Massachusetts District Attorney announces arrest of Edward Watson in 1992 cold case murder of Michelle Miller

WOBURN – Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Cambridge Police Commissioner Christine Elow announced today that thirty-two years after the crime occurred, Edward J. Watson, 65, of Mattapan, has been arrested for the murder of Michelle Miller.

Miller, a former U.S. Army soldier, was 29 years old when she was last seen alive in Central Square, Cambridge. Her body was found in the basement of a vacant apartment two weeks later, when a neighbor complained of a foul odor. Evidence developed by the Cold Case Homicide Unit of the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office revealed that Miller was the victim of a murder-for-hire plot, and that Watson allegedly killed her in the basement apartment at the behest of her abusive partner, Daniel J. Innis. Innis, who was sentenced to 15-20 years in state prison for an unrelated manslaughter charge in 1994, died in 2012.

“Michelle Miller had served her country as a U.S. Army soldier, and she was a mother of two beautiful children, whom she adored,” said District Attorney Marian Ryan. “By 1992 she had fallen on hard times. She was abused by a jealous and violent partner, who had threatened to take away custody of her children. On July 28, 1992, the day after she told her social worker of her intention to obtain a restraining order against that abusive partner, she disappeared. Her body was found two weeks later, partially naked, with her face covered by a blanket, in the filthy basement of an abandoned building in the Central Square neighborhood of Cambridge. For more than thirty years this case had gone unsolved. Our Cold Case Unit, using archived records from the Department of Social Services, was able to unearth previously unknown details about the abuse that Michelle Miller had suffered at the hands of her partner, and how she tried to protect herself immediately before her disappearance. Our investigation identified Edward J. Watson, an associate of Daniel Innis, as the man who carried out the killing at Innis’ request.”

Edward J. Watson has been charged with First Degree Murder in the Cambridge District Court and is scheduled to be arraigned today.

This case was investigated by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Unit, Massachusetts State Police Detectives assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, and Cambridge Police Department detectives. The prosecutor assigned to this case is Assistant District Attorney David Solet, the Chief of the Cold Case Homicide Unit. The assigned Victim Witness Advocate is Helena Clarke.