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00:01She's never going to abandon her son,
00:03so this is just very, very unlike her.
00:05911, where is your emergency?
00:07She has not texted back.
00:09Her mom called me.
00:11That sent a wave through me.
00:13How far is she going with no shoes and no car?
00:17That guy that came over,
00:19she's been having sex with him for the last two years.
00:21We have a single mom
00:23who's having a relationship with a married man.
00:27Investigators believe they are now on the hunt
00:29for a killer.
00:31We're like, listen, you're fine, bro.
00:33Tell us the truth.
00:34I honestly think he believed he was just
00:36going to be able to talk his way out of this.
00:39Then the cadaver dog went to work,
00:41and we knew this is a murder investigation.
01:12For us at People, this case is heartbreaking.
01:15A loving mother brimming with hope for the year ahead.
01:18She risks it all to chase a dream,
01:20and sometimes that can lead you somewhere exciting and fulfilling.
01:22But it can also introduce you to something dangerous
01:26that you never would have expected.
01:30Jennifer and I met in high school.
01:32I walked into our history civics class,
01:35and she had on a sweater very similar to this one,
01:41and she was just this bubbly, bright light.
01:48And we just clicked.
01:49As soon as we sat next to each other,
01:51and I just remember us having a conversation
01:54that never ended up until two years ago.
02:00In 2022, 43-year-old Jennifer Brown is a single mom
02:04living in the peaceful Philadelphia suburb
02:06of Limerick, Pennsylvania.
02:08She moved there two years earlier
02:09after her eight-year-old son Noah was diagnosed
02:12with a mild neurodivergence
02:13and in need of a school that was equipped
02:15to support his education.
02:18Jennifer was a well-grounded, responsible,
02:23smart, intelligent, loving helicopter mother, if I could.
02:27Get it.
02:29That's my future ninja warrior right there.
02:33Jennifer was all about her career,
02:35her family, and her son.
02:38In the two years that Jennifer is living
02:41in Limerick Township,
02:42she becomes a part of the community.
02:44She builds a set of friends
02:45and a life for herself and for her son Noah.
02:48Jennifer and I spoke daily in 2022.
02:51I hadn't met Brian, but I knew of Brian.
02:54He was a neighbor, and his son was very close friends with Noah.
02:59Whee!
03:01Whoa!
03:02I think this landed faster.
03:03It's cool.
03:04And then she had met this guy, Blair,
03:07who owned this food truck that had some really good Caribbean food,
03:10and she was bragging about,
03:12oh, my gosh, this Caribbean food.
03:13I have been looking for oxtails.
03:15Happy Saturday.
03:16I hope everyone is having a phenomenal Saturday.
03:18He was a cook, so it became a thing where, hey,
03:21me and Noah are going to go over to Blair's house for dinner
03:24with his wife and his son, and then vice versa.
03:27They had a very, very good friendship.
03:30I was so happy for her.
03:32Despite life in Limerick going well,
03:35Jennifer is facing the hardship of a sick parent.
03:38Her mother had been diagnosed with cancer,
03:40and she started having to make frequent trips
03:43back and forth to South Jersey.
03:46From Limerick was two hours away.
03:48She was tired.
03:49She was exhausted.
03:51And that was hard for Jennifer to deal with
03:52and see her mother go through.
03:54She was very, very stressed out.
03:56Jennifer was a sales representative
03:58at a financial institution, and she's juggling a lot.
04:01But Jennifer has all these hopes and dreams
04:03that she came to town with.
04:05She went to vocational school for culinary arts,
04:08and she always had a dream of becoming a restaurant owner.
04:13Our favorite thing to do was to go to restaurants.
04:15We would go to restaurants every week.
04:18Jennifer was very big on flavor.
04:20In June of 2022, I remember her telling me
04:25that she was investing in a restaurant business with Blair.
04:29She was excited.
04:30With Blair, she met someone who she could learn from
04:34and grow her business with.
04:38As 2022 comes to a close,
04:40Blair has found a location for the new restaurant,
04:42and Jennifer is excited to be open for business in early 2023.
04:47Reporting live from the new location,
04:51I just want to continue to say thank you
04:52for the level of love and support.
04:54Just did a little walkthrough and things like that.
04:56Things are coming together.
04:57Thank you, guys.
04:59Have a phenomenal rest of your day.
05:03New Year's Day.
05:05Jennifer was headed with Blair to the Eagles game,
05:09which is her favorite team.
