was killed."
In fact, the State's entire case was based on the assassination of Tim's character. Their entire case relied on painting Tim as a violent person because of the productions he created. The Prosecutors closing arguments are demonstrative of this: hundreds and hundreds of pages of narratives ... about brutal killings and death and dismemberment ... ... a kid who wrote hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages of gory, grizzly death scenes about torture, about killing."
"He fantasized obsessively. He did it in class when he was supposed to be doing other things. Look at the numbers in this case of drawings and pages of narratives." The prosecutor ended his rebuttal closing argument by urging the jury to convict the defendant because his "fantasies" (his story's and drawings) proved he must have committed this crime: "Please take the time to look at these drawings, read the narratives, study this evidence. The evidence is there. Sometimes it's hard to find. Sometimes you have to do a little thinking as to how the defendant could draw something like that unless he knew how it happened. Please look and read, study, dig into the paper bags. The evidence is there." This "evidence" that was there was the normally forbidden propensity or character evidence of Tim Masters. Tim's story's and drawings contained slurs and violent acts committed against people of several races (whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, and Jews), both genders, sexual orientations, and people of all ages from little babies to old men. People were killed by stabbings, slicing, bullets, grenades, explosives, hangings, drowning, animal attacks, booby traps and electrocutions. These violent acts transcend to other species, including cats, dogs, birds, horses, pigs, cattle, and even fictional alien creatures. The point is, because of the broad scope of Tim's productions, one could find motive, intent, knowledge, plan, and similarities for any violent crime in Tim's productions. For example, if an Asian man were killed with a firearm, Tim has written stories where an Asian man has been killed with a firearm; there would be the State's motive and similarity. The motive would be hatred towards Asian men. If a child were killed they could find motive and similarities in Tim's productions because Tim has produced stories where all the characters are children. Does this mean Tim has hatred towards children? You could find an example of just about any weapon being used to kill someone in Tim's productions. You could find an alleged "hatred" towards any gender, race, class or type of person in Tim's productions. However, once again, I would like to reiterate that there was not a single instance in Tim's productions of a woman being stabbed in the back and/or sexually mutilated. I believe that disproves the States claim that there were "similarities."
C. The State put witnesses on the stand whose testimony had no relevance to the case. They were used to help assassinate Tim's character.
1) The State put one of Tim's former teachers on the stand because Tim had a confrontation with her when she took a book from him during class and refused to return the same book after class. Any normal person would become angry if someone stole a book from them and, when confronted, refused to return the same book. When she refused to return Tim's book, he was angry, but he did not harm or threaten the teacher. He simply walked away. The State had this teacher describe Tim's drawings as "frightening' and Tim's demeanor as "very scary". Later the same day, Tim was called to his counselor's office to discuss the incident. His counselor, Pamela Sachs-Kapp, was also allowed to assassinate Tim's character by stating, "Tim had a chilling calmness." She elaborated by telling the jury that most students who became angry with a teacher stormed around, ranting and raving, and Tim didn't do this (so there was something wrong with Tim for displaying self control).
2) The State put a young woman on the stand that Tim had not seen since 1982 when he was nine and she was seven. She had lived next door to Tim for a year and then moved away. They never saw or spoke to each other again. She testified that she didn't even remember Tim. This woman told Tim's attorneys that the State told her Tim was stalking her. The State claimed her testimony was relevant because she lived in the same apartment complex where Peggy Hettrick lived. Peggy Hettrick lived in a large apartment complex that housed literally several hundred people. They closed this woman's testimony by asking her what color her hair was to which she responded "Dark brown with red highlights." This was to lead people to conclude that since at one time Tim had known a girl with dark brown hair with red highlights, Tim must have murdered a woman with red hair. In 1987, Tim knew kids who lived in every housing project or apartment complex in that part of town. If someone was killed who lived anywhere in that part of town the State could have found someone that Tim knew or had known that lived there and claim that was a connection.
