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Linda Watson, a Tucson-based divorced mother-of-one, was embroiled in a bitter custody battle with her former husband at the time of her disappearance in August 2000. Her skeletal remains were discovered in the desert in October 2003.
A few months prior to the discovery, Linda's concerned mother, Marilyn Cox, who was actively investigating the missing case and continuing the custody battle, along with one of Cox's friends, Renee Farnsworth, were found shot to death.
Linda's former husband, David Watson, was arrested and charged about 15 years after the first disappearance and was eventually found guilty in the triple homicide case.
An upcoming episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered will revisit Linda Watson's murder and the two connected shooting deaths on March 8, 2023.
The synopsis for the episode, titled Secrets of the Desert, states:
"Linda Watson is a single mom raising a beautiful daughter when she disappears; then, suddenly, Linda's mom goes missing too, along with another friend; police are convinced the three cases are connected, but unraveling the mystery takes years."
Secrets of the Desert airs on Oxygen at 8 pm ET this Wednesday.
Linda Watson's disappearance led to two additional murders over a bitter custody battle
As previously mentioned, at the time of her disappearance, 35-year-old Linda Watson, a Fairfield Union High School graduate and Tucson, Arizona, resident, was a single mother embroiled in a bitter custody battle for her four-year-old daughter Jordynn with her former husband, David Watson, who worked as a firefighter.
According to reports, on August 20, 2000, Linda went to church, had lunch with her mother, and got dropped off at home. The following day, a maintenance worker discovered the backdoor of her house open and found evidence suggesting a struggle inside the house, including blood and a broken cup.
While Linda was nowhere to be found, her daughter Jordynn was staying with her former husband. She even missed a custody hearing a few days later. Soon after, her mother, Marilyn Cox, initiated a search for her missing daughter that went on for nearly three years.
But on May 7, 2003, the 63-year-old Marilyn, along with her neighbor and friend, Renee Farnsworth, were gunned down by an unidentified man. Later that year, in October, a skull was found in a desert near the Silverbell Mine, north of Tucson, which was later identified as that of Linda Watson in 2011. The medical examiner confirmed that she died of a fatal gunshot wound to the head.
Former Tucson Fire Department captain and Linda Watson's ex-husband David was convicted in the triple homicide
Years later, in April 2015, David Watson, who had been the primary suspect from the start, was arrested. Authorities believed that he killed the mother-daughter duo over Jordynn’s custody. But in the 53-year-old Renee Farnsworth scenario, she was likely killed because of her involvement in Linda's search and for accompanying Marilyn Cox.
After David's initial November 2016 trial concluded with a hung jury, he was given a re-trial the following year and was found guilty of one count of second-degree murder in Linda's killing and two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Marilyn and Reene in March 2017. As per reports, he was sentenced to 66 years in prison.
Dateline: Secrets Uncovered airs on Oxygen with a new episode this Wednesday.