05:10She's a diehard Eagles fan.
05:12And I remember saying,
05:14OK, love, my friends call me when you get home.
05:16And she's laughing,
05:18and you could just hear all the happiness in her voice.
05:21Go Eagles, right? Let's do it.
05:23Come on, birds. We got this.
05:24I never thought it would be the last time I spoke with her.
05:33I'm walking out of my job,
05:35and I'm getting on the elevator.
05:36I feel my phone vibrate, and I pull it up,
05:38and I see all these missed calls from Jennifer's mom.
05:41And so I call, and she says,
05:43Hey, Tiff, have you talked to Jen?
05:45And I was like,
05:46um, yeah, I didn't even talk to her today,
05:49but, you know, I texted her yesterday.
05:51She texted me back, and she's like,
05:53She texted you back when?
05:55And I said, Oh, well, let me look.
05:56And then I look at my phone, and I was like,
05:58Oh, actually, she didn't text me back.
06:01Jennifer wasn't there to pick Noah up off the bus.
06:05And Noah's school had been calling.
06:07Jennifer's mother not being able to get in touch with Jennifer
06:10and saying that Noah had a bad day in school
06:13because he didn't have his medication.
06:16Jennifer's family called her friend Brian,
06:18who lived in the complex because he was authorized
06:21to get Noah off the bus.
06:25You sent him to school with no medication.
06:27That sent a wave through me.
06:30Jennifer would never do that.
06:32She was his everything as he was hers.
06:35And so I say, Well, hey, I have Blair's number.
06:38Do you want me to call him and see if he knows anything?
06:42Jennifer's mom tells Tiffany that she's already reached out to Blair,
06:45and he's heading to her house to check on her.
06:479-1-1, where's your emergency?
06:51How you doing?
06:52My business partner, Jennifer Brown.
06:55I've never heard from her.
06:56And when's the last time she was heard from?
06:58Yesterday.
07:00On January 4th, 2023, about 4.30 p.m.,
07:06Blair Watts reported that his friend was missing
07:09from her home in Limerick Township.
07:13I responded, and my officers are speaking with Blair
07:17in the parking lot of the condominium complex.
07:20She has not texted back.
07:23Her mom called me, and she was like,
07:25Oh, Noah's acting up this school today.
07:26It's because he didn't have...
07:27He takes a medicine every day.
07:29Yeah.
07:29So does my son.
07:31Blair's telling the police that he had tried
07:34to get in touch with her earlier that day,
07:35was not able to.
07:37And her car was parked right in front of where she lived.
07:41And she has some text back, and...
07:43What's my bad?
07:44Jennifer texts back.
07:46Her mom told me to break a window,
07:48and I couldn't break the window.
07:50Her family thought there's no way
07:52that she's going to leave this child by himself,
07:55so maybe she's in there hurt.
07:58I tried lifting that one, and that one didn't lift up.
08:00Okay.
08:02And I don't see anything in the holes.
08:03Yeah, right.
08:09Good job, man.
08:11All right.
08:13So as soon as my officer got in,
08:15we began checking the condominium.
08:20We checked everywhere.
08:22She was not there.
08:24There were no obvious signs of any sort of struggle
08:28or any items that were broken and laying around.
08:31There's no Jennifer,
08:32but her things are still in the house.
08:34Her keys, her wallet, her purse.
08:36The only thing that was missing was her personal cell phone
08:39and her driver's license,
08:41which ended up being found inside her car,
08:43which was parked outside.
08:45Detectives also found Jennifer Brown's work cell phone
08:48in her kitchen living room area,
08:50but they did not locate her personal phone.
08:52That's not her personal one.
08:53So she has her phone with her.
08:55If you guys didn't find it,
08:57there's another Android.
08:58There's a black or gray case.
09:01It's not pink like this.
09:02So we thought, okay, she's somewhere.
09:05She has her phone.
09:06That was kind of a glimmer of hope
09:08that maybe she was somewhere of her own free will,
09:11just out, and this would pan out.
09:15While police are still at the home,
09:17Brian, the neighbor, shows up with Noah.
09:20Then Blair drops a piece of information
09:22that takes the investigation
09:23in an entirely different direction.
09:26That guy that came over?
09:27Yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:27Brian? Yeah.
09:29She's been having sex with him for the last two years.
09:39We have a single mom
09:41who's having a relationship with her neighbor,
09:45Brian Bathy.
