Prime Crime: Solved Murders - The Marlborough Mystery Pt. 2

Episode Date: February 1, 2023

Based on witness testimony, authorities believed that Scott Watson killed Olivia Hope and Ben Smart. The jury agreed and took less than 24 hours to convict him. But since his incarceration, several witnesses have recanted their testimony, saying they were pressured by police. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this murder case, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. Memory is a fickle thing. Remembering what we ate for breakfast yesterday is hard enough. Recalling specific times, dates, and people can be all but impossible. It all depends on who we are and what we're trying to remember. But even experts can get distracted.

and memories that feel crystal clear can later be proven false. Occasionally, we become absolutely certain about a specific detail, the length of a person's hair or the way their eyes are shaped. Then we see them again, and we realize we were totally wrong. Yet, in a court of law, so much hinges on what people recall. Ideally, this testimony will be backed up by hard evidence. But what do we do when the opposite happens, when witness recollections clash with investigators' findings? What do we throw out first, the memories or the physical evidence?

Typically, we throw up our hands and trust the jury and the judge to come to an impartial decision. But there's no clear answer. It's hard to be neutral when lives hang in the balance. We all have our own biases and our own ways. way of deciding who to trust. And no matter what we decide, in the end, someone pays a price. Hello, listeners, it's Carter. Wendy and I love to bring you stories about the many ways murder investigations

can go horribly wrong or wonderfully right on our show's unsolved murders and solved murders. But every once in a while, we come across stories that don't fit neatly into either category. Sometimes a closed case gets blown wide open. Questions we thought had been answered get thrust back into the public eye. The ensuing controversy transforms what we thought was a simple murder story into something else entirely. This week, we want you to join us in asking one very important question. Is this case solved or unsolved? You can find episodes of solved murders, unsolved murder,

and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free, exclusively on Spotify. This is our second episode on the mysterious disappearances of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope. Last time, we covered Olivia's ill-fated yacht trip, a raucous New Year's bash, and the beginning of a fraught police investigation. This time, we'll follow investigators as they hone in on a suspect, but don't find the evidence they expect. We have all that and more coming up. Stay with us. Own it all. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari.

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Zootopia has a secret reptile population. You can watch the record breaking phenomenon at home. You're clearly. We're going to hit. Zootopia 2, now available on Disney Plus-rated PG. On New Year's Day, 1998, Olivia Hope and Ben Smart vanished after attending a raucous party in the Endeavor Inlet of New Zealand's South Island. They were last seen sometime around 4 a.m., taking a water taxi to a stranger's boat. Police treated the young couple as missing persons and quickly launched a full-scale investigation, thanks in part to Olivia's

father, Gerald Hope. He was steadfast in his belief that foul play could have been involved. His suspicions were confirmed when detectives questioned the water taxi driver who last saw Ben on Olivia, Guy Wallace. He told police that he dropped the couple off at a boat that night, which he described as a double-masted catch. Local authorities canvassed the Marlborough sounds for a craft matching Guy's description. In the meantime, They also put together a suspect list to try and track down the mysterious stranger. Hi on that list, Scott Watson. He was at the same party at the Ferno Lodge and had a history of committing petty crimes.

And police realized his yacht, blade had been docked near the spot that Guy Wallace remembered the mystery catch. Standing five foot eight with dark hair and skin tend from his time at sea, Watson would have easily blended in with the hundreds of other partiers at Furnow on New Year's Eve. But it was his behavior that made the 26-year-old stand out. One of Olivia Hope's friends remembered him being creepy and sexually aggressive. He was also overheard bragging about his boat more than once. He didn't make the best first impression with investigators either. Constable Mike Lawson found Watson,

Smarmy. All that being said, there wasn't anything suspicious about Watson's answers. He didn't seem troubled by the investigation, and it didn't seem like he was hiding anything either. And there was another major issue. Even though his boat was in the same area as the one Guy Wallace described, it looked completely different. Guy distinctly remembered a two-masted craft, and the blade only had one. Guy was an experienced sailor and spent most of his time near the docks, so the authorities had no reason to doubt his memory.

