Alexander Wayne Watson

Alexander Wayne Watson Jr. (born September 24, 1969) is an American serial killer. Initially convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1994 murder of a woman in Forestville, Maryland, Watson's DNA was later matched to three additional killings in Anne Arundel County committed years before. For these crimes, he pleaded guilty and received four additional life imprisonment terms.

Murders The first murder occurred on October 8, 1986, when 34-year-old mother of two Boontem Anderson was killed in her Gambrills home. On that day, she was on sick leave from her job at Fort Meade, with her nude body being found by her fiancé's 11-year-old son in the bathtub.

On May 23, 1988, 37-year-old Mary Elaine Shereika was out on an early morning jog before going to work, but failed to appear at her workplace. Her fiancé reported her missing, and later in the day, a Gambrills farmer plowing his rye field found her partially clothed body. She had been raped, stabbed and finally strangled, with a bloodied sock found next to the body.

On June 13, 1994, Watson committed his last murder, killing 37-year-old office manager Debra Cobb during a robbery of her workplace in Forestville. Receiving a life imprisonment sentence in December 1994, he was sent to the Jessup Correctional Institution, without being connected to the other killings until over a decade later.

Exposure Using the advancements in DNA technology, the evidence collected for the three crime scenes was entered into CODIS, and in due time, the samples linked back to Watson. In 2004, he was charged with the three killings, and at his 2007 trial, he pleaded guilty to all of charges to avoid a possible death sentence. When queried about any other crimes he might have committed, Watson denied it, saying that only these were his doing. He was sentenced to four additional life imprisonment terms, to be served concurrently with his previous one, and he was moved to the North Branch Correctional Institution, where he remains incarcerated.