Question About Steamer Trunk Victim (Jasper Watkins)

[TheCars1986]

Browsing around the forum I came across an old thread devoted to scary pictures featured on UM, and undoubtedly the steamer trunk victim case was mentioned. I searched around for old articles about the case and had no idea that Watkins was local to Maryland. I found this article which states:

Siegel met Watkins, a sociable widower living on $1,200 a month, in 1994 when she was selling burial plots door-to-door. She soon became his constant companion, and the older man told his friends and family they planned to marry. He leased her a $44,000 BMW, sold his house and gave her the proceeds, and he eventually moved in with her, in heavy debt because of credit lines she had fraudulently opened.

After reading the article, I never realized that Watkins was murdered in 1996. UM ran the segment in 2001-2002 IIRC, so my main question here, is why did it take so long for this case to be solved? It wasn't solved until DNA was ran and matched Jasper Watkins. He had friends and family, was described as "sociable", etc. and I just find it extremely odd that no one connected his sudden disappearance to his new companion. There was also evidence that the woman who murdered him, Nancy Siegel, had tried to get Jasper placed in a group home. Just really odd that it took DNA to solve this case, especially after the exposure it got on UM.

ETA: Found this google link to a book featuring the case which says that Jasper had step daughters.

[LooksLikeCRicci]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

Browsing around the forum I came across an old thread devoted to scary pictures featured on UM, and undoubtedly the steamer trunk victim case was mentioned. I searched around for old articles about the case and had no idea that Watkins was local to Maryland. I found this article which states:



After reading the article, I never realized that Watkins was murdered in 1996. UM ran the segment in 2001-2002 IIRC, so my main question here, is why did it take so long for this case to be solved? It wasn't solved until DNA was ran and matched Jasper Watkins. He had friends and family, was described as "sociable", etc. and I just find it extremely odd that no one connected his sudden disappearance to his new companion. There was also evidence that the woman who murdered him, Nancy Siegel, had tried to get Jasper placed in a group home. Just really odd that it took DNA to solve this case, especially after the exposure it got on UM.

ETA: Found this google link to a book featuring the case which says that Jasper had step daughters.

That's a really interesting observation. I was always under the assumption he was a hermit. Maybe he had a falling out with his daughters before he went missing?

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by LooksLikeCRicci

That's a really interesting observation. I was always under the assumption he was a hermit. Maybe he had a falling out with his daughters before he went missing?

Apparently when he hooked up with the woman who eventually murdered him, the step daughters would call him periodically to check up on him, and leave voice mails on his answering machine. When he never returned them, they just assumed that he had moved on and didn't want a relationship with them any longer. Which is confusing to me.

Plus, he would meet with a group of seniors roughly around his age every day for breakfast, and they nicknamed themselves "The Breakfast Club". So he had plenty of friends.

And the biggest kicker is this woman, Nancy Siegel, had a massive gambling addiction, and met with Jasper about selling him a burial vault. He bought the vault and handed over all sorts of personal information to her. Siegel used this to open up credit cards in his name, and racked up thousands of dollars in debt in Jasper's name. He took out a 2nd mortgage on his home to pay off the increasing debt, but this payout didn't include a $40,000 BMW that Jasper bought for Nancy Siegel. Jasper was totally clueless about the credit cards and assumed that the 2nd mortgage was going towards paying off the BMW. The BMW finance people continually tried to contact Jasper, only to reach a very evasive Nancy. It was eventually sent off to a collection agency. The kicker: had the BMW finance people stopped by Jasper's house and spoke with him, he would have figured out about Nancy's schemes and his life would have been saved.

Also found an old Washington Post article with this sad tidbit:

In February 1996, prosecutors said, Siegel set in motion the sale of Watkins's house, and by April, it was gone -- as were most of his personal possessions, which Siegel had pawned. Encumbered by the new mortgage debt, the sale netted just under $4,000.

After the house sold, the couple went to Atlantic City to celebrate their upcoming nuptials, authorities said. Watkins drank heavily and ended up hospitalized back in Maryland.

When Watkins told hospital staff that Siegel was his fiancee, she denied it, identifying herself instead as his caregiver, according to prosecutors.

Watkins's insistence that he and Siegel were engaged led the staff to diagnose dementia and to transfer him to the psychiatric ward, prosecutors said. Siegel said she didn't want him to be released into her care, and she sought to have him admitted to a long-term care facility. Unable to find one with an opening, she took him back to her condominium on April 16, authorities said. His body was found less than a month later.

She drained the poor guy dry, and then tried to dump him along the side like trash. And, IIRC, she only got 33 years for the murder.

[Hops3098]

Originally Posted by LooksLikeCRicci

Maybe he had a falling out with his daughters before he went missing?

From what I have read, the step-daughters were adults when he married their mother. It seems like they did try to maintain contact with him for some time after their mother died, but I can see why they would let the matter drop after not hearing back from him for a while. The guy isn't exactly family, has moved on to dating other women, and who knows what Nancy Siegel would've told them whenever they called or came by. Its no stretch of the imagination to say that Nancy would have intercepted phone calls or letters in order to isolate her intended victim. Also Jack was quite taken with Nancy, which could have made the step daughters uncomfortable to be around.

I'm sure the step-daughters regret not doing more in the end. All I am saying is I can imagine why they didn't. What a terrible case in every way. At least it was solved in the end.

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by Hops3098

From what I have read, the step-daughters were adults when he married their mother. It seems like they did try to maintain contact with him for some time after their mother died, but I can see why they would let the matter drop after not hearing back from him for a while. The guy isn't exactly family, has moved on to dating other women, and who knows what Nancy Siegel would've told them whenever they called or came by. Its no stretch of the imagination to say that Nancy would have intercepted phone calls or letters in order to isolate her intended victim. Also Jack was quite taken with Nancy, which could have made the step daughters uncomfortable to be around.

I'm sure the step-daughters regret not doing more in the end. All I am saying is I can imagine why they didn't. What a terrible case in every way. At least it was solved in the end.

The thing that baffles me is that he told his friends that he was going to sell his house and move in with Siegel in her condo. It's mind boggling to me why no one ever bothered to reach out to contact him or find out where he was in the ensuing years.

[Zero]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

The thing that baffles me is that he told his friends that he was going to sell his house and move in with Siegel in her condo. It's mind boggling to me why no one ever bothered to reach out to contact him or find out where he was in the ensuing years.

I think this kind of thing happens all the time...

How many friends have we had that become smitten with some guy or gal, and then we slowly, eventually, or abruptly stop hearing from them?

Adults see their friend get either so swept up in love, or so entrapped and *stuck* with this new person. After a point, people just stop attempting to reach out.

Don't forget that his friends were around his age. They probably all had their own issues and concerns creep up on them one by one. Some of them probably started getting sick or died. Some of them may have had to relocate, etc.

Maybe they didn't know where he moved to. Maybe they saw a change in him and thought it was best to just let him move along in whatever direction he was going. Who really knows.

What I know for sure, his post mortem picture, and the computer rendered image used on UM were two of the scariest things I've ever seen.