Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Mom, 2-year-old Bludgeoned Dead in Broad Daylight

Episode Date: November 18, 2021

Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Watkins and her 2-year-old daughter, Nicole, are found bludgeoned to death in their apartment in 1995. Clues have been hard to find in this case. The sliding glass door to the firs...t-floor apartment was open. No prints are reported. The bodies were found in the kitchen area of the apartment. Watkin's ex, Nicole's father, has a rock-solid alibi. Watkin's never mentioned being scared of or harassed by anyone. The single mother was very active in St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Renton and studying to be a nurse. A $10,000 reward is now offered for information.Joining Nancy Grace Today: Barb Newton - Victim's Friend, Attended St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church Tammy Olivieri - Victim's Best Friend Wendy Patrick - California prosecutor, author “Red Flags” www.wendypatrickphd.com 'Today with Dr. Wendy' on KCBQ in San Diego Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, Atlanta GA www.angelaarnoldmd.com Dr. Todd M. Barr, M.D. - Deputy Medical Examiner/Forensic Pathologist at Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Sheryl McCollum - Forensic Expert & Cold Case Investigative Research Institute Founder, ColdCaseCrimes.org Olivia LaVoice - Crime Reporter for Q13 FOX (Seattle), Twitter: @Q13Olivia, Instagram: @Olivia_LaVoice, "Olivia LaVoice Q13" on Facebook Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A gorgeous young mom, and catch this, her two-year-old baby murdered. Now, I've seen a lot of murders. I've been on a lot of homicide scenes. I've been in a lot of autopsies. But that's a whole other thought process to kill. Not only the mother, but the two-year-old baby, too?
Starting point is 00:00:45 Why? Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. To kill a mother and her two-year-old baby? There's plenty of evidence. Why has this case gone unsolved? Especially from what I'm learning about Elizabeth Watkins, the mom, her whole life was work, baby, church. Work, baby, church. She wasn't out hiking. She wasn't out at bars at night. She didn't live
Starting point is 00:01:28 in a bad area of town. The pool of suspects is very narrow. So why has this case gone, as they say, cold? We want answers. Let's start at the beginning. Take a listen to our friend Tyler Hunt at Crime Online. When Elizabeth Watkins moved to Renton, Washington from California, she had no place to live and no money. She found herself at home at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church. Church members helped the Watkins find a place to live, a new job, and she soon made new friends. Watkins joined the congregation and donated her time new friends. Watkins joined the congregation and donated her time and energy to help pay back the community for what they'd done for her. After daughter Nicole was born, Watkins enrolled in a nursing program at Renton Technical
Starting point is 00:02:14 College. Wow, this seems like the perfect person. A mom, a baby girl, Nicole, and now she's volunteering at St. Matthew's Lutheran. It sounds like a storybook persona. Take a listen to more from Tyler Hunt. Barbara Newton and Elizabeth Watkins made Saturday lunch plans. Barbara was tutoring the single mother with her nursing program. When Watkins didn't show up, Newton called. When no one answered, she decided to go over to her apartment and check in. There was no answer at the door, but Newton could hear the television on inside. That's when Barbara Newton noticed the apartment's sliding glass door was open just a bit. Newton made her way inside through the back of the one-bedroom apartment. In the kitchen, she found the bodies of Elizabeth and Nicole Watkins. I've got an all-star panel to break this down and put it back together again, including Barbara,
Starting point is 00:03:11 the dear friend of Liz and baby Nicole, who made that horrible discovery. Barbara, before I go any further, what happened? Well, we had plans for me to help her with her math. On that particular day, I was going to be coming to her apartment for lunch. And I called from home because we hadn't set a specific time. So I started calling about 11, you know, to say, hey, what time do you want me to come over? And no answer. She didn't have a car, so I knew that maybe there was something wrong with her phone or something like that. So I got in the car and went over to her apartment. And I parked.
Starting point is 00:04:05 I was facing the sliding glass door. She was on the main floor, so you could literally walk from the parking lot into her sliding glass door. I went there. I could hear something, and actually I thought it was somebody talking. So I went around on the inside, knocked on the door, no answer. So I thought, oh, then I thought, oh, that must be the TV. So I went back around to the slider and went in and that's when I found them. So I called the police.
Starting point is 00:04:54 This was before cell phones, so I used her home phone to call the police. Barbara, where did you see their bodies? On the kitchen floor. Was Liz lying flat on the floor? Yes. So she wasn't sitting up with Nicole where?