So detectives put Scott Watson on the back burner. At the time, they had a number of other possibilities to investigate, like drowning. On January 6th, they sent divers down to the seafloor to look for signs of Olivia and Ben. They scoured the waters but couldn't find anything. On some level, this might be able to be. have come as a relief. No sign of bodies meant Olivia and Ben could still be alive, but detectives were practically still at square one. If Olivia and Ben did sail away on the mystery catch, they were getting further out of reach by the second. The longer they were missing, the more likely it was that they would never be found. The missing pair's families knew that time was of the essence, and some of them turned to the

media for help. Soon enough, journalists were flocking into the small New Zealand town, and armchair detectives were clogging up the police phone lines with wild theories and phantom sightings. It was tough for the tiny department to keep up. They knew they needed additional manpower. Eventually, they called in the New Zealand Criminal Investigation Branch, or CIB. Once the National Authority stepped in, the case took on a markedly different tone. For one, right when the CIB took over, the families found out that Ben and Olivia weren't looked at as runaways anymore. Their disappearances were now considered potential homicides. That wasn't the only change.

With the CIB involved, the investigation grew dramatically. Hundreds of potential witnesses were contacted, and the suspect list ballooned to 130 people. Once the groundwork was laid, investigators were finally able to take full stock of what they knew. Most important was identifying the boats and owners who were at the For No Party on New Year's Eve. All told, at least 140 boats were docked in the area that night. Thanks to a slew of tourists' photos, along with local help, police were able to catalog and map almost all of them. Guy Wallace remembered that. that Ben and Olivia boarded a wooden, double-masted catch with a dark blue stripe right before they disappeared.

As the authorities cataloged all of the boats, they searched diligently for one that matched this description. But nothing seemed to fit. Some detectives started to believe Guy was mistaken about what he'd seen. Of course, there were other possibilities. The vessel could have arrived in the inlet late at night and not appeared in the background of any photos. photos. But then it must have left early the following morning, too, for the same reasons. With few other options, search and rescue teams painstakingly combed every inch of the beaches and surrounding waters for signs of Ben and Olivia. Detectives continued fielding phone calls and noting down possible suspects. On January 12th, the authorities released two sketches of the

potential kidnapper to the media. One matched Guy Waiwarker. Wallace's description of the mystery man with the mystery catch. The second was based on the accounts of other witnesses, several of whom reported a creepy man skulking around the Furneau Lodge bar. Since Guy was the bartender at the lodge, he had more to say about the sleazy stranger he'd spotted earlier in the night. The man was sitting alone, drinking bourbon and coax and not saying much. He paid the check with a ruddy ball of disorganized bills.

Based on his clothes, Guy pegged the man as a fisherman, and later in the water taxi with Ben and Olivia, Guy recalled the stranger saying he worked on the two-masted catch, or possibly another fishing boat. Authorities acknowledged that this stranger may have been the same skeevy partygoer the other witnesses remembered, but they couldn't be sure. All their hunting was getting them nowhere, fast. It had been nearly two weeks and the closest thing they had to be.

to a prime suspect was a vague generic description. The unanswered questions were piling up. By now, most of the boats they knew of had been identified and cleared. Scores of suspects had been eliminated because they all had solid alibis. Dozens of Colin tips had been investigated and dismissed. There was no sign of Ben or Olivia's bodies or any clues about where they might have gone. The operation was one of the biggest the island had seen in years. 44 staff members were devoted to sorting through the various leads,

and still the police had no hard evidence. Momentum was fading fast. Detectives knew they needed some answers while the trail was still hot, or else they risked the entire case going cold. And with the pressure on the case, that wasn't an option. Coming up, The authorities zero in on their man. In a world of deep fake technology, fake news, and revisionist history,

