The murderer finally has a name and a face.
But for three families, closure seems distant.
“All that has been done today is that three women?s files can finally be closed, their boxes put away for good after far too many years,” said Jennifer Scott, 36, who was 16 when her mother, Elaine Shereika, was raped and murdered in Gambrills.
“Mom still isn?t here.”
Alexander Watson Jr., 38, who is serving a life sentence for one murder, pleaded guilty Thursday to three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of rape in a series of killings that remained unsolved since the 1980s.
Cold-case detectives connected Watson to the string of slayings using DNA evidence obtained after he was convicted in the 1994 murder of Debra Cobb, a Forestville woman who worked in his office complex, according to court records.
“You will spend your life locked up in a cell where you cannot harm anyone else,” said Anne Arundel Circuit Court Judge Joseph Manck, who sentenced Watson to life in prison for each of the five charges. He is not eligible for parole.
Watson was indicted three years ago for:
» Raping and killing Boontem Andersen at her house in 1986.
» Raping and killing jogger Elaine Shereika in 1988.
» Killing Lisa Kathleen Haenel, 14, as she walked to Old Mill High School in 1993.
The three victims suffered brutal stab wounds and strangulation, according to court records.
Only Shereika?s case allowed the state to pursue the death penalty, because Watson was a juvenile when he murdered Andersen and Haenel?s case did not involve a rape that would have allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty, said Assistant State?s Attorney Virginia Miles.
Shereika?s family, instead of seeking the death penalty, joined the other victims? families and fashioned a plea bargain to make sure Watson was convicted for all of the murders.
Watson pleaded guilty to all three murders, which he might not have done without the agreement, and in return the state dropped the death penalty, Miles said.
“I felt it was very important for him to fess up to everything he had done,” Scott said. “… I could not bear the thought of Mr. Watson being able to murder mothers, women and children, and never having to admit his guilt.”
Anne Arundel police were excited to finally close the decade-old cases.
“It inspires us to move on and keep working,” said Lt. David Waltmeyer.
