Everilda Duran Watson, 50, was last seen in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 13, 2006. She was in the city with her husband, John Matthus Watson III, a retired high school math teacher, ostensibly to celebrate her recent 50th birthday. Her son reported her missing on July 15 after she failed to make contact. John Watson initially told investigators that he and his wife had separated and that she had left of her own accord to move to Central America.
He claimed she left a note, her wedding ring, credit cards, and keys behind. Everilda had relatives in Guatemala and was scheduled to fly there a few days after her disappearance, but she never boarded her flight, and authorities found no evidence that she had left the United States.
Suspicion quickly fell on John Watson, who was arrested the day after his wife was reported missing for carrying false identification. Investigators pieced together a grim timeline of events, believing John had been planning his wife's murder for about a month, motivated by a desire to avoid the financial consequences of a divorce as Everilda was planning to leave him. Prosecutors assert that he lured her to Las Vegas, where he checked into the Tuscany hotel using an alias, a wig, and a fake mustache. On the day of her disappearance, he was known to have purchased an electric saw, bleach, antifreeze, odor-absorbent trash bags, and incense. Authorities believe he shot his wife in the hotel room, dismembered her body with the saw, and used the purchased items to clean the scene.
The evidence against John Watson was substantial, despite his wife's body never being found. Everilda's blood was discovered in the shower drain of the Tuscany hotel room, on the carpet, and in John's Jeep Grand Cherokee. He claimed she had accidentally cut her finger in the vehicle, but the amount of blood was inconsistent with a minor injury. A tarp stained with her blood was later found in a mountain dump in California. Following his arrest, police found Watson in possession of a wig, fake mustaches, and cash. In letters he wrote from jail, he made the shocking admission that he had cooked and eaten parts of her body.
In June 2010, John Watson was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and robbery. After his conviction, he asked the jury for the death penalty, a request prosecutors also advocated for, citing aggravating circumstances of kidnapping and torture or mutilation. Watson, who had converted to Islam while in jail, stated that his religious beliefs required a death sentence for murder. The jury sentenced him to death, and he is currently on death row. His conviction and death sentence have been the subject of appeals. John Watson has a prior criminal history that includes an arrest in 1967 for a confessed rape and murder for which he was never charged due to the absence of a body, an arson conviction in the same decade, and a 1970s arrest for allegedly threatening then-President Richard Nixon.Last Seen: Jul 13, 2006