Starting point is 00:05:23 Underneath her. You mean completely underneath her or she was shielding her or what? She, little Nicole was underneath Liz on the floor. Was Liz on her back or her tummy? She was on her stomach. Sounds as if she was trying to shield her baby. Absolutely, yeah. When you went in, was there any doubt in your mind
Starting point is 00:05:53 that Liz and Nicole, her 2-year-old daughter, were dead? No doubt, none at all. Why? Why? Oh, this is just, I don't want to describe the scene, please. I understand. I understand. Stop right there. But there was no doubt. Just, I'll say that. There was no doubt. Take a listen to Barb and her 911 call.
Starting point is 00:06:23 My friend and her 911 call. I can literally feel it in my body right now. I kind of have chills remembering the day I got the call. You just need to take a deep breath because I want to help you. We had an agreement that I was going to come here for lunch, and I've been trying to call her. Okay, that's fine. Does it appear that there's been trauma or what you're hearing barb's
Starting point is 00:07:06 frantic and distraught 911 call and our friends at fox q13 there in seattle let me introduce to you our panel another of liz watkins very dear friends tammy oliveri california prosecutor author of red flags and host of today with dr wendy k KCBQ San Diego, Wendy Patrick, Dr. Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrist joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdictions at AngelaArnoldMD.com, Dr. Todd M. Barr, deputy medical examiner, pathologist at Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner. That's Cleveland. Cheryl McCollum, director and founder of the Cold Case Research Institute, forensics expert, and you can find her at coldcasecrimes.org. But first to Olivia LaVoie, reporter for Q13 Fox. That's in Seattle. And you can find her on Insta at Olivia underscore LaVoie.
Starting point is 00:08:03 Olivia, thank you for being with us. Tell me about the area where Liz and baby Nicole were found dead. Nicole and Liz were living in Renton, Washington. They were living in a quite large apartment complex, but one that a lot of families live in and still do today. They did back then. You know, it's not, it's certainly not a place that, I mean, I don't think there's any place where you'd ever expect anything like this to happen, but I don't think it is a place where most people would feel unsafe to live. And you certainly wouldn't ever imagine that something so horrific would happen, especially during the day, which is when investigators believe Liz was murdered, Liz and Nicole were murdered. What day of the week was that?
Starting point is 00:09:03 Friday. Friday. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we are taking a very close look at a so-called cold case, and I'm really stunned this case has not been resolved. It's the case of a beautiful young mom, Elizabeth Liz Watkins, and her baby, two-year-old Nicole. When Barbara, a dear friend of the two, found them, Liz was trying to shield the baby with the baby underneath her as if she had thrown herself on top of Nicole to save her. Her attempts did not work. Both of them murdered. Right now, we're talking about Renton, Washington. Where is it? What is it? Well, there's only about 90,000 people there. It's a city there in King County, Washington. It's a sleeper suburb of Seattle. And this particular
Starting point is 00:10:11 apartment was a big complex, very family oriented. I also heard that the sliding glass door was partially opened. A sliding glass door. Cheryl McCollum, you know, we grew up with a sliding glass door. Even I could break in a sliding glass door at age nine. They're really not hard to break into. And a lot of times when you shut them and think you've locked them, you really haven't. Correct. They are extremely easy to get off the track and go right in. You know, again, it's an interesting mode of entry and exit. It would appear that the killer went in that way and out that way and in somewhat of a hurry, not even bothered to shut the door. And it seems like from what the crime scene tells us, he took the murder weapon with him. You know, I want to go through what happened to Liz, what happened to baby Nicole.
Starting point is 00:11:11 Because to you, Dr. Angela Arnold, I'm not saying it's any less important, but I see adult homicides every day. I see separately child homicides usually inflicted by someone in the home. But to see a mother and a two-year-old child both murdered at the same time, that's actually very rare. And also, to me, it speaks to how mean and dangerous that person is. I mean, you could leave a baby tossed over to the side and not kill the baby. The baby's never going to be able to identify you. But to be so horribly mean to be able to violently kill a baby. You know, I throw around the word mean a lot.
Starting point is 00:11:59 But from you, I mean, you are the psychiatrist. And as you have so often pointed out to me, Dr. Angela, you are also an MD. Note taken. But I was expecting a little more, let me just say, psychiatric other than mean. I know. I certainly don't want to say, I don't want to, I think that, I think that this was a, not a disturbed person, not necessarily a disturbed person. How about something like sociopath? It's my understanding a sociopath is someone that does not abide by the rules of society. They mean nothing like, hey, nobody's looking. I'll run the red light.
