Bloodline Detectives - Season 2, Episode 1 - Body in the Stairwell - Full Episode | Forensic Files

Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace. Tonight, a tragic murder case that goes cold until a major breakthrough
in forensic science leads "Bloodline Detectives" to finally identify the killer.
November 1999, Colorado Springs Police receive a call. A body has been found. Clearly, this is suspicious.
Clearly, there's high concern for foul play. NANCY GRACE: The victim is an employee at Memorial Hospital.
She's been sex assaulted before a violent death. LEON KELLY: She's got quite a bit of swelling
to her face, lots of trauma. It had been wrapped several times in this plastic sheeting
with duct tape. She suffered a brutal death. NANCY GRACE: As the hunt for the killer goes on,
the investigation hits a wall. Of all the DNA samples that were submitted for testing,
nobody was a match. NANCY GRACE: But two decades later, all of that changes. They continue to utilize newer technology,
advanced technology, and DNA to ultimately come up with a suspect. NANCY GRACE: This is the case of Jennifer Watkins, the story
of how a young mother meets her death and the 20-year investigation to name Jennifer's killer.
This is "Bloodline Detectives." [THEME MUSIC] November 8, 1999-- it's Monday at the Memorial Hospital
in Colorado Springs when a maintenance worker makes a terrible discovery. Some elevator repair people had shown up at the hospital
and had gone to the eighth floor. At that time, there was renovations happening at Memorial Hospital.
And there was only a few people who had access to that eighth floor. The repair workers noted that as soon as they got there,
they noticed a foul smell. And they started searching around. When they went to the staircase, they
said that's when they found what they thought was a body. It's a smell like no other.
You don't mistake that smell for anything. So once you know what that smell is, it sticks with you for the rest of your life.
NANCY GRACE: A body is stuffed under a staircase, a staircase that leads to the helicopter pad at the hospital.
The body wrapped in a sheet, covered with construction plastic, then sealed with duct tape.
The employees who discovered the body initially contacted Memorial Hospital staff.
And then a call was placed to the Colorado Springs Police Department. Our patrol officers would have responded on scene.
And then once they get on scene, they're going to call our Homicide Unit to come out.
And that's when we started our investigation. NANCY GRACE: Homicide investigators
arrive on the scene. JIM STINSON: You're looking for clothing, fiber. You're looking for hairs, blood spatter,
anything that doesn't belong. And if you have any doubt, well, you're grabbing that.
So a lot of times, you're grabbing things that have nothing to do with the crime itself,
but they're just within the scene, because once you let that scene go, you can't recreate it.
And then once the scene was processed, then we'd call the Coroner's Office. And the Coroner's Office would come and remove the body.
LEON KELLY: The body is wrapped in plastic. So it's not obvious what we're dealing with.
In those cases, after law enforcement arrives, after the homicide detectives show up,
clearly this is suspicious. Clearly there's high concern for foul play. So the decision was made early on that the quickest way to get
that critical piece of information about who this person might be is to go ahead and open
the plastic at the scene. Now, that's highly irregular. In most cases, we're going to bring
those remains back to the morgue first before we start to unwrap. In this particular case, the decision was made,
let's open it now in the presence of everybody. We can document everything. And we can get that critical piece of information going.
NANCY GRACE: At first, investigators struggle to even identify the victim. LEON KELLY: In this particular, case number one is we got
to figure out who that body is. The tarp was wrapped fairly tight. So the fact that you could see the outlines of a body,
you could see where the head was, you could see where the feet likely would be, but you couldn't see any greater
details of what this person might look like and who they might be. NANCY GRACE: But now investigators
recognize details they've seen at other crime scenes. LAURI MARTIN: They immediately knew that she
had been sexually assaulted. When the coroner continued to cut the tarp or the plastic sheeting upwards,
her shirt was also raised up, exposing her breasts, again, a sign that there had been
some kind of sexual assault. NANCY GRACE: The victim's body taken for autopsy. RACHEL CRUZ-RODGERS: When they go through the autopsy,
it's kind of like a secondary scene. Because of the condition of how the body was found,
they want to preserve that evidence, including not just the external wrapping, but anything
that's inside as well. As they continue through the autopsy, they'll collect any clothing and then also document any injuries
or ultimately find out cause and manner of death. But they'll meticulously go through all of that evidence,
because you don't know what you'll find. It's at that point also that we will collect very critical
evidence under those very controlled circumstances, that sometimes it points to who did it right now
and sometimes it may take decades before ultimately that evidence kind of comes to fruition.
