MD MD - Alexander Wayne Watson, Jr. 1988-1993, Baltimore area

Inmate Pleads Guilty in Years-Old Killings
By Raymond McCaffrey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 17, 2007

Alexander W. Watson Jr., imprisoned since 1994 for stabbing a woman in Prince George's County, admitted in Circuit Court in Annapolis that he killed Boontem Anderson, 34, who was stabbed, strangled and sexually assaulted in her Gambrills home in 1986; Elaine Shereika, 37, who was raped, stabbed, strangled and sexually assaulted while jogging near her Gambrills home in 1988; and Lisa Haenel, 14, who was stabbed and strangled on the way to school in the Glen Burnie area in 1993.

cont. at the link

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Suspect charged with 3 long-unsolved slayings
DNA ties convicted murderer to serial killings, police say
July 13, 2004|By Julie Bykowicz | Julie Bykowicz,SUN STAFF

A man serving a life sentence for a 1994 murder was charged yesterday with sexually assaulting and killing three Anne Arundel County women more than a decade ago - a serial murder case that police say they pieced together using DNA evidence.

cont. at the link

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Killer gets 5 life terms
As part of plea deal, Watson meets families, avoids death penalty
August 17, 2007|By Andrea F. Siegel | Andrea F. Siegel,sun reporter

Jennifer Shereika Scott said she wanted to confront the man who had killed her mother nearly 20 years ago because she wanted answers to questions she had carried for more than half her life.

She got her chance Monday, in an extraordinary meeting arranged by prosecutors. In exchange for pleading guilty, which he did yesterday, and meeting with the families of the victims, serial killer Alexander Wayne Watson Jr. escaped a possible death sentence and will instead spend the rest of his life behind bars for three brutal killings between 1986 and 1993.

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DNA Links Convicted Killer to 3 Md. Slayings, Authorities Say
By Arthur Santana, Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 14, 2004

[...]
Anne Arundel Police Chief P. Thomas Shanahan credited the new charges against Watson to the persistence of the department's cold-case squad and to advancements in DNA technology. "DNA is the most exciting thing that happened to law enforcement since fingerprinting," Shanahan said.

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Alexander Wayne Watson, Jr.

Serial Killer: Alexander Wayne Watson Jr. raped and killed 4 women

Watson's victims:

Boontem Andersen, 34, Gambrills, October 8, 1986 - Andersen's body was found Oct. 8, 1986, in her home in the Gambrills area of Anne Arundel. She had been sexually assaulted, stabbed and strangled.

Mary Elaine Shereika, 37, Gambrills, May 23, 1988 - Fiance reported her missing after she failed to return home from a morning jog. Her body was found in a field in Gambrills. She also had been sexually assaulted, stabbed and strangled in a rye field about a mile from her home in that same neighborhood. The 37-year-old mother of two was out for her daily jog that morning, before she was to go to her job as a paralegal..

Lisa Kathleen Haenel, 14, January 15, 1993 - Haenel's mother reported her missing after she did not show up at Old Mill High School, where she was a freshman. The next day, the boyfriend of Haenel's mother found the girl's body in woods behind the school. She had been stabbed and strangled.

Debra Cobb, 37, June 13, 1994 - [Watson] was convicted in the June 13, 1994, robbery and killing of office manager Debra Cobb in Forestville.

*See links in previous post