how do we know the difference between what's official and what's just fishy? That's where we come in. Hi, it's Molly and Carter from the Spotify original from Parkast conspiracy theories. Every Monday and Wednesday, we examine the most controversial events in history. Because maybe there's so much more to the digital. truth than we've been led to believe. From the mysteries of outer space to the secrets, lies, and possible cover-ups occurring right under our noses. We explore every angle in search of the actual truth. We're not skeptics or theorists. We're curious, rigorous, and in the end, we let you

decide. Catch new episodes of conspiracy theories each week. Follow and listen for free, only on Spotify. And now, back to our story. Mid-January, 1998. Detectives weren't the only ones getting impatient in their search for Olivia Hope and Ben Smart. The families were stretched thin, trying to help the police in any way they could. Ben and Olivia's families followed up on tips provided by so-called psychics, who, like the other armchair detectives, were calling in every day. It may sound a bit silly, but Ben and Olivia had been missing for weeks. The official investigation seemed to be stalling out,

and the families were willing to entertain even the strangest ideas. They even rented a helicopter. They flew it high above the sounds, searching everywhere for signs of the missing pair. Unfortunately, the helicopter tour failed to find anything. The hundreds of volunteers searching the coastline didn't find any new clues either. Worse still was the dilemma of Guy Wallace's mystery catch. The authorities found a few boats that matched his description, but none of them were at for no that night. There was no satisfying solution. Either the catch was completely unidentifiable or Guy Wallace's memory was faulty.

In the former scenario, investigators had no clear path forward. There were no real lead to follow. The boat could be practically anywhere. All the detectives could do was wait around and hope for another sighting. But if they admitted that Guy's testimony wasn't airtight, more options would open up. They could look into the boats they'd already identified in the area like Scott Watson's single-masted yacht. Investigators decided to re-interview some individuals of interest, including Watson on January 12, 1998. This time, Watson gave the authorities a full accounting of his New Year's Eve. He told detectives he'd sailed into furneau around lunchtime.

Watson had built Blade himself and was immensely proud of it. A single-masted sloop with a steel hull and a red stripe, it was notably different from the boat Guy Wallace described. His demeanor and conduct was more of a question mark. Watson had definitely harassed a few women at the lodge that day, openly inviting a few onto his yacht for sex. He'd supposedly offered a few women Prozac t-shirts, as if that somehow made him more desirable.

But he didn't completely match the description of the sleazy man that other witnesses mentioned, or the two composite sketches investigators had released. And since the last time he'd spoken to the police, Guy had seen Watson's boat blade. He seemed confident that it was not the mystery boat. The police weren't dead set on Watson as their suspect. The second interview was a matter of routine. But once again, a number of factors, including Watson's attitude, earned him a closer look from detectives.

While he cooperated, he was definitely reluctant. then overconfident and dismissive. Still his account of New Year's Eve seemed fairly straightforward. He spent most of his afternoon with a couple of friends, drinking and chatting. Around 7 or 8 p.m., he met up with another buddy on his boat. From there, Watson admitted to the cops that his memory was a bit blurry. He was pretty drunk and might have smoked some marijuana as well. He couldn't quite recall.

But he did remember getting into some. some kind of altercation at the bar Inferno Lodge. According to Watson, it wasn't much, just a bit of shoving and punching before someone arrived to break it up. Around 2 a.m., Watson claimed he caught a water taxi back to his yacht. He told detectives he hadn't seen anyone who matched Guy Wallace's suspicious stranger or the mysterious catch. But that wasn't exactly the end of his night.

Still drunk at 2 a.m., Watson was still looking to have some fun. So he hopped from Blade over to a boat docked next to him to see if anyone else was partying. He didn't get a warm reception. The other passengers were all going to sleep. They shoot him away and he slung back to his yacht. He told police he ate a late night snack and went to sleep soon afterward. There were some pretty big gaps in Watson's memory, but nothing appeared to. two out of the ordinary. The friends who drank with him corroborated his account, but he was

apparently alone at certain parts of the night. Including during the crucial window, around 4 or 4.30 a.m., Watson believed he was asleep on his boat at the time. If that was true, it presented detectives with a strange dilemma. To join Olivia and Ben on the water taxi, Watson would have needed to get back to shore first. It wouldn't be impossible, but it would have been very odd. And some detectives had their doubts about Watson's story. Rob Pope of the CIB, for example, said that he was very suspicious of Watson after that interview and pointed to both his demeanor and criminal record.

