During a 2005 vacation in Holland, former Fort Collins police Detective Linda Wheeler-Holloway had her eyes opened to a new kind of DNA technology - work that could identify skin cells left behind on clothing.

Friday night, she basked in the knowledge that the technology she found in the Netherlands had paved the way for Tim Masters to be released from prison after serving 91/2 years for a murder he has always denied committing.

"It's just kind of incredible," Wheeler-Holloway said after the stunning announcement that a special prosecutor would file a motion next week seeking to have Masters' murder conviction tossed out.

The reason: Skin-cell DNA left on the clothing of Peggy Hettrick belonged to another man, a former boyfriend who had once been considered a potential suspect in the case.

Wheeler-Holloway was involved in the investigation of Hettrick's grisly death off-and-on for several years - first in the hours after her body was found on Feb. 11, 1987.

In 1992, she and another detective traveled to Philadelphia to interview Masters, who was serving in the Navy and was still the prime suspect in the case. By the time that trip ended, Wheeler-Holloway was not sure that the investigation was focused on the right suspect.

"I didn't know for sure he didn't do it," Wheeler-Holloway said. "But I had doubts."

After Masters was convicted of murder in 1999, she quietly began working to reinvestigate the vexing case in the belief that an innocent man had been sent to prison.

In 2005, Wheeler-Holloway went to Holland on vacation. While she was there, she decided to stop at Independent Forensic Services in Poppesweg, a private DNA laboratory operated by the husband-and-wife team of Richard and Selma Eikelenboom. Wheeler-Holloway had met Selma Eikelenboom several times over the years at conferences, and she wanted to talk to the couple about the Masters case.

They told her they could extract DNA from skin cells imbedded in clothing.

Investigators believed that Hettrick was stabbed, dragged into a field - either under her arms or by her wrists - and then sexually mutilated. Along the way, her killer jerked down her pants and underwear.

The Eikelenbooms agreed to take on the Masters case and in late 2006 began DNA testing of Hettrick's clothes.

It was their work that first linked DNA on the sleeve of Hettrick's blouse and inside the waistband of her underpants to a former boyfriend.

On Friday, technicians at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation completed their own round of DNA testing, which confirmed the Eikelenbooms' findings.

When Wheeler-Holloway found out that the test results would be made public at a 5 p.m. news conference, she called the Eikelenbooms in Holland, waking them, and had them get on their computer.

They listened to the news conference online and then began making plans to fly to Colorado to be in court on Tuesday when Masters is expected to see his murder conviction tossed out.

"To me, they're the ones that solved this case," Wheeler-Holloway said.