Massachusetts man arrested in 1992 murder-for-hire plot

Authorities in Massachusetts have arrested a Boston-area man in connection with a murder-for-hire-plot in the 1992 slaying of an Army soldier, officials said Monday.

Edward J. Watson, 65, of Mattapan, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Michelle Miller, 29, who was last seen in Cambridge in the summer of 1992, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Cambridge Police Commissioner Christine Elow said in a statement Monday.

Watson, who was ordered jailed without bail, pleaded not guilty at an arraignment Monday.

Authorities said Watson killed Miller at the behest of Miller’s abusive partner, Daniel J. Innis.

Innis, who died in 2012, was sentenced to 15 to 20 years in prison on an unrelated manslaughter charge in 1994.

Miller was a mother of two, and Innis had threatened to take custody of her children, the DA said.

She disappeared July 28, 1992, the day after she told a social worker that she intended to obtain a restraining order against Innis, Ryan said.

She was found dead in a basement of a vacant apartment after a neighbor complained about a foul odor, prosecutors said.

“Her body was found two weeks later, partially naked, with her face covered by a blanket, in the filthy basement of an abandoned building in the Central Square neighborhood of Cambridge,” Ryan said. “For more than 30 years this case had gone unsolved.”

Ryan said the Cold Case Unit relied on archived Department of Social Services records to uncover details about the abuse that Miller was subjected to and how she tried to protect herself immediately before she disappeared.

“Our investigation identified Edward J. Watson, an associate of Daniel Innis, as the man who carried out the killing at Innis’ request,” Ryan said.

Authorities did not specify in their statement what evidence linked Watson to Miller’s death.

The attorney listed in court records as representing Watson could not be reached for comment Monday.

A probable cause hearing is scheduled for Feb. 11, according to court records.

NBC Boston reported that the DA spoke with Miller’s two adult children and told them their father appeared to have orchestrated the slaying.

“It was very bittersweet information,” Ryan 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.”