Since his teenage years, Watson had racked up 32 criminal charges. Most were minor. Eleven related to possession or use of marijuana. Just a few were for assault or possession of a weapon. Once he stole $350 to buy drugs from his own mother. It seemed that many of the charges stemmed from sudden bad decisions he made in the moment, often while intoxicated. Looking at these alone, investigators like Pope might have thought that the kidnapping or killing of Ben and Olivia was just the latest escalation in his string of crimes.

By the same token, though, Watson didn't give the impression of a sophisticated criminal. He didn't think things through. He appeared to act without considering the consequences. If he was involved in Ben and Olivia's disappearance, it probably wasn't some master plan. Still, after their second interview, detectives pegged Watson as a suspect to watch. after all he was one of the few leads they had. It would mean doubting Guy Wallace's description of New Year's Eve,

but there weren't many other options at hand, and an ominous bit of testimony spurred them on. You see, back on January 2nd, the day after Ben and Olivia disappeared, two children playing in the sounds picked up an emergency radio call on their toy walkie-talkies. A woman's voice, called for help and stated she was on a ship called the Mad Dog. The name raised alarms because before Watson named his boat Blade, he'd called it several other things, including Mad Dog. The whole thing might have been a coincidence. Maybe they heard other kids playing a game about

shipwrecks. Maybe what they really overheard was bad dog. Or maybe the kids made up the story, and it went out of control. Or maybe it was real. Children talking about a boat named Mad Dog seemed like too big a coincidence. The details about Watson's boat weren't published in the press at the time. Only his close relatives could have known the boat's former name. Doing their diligence, investigators consulted the walkie-talkie manufacturers. The company claimed that there was no chance, no matter what the weather or distance,

that their toys could pick up a transmission from a marine radio. It was probably a red herring, but it certainly didn't help Scott Watson. At this point, Scott Watson really was starting to seem like their best lead. A major hurdle in their way was Guy Wallace. Putting aside his claims about the catch with a dark blue stripe, the authorities decided to pursue Watson as their prime suspect. They decided Blade was their best chance at finding some physical evidence. While Watson was giving his statement at the station,

investigators searched Blade and Watson's parents' home where he sometimes lived. There wasn't much to be found. Watson had a couple of cameras back at his parents' place, though there wasn't anything on them. Nothing stood out about Blade at first glance, except the fresh paint job. At some point in the last few weeks, Blade had been repainted from red to blue. To detectives, it may seem like Watson had something to hide. So they went fishing.

A couple of days later, around January 14th, the media were told that the authorities were changing their priorities. While they were still interested in potential sightings of the catch Guy Wallace described, they were pretty confident that his memory was less than perfect. They were now going to focus on Scott Watson and Blade instead. Detectives devoted themselves to piecing together Watson's New Year's Eve based on witness statements. They wanted to see if he was trying to hide something from them. And they found a few potential contradictions. Watson told the authorities that he'd returned to Blade from the lodge around 2 a.m.

Before going to sleep, he'd hopped over to a couple of adjacent boats to see if anyone else wanted to drink with him. But a couple of the people on those boats claimed he'd harassed them around 4 or 5 a.m. instead. So he wasn't asleep around the time that Ben and Olivia were dropped off in the water taxi. He'd either misremembered or he lied. Watson also told police that he left the inlet about 7 a.m. on New Year's Day after he'd slept for a bit. But based on photographs, investigators estimated that he'd actually departed by 6 a.m. The contradictions could be explained by the fact that Watson was heavily intoxicated on New Year's Eve. He wasn't exactly looking at his watch before he fell

