Coral Eugene Watts: The Sunday Morning Slasher

Helen Mae Dutcher, victim

Finally, 22 years after Coral's initial sentencing new evidence was exposed that linked him to a murder. In 2004, Joseph Foy came forward claiming that he witnessed Coral kill a woman in December 1979. According to a March 2004 Dallas Observer article by Whitley, 45-year-old Foy responded to a popular television news program that appealed to viewers for any information concerning Coral's crimes. He immediately contacted the police and told them what he witnessed approximately 25 years earlier.

Whitely claimed that the Foy saw Helen Mae Dutcher, 36, struggling in an alleyway outside a Ferndale dry cleaners with a man who repeatedly stabbed her in the neck and back. Dutcher died moments later from 12 stab wounds. Foy went to the police station to report the crime and a composite of the attacker was drawn up. However, after an investigation the authorities were unable to identify the attacker and the case was eventually put on the back burner.

Hugh Aynesworth reported in his 2004 Washington Times article that Foy saw a television program in 1982 about Coral that prompted him to call the police again. Yet, Whitley claimed that the authorities "didn't pursue the Dutcher investigation, assuming Watts would leave his cell in a pine box." They did not know or take into consideration the "good time" policy.

After Foy saw the MSNBC show The Abrams Report in January 2004, concerning the Coral Watts case, he called the police again and filed a complaint. He hoped that his story might be able to prevent Coral's early release. Foy provided the big break that surviving victims and families of those murdered by Coral wished for.

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm

Coral was finally charged with murder. According to MSN Hotmail News, Jennifer Granholm, Governor of Michigan, initiated proceedings to extradite Coral to Michigan to stand trial for Dutcher's murder. If he's found guilty he would have to serve a mandatory life sentence without parole. It would be the very least he deserves.

Coral Eugene Watts