09:46And Blair Watts indicated
09:48that Brian Bathy was a jealous individual
09:51and had issues with her spending time with other people,
09:55especially Blair Watts.
09:57Mr. Bathy had gone inside his house.
09:59I can see him inside the house.
10:00And so I kind of signaled through one of his kitchen windows
10:03with my flashlight, and he exited the home.
10:09What was your relationship with Jennifer Brown?
10:12Jennifer and I had a very close relationship,
10:15and it was tricky because I was married,
10:19so I knew things didn't look good.
10:23The police were like,
10:24how do you know Jennifer?
10:27And I was brutally honest.
10:29When Jennifer and Noah moved into the neighborhood,
10:32my marriage was complicated.
10:36Jennifer and I became intimate just about right away.
10:41He was forthcoming with that answer,
10:44and when I asked Brian about the last communication
10:47that he had,
10:48he did indicate that there was a slight disagreement.
10:54We had plans to hang out on New Year's Eve
10:56and kind of ring in the New Year together.
10:58So I went over, you know, knocked on the door,
11:01and I was like, hey, I'm here.
11:03And she said her and Noah were over
11:06at Blair's house with his family.
11:09I was, uh, upset.
11:12I asked some more questions
11:14about where he had been over the last day or so,
11:17and we took note of that.
11:18These were initial questions.
11:20Obviously, I knew that this wouldn't be
11:22the last conversation that law enforcement
11:23would have with Brian Baffey.
11:27As night starts to fall, Tiffany arrives on the scene.
11:31I remember seeing the police in front of her front door.
11:35They escorted me into the house.
11:37I remember her jacket was in the house.
11:41Her purse was in the house.
11:44All her shoes were there.
11:45It just gave the impression that she wasn't far,
11:48or if she stepped out, she was coming right back.
11:51How far is she going with no shoes and no car?
11:53This is not, like, an inner-city area.
11:56This isn't like you walk a few blocks over to a bodega.
11:59This is pretty much residential, rural area.
12:02There's no stores to walk to.
12:05At this point, I can't say that I have a crime scene here.
12:08It was decided that we would lock it up,
12:11and we would reconvene tomorrow
12:13and contact our detectives
12:15and see if they can come in and start working on this.
12:21When Jennifer doesn't show up by the next day,
12:23authorities are getting increasingly concerned.
12:27In my 31 years of law enforcement,
12:30I've never had a case like this.
12:32This was very strange.
12:35Jennifer Brown was a single mother
12:36of an eight-year-old special-needs child.
12:39For her to disappear for any amount of time,
12:42according to her friends and family and neighbors,
12:44was completely out of character.
12:46Knowing Jennifer Brown had a relationship with Brian Bathie,
12:49Brian Bathie was a person
12:51we definitely wanted to speak with.
12:54They came by and asked me
12:56to come down to the police station.
13:00And that's when I knew that things were serious.
13:08Police interviewed Brian Bathie,
13:10and they had him account for every single place
13:13that he went from January 3rd into January 4th.
13:16He's a language therapist for children,
13:19so he accounted for the different families
13:21that he went to visit that day.
13:23He was feeling sick after that
13:25and then ultimately came home that evening,
13:27and he said he was at his house for the next 24 hours,
13:30sick in bed.
13:31Brian allows detectives to look through his cell phone,
13:33and they discover a heated exchange via text.
13:37I told detectives we had a big fight on New Year's Eve,
13:41and it was about Blair Watts.
13:44When we were interviewing Brian Bathie,
13:46he absolutely was jealous of the time
13:49Jennifer Brown was spending with Blair Watts.
13:53That was very alarming to us.
13:56I definitely complained about Blair Watts a lot,
14:00you know, because they spent so much time together
14:02that I did ask if they were getting intimate
14:06or, you know, having a, you know,
14:09a different kind of relationship,
14:10and she always said no.
14:13I kind of gave her an ultimatum to a degree
14:16that, you know, it was either me or Blair Watts.
14:20I wrote, fine, this next year, 2023,
14:24will be the year of Jennifer and Blair.
14:27Brian was very angry.
14:29This is a person he's had a romantic relationship with
14:31for almost two years now.
14:34So could Brian Bathie have done this?
14:37Absolutely.
14:39After talking to Bathie at length for hours on where he was,
14:43teams went out to try and verify his alibi,
14:45but that's not a quick process.