Starting point is 00:12:39 Or, yeah, I could throw this out the window. Littering, that rule is for other people, not me. Sure, I'll go in through the sliding glass door. So what? I don't need to knock first. The rules mean nothing. So sociopath, what about psychopath? A psychopath.
Starting point is 00:12:56 Because those are the people that rules mean absolutely nothing to them. Absolutely nothing. And they have no remorse for what they do what is the individual that cannot empathize or sympathize with the pain and suffering of another psychopath exactly that's how i would describe this person because you can get angry with another adult well i wouldn't, but suddenly shoot them or whop them in the head. But to then kill the child, too. That's a whole nother can of worms, Dr. Angie. And Nancy, I hate to say this, but I also have to wonder. You want me to feed you another phrase other than psychopath and sociopath?
Starting point is 00:13:41 But I do have to wonder if this person was on some kind of drugs. I don't know. I don't know if there was any theft for money to buy drugs. I don't know if there was a rape. But you know what? We're putting the cart before the horse. Take a listen to Olivia LaVoie's Q13. An autopsy determined Liz and two-year-old Nicole had been bludgeoned to death with an unknown weapon never found, seemingly brought to the scene and taken with them by the killer. Investigators believe the killings took place around 5 p.m. the evening before they were found.
Starting point is 00:14:12 It would have still been light outside. There was no forced entry, no sign of sexual assault, nothing stolen. Aside from the bodies, the apartment was essentially spotless. There was nothing that stood out, which is just super unusual. And I've since then obviously been to more than a handful. And I can't say that I've ever walked in one with that same feeling.
Starting point is 00:14:42 It's very interesting to me that the premise is the perp brought a weapon and took it with him. How do I know that? How do I know that a weapon wasn't found right there on the scene making this a more spontaneous killer? Guys, with me right now, in addition to Liz Watkins, dear friend Barbara, joining me now, Tammy Oliveri, another very dear friend. Tammy, thank you for being with us. I know that you recall when you learned Liz and Nicole had been
Starting point is 00:15:15 attacked. What happened? Well, it was Saturday morning. I was at home. I was currently a preschool teacher for three-year-olds, and I was preparing my class for the next week. And a lady that lives in the same apartment complex with Liz, I believe her name was Gladys, called me and I answered the phone and said hello. And the first words out of her mouth was, I think something, I think Liz has been killed. I was just, I mean, how do you, I was like, what, what are you talking about? She said that there was police surrounding the apartment. And I just thought, I got to go.
Starting point is 00:16:11 And I hung up and I tried to call Liz and the phone just rang and rang. I called my ex-husband, my husband at the time, and told him about the call. And he says, just call Liz, you know, Gladys can get, you know, maybe it's not Liz's apartment, whatever. I tried again. I couldn't get an answer. So I drove to my husband's work and I said, we need to go down to Renton. Now we were living in Kirkland, Washington at the time, about 20 minutes from Renton. We drove down there, pulled into the parking lot and there was police tape and police officers everywhere. I went up to the first officer I could find and told him who I was.
Starting point is 00:16:57 And they said that they believed my friend had been a victim of a homicide. And when I asked about the baby, all they would say is that if there was anyone in the apartment, they would have been removed. And it went from there. I went through, they had me go through her address book with them, with an officer, a detective to kind of, you know, explain to them who everybody was in the book. When the last time I saw him. And I believe it was eight o'clock. It was dark. I do know it was dark by the time we finally found out about the baby.
Starting point is 00:17:38 I believe they were waiting until Pastor Kirby got there. It was Pastor Kirby that told me about the baby, not the police. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Timmy Oliveri, I can tell you and Barbara are still deeply distraught as you describe the death of Liz Watkins and her baby, Nicole. I find it very difficult to believe this case remains unsolved. Using a sliding glass door, I think of all the prints, a bludgeoning. That's not easy. Did the perp touch something? Were there any security cameras in the area? Tammy Oliveri, one of Liz's very best friends. Could you describe that apartment complex to me?
Starting point is 00:18:43 Was it family oriented or were there people out dealing dope on the playground? No, I mean, it was family-oriented. There were, I believe, some single people there. I mean, it was a lower-priced complex,, I wasn't a real expensive unit. I have to honestly say that there were some people that lived in the area that, in that building that I wasn't comfortable with. And I will to this day. And I always have said that the family that called me about it, I wasn't comfortable with them. Neither were my children. It's funny today, my oldest son, who at the time was 15 and is in 40 now, he did not care for that family. He said that their son made him very uncomfortable. What do you mean by that? Uncomfortable in what way?