We begin documenting things like height, weight, hair color, any tattoos. And in this particular case, there
were tattoos present that helped give us an idea of who we thought this might be.
The young murder victim is fingerprinted. She's got a distinctive tattoo. Police are soon able to identify her as a hospital employee,
23-year-old Jennifer Watkins. JIM STINSON: Jennifer's clothes were in disarray. So although it appears that by looking at it that there was
a sexual assault, you're still not sure because sometimes when people kill somebody,
they'll display the body for shock value. So you have to determine. You have to go in with the autopsy
and find out if there was a sexual assault, if there is semen present, and just looking for other trace evidence
on the body itself. LEON KELLY: We begin to clean the body, collecting evidence along the way that could be important, then
disrobe the body, examining those clothing for any evidence as well. Once we have the body cleaned in much greater visibility,
then that's when we begin to really dig down and figure out what kind of injuries are present.
What kind of object, what kind of weapon could have been used here? All that information is being given to law enforcement
at the time of the autopsy so that all this communication is provided instantaneously.
So you have to look at the inside of the body to figure out exactly what happened.
And in this case, we have what we call subscapular hemorrhage, meaning bleeding or bruises that occur below the surface
of the scalp, essentially overlying the surface of the skull itself. Now, in some cases, people die.
They fall down. They hit their head. They can get some of this bruising. But in this case, we have that subscapular bruising
essentially all over the head. Any time you see that, you know that this person had multiple impacts.
This person has been the victim of multiple blows to the head from different directions.
That shows a lot of anger directed at this person. And we have to try to find out who is that angry
and what their motivation was. NANCY GRACE: Investigators began to piece together a murder case.
LEON KELLY: At the end of all that, we're going to compile all of that information
in a single report, which we call the autopsy report. And at that point, the forensic pathologist and the coroner
offers a medical opinion about what they believe happened, based on the totality of the evidence, the scene,
the autopsy, and the history of which we know about this person as to what is the cause of death, but not just that,
but the manner of death, the circumstances. What category does this death fall into?
And in this case, the cause of death was ruled blunt-force head trauma. And the manner of death was ruled a homicide.
NANCY GRACE: But police are already aware of the name, Jennifer Watkins. She was reported as a missing person over the weekend.
A missing persons report will indicate when they were last seen compared to when they were actually reported,
and then also a brief synopsis regarding her, where she was last seen, what she was wearing,
and her general demographics. NANCY GRACE: The missing person reports on Jennifer
came in immediately after she disappeared, her family clearly distraught. JIM STINSON: When the phone calls came in,
one was from Ms. Watkins, Jennifer's mother. And she was reporting that Jennifer
was missing, that she was supposed to come home from work. And at that time, Jennifer's mother was watching her kids.
And Jennifer never made it back from work. And so she was concerned about that, because Jennifer,
from all the accounts that we heard, was a very good mother and would never leave her children like that.
A mother devoted to her children, a mother who would never abandon them, a mother who has disappeared
seemingly into thin air-- so far, that's the profile of Jennifer Watkins. But it's just a snapshot.
As we see next, "Bloodline Detectives" need to find out more about Jennifer Watkins
and dig even deeper into her life. It's November 1999, Colorado Springs, Colorado,
police investigating the murder of a young 23-year-old Jennifer Watkins, found wrapped in plastic
under a hospital stairwell. Jennifer was just a few weeks away from her 24th birthday.
She was a very young mom. She had a three-year-old son and an 11-month-old daughter.
Jennifer had always struggled to make ends meet. And getting this job on Memorial Hospital
was her chance to try to get out on her own, get some money. She worked a day shift during the day from about 9:30
to 7:30. Jennifer Watkins was working on a plan to solve her money problems and dreamed of giving
her children a better life. She had aspirations to be becoming a nurse, which is why she was at the hospital
to begin with as an employee. SEAN MANDEL: Jennifer was a very good employee. She was consistently showing up for work on time.
