A guy from the Boston region has been taken into custody by Massachusetts authorities in relation to a murder-for-hire scheme involving the 1992 killing of an Army soldier, authorities announced Monday.
In a statement released Monday, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Cambridge Police Commissioner Christine Elows announced that Edward J. Watson, 65, of Mattapan, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of 29-year-old Michelle Miller, who was last seen in Cambridge during the summer of 1992.
At an arraignment on Monday, Watson, who was placed under custody without bond, entered a not guilty plea.
According to the authorities, Miller’s violent partner, Daniel J. Innis, ordered Watson to kill Miller.
On an unrelated manslaughter allegation in 1994, Innis received a sentence of 15 to 20 years in prison; he passed away in 2012.
According to the DA, Miller had two children, and Innis had threatened to take custody of them.
The day after she informed a social worker that she planned to seek a restraining order against Innis, she vanished on July 28, 1992, according to Ryan.
Prosecutors say she was discovered dead in an empty apartment’s basement after a neighbor complained of an unpleasant smell.
Two weeks later, Ryan said, her body was discovered in the dirty basement of an abandoned building in Cambridge’s Central Square district, partially nude and with a blanket covering her face. This matter had been unresolved for over 30 years.
According to Ryan, the Cold Case Unit used Department of Social Services data that had been stored to learn more about Miller’s abuse and her attempts to defend herself right before going missing.
“Our investigation revealed that Daniel Innis’ associate, Edward J. Watson, was the one who killed him at Innis’ request,” Ryan stated.
What evidence connected Watson to Miller’s death was not made clear by authorities in their statement.
On Monday, the lawyer identified in court documents as Watson’s representative was unavailable for comment.
According to court documents, a hearing for probable cause is set on February 11.
According to NBC Boston, the DA told Miller’s two adult children that their father seems to have planned the murder.
Ryan described the knowledge as being quite bittersweet. On the one hand, they acknowledge that the police have never given up on finding out what happened to their mother, but they also discover that their biological father is said to have started the investigation.
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