A former business partner of Jennifer Brown, a Pennsylvania mother who was found dead last month, has been arrested and charged in her murder, the Montgomery County District Attorney announced Thursday.
Blair Watts, 33, faces charges of first- and third-degree murder in Brown’s death. She was found partially buried in a shallow grave behind a warehouse in Royersford, roughly 30 miles northwest of Philadelphia, in January after Watts reported her missing earlier that month.
On Jan. 4, Watts told police that Brown, 43, had failed to pick up her 8-year-old son from the school bus after the boy had spent the night at Watts’ house, prosecutors said in a press release. Detectives later discovered that Watts, who was Brown’s business partner in a planned reopening of the restaurant Birdie’s Kitchen, had picked up Brown’s son from the school bus on the afternoon of Jan. 3. Watts allegedly told the boy that Brown was at the grocery store and that the boy was to spend the night at Watts’ house.
Watts then drove the boy to Brown’s home and left him in the car while Watts went inside, according to the release. When he came back, the boy noticed that Watts had his mother’s cellphone, prosecutors said.
Police cadaver dogs found signs of human remains inside Brown’s home and in Watts’ car.
Watts’ attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brown had planned to invest money in Watts’ Phoenixville restaurant, Birdie’s Kitchen, which was to open at the end of January, prosecutors said. The day before Brown was reported missing, two cash transfers totaling $17,000 were made to accounts controlled by Watts.
The owners of the Phoenixville property where the restaurant was supposed to open said that while they spoke with Watts last year about renting the building, they never signed a lease with him, nor had Watts done any work to the building to prepare the restaurant to open. In December, prosecutors said, the property owners told Watts that they would not grant him…
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