asleep or when he cast off the next morning. And by his own admission, he didn't have a great memory of the night. On the other hand, the detectives had already poked holes in his story, and they hadn't even started looking at his boat. A thorough search of blade had detectives scratching their heads once again. There were no obvious signs of struggle or foul play. It wasn't a big boat, so there was barely any room for three people to sleep there in the first place. Officers also failed to find any evidence that Ben and Olivia had been on. on board. They didn't see any of their clothing or belongings. At first, this seemed like clear evidence that Watson was innocent,

until the investigators realized that they couldn't find his clothes either. He told authorities he was wearing a red and gray jersey on New Year's Eve, but photographs and multiple witness statements showed he was wearing a denim shirt instead. And that shirt couldn't be found. It didn't look good for Watson. On top of that, his boat appeared to be very clean, at least in certain areas. According to investigator Rob Pope, all the services most likely to have fingerprints on them were spick and span, yet the kitchen was a complete mess.

It didn't seem like Watson was the type to be particular about cleaning, so the inconsistency seemed significant. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but Watson's radio also raised eyebrows. It had recently been removed from its brackets and completely wiped down. The police may have recalled the kids with the walkie-talkies. Perhaps Watson had taken special care to clean the radio

because Olivia or Ben had tried to use it. The mystery only deepened from there. All of Watson's cassette tapes, 58 to be exact, had also been thoroughly cleaned. There were scratches on the inside of the boat's hatch, and one of the seat cushions had holes cut into it. Taken together, it all seemed pretty suspicious, especially considering there were no other obvious leads. And in the eyes of some investigators, a clean boat meant Watson had deliberately wiped away evidence. But they knew they needed something more concrete to actually bring charges against him. So they took fiber samples.

A lot of fiber samples. Out of around 1,300 fibers, 400 were examined. It took three and a half months, but eventually all but six fibers were eliminated. Of those, a single one came with a hair follicle that could possibly be tested for DNA. The preliminary results indicated there was a chance the hair belonged to Olivia Hope. A few more rounds of testing with and without DNA produced mixed results, but certain examinations found the hair was likely to be Olivia's. The forensic language is a bit complicated, but one sensitive test suggested the hair was 28,000 times more likely to belong to Olivia Hope,

rather than an unrelated woman. Though it wasn't a definitive positive result, that was apparently enough for investigators who got ready to formally charge Scott Watson. In the meantime, they had to consult their main witness, Guy Wallace, to make sure they had his cooperation in the case of a trial. It was easier said than done. From the beginning, Guy was the case's most important asset.

He was the last known person to see Ben and Olivia alive. He had a strong memory of dropping them off on a mysterious double-masted catch on New Year's. But the strength of his memory was exactly the problem, because police had no indication that the catch he described existed at all. They interviewed him again to take another statement. This time, Guy was less certain. He admitted that pressure from the media was stressing, him out. He felt like people didn't believe him and possibly even suspected him of deliberately

twisting the facts. The pressure was understandable, but Guy's next move didn't really do much to help his situation. He lied to the police. Now, Guy said that he'd gone down to look for the missing catch at a distant marina. He claimed that he saw a boat there that looked vaguely similar to the one he'd seen on New Year's and suggested that some detectives be sent down to double check. Then the very next day, he said not to bother with the marina. He explained, quote, I made up the story, I just wanted somebody to believe me, and this seemed like a good way of backing my story up. Now, Guy had undermined his own credibility with investigators who already had their doubts. So when an officer asked Guy whether he was still

sure he dropped Ben and Olivia off on a catch, he dithered for the first time. He said he still had a strong image in his mind of the catch. He still maintained it was wooden and had two masts, but considering the fact that no one else had corroborated his account, he admitted that he might have been mistaken. As frustrating as the ordeal had been for police, this was exactly what they had been waiting for. Finally, Guy was backing down a bit. Perhaps now they could truly move on from the phantom catch. And for the police, there was only one place to go. Scott Watson. Coming up, Scott Watson goes to court. I knew about investing, but I really didn't know how to go about it. Meet Corey, a Walthfront client. With Walthfront, it could put money in, and it would

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He gets excited when we talk about rewards. Savings of up to $1 per gallon redeemable with $20 rewards dollars in your loyalty account at participating locations, terms, and conditions apply. Now back to the story. On June 15, 1998, Scott Watson was charged with murdering Ben Smart and Olivia Hope. Police were confident they'd pursued every other possible lead, though they'd failed to find any bodies or additional hard evidence.