She did her job, no complaints. She did not seem to have any problems while she was working at the hospital.
Her supervisors spoke well of her. Her coworkers spoke highly of her and said that she was very friendly,
although she didn't have a lot of close relationships. She had only been working at the hospital
for a short period of time. Kids, from what we saw, loved her. And she loved her kids.
So she was just your all-American girl who is trying to come up and be successful.
Her husband, Michael, also worked at Memorial Hospital in housekeeping. But he would go to work at 11 o'clock
at night to work the overnight shift. That's why her mom would watch the kids, so Michael could sleep during the day.
NANCY GRACE: Husband Michael also contacted law enforcement. LAURI MARTIN: When Jennifer hadn't gotten home
at 9 o'clock, Michael started to call Jennifer's mom to ask if she had stopped by to pick up the kids.
And then he proceeded to call her every 15 minutes until midnight to try to figure
out where Jennifer was. He then called police to say that his wife had not returned home.
He had a friend take him to the parking lot where Jennifer parked her car. It's about a mile away from the hospital.
And employees would sometimes park there as a offsite parking. It was there. It was locked.
It was exactly how he expected that she would leave it. Then he had the friend take him to the hospital, where
he confronted Jennifer's supervisor, asked what time she had gotten off. And then he proceeded to call police
and say that his wife had not returned home from work. NANCY GRACE: Jennifer Watkins' mother and husband
are now very worried about her. For them, it's all so sudden. The day began like any other.
That morning was sort of like any other morning. She woke up. She dropped off her kids at her mom's house.
When she got home, her husband asked her to take him to an appointment. So she called work and said she was going to be about an hour
late. She got to Memorial Hospital about 10:33. And her shift was just like any other day.
She worked in the dietary unit in the cafeteria. So she spent that day doing her work.
And the last time she was seen was between 5:30 and 6:30 by her supervisor. He said that he saw her by the cafeteria.
She was to go pick up the food trays on the different floors of Memorial Hospital.
She did that every night. And so he watched her doing that. And that was the last time anybody saw her.
NANCY GRACE: Crime scene detectives now remove other items from the scene. They took a mobile cabinet that been hanging on the wall.
They also took a blue t-shirt that was wadded up on top of that cabinet. They took a brown paper bag as part of the evidence.
They also took the black sheeting that Jennifer's body had been wrapped in, along with the duct tape.
As far as the scene processing, they would look at everything. So if they located any fingerprints or anything that
seemed out of the ordinary or related to the scene, they would either document it by photograph
or just by documentation. And then they would process it immediately. So if they found fingerprints, then they
would process those fingerprints at that time. Investigators also conduct interviews with members
of the Memorial Hospital staff. SEAN MANDEL: So we started to conduct our investigation.
And we started to ask questions and meet with various members of the hospital staff, employees,
and trying to discover what exactly was going on. RACHEL CRUZ-RODGERS: They interviewed a ton of people--
hospital staff, not just nurses and doctors, but all types of staff that worked in the hospital,
and anybody that could possibly have any information regarding who had last seen her, her last time of known location,
any information that they could have obtained. JIM STINSON: The hospital staff was cooperative.
They were just as scared as everybody else. This is not something that happens every day.
I mean, murders in hospitals, that's a newsmaker. And I don't know if it made national news or not.
But it certainly made it at the state level. So they were cooperative because they
wanted to make sure they were in a safe environment as well. NANCY GRACE: Detectives are hearing a lot from employees
at the hospital, some of whom have their own theories about what happened to Jennifer.
SEAN MANDEL: And throughout the investigation, as we continue to interview hospital staff members,
we consistently received information about people that they thought could possibly be involved in the homicide,
information that they gleaned from talking to other people, from talking to coworkers about various people
that they felt that need to be brought to the attention of the police department.
NANCY GRACE: Detectives now hone in on Jennifer's last known movements. We know that she took a container full of food
to one of the floors. And typically what happens is she would leave that there. The nurses would distribute the food.
