Cold case re-visited

By Janet Jacobs

July 04, 2009 07:20 pm

— Sixteen years ago, Ray Nutt was an investigator with the Texas Rangers when a woman from a prominent Corsicana family was murdered and her body found wrapped in plastic in the Trinity River, a few miles from the Henderson County line.
According to court documents, Nutt protested when the woman’s husband was indicted for the murder three months later, arguing that more investigation needed to be done. However, the district attorney of Henderson County at the time, E. Ray Andrews, insisted on taking it to the grand jury less than a week before Christmas in 1993. In July 1994, Andrews’ middlemen demanded $1 million, then $500,000, then $300,000 in bribes from the husband, promising Andrews would make the charges disappear if the husband paid.
With the husband’s help, the FBI and Nutt set a trap to lure Andrews and his cohorts into the open. After Andrews admitted the attempted extortion and resigned, the charges against the husband were dismissed.
Over the ensuing 15 years, Ray Nutt thought often about the victim, Shelley Watkins, and what happened to her. Sometimes, people would call in with tips, but it never amounted to much, he said.
“There have been calls from the day the body was found to as recently as before I retired in 2005,” Nutt said. “But none of the calls developed any evidence that was substantial.”
Nutt left the Rangers in 1995, and went to work for the Henderson County District Attorney’s office as an investigator until 2004, then went to work for the Sheriff’s Office as an investigator for a year before retiring from law enforcement in 2005. Ray Nutt was born in Corsicana, raised near Eureka and attended school in Mildred before being drafted. When he got out, he went into law enforcement and rose through the ranks, serving in Austin and throughout East Texas before his assignment to Athens.
In January 2009, Nutt was sworn in as the newly elected sheriff of Henderson County. After discussing the case with Scott McKee, the new Henderson County district attorney, both offices launched a new investigation of the case simultaneously.
“This is just another look at the investigation,” Nutt said. “Fresh eyes might see if it results in anything. Fresh minds, a fresh investigator assigned to it may turn up something we missed.”
Nutt said he doesn’t have any suspects in mind, and doesn’t intend to go after anyone in particular.
“This is about Shelley Watkins, not about any (other) individual,” he said. “We’ll follow wherever the evidence leads.”
McKee echoed those sentiments.
“We’re looking at all angles,” he said. “This was the case that I guess is infamous here in Henderson County, due to what happened to Andrews. A lot of people in our county are seeking a resolution.”
The case was never closed, and won’t be until there’s a conviction, he said.
He and Nutt both mentioned that new advances in science may play a part in this latest investigation of the case.
“We have technology available now that wasn’t available in the past,” McKee said.
Nutt also hopes that advances in technology may help the investigation. Since 1993, technology has allowed for greater accuracy in fingerprinting, DNA identification, skin cell analysis and other investigative tools.
“We may submit the evidence back to a lab,” Nutt said.
Shelley Watkins, 36, the wife of Jerry Mack Watkins, and mother of two young daughters, disappeared from her home in Beaton Estates in Corsicana on Sept. 6, 1993. Her family reported her missing, but it was a week later, on Sept. 16, that fishermen discovered a body in the Trinity River, just south of the Farm-to-Market Road 85 bridge.
The autopsy could not determine what the cause of death was, but it as ruled a homicide because of where and how the body was found.
“Over the years this murder stuck with me,” Nutt said. “You want to see justice done. At this point in the investigation, we’re just seeking the truth.”
It was one of those cases, according to investigators who worked on it over the years. Steve Foster was one of the Rangers who worked the case in the late 1990s. Foster is now the police chief in McGregor.
“I took the case, looked at it again and tried to figure some way to get a DA’s office to look at it again,” Foster said. “It just never got off the ground because of what happened with Andrews.”
“It’s one of those things that hangs around your neck,” he said.
Jerry Watkins, the victim’s husband, did not return phone calls seeking comment for this story.
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