The suspect in a cold-case killing from Central Square in 1992 was indicted Tuesday on a charge of first-degree murder, said Middlesex district attorney Marian Ryan and Cambridge police commissioner Christine Elow.
Edward J. Watson, 65, of Mattapan, was arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court and ordered to be continued to be held without bail until his next court appearance, set for April 16.
Michelle Miller was 29 and living in Somerville when she disappeared in Cambridge on the night of July 28, 1992 – last seen at the Buffet Cafe Bar, 20 Prospect St., what is now the Donut Villa Diner in Central Square. Two weeks later, her body was found in the basement of a vacant apartment in the square.
Miller was a former U.S. Army soldier and the mother of two, the officials noted in a Friday press release.
“Edward J. Watson allegedly took the life of Michelle Miller, a mother and a soldier, with calculated premeditation,” Ryan said. “Following her disappearance, not even a missing persons report was filed with police. Despite this, Michelle Miller was not forgotten by our office.”
The Cold Case Homicide Unit of the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office used archived records last year from the Department of Social Services to find previously unknown details showing Miller was abused, including that the day before her disappearance, Miller told her social worker she planned to get a restraining order against her abusive partner, Daniel J. Innis.
Evidence suggested that Miller was the victim of a murder-for-hire plot, and that Watson killed her in the basement apartment at the behest of Innis, the officials said.
Innis had been sentenced in 1994 to serve 15 to 20 years in state prison for an unrelated manslaughter charge. He died in 2012.
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