Cold case from the shadows: The brutal 1995 murders of a young mother and daughter

In the quiet of a November afternoon in 1995, in a modest ground‑floor apartment, a mother and her young daughter were brutally killed in a crime that still haunts a community more than three decades later.

Elizabeth “Liz” Watkins and her young daughter, Nicole, were discovered the next day by a family friend, a moment so traumatic that, as investigators note, its impact is likely still felt today, as the case remains unsolved.

A life built on faith and family

According to friends and her minister, Watkins was everything you wouldn’t expect to see at the center of a violent crime.

She was a student, an active member of her church, and a devoted mother.

Friends were clear: there were no debts, no drugs, and no ex-lovers in her life that might explain why anyone would want to harm her. Those closest to her who might have raised questions or concerns were living in California and were cleared.

As Renton Police Sergeant Russell Radke told “Washington’s Most Wanted,” crimes like this defy the patterns detectives usually see:

“There’s a certain amount of evil in this world, but many of those things happen to people who kind of live lives that sort of put them more in those circumstances, but when it appears that evil just comes out of the shadows, that’s disturbing for all of us,” he said.

A disturbing crime scene

The details of the crime scene only deepen the mystery. Watkins and her daughter were killed late in the afternoon of November 3.

Their bodies were discovered the next day in their apartment. Both were bludgeoned to death, a method of killing that suggests rage and proximity.

But what puzzles investigators most are the environmental details.

The apartment was on the first floor of a modest complex. It was November, the weather far from warm, yet the sliding door was open.

Given those conditions, it is hard to understand how no one heard anything.

“From what I understand, the walls were fairly thin. Somebody in that apartment building should have heard something,” Jim Fuda, Executive Director of Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound, said.

No obvious suspect and one chilling theory

With no apparent motive and no clear suspect emerging from the Watkins’ personal life, investigators have been forced to consider a deeply unsettling possibility.

When asked about potential theories, Fuda’s answer is blunt.

“That it was a random act of violence,” Fuda said. “That’s what we’re looking at.”

If that theory is true, it means the killer may have had no connection to Watkins at all: no history, no grudges, no obvious trail for police to follow.

Evil, in this case, may indeed have “come out of the shadows.”

A call for memories and for courage

While the crime scene yielded little usable evidence, investigators believe that the key to solving this case may lie, not in forensics, but in memory.

Because this happened in an apartment complex, there is hope that someone — a neighbor, visitor, or passerby — heard or saw something unusual like a voice, a struggle, a figure near the sliding door, a strange car.

Even if no one heard the attack, Fuda believes people may still hold pieces of the puzzle, and might remember something the suspect said at the time, a confession blurted out years ago, or a disturbing comment or behavior that, back then, didn’t seem worth reporting.

“Somebody must know something, even if they think that it might not be worth reporting. Turn it in. Let’s get a name,” Fuda said. “Memories from that time, no matter how small, could be the difference between an unsolved case and long‑overdue justice.”

The human cost of silence

Amid the discussion of timelines and theories, it’s easy to forget the personal cost of this crime. Beyond the mother and child whose lives were taken, there are countless others who have carried the weight of that day.

“Imagine the woman that found her,” Fuda said. “The trauma that she’s still going through today.”

In unsolved cases like this, there is no clean break for loved ones, only an open wound that never fully heals. Every year that passes without answers deepens the need for closure.

How you can help

More than 31 years have passed since that November afternoon, but investigators and advocates are adamant: time does not erase truth, and it does not erase responsibility.

If you lived in or near that apartment complex in 1995, knew someone who suddenly behaved strangely around that time, or remember a troubling story, rumor, or comment about a mother and child killed in their home, your information could matter.

You don’t have to be certain. You just have to share.

Anyone with information, no matter how minor it may seem, is urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 800‑222‑TIPS.

There is a reward, and you can remain anonymous. Crime Stoppers will ensure that your tip reaches the detectives investigating the case.

For the Watkins and daughter, whose lives were cut short, for the friend who found them, and for a community still stirred by a senseless act of violence, one call could finally bring evil out of the shadows and into the light of justice.

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