Former Tucson Fire Department captain David Watson was arrested in April 2015. He was charged with triple homicides for the deaths of individuals including his ex-wife Linda Watson and her mother Marilyn Cox. He was later found guilty of three counts of murder in a trial two years later.

Reports state that David and Linda, who went missing in 2000, were involved in a bitter custody battle over their four-year-old daughter. Apart from killing her ex-partner, Watson also gunned down his former mother-in-law and her friend three years later. Linda's remains were eventually found in a desert.

David Watson was sentenced to 66 years to life in prison on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder. He is currently being held at the Mohave Unit of the Arizona State Prison Complex in Douglas.

Dateline: Secrets Uncovered will chronicle the decades-old triple homicide in an upcoming episode titled Secrets of the Desert, scheduled to air on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, on Oxygen.

The synopsis 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."

Former fire department captain David Watson was sentenced in connection with a triple homicide case

In April 2017, David Watson, a former Tucson Fire Department captain, was sentenced to 66 years to life in prison, involving a 16-year term for the killing of his ex-wife Linda Watson. He was also sentenced to life for the killing of his former mother-in-law Marilyn Cox and received a second life sentence for killing Cox’s friend, Renee Farnsworth.

Watson was given credit for 723 days already served and must first complete the 16-year sentence along with the 25-year terms of each life sentence. He is currently serving all the sentences consecutively at the Mohave Unit of the Arizona State Prison Complex in Douglas and will become eligible for parole after serving 66 years.

Although his first trial concluded in a hung jury the year before, Watson was found guilty of the three murders on March 17 during a second trial. The 48-year-old was convicted on one count of second-degree murder in the killing of 35-year-old Linda Watson in 2000 and two counts of first-degree murder for the 2003 shooting deaths of Cox, 63, and Farnsworth, 53.

Watson's first appeal was rejected in November 2019 and a second one, filed in January 2021, requested a third trial based on prosecutorial misconduct as the primary reason. However, this was also rejected as the court upheld its former judgment.

The prosecution alleged that David Watson killed his ex-wife, and two other victims, over a contentious custody battle for their daughter

Linda Watson went missing in 2000 from her home in the 2600 block of West Curtis Road. Inside the house, investigators found blood in a number of places along with signs of struggle, including a broken cup. Her skull was discovered three years later in a desert northwest of Tucson, close to the Silverbell Mine. But it wasn't until 2011 that the skull was identified as hers.

Marilyn Cox attempted to track down her daughter's killer. She also got involved in a legal battle with David Watson and his then-wife, Rosemary Watson, for visitation rights to the former couple's daughter, who was four years old when her mother disappeared

According to the prosecution, Watson killed his 35-year-old ex-wife during a contentious custody battle. Cox and Farnsworth were, however, shot in the former's driveway in 2003, following Cox's first unsupervised visit with her granddaughter, Jordynn.

The decades-old case will feature in the upcoming episode of Oxygen's Dateline: Secrets Uncovered this Wednesday.

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