And then once the patients finished eating, they'd put it back in the containers
and then she would go and pick them up again. And she left the container at one of the floors
and never came to pick it up. And according to her supervisor, that was totally unlike her.
SEAN MANDEL: It was just really working through the facts, developing leads, and checking off the boxes until we were
running out of leads and we exhausted all of our investigatory leads. What is immediately clear is that Jennifer Watkins
died an extremely violent. Death police think they're dealing with a brutal killer.
As we see next on "Bloodline Detectives," police priority is to track down the killer.
Colorado Springs Police launched a murder investigation into the death of Jennifer Watkins,
a gorgeous young hospital worker reported missing early November 1999, Jennifer,
beat and sex assaulted, then hidden under a staircase at her place of work. In a homicide investigation or with
any criminal investigation, you start looking at the victim. And then you start to question people that are closest
to the victim, that have close relationship with the victim, whether it be family members, coworkers, friends,
other relatives, people that have access to the victim and know a little bit about their life.
Family members, close friends, they're the ones that have the most knowledge of her.
So that's where we're going to focus our investigation, just to get a sense of who Jennifer is, because we never
heard of her prior to that day. SEAN MANDEL: We received a ton of information about people that may have access to the eighth floor
in the hospital that could have been working there as contractors or construction workers.
At the time the hospital was under extensive renovations. So trying to work through all that information
was challenging and difficult. But we started with the family. And then we moved on to coworkers.
And then we moved on to individuals that would have had access to that eighth floor.
NANCY GRACE: Investigators cast a wider net. SEAN MANDEL: We went through Crime Stoppers.
And Crime Stoppers offered a reward for information leading to the arrest of Jennifer's killer.
We did press releases throughout the investigation, asking for anybody with knowledge
of the case, knowledge of what might have happened to come forward and bring that information
to the police department. The amount of tips that police got was very surprising.
They had anonymous letters, anonymous calls. There were so many rumors circulating about what
happened to Jennifer. People were calling from Memorial Hospital. People were calling from other hospitals.
They were friends or friends of friends. Everybody had a story about what may have happened.
So police had to follow up on all that. There was a guy who called who thought maybe his son had done it.
So they swabbed the dad to determine that no, it was not his son. But everybody had a story to tell about what
happened to Jennifer. NANCY GRACE: Jennifer's murder is a big story in Colorado Springs.
People there are not used to a murder in their own backyard. JIM STINSON: It's a safe town.
It's, I think, a quiet community. But we, for some reason, we've had our moments of national attention with crazy incidents
that have happened. Whether it's an active shooting or a band of fugitives that comes through, it seems like there's always
something every couple of years that gathers people's attention. LEON KELLY: We have some of the greatest natural beauty
and wonders that this country has to offer. But like every city, and we are a city,
there's always that underbelly. There's always the drugs and the violence and the things
that you certainly don't put on the tourist brochure that the average tourist and citizen who came through here
would never know about. But when you live here and you do the kinds of things that I do for a living, those two things go hand-in-hand.
And sometimes it is tough to reconcile this gorgeous Garden of the Gods with this majestic mountain
in the background with the ugliness that every city has. JIM STINSON: Its transient population.
We have an interstate that runs through town. And so we have a lot of tourists that come here.
So there's a lot of movement here. NANCY GRACE: Detectives also discovered Michael and Jennifer Watkins' relationship
has been difficult. The marriage was, I would say, was not ideal, that there was some problems in the past.
LAURI MARTIN: The relationship between Jennifer and Michael was pretty volatile.
They had lots of arguments. There were times that Jennifer's mother, Irene, wanted her to call police because Michael
had gotten violent. But Jennifer never wanted to press any charges. Jennifer confided in one of her very good friends
that at some point, she would like to leave Michael if she could get her feet on the ground.
But their relationship was not a good one. Michael was open to the police and told
them that he and Jennifer had had several affairs on each other. NANCY GRACE: For detectives, husband Michael
is a suspect from the start. By percentages, murders are done by people who know each other.
And he presented well as a murder suspect. People would be surprised to discover that most violence
perpetrated on others is not from drug dealers or evil monsters jumping out of bushes.
