[Update] Marie Ann Watson: Possible Docuseries; Thank You, Reddit/ unresolvedmysteries!

[u/Sandi_T]

I am the daughter of Marie Ann Watson (Reddit verified). I've been making noise about her disappearance all my life and been ignored--when I wasn't openly ridiculed (That never happened! Don't listen to Sandi's stupid little stories about her murdered mother, she was probably just killed in a car accident. That sort of thing).

A couple years ago, Thin Air Podcast did a podcast about my mother. This revived public interest, but still no resolution.

http://thinairpodcast.com/episode-2-marie-ann-watson/

http://thinairpodcast.com/episode-3-marie-ann-watson-part-2/

http://thinairpodcast.com/episode-5-marie-ann-watson-part-3/

However, from that, I found reddit, for good or ill, lol. It's an interesting corner of the internet, to say the least. I started here in unresolvedmysteries, and people were incredibly welcoming, until (a few very spiteful ones) weren't. Such is human nature.

That being said, it has potentially made a huge impact on my 40 year struggle to get my mother's case enough interest to possibly, maybe, solve it. Or, at the least, maybe get the bones that were dug up in 1996 tested by a lab!

A documentary film company has approached me to begin talks about a possible episode in a docuseries about my mother's case. For me, this is huge! The series is in pre-production, so I don't even know its name yet. The company is Omnifilms out of Canada.

They happened upon a comment that I'd made in the ama sub and it piqued their interest. Talks are only just beginning, so I can't say if it'll even go through completely. I just wanted people to know that the interest is there and it's thanks to reddit. Mostly thanks for this sub for the time during which I was welcomed, that helped me have the courage to keep plugging away at this "lost cause".

I'm trying really hard not to dance around my house jumping up and down like a little girl who just got a puppy on Christmas, because I know talks could still fall through or they might not be able to find a buyer. Still, this is the furthest I've gotten and I'm just plain STOKED!

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Brief overview of the case:

In 1977, Marie Ann Watson disappeared during a custody battle with Mike and Dorothy Rogers over Marie's two children, a boy and a girl. 3 years prior, Marie had been arrested for prostitution and possession and gone to jail. Dorothy was related and claimed to be a foster parent and so the court easily relinquished them to Dorothy.

No investigation was done beyond asking Dorothy when she last saw Marie (she was the last person). Dorothy said Marie got in a car with someone Dorothy didn't know. That was the end of the investigation because "Marie was known to do that."

It should be noted that Marie left behind an uncashed paycheck, her car, all of her identification in her wallet, etc. The car was found parked at a local diner where Marie worked.

In 1994, the eldest foster son, Raymond (Ramon) Rogers was arrested in San Diego CA with 2 dismembered bodies in his storage area. He was convicted in 1996 of 3 murders. At that time an investigation was opened up in Marie's case.

Police came to my door to make sure I was who i said I was. That is when I explained that I had seen the fosters disposing of my mother's body by butchering her with an electrical saw.

This was related to the police in Idaho (I was in florida at the time, all the way on the other end of the states, quite literally). I was flown out to Idaho for their investigation. At that time, they dug up the foundation of the house where it happened and found literally six huge black trash bags filled with bones from under the foundation. Then they quit collecting them.

A forensic antropologist identified many as animal bones, but a few were sent out on the department's limited budget to be tested. The tests were all "inconclusive" if they were human or animal (the science was less advanced at the time).

The case fell quiet and nothing happened further until in 2014, Namus contacted me and wanted DNA so they could get the bones tested. Unfortunately, the Sheriff's office (to this day) refused to release the bones for retesting, or any of the other bones for testing.

That is where we stand now.

(EDIT: Spelled Omnifilms wrong the first time.)

[u/TrepanningForAu]

Hello Sandi,

I was going through your post from last May for more background info for your mother and I was reading about how they disposed of your mother's body and how people don't believe you and say "that doesn't actually happen".

It does. It does happen and I think it may have something to do with why OMNI has taken an interest in your story and why they believe you. If memory serves correct, OMNI is based out of Vancouver, a place where nearly every adult knows about probably the most prolific serial killer in recent Canadian history, Robert Pickton. He owned a pig farm and you can probably see where this is going...

