Bio

Alexander W. Watson Jr. was born in 1970. He grew up in Maryland, specifically in the Four Seasons neighborhood of Gambrills. His family moved into a house in this area in November 1985. Not much is known about his early childhood or his upbringing.

As a teenager, Watson lived in the neighborhood where many of his later victims resided. He became a father and got married in the early 1990s. At this time, he moved to an apartment in Glen Burnie, which was close to Old Mill High School, the same school that one of his victims, Lisa Haenel, attended.

Watson's early life did not stand out in any significant way. He was just another young man starting a family and living in the suburbs of Maryland. There are no public records of remarkable achievements or activities during his school years.

By the time he reached his twenties, Watson was an adult dealing with his own struggles, including addiction. He later faced serious criminal charges that would define the rest of his life.

Murder Story

Alexander W. Watson Jr. is known for committing multiple murders between 1986 and 1994 in Maryland. His first known victim was Boontem Anderson, a 34-year-old woman who was violently killed in her home on October 8, 1986. She was found bound and nude in her bathtub by her 11-year-old son. Watson then went on to kill another woman, Elaine Shereika, who was 37 years old. She was attacked while jogging near her home on May 23, 1988. Her body was discovered in a field, where she had been brutally assaulted and left for dead.

Years later, Watson murdered Lisa Haenel, a 14-year-old girl, on January 15, 1993. She was on her way to school when she was killed and found in a ravine. Watson's last known victim was Debra Cobb, 37, who was killed in her office in 1994. He was arrested and charged for the murder of Cobb and received a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

In 2004, DNA evidence connected Watson to Anderson, Shereika, and Haenel, leading to his pleading guilty to their murders in 2007. As part of a plea agreement, he was sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison. The DNA evidence played a crucial role in tying Watson to these brutal murders, indicating he had been living near his victims at the time and was familiar with their daily routines.