14:48At this time, Jennifer Brown could be hurt somewhere or worse.
14:53So one of the tools that we will use
14:55is ask a person who's being interviewed
14:57if they're willing to take a polygraph.
15:00Brian Bathie said he absolutely would.
15:02While Montgomery County sets up a polygraph examination,
15:06a new team of investigators responds to Jennifer's house
15:09for a more thorough search.
15:11We sent our forensics team,
15:12and they did a secondary search.
15:16It was a very clean home.
15:17It's during the search that the investigators discover a clue.
15:21Our forensics team was examining the rug in the living room area,
15:24and these weird plastic pieces popped up.
15:27They weren't just laying on top.
15:28They were embedded.
15:29They collected them.
15:30We looked at them, had no idea what they belonged to.
15:35Those pieces seemed to be a sign of some kind of struggle,
15:39so we asked the Philadelphia Police Department
15:41to take a cadaver dog through Jennifer's house.
15:45There's a particular scent that decomposing flesh gives off
15:49that is different from live flesh,
15:51and a cadaver dog is trained to be able to detect that.
15:55The Philadelphia Police Department's cadaver dog,
15:58Canine Patton, went to work.
16:00He did a sniff search in Jennifer Brown's home.
16:05Canine Patton went in the kitchen,
16:06and he just started barking.
16:10Patton alerted right on a windowsill area in the kitchen.
16:16We knew right away that this is a murder investigation.
16:27With the cadaver dog alerting to the presence of a dead body,
16:31we quickly realized that this is not just a missing person's case.
16:35We knew that something bad happened to her.
16:39As authorities are understanding that this is becoming a full-blown murder investigation,
16:43they turned their attention to her neighbor, Brian,
16:46and how he might have committed this crime.
16:48We put him on a lie detector test.
16:50He was asked if he was ever physical with Jennifer Brown,
16:53and it indicated deception, which was very alarming to all of us.
16:57That certainly elevated the concern about him being involved.
17:02Everything that surrounded their relationship together indicated deception.
17:06The detectives dug into me hard and let me know that the cadaver dog hit in Jennifer's place
17:14and that he knew that I did it and wanted to know where I had hid the body.
17:20He kept saying, I didn't harm her, there's no way I would ever harm her,
17:24and just offering to do whatever he could do to persuade them that he didn't do it
17:30because he wanted to see whoever was responsible be held accountable.
17:35And at that point,
17:41realizing that she wasn't missing but that she was dead,
17:46I just lost it and broke down and started crying.
17:55Since polygraph tests aren't admissible in court,
17:58investigators have no hard evidence to tie Brian to Jennifer's disappearance,
18:02and they have to let him go.
18:04At this point, we know the last time Jennifer Brown's seen is by Blair Watts.
18:08So my lieutenant and I have a quick conversation,
18:10and we're like, we have to dive into Blair Watts.
18:15Blair Watts had a restaurant in Spring City called Birdie's Kitchen.
18:19It had been somewhat successful,
18:21but he had some financial issues surrounding the pandemic, like a lot of restaurants,
18:26and he had lost his lease.
18:28We wanted more background about their relationship, their business relationship,
18:33so we set up an interview,
18:35and he came on January 6th for an interview voluntarily.
18:42Does she have a financial responsibility to you as business partners?
18:46She invested into the business, yes, sir.
18:48We have a contract.
18:49It was signed on August 28th of last year.
18:55Estimate what she has given to you so far.
18:58I believe it's between 35 and 36.
19:01So she's supposed to be at 45.
19:05Every month to six weeks or something like that,
19:07she either does the cashier check, writes a check, or cash app.
19:11He told us that they entered into a contract, a business contract,
19:14to reopen Birdie's Kitchen.
19:17We needed to drill down on it and confirm or corroborate or not his story
19:23and his movements of January 3rd and January 4th.
19:28Did you see her on Tuesday the 3rd?
19:31Yes.
19:31It was like two to maybe three or something like that.
19:35We smoked.
19:36We aired a lot of freaking grievances.
19:38Okay.
19:38I started crying first because I said,
19:40I feel like I'm letting everyone down.
19:42The amount of people that keep messaging me and asking when I'm open.
19:46She starts crying because she's telling me,
19:48I got there with all this .
19:49I hate going to go see my mom.
19:51I got to be there all day.
19:53He claimed that he offered to take Noah away overnight
19:58so that she could relax for the evening.
20:01Apparently, they had planned sleepovers before.
