wiseguy182
10-07-2015, 08:10 AM
Recently, I obtained an extremely rare episode of Cold Case Files that has not been aired in many years. The title of it is "Murder Illustrated/Blood Relations", and it's the first segment that is the subject of controversy.
It concerns the 1987 murder of Peggy Hettrick, who was last seen leaving a bar alone one night in Fort Collins, Colorado. The next morning, her body was recovered from a field in the same city. She had been stabbed to death, and had also been sexually mutilated.
Investigators questioned the people at the nearest residence to where the body was found, which were Timothy Masters, aged 15, who lived in a trailer with his father. Investigators found assorted knives and many violent drawings Tim had made, many of which were sexual in nature. Unfortunately, this was enough to get Tim convicted of murder after 12 years had passed, despite the fact there was absolutely no physical evidence linking him to the crime, no eyewitnesses and no confession from Tim after much interrogation. Timothy had no other criminal history, and in his early adult years served in the military and worked as an aviation mechanic for Learjet. Further distressingly, Cold Case Files labeled Tim Masters as a "murderer".
After I watched the episode yesterday, I thought "What. The. Hell?" Drawings were enough to put this poor soul behind bars for life and Cold Case Files went along with this crap? Yet another stupid jury. Thinking about the case, some things just didn't add up for me:
How would Tim Masters even have come in contact with Peggy Hettrick? Needless to say, there aren't a lot of 15 year olds that killed 37 year olds they have never met before. But Masters wasn't of driving age yet, so unless Hettrick stopped at this strangers property for some unknown reason, there is seemingly no way the two could have come in contact. My initial reaction is someone from the bar followed her.
Investigators were also suspicious of something else Tim did. When Tim walked to school, he usually made a straight line out of his trailer. The morning of Hetrick's murder, Tim made more of a zigzag route. Later, Tim stated he did see Hettrick's body that morning while walking, but thought it was a mannequin. Police found this to be odd, but later discovered that Tim did keep a homemade stuffed "doll" that resembled a mannequin in his home.
I decided that I needed to look up this case. I was not surprised at all to learn that Timothy's conviction was eventually vacated and he was completely exonerated. Thank God. There are at least a couple of other suspects in the case, including Hettrick's "sometimes boyfriend", but to date, the real perpetrator has never been found.
The Cold Case Files episode has been removed from viewing circulation and Bill Kurtis has refused to comment on the episode. Also from the Wikipedia page on this case, there are a lot of other things that will really make your blood boil in regards to how the police treated Tim Masters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_Hettrick_murder_case
The other segment was pretty odd also. I will detail that in a future post.
It concerns the 1987 murder of Peggy Hettrick, who was last seen leaving a bar alone one night in Fort Collins, Colorado. The next morning, her body was recovered from a field in the same city. She had been stabbed to death, and had also been sexually mutilated.
Investigators questioned the people at the nearest residence to where the body was found, which were Timothy Masters, aged 15, who lived in a trailer with his father. Investigators found assorted knives and many violent drawings Tim had made, many of which were sexual in nature. Unfortunately, this was enough to get Tim convicted of murder after 12 years had passed, despite the fact there was absolutely no physical evidence linking him to the crime, no eyewitnesses and no confession from Tim after much interrogation. Timothy had no other criminal history, and in his early adult years served in the military and worked as an aviation mechanic for Learjet. Further distressingly, Cold Case Files labeled Tim Masters as a "murderer".
After I watched the episode yesterday, I thought "What. The. Hell?" Drawings were enough to put this poor soul behind bars for life and Cold Case Files went along with this crap? Yet another stupid jury. Thinking about the case, some things just didn't add up for me:
How would Tim Masters even have come in contact with Peggy Hettrick? Needless to say, there aren't a lot of 15 year olds that killed 37 year olds they have never met before. But Masters wasn't of driving age yet, so unless Hettrick stopped at this strangers property for some unknown reason, there is seemingly no way the two could have come in contact. My initial reaction is someone from the bar followed her.
Investigators were also suspicious of something else Tim did. When Tim walked to school, he usually made a straight line out of his trailer. The morning of Hetrick's murder, Tim made more of a zigzag route. Later, Tim stated he did see Hettrick's body that morning while walking, but thought it was a mannequin. Police found this to be odd, but later discovered that Tim did keep a homemade stuffed "doll" that resembled a mannequin in his home.
I decided that I needed to look up this case. I was not surprised at all to learn that Timothy's conviction was eventually vacated and he was completely exonerated. Thank God. There are at least a couple of other suspects in the case, including Hettrick's "sometimes boyfriend", but to date, the real perpetrator has never been found.
The Cold Case Files episode has been removed from viewing circulation and Bill Kurtis has refused to comment on the episode. Also from the Wikipedia page on this case, there are a lot of other things that will really make your blood boil in regards to how the police treated Tim Masters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_Hettrick_murder_case
The other segment was pretty odd also. I will detail that in a future post.