After 126,000 hours of work and $3 million, the investigation finally had someone in custody. But it was just the beginning of the quest to deliver justice for the families. For his part, Watson kept his mouth shut. Despite hours of questioning an intense, media pressure, he maintained his innocence. According to the police, he claimed that no matter what happened at the trial, he would never admit a thing. Still, it seemed like nearly everyone in New Zealand tuned in as the proceedings began in June 1999. The prosecution constructed its

arguments based on the scant pieces of concrete evidence it had. This included fingerprints. Investigators found two sets of prints on Blade, Scott Watson's, and his sisters. The police alleged that these prints suggested Watson and his sister had cleaned the yacht of evidence after New Year's. There were also some scratches on the inside of Blade's hatch. Watson claimed they had been made by his young nieces and nephews fingernails a few weeks before New Year's Eve as they played on the yacht. Blades hatch also couldn't be locked from the outside, but the prosecution argued these scratches were potentially made by Ben or Olivia. And three, the single hair investigators matched to Olivia that was found on Watson's boat.

Rob Pope of the CIB was confident that the hair stood on its own as solid evidence. As journalist John Goulter wrote in his book Silent Evidence, Pope said, quote, really it all comes down to the hair, because that is the one incontrovertible, undeniable piece of silent evidence. The biggest potential issue the prosecution faced was its star witness, Guy Wallace. In a deposition before the trial, Guy described the mysterious stranger that led Ben and Olivia onto his boat. He described the man as disheveled, sleazy.

and unshaven, just as he always had. Then, a lawyer for the defense showed him a picture of Scott Watson, taken around 10 p.m. on New Year's Eve. In the photo, Watson looked clean, shaven, and not really unkempt either. Guy was taken off guard. In the course of the cross-examination, he said that the man in the photo, Scott Watson, couldn't have been the mystery man. That was during the deposition. But when the trial came around, Guy gave a slightly different response. This time, he claimed that Scott Watson may have actually been the mystery man.

He told the court that he hadn't gotten a good look at the stranger's eyes, and that had caused him some confusion when initially trying to identify him. He'd apparently moved on that particular point. But when the prosecution asked him about the man, mystery man's boat, Guy had a few torpedoes to drop. He still clung to his initial description of the stranger's boat. Guy insisted Watson's blade bore no resemblance to the vessel he remembered dropping Olivia and Benoff on. Nothing could resolve the contradiction. All the prosecution could do was try and convince the jury that every other reasonable possibility had

been eliminated. Investigators had worked for months to track down 176 of the boats at Furnow that night. None of them matched guys missing catch. Opinions in the media were divided as the trial proceeded, but the prosecution had one last trick up its sleeve. Two secret witnesses. Both knew Watson from prison, where he'd been held on suspicion of murdering Ben and Olivia. First, his former cellmate claimed he'd heard Watson screaming in his sleep. When he asked if Watson's victims were haunting him, Watson seemed to confirm it. The first witness also claimed Watson had physically acted out the murders of Ben and Olivia right in front of him.

A second surprise witness, also Watson's fellow prisoner, had even more to share. He claimed that Watson indirectly admitted to killing Ben and Olivia. on more than one occasion. These testimonies seem to seal the deal. All that was left was for the jury to weigh the evidence and come to a final decision. It took them 22 hours to come to a verdict. Scott Watson was guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 17 years.