It's, unfortunately, by the people that we know. NANCY GRACE: Investigators start to dig
into Jennifer Watkins' emotional state at the time she disappears. We'd ask if there's any emotional problems going on,
if there's any high stressors in her life. We'd get more personal. Are there any marital problems, anything that
would inspire somebody to become stressed and to act out of character? LAURI MARTIN: When he reported her missing,
he was very quick to say that he presumed that she was dead, which is part of the reason that police had put him
under a cloud of suspicion early on, because at that point, Jennifer's body hadn't been found yet.
JIM STINSON: Initially you're just getting a sense for who they are as people. And then you're listening to what is being said.
And then as you're talking to them, you're just formulating and playing off that to try to determine if the spouse is involved in this.
NANCY GRACE: Police soon learned husband Michael has a criminal past. And they want to find out much more about him.
LAURI MARTIN: Michael had been in and out of jail several times. So he had a pretty lengthy rap sheet.
Michael's relationship with Jennifer's mom also was not very good. Jennifer's mom told Jennifer several times that she wished
that she would leave Michael. As far as investigators and the couple's friends are concerned, husband Michael is volatile and unpredictable.
LAURI MARTIN: Michael's friends and the people who knew him say that he had a short temper.
He admitted it. He was just very argumentative. And I think some might say that he was somewhat controlling.
NANCY GRACE: The police locate Jennifer's car. And they hope it provides clues. LAURI MARTIN: One thing that the officers noted
was that the car had some damage on it and also some red flakes of paint that had come off from something else.
When the officer asked Michael what that was, Michael said a few weeks ago that Jennifer
had run into a gas pump. But the officer cast doubt in that story, because he said had that been from a few weeks ago,
the red flakes of paint that were on the car probably would have blown off. And they hadn't at that point.
So he brushed them off and they came off just fine. NANCY GRACE: Jennifer's husband, Michael Watkins,
becomes the subject of a comprehensive investigation. We talked to Michael on a number of occasions.
He was somewhat difficult to work, with but he did interview and he did sit down and discuss with us every single time
that we asked him to do so. We gave Mr. Watkins a polygraph examination. He passed the polygraph.
We did not receive any information throughout our investigation that he had been at the hospital at the time Jennifer disappeared.
But we continued to investigate the case. And Mr. Watkins always remained a person
who we were suspicious of, that we wanted to know more about. But we just did not receive the information that
actually tied him to the case. He had an abrasive personality. There's no doubt about that.
But in hindsight, you can see why. I mean, he was being, for all intents and purposes,
accused of murder. So he was frustrated and angry with us. And he didn't hide that fact.
He was insulting. He was pushy. He would go to the hospital and try to start his own investigation.
And he was, I mean, for lack of a better term, he was meddlesome in the investigation.
NANCY GRACE: The forensics team at the crime scene collects excellent samples, particularly on the plastic
which wrapped Jennifer's body. RACHEL CRUZ-RODGERS: What they had located on the plastic
was what they identified as possible semen. They also collected her pants. On the pants they also located possible semen.
They identified that the semen on the plastic and the semen on the pants were a match to each other.
As the investigation unfolds, they'll collect DNA from all different types of people
to see if they can locate a match to that DNA profile. And, unfortunately, of all the DNA samples that were submitted
for testing for that match, that unknown person, nobody was a match. NANCY GRACE: Despite the best efforts of the investigators,
Jennifer's case goes cold. JIM STINSON: What made this challenging is the size of the scene, as being in a hospital
and with the construction going on, the amount of people that we had to interview.
And on top of that, our unit not only was responsible for homicide investigation,
but we investigated felony assaults, too. So those assaults still came in. And other homicides still came in.
So we have to divide our time and try to help where we can. So this one took priority.
But eventually, we had to pull back and take care of our other jobs, too. SEAN MANDEL: No matter how many people we talked to, no matter
how many samples we submitted to a Colorado Bureau of Investigation to compare to our DNA samples
in the case, we just couldn't catch a break and we couldn't identify a suspect in the case.
NANCY GRACE: For Colorado Springs investigators, Jennifer Watkins' husband is now ruled out as a suspect.
Jennifer's car also comes up empty in providing any meaningful clue. The case of Jennifer Watkins' murder goes cold.