Starting point is 00:19:47 That he was strange. Just, I don't know. I tried to get Alan to elaborate. I want to talk about what you're saying because, you know, Cheryl McCollum, you've raised two children, and I'm doing it right now. They have certain friends that I feel there's nothing wrong with them. They're, they're perfectly fine. There's just something about them. I'm afraid for the twins to hang around with them because I, I feel that they'll get the twins to do something crazy, like, uh, run down the middle of the road or, or, or, or jump in off of a roof into somebody else's pool or some crazy something.
Starting point is 00:20:26 I don't, I can't put my finger on it, but you know, that gut feeling that you have, do you, do you hear what Tammy's saying? I tell people all the time, listen to it. Listen to that gut feeling because here's the thing that we know about this thing, Nancy. We know that you and I, the murder of a two-year-old is associated with those same apartments would know how to enter in that side glass door. So to me, you've got to look at people associated with that complex more than her church or her work or where she was studying to become a nurse. You've got to start there where it happened. That's what I've always thought.
Starting point is 00:21:30 Is that Barbara or Tammy? Tammy. Why Ann Tammy? I just, I mean, I don't honestly know how Liz met that family unless she met them there in the apartment. I mean, she hadn't lived there about a year. It is possible. I mean, I met her through Liz, met them through Liz. Is there a man in this scenario? Was there a father or an adult brother?
Starting point is 00:21:52 A father and a son. Because I'm telling you, let me go to Dr. Todd Barr joining us. Dr. Todd M. Barr, Deputy Medical Examiner, Cuyahoga County. That's Cleveland. Never a lack of business there in Cleveland in the morgue. Dr. Barr, and I say that in a loving and caring way, having worked inner city Atlanta, Dr. Barr, the bludgeoning death of a grown woman and a child. I'm just telling you, this is a male perp. I don't need to see his DNA or his semen to know this is a man.
Starting point is 00:22:26 And I base that on thousands and thousands of cases compiled in a book, Method and Assessment of Homicide and Suicide. Plus, anecdotally, I've never once had in all the murder cases I prosecuted, investigated, or covered, I'm thinking back now, had a female kill another female via bludgeoning absolutely um i just recently had a case here in cleveland of a five-year-old boy that was bludgeoned to death by a baseball bat by his father and it's just horrifying may he rot in hell by the way amen amen uh you know any anybody that could take an object to a child, an innocent child, and I say the same thing about pets because I'm a pet lover as well, but anyone that would torture or harm an innocent child is just, I just, my head just explodes
Starting point is 00:23:21 thinking about it. You know, Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author, Red Flags, today with Dr. Wendy, every day, KCBQ San Diego. Wendy, you know it's a man, right? Do we even need to discuss that any further? You got a male perp. Yeah, no, I agree. And, you know, to narrow it down even further, when you hear that it wasn't a crime of opportunity,
Starting point is 00:23:41 no sexual assault, nothing stolen, you would probably look at the men that lived in that complex before anything else, most of whom I would imagine were questioned right afterwards about their whereabouts, whether somebody had an alibi. So you would think that we could really have narrowed this down a lot further than we have in the years since this occurred. I know. I hate that this case has gone cold. Back to Barbara, a very dear friend who attended St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, along with Liz Watkins and her little baby girl, Nicole. Do you recall, were there cameras, security cameras in the apartment? I do not recall that at all.
Starting point is 00:24:18 Um, the apartment itself, that, that complex is huge. There's hundreds of apartments there. And her apartment was right on the ground floor, right up the parking lot. Very accessible when you, you know, come in the driveway. I hate that. I hate it, Barbara. And I write in my book, Don't Be a Victim, it's the name of the book, whether you're at a hotel, a B&B, or finding an apartment, try not to be on the ground floor. It's like a perp just walks in like he's walking right into his own kitchen.