20:04My exact words was,
20:05I can't help you with none of that you got going on,
20:07but Noah, I got you.
20:10I'll grab him later.
20:11I'll keep him as long as you need.
20:12Don't worry about it.
20:12Were you going to keep him overnight then?
20:14Yeah.
20:15Blair said Noah stayed over at Blair's house with his wife and kid,
20:19and he said that he put Noah on the bus the next morning at her complex.
20:25So, did you stay on that night?
20:26No, I did not.
20:27I went to Chili's.
20:28What car are you in?
20:29Jeep Renegade.
20:31It's a gray Jeep Renegade 2018, 2019.
20:34Are you by yourself?
20:35Nope.
20:35I went with Tatiana.
20:37That is the young lady that I was talking to when me and the wife were separated.
20:41We were surprised to hear that Blair literally said he spent 15 minutes with Noah,
20:47went, stayed with his girlfriend overnight, left Noah with his wife.
20:53Detectives plan to speak with both of the women to confirm the story.
20:56Meanwhile, news that Jennifer's disappearance is now being investigated as a possible homicide spreads among her friends and family.
21:06I found out that they had used cadaver dogs.
21:10I just remember laying in the bed, and my eyes were closed, and I just remember having a vision of,
21:19like, her leg,
21:21and then, like, just feeling like, oh my God, she's out there and she's cold.
21:26And here I am in my bed snubbed with this new UGG blanket, and I just threw it off of
21:32me.
21:32I remember thinking that and feeling guilty.
21:37At this point, the community is still holding out hope that Jennifer's alive,
21:41and they end up planning a candlelight vigil to honor her.
21:44The morning of the candlelight vigil, authorities want to speak to Noah about what he knows.
21:49I took him to his interview.
21:51He didn't know anything about Jennifer being missing.
21:55He thought Mom was sick.
21:57Jennifer's son, when he was interviewed, said that he was picked up by Mr. Watts from the bus stop on
22:03January the 3rd,
22:05and noticed that Mr. Watts had Noah's mom's phone.
22:10He knew that because of the background of the phone was a picture of Noah.
22:14So Noah asked Mr. Watts, why do you have my mom's phone?
22:19And Mr. Watts indicated to Noah that he must have just grabbed it by accident.
22:24Noah had a very vivid memory and could give explicit details about what the phone looked like.
22:30He was very clear about that.
22:32At this point, we still hadn't received any cell phone records belonging to Jennifer,
22:37but we're getting evidence that Blair Watts was not being truthful.
22:42So, before the candlelight vigil, we interviewed Blair Watts' girlfriend, Tatiana.
22:47She basically told us that Blair Watts did come over, that they ended up going to Chili's.
22:52But Tatiana says something that doesn't line up with Blair's version of events.
22:56She alluded that he was driving a red Jeep.
23:00Blair Watts told us he drove his wife's car, which is a great Jeep renegade.
23:04She said, well, he told me not to tell you, meaning the police, about the red Jeep.
23:09Huge red flag.
23:10If you did nothing wrong, why are you switching cars up on us?
23:14Why are you lying about a car?
23:16That's a big lie to us.
23:17So, teams were sent out to any address he's ever associated with to find this red Jeep.
23:23But I knew in my heart that Blair Watts is going to be at the candlelight vigil.
23:31I'm speaking to the camera. I'm speaking to the people.
23:33You know, just really, really asking for the public's help.
23:37She's never going to abandon her son, so this is just very, very unlike her.
23:41It was very warming to see everyone there coming together.
23:45It was just like, I know my girl felt loved.
23:49When I went to the candlelight vigil, I was plainclothes.
23:53My badge and weapon were hidden by my coat.
23:56And I just wanted to observe and ultimately determine if Blair Watts drove that red Jeep there or not.
24:05I saw Tiffany, and then Blair Watts walked by me.
24:08Blair Watts and Tiffany started talking, and I kept my eye on that.
24:12I couldn't hear. I could see it was not going well.
24:17He asked my opinion on if he should dissolve the company and give the money to the family.
24:22And I said, oh, you know, slow down. We don't know anything yet.
24:26And he lost it.
24:28So I could see body language, facial expression.
24:31So I walked over.
24:33And he explained that I'm trying to give her an envelope.
24:37I said, this is a civil matter.
24:39We don't enforce civil law, nor do I want to get involved in it.
24:43I calmed him down.
