When Linda Watson disappeared from her north Tucson home in August 2000, her mother, Marilyn Cox, devoted her energy to finding her missing daughter and gaining visitation rights to her only granddaughter.
Watson, 35, disappeared after a friend drove her home from a Sunday night church service. After Watson failed to pick up her daughter from the home of her ex-husband the next day, sheriff's detectives discovered the door to Watson's home in the 2600 block of West Curtis Road open, a shattered coffee cup and traces of Watson's blood.
After her daughter's disappearance, Cox was granted visitation rights to her granddaughter, but after she alleged her rights were being violated by her former son-in-law, a review hearing was set. Before the hearing, Cox, 63, who was living in her daughter's home, and a neighbor, RéNee Farnsworth, 53, were gunned down in the driveway. The May 7, 2003 shooting deaths remain unsolved. Officials declared Watson dead in 2006.
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STATUS
In December 2007, sheriff's detectives announced a link in the cases and additional evidence. But both cases were closed a year ago.
"There is nothing further that they can do," said Deputy Dawn Barkman, a Pima County Sheriff's Department spokes-woman. "They've had so many man-hours exhausted in this, it's unreal. It's a shame that they couldn't get anything."
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
"It's been so long. It bothers me, but there's nothing I could do right now," Farnsworth's daughter, Dorothy Brady, said. "After a while you just give up, but then I hear her name, and there's always that hope again. My mom deserves not to be forgotten."
Farnsworth was a teen when she gave birth to her daughter, and the young mother managed to earn her high school diploma and go to college to become a respiratory therapist.
"She was the best," Brady said. "She had me when she was just in high school. I have a picture of my mom in her cap and gown, and I'm standing there looking up at her. She didn't even have to keep me, and she did. She was my best friend and my mom all in one."
ABOUT THE SERIES
The Star will feature some of the Tucson-area violent crimes that remain unsolved - sometimes many years later.
Anyone with information is urged to call 88-CRIME. Tips also can be submitted online at www.88crime.org; or by text message at 274637, then enter tip259 plus your text message.
Contact reporter Kimberly Matas at kmatas@azstarnet.com or at 573-4191 if you have been a victim of an unsolved crime or if you are related to a victim of an unsolved homicide.
Melinda Alma Gonzalez