It's going to take groundbreaking forensic science to find out who murdered Jennifer.
That's next on "Bloodline Detectives." Our case is in Colorado Springs. And police are no closer to finding Jennifer Watkins'
killer, the 23-year-old mom found murdered in the stairwell of a Colorado Springs hospital
early November 1999. It was an extremely difficult case to work because the hospital was such an enormous place.
And the hospital had so many people that were employed there and would come and go.
It was the biggest hospital in the city. It was a city-owned hospital at the time.
And so it was very impactful to the community because a lot of people spent some time at the hospital.
That's where they would go and seek treatment. And to have a body discovered on the eighth floor
of the hospital was very impactful and concerning to not only the police department, but the Colorado
Springs community. NANCY GRACE: There are no matches to any of the DNA samples found at the crime scene.
The investigation into Jennifer's murder goes cold. SEAN MANDEL: We continued to try to interview the people that
were brought to our attention, to collect biological samples to compare to the DNA profiles.
But eventually, we stopped receiving information. We stopped receiving tips. We stopped getting contacts from the community about the case.
And the leads became less and less as the years went on. Homicide detectives take cases personally.
You get to know your victim's family. You get to know your victim. When we exhausted all the leads we had and there was just not
a whole lot more we could do with the case with the technology given then, we would still think about it.
If we could come up with any other leads, any other investigative methods, tools,
we would go pursue that and then see if that took us anywhere. NANCY GRACE: Despite the dead ends,
detectives never give up on Jennifer Watkins' murder. Now they're about to get a brand-new weapon.
RACHEL CRUZ-RODGERS: Genetic genealogy is a tool in which a DNA profile can be researched
against people within the community or all over the world who submit their DNA into various ancestry websites.
That allows us to see if we can find a match to an unknown profile within our investigation
based off of utilizing that. That comes in when we have an unknown profile, all of the samples that were collected
via this investigation and they got matched to our unknown profile were not a match.
Another option is a system called CODIS. People can have their profiles for various reasons
in CODIS, such as being convicted of a felony. That profile gets run against CODIS.
And that also was not a match. So what do you do when your profile doesn't match to anything that you're getting?
That's where genetic genealogy comes in. And it really is a game changer. 2017, Colorado Springs detectives reach out
to Parabon NanoLabs for help in the 1999 murder of Jennifer Watkins, a case that's gone cold.
Parabon has been at the forefront of discovering a genetic weapon called genetic genealogy.
Dr. Leon Kelly, coroner and chief medical examiner, explains its application. In the last five years, there have been incredible advances
in not just identifying DNA matching to other people, but rather lineages of people.
There's so much more DNA available for testing because of voluntary DNA submitted to various commercial labs
for genealogy and people wanting to look into the past and see who they were related to and where they come from.
And in that is incredibly powerful information. Fortunately, sometimes you find out
that the people you're related to you aren't the kinds of people that you probably want to be related to.
NANCY GRACE: So scientists at Parabon began working on the DNA sample. This DNA is about to change everything.
The killer's profile is matched against other DNA profiles which have been put into databases
focused on familial genealogy and family ancestry. They were able to match our unknown profile
to a potential match via genetic genealogy to somebody by the name of Ricky Severt.
NANCY GRACE: Ricky Severt had been in close proximity to Jennifer at the time she disappeared.
And at the time Jennifer Watkins disappeared and then ultimately her body was discovered,
Ricky Severt was an employee of the hospital. It is an almost perfect match. There is nobody else who could have done the crime.
NANCY GRACE: Police are about to achieve what they've been looking for, but there
will be disappointment, too. 2019, Colorado Springs Police reopen their investigation
into the murder of Jennifer Watkins, a young hospital worker murdered November 1999.
The case has been resurrected using genetic genealogy by Parabon NanoLabs. Ricky Severt, the possible killer and a fellow hospital
worker, identified by matching his DNA against profiles found on public genealogy databases.
Ricky Severt was 29 years old. He had worked at the hospital for a little more than a year.
He was a maintenance worker. And his shift was 3 o'clock in the afternoon until 11 o'clock
at night. And he was there the night that Jennifer was murdered. He was questioned very early on in the investigation,
like so many other workers at Memorial Hospital. But he said he did not know who Jennifer was.