And that's where Scott Watson remains today. but a lot has changed since the trial in 1999. Most importantly, a couple of the witnesses in the initial trial have since recanted their statements. Guy Wallace had been among the most vocal years after the verdict. He said that he believed Scott Watson is innocent. He claimed he was manipulated into identifying Watson in a photo lineup given to him by police. After telling investigators that the mystery man had hooded eyes, detectives showed Guy a picture of Watson caught mid-blink,

with his eyes partially closed. Guy has stated that he tentatively identified Watson as the mystery man at the trial, based on that misleading photo. Another witness, the manager of the furneau bar, recanted her testimony as well. She was also shown the blinking photo, of Scott Watson. But that's not all.

One of the surprise prison witnesses had admitted to making false statements. Years after the trial, he claimed that much of what he presented at trial was inaccurate, including that Scott Watson had ever showed him how he'd allegedly killed Ben and Olivia. According to the witness,

he was pressured by police into testifying against Watson. He claimed investigating distorted his statements to make them more inflammatory. He didn't put up a fight at the time because he worried it would threaten his parole. Then there's the hair. The piece of evidence deemed pivotal by CIB investigator Rob Pope. Since the trial, questions have been raised about the forensic analysis.

A consultant, Sean Doyle, looked into the handling of the microscopic hair samples by authorities and found a number of issues that could impact findings. He claimed if the same DNA evidence were presented in court today, it would be strongly challenged. Because of these developments, Scott Watson has attempted to appeal his conviction multiple times. After his first appeal, a court determined that there was no miscarriage of justice in his conviction. But as of December 2022, Scott is awaiting a new appeal. appeals trial set for 2023. In 2021, Guy Wallace died suddenly.

This came after he claimed to the New Zealand Herald in 2017 that he believed he knew who was really responsible for Olivia and Ben's deaths. He didn't share a name at the time, but described the culprit as someone who was already incarcerated. The disappearances of Olivia Hope and Ben Smart are tragic and painful. And they're made all the more heart-wrenching by the seemingly endless series of questions that have cropped up since the trial. For some, the case is well and truly solved. Many of the police officers working on the case are still confident that they put the right man behind bars. They believe Scott Watson murdered Ben and Olivia.

Others speculate that the couple were taken away on the mysterious catch, possibly to an island near New Zealand, and there's always the remote possibility that Ben and Olivia decided to leave of their own free will to start a new life. For the families, it's undoubtedly difficult to see the case continue to be publicly debated. It can't be easy to move on when there are fresh headlines every few years dredging up bad memories. But the fact is that Scott Watson has a family too, and his father, for one, is adamant that Watson is innocent. There have been so many new revelations about the case and the police investigations since

the initial conviction. Watson's family aren't the only ones calling for a new trial. For now, the true fate of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope has been swallowed by the sea. All we can do is wait and hope that their memories are honored. Thanks again for tuning into our solved or unsolved crossover special. For more information on the Marlboro mystery amongst the many sources we used, we found silent evidence by John Golter extremely helpful to our research. You can find all episodes of Solved Murders, Unsolved Murders,

and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free. Spotify. We'll see you next time. Unsolved murders true crime stories and solved murders, true crime mysteries are Spotify originals from Parcast, executive produced by Max Cutler. Our head of programming is Julian Bois-Roe. Our supervising sound designer is Russell Nash, with Nick Johnson as our head of production and quality control by Lisa Marie Gallegos. Stacey Nemek is our supervising editor, and Derek Jennings is our writing lead. This episode of Unsolved Murders was written by Terrell Wells, edited by Kylie Harrington and Maggie Admeyer, fact-checked by Kevin Johnson, researched by Mickey Taylor,

produced by Joshua Kern and sound design by Brian Gallup. Our hosts are Wendy McKenzie and me, Carter Roy. Hi, it's Carter and Molly from Conspiracy Theory's. This February, join us for two standout specials. First, celebrate Super Bowl Sunday with a two-parter on one of the most dominant and dubious teams in history, the New England Patriots. Then a two-part Valentine special on the mysterious murder of Charles Walton. Journey back with us nearly 80 years as we comb through the details and rumors surrounding his death, pitchfork, witchcraft, and all. Catch new episodes of conspiracy theories every Monday in Wednesday. Wednesday. Follow and listen for free only on Spotify.