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DENVER (Reuters) - A man whose murder conviction was based on gruesome sketches he made as a 15-year-old boy was freed from prison on Tuesday after DNA evidence from the body was found to match the victim’s ex-boyfriend and not the convicted man.

Timothy Masters, 36, had served nine and a half years of a life sentence for the 1987 murder of Peggy Hettrick in Fort Collins, Colorado, about 45 miles north of Denver.

Masters was convicted and sentenced to life in 1999 for the crime. The mutilated body of Hettrick, 37, was found in a field near where Masters lived. He was 15 at the time.

Although police focused on the boy at the time of the killing, he wasn’t arrested until 1998, when a forensic psychologist reviewed sketches Masters had made. He was tried and convicted based on the circumstantial evidence, and an appellate court upheld his conviction and sentence.

The case was reopened last year, amid allegations that evidence was withheld from his defense team.

The case took a dramatic turn late last week, when a special prosecutor announced that traces of DNA from Hettrick’s body did not match Masters. There was, however, a match to Hettrick’s ex-boyfriend, who was dismissed as a suspect early in the case.

Master’s attorney, David Wymore, said he would ask that prosecutors dismiss the charges against his client. “I’m pretty overwhelmed and just want to see my family,” a smiling Masters told reporters after his release.

He was the first inmate in Colorado to be released from prison after DNA testing pointed to his innocence.