He was one of the employees who did have access to the eighth floor. NANCY GRACE: Detectives are more than
anxious to locate Ricky Severt. But they're blindsided by news he was killed in a car crash
almost two years to the day of when Jennifer Watkins is murdered. SEAN MANDEL: So contacting Ricky was out of the question.
But we needed to get DNA somehow, some way. And our detectives were able to get that through an investigation.
LAURI MARTIN: When the investigators contacted the coroner's office, trying to see if they had any DNA on file
after Ricky Severt's accident, the DNA that was left was not usable. So they were really dependent on his daughters
providing that DNA to find an absolute match. Via the family's DNA, we were able to identify
that Ricky Severt was the match to our unknown profile from this case. This is an awful situation for investigators
and for Jennifer's loved ones. Detectives are convinced Ricky Severt killed Jennifer.
But they'll probably never know why. SEAN MANDEL: We didn't get a chance to talk to Mr. Severt.
We didn't have an eyewitness in the case. We didn't receive any information during the investigation about a possible motive.
So really, we just don't know what transpired. NANCY GRACE: Still, in the case of Jennifer Watkins,
the availability of revolutionary new science, like genetic genealogy, is a game changer.
SEAN MANDEL: They never gave up on the case. And they continued to utilize newer technology,
advanced technology and DNA to ultimately come up with a suspect and close this case
with identifying a suspect who was responsible for Jennifer's murder. These are folks who are brilliant and dedicated
and care. And so it doesn't surprise me that despite time, none of them ever gave up.
The technology they used and the science they used is amazing. You work for the victims.
So to be able to provide those answers for them, it's just-- it's hopefully you just help them,
help them with their closure, if you can even provide that to them. SEAN MANDEL: It was a very tragic case.
Jennifer was a young, loving mother of two who had a full life ahead of her. And it ended tragically.
I feel extremely, extremely bad for the family, for Jennifer's mother, her brother
and sisters, and the kids that had to grow up without their mother. They were just infants at the time.
And it was just a very, very sad situation for everybody involved. When I talked to Jennifer Watkins daughter
after they discovered who had killed her, I asked her, does this give you peace?
Do you feel like you can close that door? And she said no, it doesn't give me peace.
She said that door on who killed my mom has been shut, but there's a new door that's open.
What happened? Why did it happen? Why did he kill my mom? And she said I will never be able to ask him that.
He died before he could get arrested. But I think his justice will come in another realm.
Advancements in forensic science have been stunning. And genetic genealogy is just one example.
Maybe someday the brilliant scientists who created these amazing scientific breakthroughs
will also be able to tell us not only how someone was murdered, but why. When it comes to homicide, very often
why continues to be the evasive and unsolvable mystery. I'm Nancy Grace. And this has been "Bloodline Detectives."
[THEME MUSIC]

In 1999, hospital worker Jennifer Watkins is sexually assaulted and murdered. 20 years later, revolutionary DNA testing helps to solve the cold case.

A compelling new True Crime series, hosted by preeminent legal analyst and renowned former prosecutor Nancy Grace, that explores the advanced form of familial DNA testing.

Brief Summary

Jennifer Watkins' murder case goes cold until genetic genealogy identifies Ricky Severt as the killer, who died before arrest.

Key points

The Investigation Begins. Detectives start piecing together the case of Jennifer Watkins, a young mother found murdered.
The Discovery of Jennifer Watkins. In November 1999, a body is found under a staircase at Memorial Hospital, leading to a murder investigation.
Jennifer's Life and Aspirations. Jennifer Watkins, a devoted mother, worked at Memorial Hospital and dreamed of becoming a nurse.
The Volatile Relationship. Jennifer and Michael's relationship was marked by violence and turmoil.
A Shocking Discovery. Forensics reveal possible semen linked to Jennifer's murder, raising new questions.
The Case Goes Cold. Despite extensive investigation, Jennifer's case goes cold with no leads.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is the case of Jennifer Watkins.

Introduction to the victim's story.

1:28WatchJun 1, 2022

Tension

70/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.