Man Indicted in 1992 Cold Case Murder of Michelle Miller

WOBURN – Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Cambridge Police Commissioner Christine Elow announced that Edward J. Watson, 65, of Mattapan, has been indicted by a Middlesex Grand Jury on the charge of first-degree murder for the 1992 murder of Michelle Miller.

Watson was arraigned this week in Middlesex Superior Court and ordered that he continue to be held with-out bail. The next date in this case is scheduled for April 16, 2025.

“Edward J. Watson allegedly took the life of Michelle Miller, a mother and a soldier, with calculated premeditation,” said District Attorney Ryan. “Following her disappearance, not even a missing persons report was filed with police. Despite this, Michelle Miller was not forgotten by our Office.  For three decades  this defendant in kept his alleged role in the victim’s death a secret. This indictment is the next step in ensuring accountability for his actions.”

Michelle Miller was 29 years old and living in Somerville when she disappeared in Cambridge on the night of July 28, 1992. Two weeks later, her body was found in the basement of a vacant apartment in the Central Square neighborhood of Cambridge. Miller was a former United States Army enlisted soldier and the mother of two children.

For more than thirty years this case had gone unsolved. In 2024, District Attorney Ryan’s Cold Case Unit, using archived records from the Department of Social Services, was able to unearth previously unknown details about the abuse that Michelle Miller had suffered at the hands of her partner, and how she tried to protect herself immediately before her disappearance. Evidence developed allegedly revealed that Miller was the victim of a murder-for-hire plot, and that Watson killed her in the basement apartment at the behest of her abusive partner, Daniel J. Innis. Innis, who was sentenced to 15-20 years in state prison for an unrelated manslaughter charge in 1994, died in 2012.

This case was investigated by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Unit, Massachusetts State Police Detectives assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, and Cambridge Police Department detectives. The prosecutor assigned to this case is Assistant District Attorney Dave Solet, the Chief of the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Homicide Unit. The assigned Victim Witness Advocate is Helena Clarke.