David Watson

As I sit down to put this case together I am not exactly sure what I think about it. There were two trials against David Watson. The first trial ended in a mistrial when the jury could not come to a decision. Some of those jurors spoke out after the trial. And, there seemed to be much more information about that trial than the second one that was conducted about six months later and ended in his conviction. Some times it helps me see more or come to a better conclusion of things when I put them all together here, some times it does not. I suppose we will see which one this falls into.

Linda Watson was last seen by her mother, Marilyn Cox, on August 20, 2000 when she dropped her off at her Tucson Arizona home. Linda's four year old daughter, Jordynn was with her father, David at the time. The following day a repairman went to Linda's home and while the back door was ajar Linda was no where to be found. Investigators would later find a broke cup inside the kitchen and what appeared to be blood near the door. There also seemed to be other areas of blood throughout the home. It would later be determined to be Linda's blood.

Also on the 21^st Linda missed an appointment with her lawyer. She was in the process of getting a restraining order against her ex-husband, David Watson. Two days later Linda was scheduled to pick Jordynn up at David's and again she was a no show. But, most importantly she missed a court date on the 24^th where custody of Jordynn would be discuss. Because she failed to attend court David was given custody, if for no other reason than the fact he was there.

It is not exactly clear when Marilyn reported Linda missing but she made it her life's mission to find her daughter. The episode of the television show I watched on this case was called One Billboard in Tucson. It is obviously a take off the movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri. Marilyn recruited friends and family to help her post fliers all over town offering a reward for her daughter. She also went into Linda's home, cleaned it up and moved in. But, the biggest thing she did was get into a battle with David Watson over visitation of Jordynn.

Investigators had few leads in Linda's disappearance. They of course questioned David, a local firefighter and they had interviewed a former boyfriend named Carl Barton. It was said that Linda and Barton had dated a few years earlier, after Linda and David had divorced, and that it was a volatile relationship. Both men claimed to be home and/or with their wife/girlfriend at the time that Linda disappeared. Both David's wife, Rosemary and Carl's girlfriend confirmed this to investigators. This left investigators at a loss.

Over the next three years Marilyn continued to fight David to see Jordynn, at least unsupervised. It appears that he may have allowed her visits but not alone or without him present and Marilyn did not agree with that. Finally Marilyn won the right to visit with Jordynn unsupervised and her first visit occurred on May 7, 2003. Marilyn and her friend Renee Farnsworth spent the evening with Jordynn. After they dropped her back off at the Watson home the two women headed back to Marilyn's home (it seems Renee lived next door). When they got out of the vehicle they were ambushed and both women were fatally shot in the driveway.

Once again it seemed that there were few leads. Of course David Watson was questioned again because of the court battle he had with Marilyn. But, just as before David stated that he was at home and his wife, Rosemary backed his story.

By 2007 while David's career seemed to be doing well but the same could not be said about his personal life. He had been promoted to captain within the fire department but his marriage crumbled. There was indication that David and Rosemary had had children of their own together but there was nothing very specific on that matter. It seems that not long after their divorce Marilyn went to the police department and started talking to investigators. She would tell them that she had lied to them in both 2000 and 2003 when she had told them that David was home on the nights in which Linda disappeared and Marilyn and Renee had been murdered. She was now claiming that in 2000 he had not come home until sometime near dawn and that she had seen him seemingly cleaning his Jeep. She later saw him enter the home carrying a box full of gloves like those used by firefighters. On the night Marilyn and Renee were murdered she was now claiming that he had come home “sweaty, pale and panicked.” She stated that he handed her the clothes he was wearing and told her to wash them and he immediately got into the shower.

Investigators have stated that they obviously could not just go by the word of a woman who not only was admitting she had lied to them previously, but also because she would come off as a bitter woman, considering they had just divorced. Instead they had to find some more evidence and information. They were able to get an order for a tracking device on David's vehicle and they set it up to release what they would call a fake news announcement, although in fairness I do not believe it was all that “fake.” The news announcement simply stated that investigators had recently received information and more clues into the deaths of Linda Watson and her mother Marilyn Cox and her friend, Renee Farnsworth. Investigators were hoping that David would hear the announcement and possibly drive to where Linda's body was located. Indications are that while he did seem to take some odd trips, that he had either never fully stopped in any suspicious area or at least none that the investigators could tell.