D. To further assassinate Tim's character the state accused him of several incidents that happened near his home. There was a bridge near his home with graffiti painted on it. Police knew that Tim's drawings were more detailed than the stick figure graffiti that was painted on the bridge.
Yet, at trial, with no evidence to connect the graffiti to Tim, they still alluded Tim was responsible for the graffiti. There was also a small camper trailer that police called a "Quonset hut" down the street from Tim's home. Someone had drawn a picture of a woman and fired 22 caliber bullets through the breasts. Police tested 22 caliber shells recovered from the "Quonset hut." They had not been fired from Tim's father's 22 caliber rifle (the only 22 caliber rifle the Masters owned in 1987). Tim did not fire these 22 caliber rounds, yet the State did all they could to make people believe Tim had.
XIV The State insisted the complete lack of physical evidence is insignificant.
A. Although at least half of the 103-foot long drag trail had blood in and around it, and although there was a large pool of blood in the street, the State claims the assailant wouldn't get blood on them. District Attorney Terry Gilmore said, "The lining of the coat [Peggy's coat] prevents the blood from immediately going to the outside. The blood is going to flow down the back. It pools at the small of her back, or top of her jeans, and then it goes outside the clothes, that's what causes the drag trail." Mr.. Gilmore encouraged Tom Bevel to testify that he wouldn't expect to find much blood on the assailant. In other words, the State claimed this was not a bloody crime and Peggy's lined coat prevented what little blood left Peggy's body from getting all over the assailant. This claim doesn't hold water. If the fact that there was blood in and around over half of a 103-foot long drag trail and a pool of blood in the street doesn't prove this was a bloody crime scene, the testimony by States witnesses does. Officer Jack Taylor said Peggy's pants were bloody and slightly soiled. Her blouse was blood soaked, her panties were blood soaked, her sack had blood on it, and her heavywool jacket had blood soaked through it. Det. Taylor also described the blood pool as a "pretty good pool of blood." Officer Swihardt called the blood pool a "fairly substantial amount of blood" and "a large about of blood near the curb." Tom Bevel said, "Once blood is accumulated in volume we start having blood drips." He goes on to say there was good volume of blood drips and blood runs. There were additional blood drips surrounding low velocity drips. There was "Blood drops consistent with her being in an upright position for a few moments and some amount of blood falling from an approximate location in the middle of the upper part of her back." He said, "Once these blood drops have started, in this case because of the distance they would have tohave fallen, the victim would have had to have been in an upright position still." Peggy Hettrick had an inch and a half wide gash from the knife wound in the back of her coat. The coat was described as being blood soaked. Tom Bevel said blood had dripped from a 'location in the middle of the upper part of her back." The jacket liner could not prevent the amount of blood Peggy lost from immediately going "to the outside."
B. Using a shotgun method, the State also claimed that the assailant might have used a wide-legged stance to drag Peggy's bleeding body to avoid dripping blood. This ruined their theory that Tim's drag drawing was some sort of confession, so they didn't stick with this theory for long. They only brought this theory up on the second day of Tim's trial. They later changed back to their other theory that the assailant dragged Peggy in the manner Tim's drawing depicts.
C. Though early on during the trial they claimed the assailant wouldn't get blood on them self, the State later claimed Tim washed his clothes of any blood. Their evidence of this was a note found in Tim's room that said "Get clothes out of dryer," and Officer Broderick's testimony that Tim had told him the pants he had worn before going to bed the night of February 10th were in his clothes hamper and "There wasn't a hamper in the bedroom." Right here the State intentionally misled the jury to believe Tim did not have a clothes hamper, so was lying about where his jeans were. Tim's room was so small that Tim kept his clothes hamper in the hall just around the corner from his room. Officer Broderick knew exactly where Tim's hamper was. During Tim's 1987 interview when he told Broderick his pants from February 10th were in his hamper Broderick said, "Where was the hamper, just around the corner there?