24:44And at that point, he left.
24:49So after leaving the vigil, I talked to my boss and told him what happened there.
24:53And he said, well, we have his red Jeep.
24:57Two officers had located the red Jeep Cherokee parked near Blair Watts' mother-in-law's house.
25:02And minutes after leaving the vigil, Blair Watts himself pulls up behind the red Jeep.
25:06They saw our detectives were right there at the red Jeep.
25:12Blair Watts asked to speak with a detective.
25:15He was asking for another interview.
25:19So I came back here to interview Blair Watts.
25:22You understand that you're here voluntarily, right?
25:25Yes, sir.
25:27Door's there. Lobby's there.
25:29You're free to end this whenever you want.
25:31Yes, right.
25:38It's very rare for someone to actually get in contact with the police and want to talk to them again.
25:44For the record, you called me tonight.
25:46Yes.
25:47We're homicide detectives.
25:48We know that there's situations out of desperations, out of emotions, that things can happen and things can get out
25:58of control and people can get hurt.
26:00We wanted to know.
26:02Could Blair Watts have transported Jennifer's body in that red Jeep Cherokee?
26:07So you're operating a red Jeep?
26:09Yes.
26:09That's not in your name, correct?
26:11That is not in my name.
26:12He said he didn't know.
26:14He wanted to tell us that because he was worried about it's not properly registered.
26:18And then we explained, well, yo, we're not traffic cops.
26:22We don't care about traffic.
26:24You're fine, bro. Tell us the truth.
26:26In the interview with me yesterday, I believe you said you had your wife's car.
26:31No.
26:32But I believe you told me you had your wife's car.
26:35I don't think I did.
26:38That's a lie.
26:39We have the audio.
26:40What car are you in?
26:41It's a gray Jeep Renegade.
26:43He was clearly trying to throw detectives off of his trail as to where he was and what he was
26:50doing.
26:51Detectives also confronted him about having Jennifer Brown's cell phone.
26:55One thing Noah had said was that when you picked Noah from the bus stop, you had her phone.
27:06I think I had her personal phone.
27:07I put it in the house.
27:08I put it down.
27:09I grabbed my phone.
27:10It was next to her work phone.
27:11Oh, I forgot.
27:12I picked up her phone by accident.
27:15Jennifer's personal cell phone, which was missing.
27:20That's odd.
27:22We also asked him about the new restaurant.
27:25And Blair Watts just talked.
27:29And that was our game plan in that interview.
27:32Just letting him talk.
27:33The guys there almost didn't want to do a lease with me anymore because they thought I had legal troubles.
27:39Did they rebroke your lease?
27:40They did.
27:41And then he's like, well, we'll talk about this another day.
27:45We shook him, figured, give him what he did.
27:46That's why I said I'm going to be opening by the 29th.
27:49I honestly think he believed he was just going to be able to talk his way out of this.
27:55It was lengthy.
27:56It was two and a half, three hours.
27:58It was very important to our investigation.
28:01Detectives want to get to the bottom of what was truly going on with the restaurant he was supposedly opening
28:06with Jennifer.
28:07And very soon, our team at People met with the landlords to learn more about the situation.
28:12Well, let me show you.
28:15I met Blair, I guess, in the spring of 2022.
28:21I showed him the place.
28:22I told him what we wanted.
28:24And we had asked for $3,500.
28:27And this is the kitchen.
28:29I said, when you're ready and you have some money, I'll get you a contract.
28:32Even though Blair hasn't signed a lease, the Zaremba brothers began renovating this space, hoping that Blair will get the
28:39money together.
28:39But months pass.
28:41Blair wanted to paint everything black.
28:44My brother talked him out of painting it black and they agreed on brown.
28:48He never showed up.
28:50Blair promised a lot of things and did nothing.
28:53And that, you know, that contributed to the fact of, you know, is this guy, can you believe him?
28:58I called him up.
29:00I said, Blair, we're done.
29:02We don't want to do this.
29:04We'll go with someone else.
29:06Well, he got all upset.
29:07He started calling me all kinds of names.
29:10I said, Blair, we're done.
29:14Looking through all the instant messages between Blair Watts and Jennifer Brown, he's telling her of how he wants to
29:21paint.
29:22A complete lie.
29:24How he has keys to the restaurant.
29:26They got to come over and see it.
29:28Lies upon lies.
29:30He has no contract.
29:31He has no rental agreement.