In October of 2003, about five months after Marilyn and Renee had been gunned down, a skull had been found in a nearby desert area. Apparently this was not an unusual find for the area. It seems that bodies were often found and they were almost always immigrants that had crossed the border illegally and the desert air had taken them. Because of this when bodies were found in the area there was less priority in identifying them. It seems that the skull was finally identified in 2011 as that belonging to Linda Watson. Investigators would later say that David Watson had in fact drove by the area in which the skull had been found after the “fake” announcement had been made.

Cold case detectives were now looking at the case and it would be said their largest piece of evidence had been overlooked. However, I have to say that a juror in David's first trial claimed that they completely dismissed this evidence. It was said that at the scene of Marilyn and Renee's murder a money clip had been found. The monogram of “DDW” was engraved on it.... David Duane Watson. Now, the television show in which I watched indicated that it had been collected at time of the murders and that it had simply not been processed and was somehow overlooked. To investigators this was a bombshell. However, an article I read in which one of the jury members spoke, stated that the money clip had not been found until “several weeks” after the murders and that they did not feel it had the significance that the prosecutors and investigators felt that it should have.

David Watson was arrested on April 25, 2015, nearly fifteen years after his first ex-wife had disappeared and twelve years after his former mother in law and her friend were murdered. The police department was given a lot of criticism from all sides. People wondered why it had taken so long to obtain the arrest. There was a lot of talk about his standing in the community and whether that played a role in failing to arrest him. The fire department also received criticism for promoting him to captain within this time period but law enforcement came to their defense saying the fire department was not aware that the police considered him a suspect in the murders of three women.

David's first trial would begin in October of 2016 and last seven weeks. As I stated earlier there seemed to be more information available about this trial than the one that would take place the following year. Rosemary of course was the star witness in both trials. In the same respect the defense attempted to paint her as a scorned woman who had already admitted to lying to the police and argued that ruined her credibility. It seems that the prosecutors had no hard evidence, including DNA. They argued that Renee Farnsworth was basically at the wrong place at the wrong time but that both Linda Watson and her mother Marilyn Cox were murdered because they were fighting David Watson for his child.

Jordynn Watson was now nearly twenty years old. She had been four when her mother went missing and nearly seven when her grandmother and her grandmother's friend had been murdered. It seems she had little to offer when it came to Linda's case. As far as the murders of Marilyn and Renee, Jordynn would say that when she returned home that her father was outside in the back yard. Although it does appear that she would have to admit not physically seeing him until she had gone to bed, when he came in and kissed her goodnight.

The defense argued that Linda was an alcoholic and that she had lost her job on the last day that she had been seen. They called her ex-boyfriend, Carl Barton to the stand who would testify that Linda had been suicidal at times. In the same respect the defense pushed that Barton and Linda's relationship had been violent and he too could have been responsible for her death.

A mistrial would be declared in November of 2016 when the jury failed to reach a verdict after three days of deliberations. It was said that when they began their deliberations the jury had taken a poll but had done so solely based on their emotions and that every one of the twelve jurors believed David Watson was guilty on all counts. However, they then began going over the evidence itself and most realized that while their emotions told them he was guilty, they could find nothing to back this up in the evidence. In the end they could not come to a unanimous decision. I was left to wonder if they had not done so basically on purpose. I do not mean that they were vicious or even lied. I simply wonder if the fact that they all believed based on their emotions that he had committed these murders and seemingly tried hard to find evidence to back it up, that they thought maybe the prosecutor could do better given another chance. Now, of course I have no proof of that being the case, but I have wondered.

David Watson would go on trial again in 2017. It is unclear what changed in the second trial, if anything. However, on on March 17, 2017 the jury returned with a verdict. David Watson was convicted on one count of second degree murder relating to Linda and two counts of first degree murder for the murders of Marilyn and Renee. The following month he was given two life sentences plus sixteen years to be served consecutively. He would be required to serve sixty-six years before he would be eligible for parole.

I wish I would have heard more about the second trial, first in what may have been different from the first, and secondly how the jury came to their decision. Many investigators will tell you that they do not believe in coincidences when it comes to murder, and for the most part I have to agree with that. Most of us will not have murder touch our family, those who do, almost never see it twice. Now, of course that does not mean that it does not happen. I recently watched a television show about a woman who was murdered decades after her mother was also murdered, in almost scary similar circumstances. I would probably have to agree with the jurors from the first trial. I would have believed in my heart of hearts that David Watson was guilty. I also agree with the prosecution that it is likely Renee died because she was in the wrong place, with the wrong person, at the wrong time. I do not believe that she was a target. But, that being said, I also have to say I am unsure that I could have convicted him. We will just have to sit back and wait and see what the appeals court decides on this matter.