On Feb. 9, the business partner of a Pennsylvania woman was charged with her murder after her body was found in a shallow grave in January 2023.
Blair Watts, 33, was charged with first-degree and third-degree murder after he reported Jennifer Brown missing. Brown had previously agreed to invest money in a restaurant reopening led by Watts.
According to the New York Post, Brown went missing on Jan. 4 and didn’t pick up her 8-year-old son from the bus. On Jan. 18, her body was found 30 miles north of Philadelphia partially buried.
Prosecutors think that Watts killed Brown on Jan. 3, which was the same day that two cash transfers of $9,000 and $8,000 were made into accounts he controlled. The $17,000 was not part of a written agreement between Watts and Brown for the new restaurant called Birdies Kitchen.
Watts picked up Brown’s son from the bus stop and told him that his mother was grocery shopping and he’d be sleeping over at his house that night. Before going to Watts’ home, they stopped at Brown’s place, and he went inside while the 8-year-old stayed in the car.
Prosecutors say when Watts came back to the car, the boy saw his mom’s phone, which was the only item that investigators couldn’t locate when they began their search for Brown.
Data from both Watts’ and Brown’s phones indicated that they traveled together at times on Jan. 3 and Jan. 4, before Brown’s cellphone became inactive that morning.
A cadaver dog sniffed out human remains in two cars that Watts drove and found broken pieces of a hair clip found in Brown’s home that was connected to the grave site.