Starting point is 00:25:08 And right after this happened, they took out that sliding glass door and made it just a solid wall to that particular apartment. You know, I also know that the walls in that apartment, I learned this through some supplemental police reports that I read, the walls in that apartment to this very day are not thick. You can stand out in the hallway and you can hear conversations in two or three different apartments, according to the detectives. But nobody heard any screaming or any raised voices. Is that right, Olivia LaVoix? Yes, that's correct. No one heard anything, which of course seems extremely unusual. And one investigator on the case has voiced to me that he does not believe that, that that just does not seem possible. So to think that you have not just one, but it would appear several, several different residents of that apartment for whatever reason, not coming forward
Starting point is 00:26:03 with information is, you know, just incredibly unsettling. And Tommy, are you saying that people within the apartment complex were not helpful to police? They were not. They were not. There's, you know, no substantial leads to this day really have ever been developed. And that is largely because of that. Tammy Oliveri, she was at school, correct? Nursing school? Yes. And had she made friends or was she concerned about anyone at school possibly stalking her, trying to go out with her, anything like that? Not at all, no. And the reason I asked Tammy Oliveri is because there's no rape, There's nothing stolen. I wonder if someone had been rejected or thought they had been rejected. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Starting point is 00:27:04 Guys, we're talking about the brutal murders of a young mom, Elizabeth Liz Watkins, and her little precious girl who I'm looking at right now in what I believe to be an Easter photo because she's got on this beautiful dress and she's holding up a pink Easter egg that matches her pink floral outfit, just dripping with lace and ruffles and very well taken care of. Her hair is shiny and clean. She's smiling. Her eyes are bright and shiny. Her little fingernails are done perfectly. Why am I saying that? Because I see here that the baby is well taken care of. I mean, I know it's hard to believe, but Cheryl, isn't this true? You know I've covered cases where in the photos the children have bruises on their face.
Starting point is 00:27:52 They look bedraggled. Their hair is unkempt. Their clothes look raggedy and even dirty. I mean, at least I see here this child is being taken care of. The mother loved the child, loved her so much, she probably gave her life trying to save the child. That's what it would appear to me. Nancy, I think it's real important that we point out the position the victims were in. If her mama was shielding her and the baby was still bludgeoned to death, that means they were both hit very quickly,
Starting point is 00:28:22 almost simultaneously. So that's something to consider. The other thing to consider is this victim, the mama, was 36. It's not like she was a 21-year-old college student. I mean, this was not somebody that was going out to nightclubs and going to different places. She was at the Lutheran Church. The majority of her free time, that's where she was at. And the baby was with her all the time. And I think, again, the suspect pool is very small.
Starting point is 00:28:53 And let me just say, we don't know for sure that it was a grown man. I didn't say grown. It could have been a teen. No, no. I'm saying just in general. We don't know it was a man. It could have been a juvenile. Okay. There are male juveniles. Oh, of course just in general, we don't know it was a man. It could have been a juvenile. Okay, there are male juveniles. Oh, of course. You said I don't know it's a man, it could have been a juvenile. Yes. Can we just at least agree it's a male, M-A-L-E?
Starting point is 00:29:19 Yes, I agree it's a male. Guys, take a listen to our Cut 10 Q13 Fox. Then and now, there was a disturbing lack of evidence. If it's a crime of passion, they, the suspect, traditionally makes a whole bunch of mistakes, right? Because they're in the throes of this anger or whatever it is that's driving them. And so there's pieces of themselves if there was a fight. There's blood splatter, and there's hair, and there's weapons, and there's things turned over. There's just a bunch of other things that weren't in this crime scene. Let's talk about that. Crime of passion. Barbara, longtime friend of Liz's, attends St. Matthew's Lutheran Church with her. Crime of passion. Somebody was so angry or rejected for whatever
Starting point is 00:30:17 reason. Why would a male perp, and there's no boyfriend, there's no ex-husband in the scenario. We know the ex has a rock-solid alibi. Who would have been so angry they would have killed them both? By killing the child, that suggests to me, Barbara, the child knew the killer and the killer did not want to be identified. You know, that's part of this, the horror boldness of this is she was the most wonderful person in the world. There is nobody that you can possibly think of. She didn't have any fears of any specific people. She, there was nobody stalking her. You know, there was nobody that she voiced that she was afraid of. Let me ask you a question, Barbara. She, I started to say religiously, but that would sound almost like a pun. She was extremely devoted to volunteering and her work there at St. Matthew's
Starting point is 00:31:21 Lutheran. She was also, was she not in school? Yes, she was going to school to be a LPN. And did she also have a job? No. So who kept the baby when she was in school? The school itself had a daycare. So between that, it's clear to me you've got two pools of suspects, Wendy Patrick, church and school. Well, you would have church and school if you were to. That's right. That's where I was going with this, because between church and school, it sounds like there would have been somebody that would have known something about a stalker, about somebody that had been threatening her. And in terms of the personality that some of your other guests have been talking about, to kill a two-year-old child, a two-year-old's not going to recognize an adult or be able to articulate who it was. That just demonstrates
Starting point is 00:32:15 that degree of evil, Nancy, that you and I sometimes tell juries when we can't explain what the motive could have been. If we can't narrow it down to anybody with a grudge, a crime of passion, a crime of opportunity, sometimes we're just left with that, sadly. And when you think about it, to Dr. Todd Barr joining us, Deputy Medical Examiner Cleveland, Dr. Barr, you can't just hit somebody even with a bat and kill them. To murder someone by bludgeoning,
Starting point is 00:32:47 you've got to be trying to hit a home run. I mean, it takes considerable force. Well, and what strikes me about this particular case, Nancy, is that it sounds like the apartment was relatively spotless, and this was focused mainly just in the kitchen, and nothing was overturned, There were nothing was missing. So this was a person that was laser focused on what they were doing. And that gives me another question regarding what you just said. Thank you, Dr. Barr.
