Linda Katherine Tilley, a 22-year-old white female, was a senior at the University of Texas in Austin when she tragically lost her life on September 5, 1981. Her death occurred at her apartment complex, where she was found drowned in the swimming pool. Initially, the incident was ruled an accidental drowning by the Travis County Medical Examiner. The autopsy revealed abrasions on her face and neck, but these were not deemed inconsistent with an accidental fall.
Her blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit for driving, which further supported the theory that she may have stumbled into the pool while intoxicated. There was no evidence of sexual assault, and she was fully clothed at the time of her death.
However, the case took a dramatic turn in 1982 when Coral Eugene Watts, a known serial killer, confessed to murdering Linda Tilley. Watts, a 28-year-old male who had fled the Detroit area for Houston, admitted to stalking another woman from Houston to Austin but lost track of her. He then encountered Linda Tilley returning home from a date and attacked her outside her apartment. According to his confession, they struggled and fell into the pool, where he held her underwater until she drowned. Watts described the act in chilling detail, and authorities later confirmed that Tilley’s death had been mistakenly classified as accidental until his admission.
Watts was granted immunity in exchange for his confession to multiple murders, including Tilley’s. His confession revealed a pattern of violence against women, often involving strangulation, stabbing, or drowning. He was later convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for other murders. Linda Tilley’s case became one of many that highlighted the extent of Watts’ crimes and the challenges investigators faced in identifying his victims due to the lack of overt signs of homicide in some cases. Her death, once thought to be a tragic accident, was ultimately recognized as part of a broader and deeply disturbing series of killings.
