The Fayette Citizen-News Page

Wednesday, June 26, 2002

The Watson trial a look back

Before wife's body was found, police itched to arrest husband for murder

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Had Beverley Watson's body been found in Fayette County after she disappeared in 1997, Fayette County sheriff's detectives had approval to arrest her husband Jim for murder, according to the lead investigator in the case.

Jim Watson was suspected of foul play in his wife's disappearance due to several inconsistencies in his story the first day he reported her missing, said Maj. Bruce Jordan, who led the investigation for the Fayette County Sheriff's Department. District Attorney Bill McBroom had agreed to arresting Jim Watson if his wife's body were ever found.

Jim Watson is now sitting in jail, convicted for his wife's murder by a Fulton County jury. Beverley Watson's remains were found in a heavily wooded area of south Fulton County in March 1999 but Jim Watson wasn't indicted for the crime until January of this year.

In the early days of the investigation, the Watsons' marriage counselor told detectives that Jim Watson was "so obsessed" with his wife that he might return to the site where he dumped her body, Jordan said. Detectives placed two tracking devices on Watson's green Mercury Mountaineer in the hopes he would lead detectives to his wife's body, Jordan confirmed.

But he never did, and the ensuing weeks and months of surveillance became a cat-and-mouse game between Watson and Fayette detectives, Jordan said. Watson removed one of the tracking devices from his vehicle and returned it to the Sheriff's Department. He never found the other tracking device, which was still on the bumper of the Mountaineer when the Sheriff's Department purchased the vehicle after Watson sold it. The department took the vehicle entirely apart looking for more evidence but found none; the vehicle was later used for undercover investigations, Jordan said.

Watson's "paranoia" about being followed "helped us at the time," Jordan said.

"What it kept him from doing was going back and destroying evidence at the crime scene," Jordan said.

As the months went by after Beverley Watson's disappearance, it began to seem that her body would never be found, Jordan said. As time crept past, Jordan tried to convince McBroom to file kidnapping charges against Jim Watson.

"Right away, he admitted to grabbing her arm to keep her from leaving," Jordan said, referring to Jim Watson's account of the last time he saw his wife. Since that could be construed as holding Beverley Watson against her will, Jim Watson could have been brought up on kidnapping charges, Jordan said.

But doing so might have kept Jim Watson from facing murder charges on a legal technicality, Jordan added.

Jim Watson made the investigation personal by tailing Jordan and his family, appearing next to Jordan at his daughter's softball games, Jordan noted.

"It showed me first hand that he was a stalker," Jordan said. "... If we followed him, that week he'd make a point to find me and my family."

Detectives became concerned that Jim Watson, a reserve police officer with Riverdale at the time of his wife's disappearance, would try to become a full-time officer, Jordan said. So Jordan tried to convince the district attorney to file family violence charges against Jim Watson for allegedly breaking Beverley's arm when he pushed her to the ground years before she disappeared.

If Jim Watson would have been convicted on those charges, he wouldn't be allowed to become a police officer because of a Georgia law that forbids people convicted of family violence charges from carrying a gun, Jordan said.

Watson's police activities were suspicious because he told other people that he was an agent for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, Jordan said.

"We perceived him as a wannabe trying to become a real cop," Jordan said. "... We wanted to keep him from ever being a real cop."

As for Watson's murder conviction, Jordan said he felt like he held up his end of the bargain "and Fulton County did, too." But most of all, Jordan said he was "relieved" the case was over.