The note that said "Get clothes out of dryer" was written on an index card that was found in a notebook on Tim's bookshelf. Now if you are making a reminder to yourself to do something where do you leave the note? Hidden in a notebook on a bookshelf or out in the open where you will see it? The notebook the note was found in was full of Tim's Jr. High School work from the previous year. This note was at least six months old. Besides, had Tim washed his clothes, police would have seen Tim or Clyde Masters hanging their clothes up to dry because the heat in their dryer had not worked since 1984. Clyde and Tim Masters hung their clothes outside to dry even in the wintertime. They only used their dryer to tumble soften their clothes after they had dried.
XV Police did not thoroughly investigate this case.
A. Police never investigated this case. Within 24 hours of the discovery of Peggy Hettrick's body they decided that 15-year- old Tim Masters must have committed this crime. Police decided what the result of their investigation should be before they began to investigate and worked towards that end. They never tried to find out who murdered Peggy. They only did a thorough job of investigating Tim. Many leads should have been thoroughly investigated but were not:
1) Matt Zoellner was the last known person to see Peggy alive. Police found knives capable of accomplishing the crime in Zoellner's apartment. They never sent them off to be analyzed.
2) Two people confessed to this crime. Both were briefly interviewed (nothing like the 9- hour tag team marathon they did on Tim) and nothing else. Their houses were not even searched for evidence.
3) Witnesses said a 16-year-old boy that was into Satanism and the occult bragged about killing Peggy. His home was never searched. When interviewed he denied any involvement and said he'd heard rumors at school that a kid named "Tim" was involved. Immediately the focus of the interview changed from his involvement to what he knew about Tim. The police started those rumors at Tim's school when they told Young Explorers to stay away from Tim Masters because he was a suspect. Now they were using the rumors that they started as catalysts for limiting their investigation to Tim.
4) On March 18, 1987, just one month after Peggy Hettrick was stabbed to death, a man named Donald Long abducted Linda Holt from Ft. Collins, Colorado, brought her to a remote location and stabbed her to death. Later that same year, on November 7, Long abducted Mona Hughes from Greeley, Colorado, and stabbed her to death. The similarities between Peggy Hettrick, Linda Holt, and Mona Hughes murders are striking. All three women were in there 30's (Hettrick 36; Holt 39; and Hughes 30). All three were older than Mr. Long who was 24-years old in 1987. All three had been stabbed in the back (Hettrick 1 time; Holt 10 times; and Hughes 11 times). Each woman was stabbed more times than the previous. All three were killed after dark. Further similarities exist between Ms. Hettrick and Ms. Holt's murder. No money was taken from either woman. Both women were "blitz" attacked from behind. Ms. Hettrick had her sexual body parts removed, Ms. Holt's body had semen evidence that matched Longs blood type-- evidence of a fascination with piquerism. As part of Mr. Long's plea bargain agreement, he submitted to interviews with authorities where he discussed what he had done. An excerpt follows:
Long: "I remember ... I remember that I stuck her ... I can't remember. They say that she was stabbed over 10, or 11 times, 12 times ... I can't recall, I remember one ... That was in the lower back."
Gilmore: "...do you remember anything about that? Fast or slow or um."
Long: "Real fast."
Linda Holt was stabbed 10 times in the back. Peggy Hettrick was the only woman to be stabbed just once in the back. Peggy was stabbed so fast, with so much force that a rib broke from the knife's impact. Finally, women continued to be killed by being stabbed in the back in a small geographical radius until the arrest of Donald Long. Despite all of these coincidences, there is no evidence police ever investigated Long for the murder of Peggy Hettrick.
5) In 1987 an informant called the Ft. Collins police and told them of a man who might be a suspect for Peggy's murder. The informant said the man had been discussing a local newspaper article about Peggy's homicide and made the comment "How can they call it mutilation when it was just a slice to the chest and a stick to the pussy." Young Explorer Kelly Charvet had leaked the mutilation to Peggy's breast to the public. But the mutilation to her vaginal area had not been leaked to the public. This man had been seen by the informant, talking with Donald Long in a bar. He took a polygraph test and passed every question except for, "Do you know who killed Peggy Hettrick?"
