124. Smells Like Injustice In Fort Collins - The Peggy Hettrick Murder - With Special Guest Scott Howard

In the cold early morning hours of February 11, 1987, 37 year-old Peggy Hettrick left the Prime Minister nightclub in Fort Collins, Colorado, heading across the street to an open field, toward her ex-boyfriend's apartment on the other side of the field, where she hoped to get some shelter until she could get back into her own apartment, for which she had lost her key.  As the sun rose a few hours later, a passing bicycle rider saw what looked to be almost a posed mannequin lying in the field - but when he noticed blood running into the street, he called the police.  And what police found was as horrific as it was bizarre: Peggy Hettrick had been murdered and sexually mutilated in an unthinkably grotesque manner.  The cops quickjly latched on to their prime suspect - a 15 year-old high school sophomore named Tim Masters who lived in a house overlooking the field, who was also known to have seen (and ignored as a fake) Hettrick's body that morning - and had a number of dark, teenage-boy illustrations in his personal notebooks that convinced investigators that he must have committed the murder.  Yet it took 10 more years - after Masters had honorably served in the Navy - for prosecutors to finally decide they had enough circumstantial evidence to arrest him.  And it was on that circumstantial evidence that he was convicted and sent to prison...until 2008, when he was released and eventually exonerated after a mound of evidence pointing to a much more logical suspect - the existence of whom was hidden from Masters' defense team - came to light.  Masters finally received his justice when he received a multi-million dollar settlement from the government, but years of his life were taken from him that he will never get back.  What makes this particular case so compelling for Melissa is that the comedy team of Scott Howard and Russ Smith, who called themselves "Elroy Bondo," was playing the Prime Minister nightclub on the night of the murder; were probably the last people to see Peggy Hettrick alive...and Melissa knows Scott Howard from her days as a comedy club manager...and Scott was actually the Tip-Ster who told Melissa about the duo's experience...AND Scott Howard was cool enough to call in to tell Melissa about it as she went over the case!  Join in on the re-telling of this disturbing case of myopic investigation and injuistice with Melissa and Scott - and hear what it's like to realize you may have been witnessed the final moments of the life of a murder victim.