29:32All the while gathering more money from Jennifer Brown.
29:36I can't wait to see you guys in a few weeks.
29:40I'm super excited.
29:41It means the world to me to have massive love and support that I have.
29:44Initially in their written agreement, Blair and Jennifer agree that she'll pay him about $14,000 total over the course
29:52of the few months before the restaurant is set to open.
29:54Jennifer Brown entered a contract with Blair Watts on August 28, 2022.
30:00She financially met the requirements under that contract for $14,000.
30:05But in subsequent months, Jennifer provided an additional $2,600 and then $6,000 and then $17,000.
30:14After all that money that he took from her and all that time and all that saying this place is
30:20going to open in two weeks, the place wasn't going to open in two weeks.
30:24I think he was getting desperate that this house of cards is going to collapse.
30:28With suspicions mounting against Blair, detectives impound the red Jeep that he was driving the night Jennifer disappeared.
30:36We obtained consents to search that vehicle for traces of evidence and a cadaver dog search.
30:42We enlisted Patton, our cadaver dog, to come back.
30:47And Patton did in fact indicate that the odor of human remains was present in that Jeep.
30:53Despite the cadaver dog alerting to the scent of a dead body,
30:56investigators didn't find any blood in the red Jeep Cherokee.
31:00But detectives found red soil in the back of the Jeep, which was unusual.
31:07So we contacted the FBI to see if they could do a soil sample analysis for us.
31:14The evidence is leading us directly to Blair Watts, but it's circumstantial.
31:19We are gathering search warrants for cell phone records and praying that we get the results of the records back
31:25quick.
31:25But we don't have enough to arrest Blair Watts for murder without a body.
31:30We had a crew doing a landfill search.
31:34We were reviewing cameras from garbage trucks and we had other teams going to businesses, private residences,
31:41anywhere they saw a camera where Jennifer Brown lived.
31:44We had dozens of detectives pulling footage.
31:49On the morning of January 18th, warehouse workers in Royersford, a nearby town,
31:55find something suspicious buried under some pallets behind the warehouse.
31:59People that worked at the AMT pump company found a stack of pallets on top of some freshly turned over
32:06soil.
32:07And when they moved one of the pallets, they saw what they thought could be clothing.
32:11And ultimately realized it was human remains.
32:22We got a call that human remains are believed to have been found behind the AMT pump company.
32:29Forensics units get there. They removed everything painstakingly.
32:34We took their time, collected dirt, sifted it until we exposed the body.
32:38Because this was in January, the body was relatively intact and they quickly identified her as Jennifer Brown.
32:47Forensics also found pieces of a hair clip on the back of her head.
32:51One law enforcement officer, upon seeing that hair clip, immediately recognizes it as a match to the pieces of plastic
32:58found in Jennifer's carpet.
32:59For days, family and friends handed out flyers, they held vigils, and they prayed for Jennifer Brown's safe return.
33:06Late this afternoon, investigators found Brown's body behind an industrial complex in Royersford.
33:13I got a phone call that they found Jennifer.
33:17I just couldn't believe it because like now I got to tell my kids their godmother's gone.
33:24And Noah was eight.
33:27And it's devastating as an adult, a mature adult.
33:33Can you imagine what it's like for an eight-year-old boy?
33:41When they found Jennifer's body, I was pretty emotional that day, and my mind definitely went to Blair Watts.
33:49While the medical examiner tries to determine the cause of death, detectives analyze data from both Blair and Jennifer's phones
33:56and discover that there had been two financial transactions on January 3rd, while Blair was with Jennifer's son Noah.
34:04There is one transaction from Jennifer's phone for $9,000 at 4.23 p.m.
34:13Then a minute or two later, there is a transaction for $8,000, again, from Jennifer's phone.
34:21Blair Watts told us that he picked up Noah after school at the bus stop at right around 4 p
34:26.m.
34:27And that little boy was able to remember that Blair had Mommy's phone.
34:32So, clearly, somebody's manipulating her cell phone to make these transactions, and that would have been Blair Watts.
34:38Detectives also get access to Blair's location data, and they are able to track his movements in the days following
34:44Jennifer's disappearance.
34:46We see activity on January 5th, during the early evening, that's the day after she's reported missing, that would put
34:54him in the general vicinity of Jennifer Brown's grave.
34:57So, detectives pull all kinds of different surveillance cameras, and we saw Blair Watts' vehicle at the very same time
35:03where Watts' cell phone records are registering.