Starting point is 00:33:13 Tammy, when you come through, when you would come through the sliding glass door, which I believe is the point of entry, I can't believe they didn't get prints off the door. But this is such a great surface for Prince. Do you go straight into the kitchen from there? No. No, you went into the living room. And then what? The kitchen was by the front door.
Starting point is 00:33:34 It was a small, like, galley-style kitchen, where if you walked into the front door, as soon as you went to the left was the entry into the little kitchen. To the right would have went to the hallway to the bathroom in their one bedroom. Was Liz clothed? Yes. So there was no sex attack, but I was wondering, had she just gotten out of the shower? Had somebody been watching her?
Starting point is 00:33:56 So ground level floor. So her bathroom, I believe, had a window in it, correct? No. No. The bathroom did not have one of had a window in it, correct? No. No. The bathroom did not have one of those tiny windows in it? No, the bathroom was an interior bathroom. It had no windows. Good to know.
Starting point is 00:34:15 This sounds like an angry person that lived in the area. They had to know her from either the apartment, the church, or the school. This case has left a lasting impact on everyone connected. Take a listen to our Cut 8. Our friends at Q13. Going to those things changes you. Back then, Sergeant Russell Radke was a new detective tasked with helping process crime scenes. It was horrific. I mean, there's no other way to describe it.
Starting point is 00:34:48 And I was a single widowed father with a child the same age. So when you talk about walking into a crime scene and not, it's not like a standard crime scene right there's a component of how do i even separate out my own stuff from what i'm seeing in front of me at this point see it was it was awful this case really left a mark on you yeah that did and also take a listen to more our cut 11. to complicate things even further, detectives couldn't find anything in Liz's life, past or present, that would have put her in the crosshairs with any dangerous people.
Starting point is 00:35:34 That doesn't make sense. There's nothing, no road you can follow that could give you an answer. No debts, drugs, or love affairs. Liz's life seemed to revolve around Nicole, church, and school. The few people who could classify as an obvious suspect, like an ex, Nicole's father, or family, were ruled out through solid alibis. Who would do this? There was no reason. She was just a kind, wonderful person who didn't make any trouble.
Starting point is 00:36:02 I mean, she was just... And a baby? who would kill a baby? A two-year-old that couldn't have possibly harmed anyone. I mean, she was too young to be able to describe the person. I mean, but who would kill a baby? Who would kill a baby? Who would kill a baby? There is a $10,000 reward to help solve the mystery surrounding the death of Elizabeth Liz Watkins and her little baby, Nicole, just two years old. 1-800-222-TIPS. 1-800-222-8477. $10,000 reward. Olivia, where does the case stand now?
Starting point is 00:36:52 Well, Nancy, we're really hoping that that increased reward has helped get new tips. The reward is new. We're not positive exactly what all new information has developed, but we're hopeful that the new attention on the case has really made some people think twice about continuing to remain quiet all this time later. Cheryl McCollum, what can be done now? You're the director of the Cold Case Research Institute. Nancy, I believe the connection with the killer is zero except for geography.
Starting point is 00:37:30 I think there's a real chance that this person, when they committed this crime, was a juvenile. So what law enforcement needs to do in this type of attack, he probably grabbed the victim in some way, struggled with her a bit. His touch DNA could still be on her clothing. That has got to be tested. The other thing they need to do is they need to look at rapes even 10 years later and go back to see who had a connection with that apartment complex. We wait as justice unfolds. Again, a $10,000 reward now in place.
Starting point is 00:38:05 Tip line 1-800-222-8477. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.