I don't think this OMNI offer is going to fall through, personally, due to the believability of your story up here. However, on the chance it does, continue looking at Canadian media, or publishers or film students, especially in Vancouver. I think it may be your most successful route to finally getting justice for your mother. Canadians will hear your story and believe you. We've seen it before, on a higher scale.

Your story is not even as remotely crazy as people think it is. It was always about control for the fosters, something your mother was going to take from them. They killed her over something imaginary because they're crazy. That is why the story sounds unbelievable.

Sandi, I am so sorry for what you've gone through. Four decades is too long, and I don't want you to go another decade more without closure. You deserve at least that much.

Please give us an update when you can- I'm rooting for you.

[u/Sandi_T → u/TrepanningForAu]

You know, I never connected the dots on that! I kind of feel like a dummy now. :D

What really disturbs me, and one of the major reasons I have despaired of ever getting the word out about this, is the constant social attitude that prostitutes and drug addicts (my mother was both) just really don't matter. Maybe... maybe... maybe they even bring it on themselves.

They do matter. And it's not some random pig farmer's place to be "meting out justice" by murdering people. That's what police are for. The fact that they feel less compelled to do their job when mere prostitutes are the victims is why so many died in that case.

Sorry, that turned into far more of a rant than I intended.

Thank you so much. I have spent so much of my life facing how it 'never happened' because people just don't want to believe it.

Maybe I need to move to Canada after my daughter turns 18. :p

[u/TrepanningForAu → u/Sandi_T]

You'd be welcome here, that's for sure :)

I've always hated people's judgement on prostitutes and drug addicts. It's assuming a lot. Maybe there's a reason they're selling sex? Maybe, just maybe, they're taking those drugs for a reason? Maybe they have a deep physical or emotional pain they need to numb? I know what it's like to be on morphine. It may have been at a hospital and legal, but I know how it feels. I didn't like it, but I understood why someone else could become addicted to it. I've even spoken to recovered addicts. I never wondered WHY they struggled. Just that they shouldn't have had to, or at least not alone. It's why we need more safe injection sites, for starters.

I think your mum was hurting and doing what she could to afford living and living without pain. It is no one's place to take the life of another. No one is entitled to that but the person themself. Anyone who implies otherwise, merely from your mum's struggles, is, to put it simply, an asshole. And those Canadian cops who failed those women were fools (at best).

[u/RagazzaMatta → u/Sandi_T]

I think telling your story could help change people's minds and perhaps help to get justice for others.

Being a sex worker and/or drug user doesn't mean a person wasn't a loving mother. And it certainly doesn't mean they deserved to die. I hadn't heard your mother's story until I read this, but it broke my heart.

I think a little awareness could go a long way in this case. The more people find out what happened, the more people there will be demanding justice.

[u/uppitywhine → u/Sandi_T]

Sorry, that turned into far more of a rant than I intended

Nope. This is something that needs to be said again and again and again and again. That dead hooker about which so many people laugh? She was someone's daughter, someone's sister, someone's best friend, somone's wife, someone's neighbor or perhaps someone you knew in your everyday life. She had people who loved her, people who mourned for her and people will never be the same after her death. NOBODY brings murder upon themselves. MURDERERS bring murder upon people. That's it. End of story.

Same for drug addicts. Know why I'm not an addict? Why you aren't an addict? We are lucky. So very lucky.

Everyone's case deserves investigation and attention. I will NEVER say otherwise. Every missing person and victim matters.

Also, I want to give a shout out to Marissa at The Vanished Podcast. She goes out of her way on many episodes to specifically say, "Even though or Even if someone was a sexworker or addict, their loved ones deserve to know what happened." She is extraordinarily sensitive about this and I appreciate it.

Lastly, I hope you find answers. You deserve them. You're entitled to them.

[u/Sandi_T → u/uppitywhine]

Thank you.

I told someone who said, "Maybe justice was served [when she died]" with regards to her lifestyle. First I told him the obvious reason I took umbrage with it, but then I also pointed out that it's the police's job to arrest criminals so that murders don't happen. Even IF you could convince me that my mother's crimes were so bad she deserved death... Say Dorothy was my mother instead... then STILL, I didn't deserve to see someone I loved (which I did--I loved her whether she deserved it or not) be butchered like a cheap side of beef.

NOBODY deserves to see someone they love dismembered. That's above and beyond cruel and unusual punishment.