TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Tallahassee police have linked DNA from a 2004 murder and sexual battery to a man serving a lifetime sentence in prison.
Police made the announcement on February 13, 2013, nearly nine years after the victim, 70-year-old Delia McMillen, was murdered. McMillen's body was found in the parking lot of Cottman Transmission, a business located at 208 West Tennessee Street, on July 20, 2004. Police say she was also strangled in addition to being sexually assaulted.
Police processed DNA evidence and fingerprints at the scene, but no matches were made at that time. When an investigator with the Tallahassee Police Department reopened the case, he had evidence from the scene reprocessed. Results from the test showed that DNA on the victim's jean shorts matched Willie James Watson, 55, a man currently serving a lifetime sentence in prison.
"With the advance in technology today, with DNA touch evidence, that gives us another opportunity to look over a case investigated to a point, then no more leads,"
Watson was previously sentenced for a burglary and sexual assault involving an 65-year-old woman.
Watson is charged with first degree murder based on his connection to McMillen's murder.