35:06So, with that information, we realized that Blair Watts had transported Jennifer's body during the evening of January 5th and
35:16placed it in that grave.
35:25Based on that video surveillance and cell phone location data, we were able to make an arrest in this case,
35:32and we charged Blair Watts with first-degree murder.
35:35The Montgomery County District Attorney announcing the arrest of Blair Watts.
35:39We believe Jennifer Brown was murdered in her own home, that she was then moved and ultimately buried in a
35:46shallow grave where she was found two weeks later.
35:49We continue to work hard on this case to bring justice to this family, to this little boy who doesn't
35:55have a mother because of Blair Watts' actions.
36:00Up until Blair Watts was arrested, it was a very stressful period, and once he was arrested, it was just,
36:08I can't even describe the wave of relief.
36:14I think Blair Watts' hair-brained scheme was probably assuming that I wouldn't cooperate, and that I would lawyer up,
36:23and that I would deny having a relationship with Jennifer.
36:27And I didn't do that. I decided to help the police and the detectives and do whatever it took.
36:37When they arrested Blair, I was thinking about, in retrospect, all the different signs that I should have picked up
36:44on.
36:45Blair took advantage of Jennifer's friendship, of her yearning for her dream, and ultimately murdered her for money.
36:56As prosecutors prepare for trial, they know it'll be an uphill battle to get a conviction because there isn't any
37:02physical evidence connecting Blair Watts to the murder.
37:05But investigators believe analysis of the dirt found in the red Jeep Cherokee can help shore up the evidence in
37:11the case.
37:12That dirt that's in this grave site, it's a weird color for Pennsylvania. It's more like clay, reddish.
37:19The FBI analyzed the soil characteristics in the samples that we sent from the shallow grave.
37:27And one of the three samples matched the soil from the back of Mr. Watts' vehicle.
37:36This case is circumstantial, which is challenging as a prosecutor because you have to make sure that you've got it
37:43right.
37:43However, between the inconsistencies in Blair's story, cell phone data, security footage of hidden driving, and the money sent from
37:51Jennifer's accounts to his, police believe they have enough evidence to tie Blair Watts to Jennifer's murder.
37:58Before the trial, the most difficult part of the case was that we didn't know, with particularity, how she died.
38:05And as Jennifer and Blair were close, any genetic material could have been there from before her death.
38:11The forensic pathologist testified in the case that we believe that he suffocated her.
38:18Compressional asphyxia, meaning could have been a bear hug or somebody sat on her for too long.
38:24You'll take a breath and never take a breath again. The weight prevents your lungs from expanding and you'll asphyxiate.
38:32It takes minutes. He could have decided not to do that at any time, but he didn't.
38:45At trial, Mr. Watts tried to say that nothing ever happened and he had nothing to do with it.
38:50But when you're confronted with this level of evidence, we felt pretty confident that they were going to convict him.
38:56They came back unanimously with that guilty verdict for first degree murder.
39:01They killed Jennifer Brown.
39:02Well, he could say he's been saying that from the beginning, but we just spent five days proving that he
39:07did.
39:07The judge sentencing Blair Watts to life in prison.
39:11It was the biggest relief. It was also a special date.
39:16That verdict came down on Jennifer's mother's birthday.
39:20So for us, we found some solace in that.
39:24Mr. Watts cares about one person and one person only, and that's himself.
39:28All he ever did in his life was try to cover up who he truly was, which is a broke
39:36narcissist.
39:44I do come here and have some conversations with her.
39:50I miss her.
39:53I wish she was still here.
39:58The saddest part about this tragedy is that Noah is now without his mom.
40:04His mom was his world and Noah was his mom's world.
40:09It's a great tragedy, but I want to tell Noah that I'm proud of him and he was so brave
40:17through all of this.
40:18And I think it's incredible that he helped solve this case.
40:23He is the most loving, innocent, sweet baby in the world.
40:27And so for him to have to hurt and feel a feeling that he'll probably never be able to grasp
40:35and understand fully,
40:37that's really hard to watch.
40:39You know, her family struggles every day to provide a beautiful life for Noah.
40:47I can't think of anything more heartbreaking than what they're experiencing.
41:19You could hear her say, he ran over me.
41:22He's white, middle-aged, and with a large build.
41:25Can someone ID this guy?
41:27He told me that my mother had been abducted.
41:30He is the one that's like, man, the shoe fits.
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