On the morning of February 11, 1987, 37-year-old Peggy Hettrick was found in a field in southern Fort Collins, Colorado. A passing cyclist first mistook her for a mannequin. An autopsy showed a single stab wound to her upper left back and a precise sexual mutilation that led some to suggest the killer may have had surgical skills. Hettrick had worked at a clothing store and was seen bar-hopping with friends the night before her death.

Investigation attention turned to 15-year-old Timothy Masters, who lived near the field and had seen the body on his way to school but did not report it. Searches of his home and locker revealed knives and more than two thousand pages of violent drawings and writings; prosecutors later emphasized the artwork at trial. Masters was convicted in 1999 and sentenced to life, but DNA testing in 2008 did not match him, his conviction was vacated, and he was fully exonerated on June 28, 2011. Allegations later arose that evidence pointing to other suspects had been withheld. One other person of interest identified during appeals was a surgeon, Dr. Richard Hammond, whose home overlooked the field; Hammond died by suicide in 1995 after an unrelated arrest.

The murder of Peggy Hettrick remains officially unsolved. If anyone knew Peggy, was in southern Fort Collins in February 1987, or has information about Hammond or other possible leads, please share what is known.