Massachusetts man arrested in 32-year-old murder-for-hire case

A 65-year-old Massachusetts man has been arrested in a 32-year-old murder-for-hire case, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan announced Monday.

The district attorney said Edward Watson was arrested in Boston's Mattapan neighborhood on Monday for the murder of Michelle Miller in July of 1992. Evidence developed by the district attorney's homicide unit revealed that Miller was the victim of a murder-for-hire plot and that Watson killed her in a Cambridge basement at the request of her abusive boyfriend.

Cambridge Police Commissioner Chrstine Elow said the arrest "is the result of teamwork and diligence, and we really hope that this arrest brings some closure to the family."

Miller, a former U.S. Army soldier, was 29 years old when she was last seen alive at the Prospect Buffet, a western bar in Cambridge's Central Square, in July of 1992. Ryan said her body was discovered two weeks later in the basement of an address at 245 Washington St. after a neighbor complained about an odor coming from the area.

She was found in the basement, partially naked, her face covered by a blanket, Ryan said. "That building was truly filthy and not at all in the condition it is today," she noted.

Ryan said her office's Cold Case Unit, using records from the state Department of Social Services, unearthed previously unknown details about Miller's abuse at the hands of her boyfriend, Daniel Innis, and how he had threatened to take the couple's two children away from her. Miller disappeared on July 28, 1992, one day after telling a social worker she was going to seek a restraining order against her boyfriend.

Watson was an associate of Innis, and prosecutors allege that he carried out the killing at Innis' request. Watson is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday afternoon in Cambridge District Court on one count of murder.

Innis was sentenced to 15-20 years in state prison in 1994 on an unrelated manslaughter charge and died in 2012.

"This case is yet another example of the purpose of developing a Cold Case Unit," Ryan said. "We do not forget what happens to people when they lose their lives in Middlesex County, and we will take every possible step to hold people accountable. Today begins the process of holding Edward Watson accountable."

Ryan said she spoke with Miller's adult son and daughter, and her brother and told them Watson had been arrested and that the killing appears to have taken place at the behest of their father.

"It was very bittersweet information," the district attorney said. "On the one hand realizing that police had never given up in the search for what happened to their mother, but then learning that the person who was their biological father is alleged to have been the person who set that in motion."

"It's really a reminder -- particularly this time of year -- of the long term impact of these kind of crimes and how they tear a family apart and the hole they leave in these families," Ryan added