What Happened To Ricky Severt? 1999 Cold Case Details, Where Is Jennifer Watkins Now?
The Colorado hospital worker, Ricky Severt, responsible for the death of young Jennifer Watkins, met a Karma death in a car accident.
Investigators utilizing modern DNA testing techniques have identified Ricky Severt as Jennifer Watkins’ murderer more than two decades after her brutal murder.
But, while Severt was never prosecuted, he couldn’t avoid karma: he was murdered in an automobile accident two years to the month after Watkins went missing.
Ricky Severt Died In A Car Accident On Highway 94
According to the investigations, Ricky Severt. Aged 31 died in a traffic collision on Highway 94, just east of Colorado Springs, on November 2, 2001.
Born on December 18, 1969, in Merrill, Wisconsin, USA, Severt was a team member at the Colorado hospital. But he was one of the major suspects in the cold case murder of her fellow hospital worker Jennifer Watkins in 1999.
But due to a lack of enough evidence, the case remained unsolved for decades before the modern DNA testing tool came into play in 2019.
A DNA profile created from the recovered sperm was sent to Parabon for genetic investigation. This led detectives to Ricky Severt, 29 at the time of the murder, in August. Detectives had questioned Severt as part of the first homicide investigation.
Jennifer Watkins Today After 1999 Cold Case Murder
Jennifer Watkins was discovered dead under a stairwell on the way to the helicopter pad at a Colorado hospital on November 8, 1999.
She was encased in a sheet of construction plastic duct-taped shut. According to the coroner’s office, Watkins died of blunt force injuries to the head, and the killer had sexually harmed her. They found sperm and DNA at the scene, and her death was determined to be murder.
According to the authorities, Jennifer Watkins was recruited as a culinary aide at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs two weeks before her death. She was supposed to come home after her shift picking up her children from school, but she never came.
[image-1]
When Jennifer did not return home from her shift, her husband, Michael Watkins, filed her missing report. He was interrogated multiple times and fully complied with each request made by detectives. Despite a lengthy investigation and abundant DNA evidence, the investigation stalled for years, no suspect was ever identified, and the case eventually went cold.
However, In 2019, nearly two decades after the incident, a DNA profile created from the recovered sperm was submitted to Parabon for genetic study. Police were alerted of a potential lead on the unknown DNA profile in August 2020.
Ricky Severt was confirmed as the person of interest. And in 2020, on October 4, Judicial District Attorney declared Severt, 29 at the time of Watkins’ murder, was the killer.
Read More: Who Is Joshua Danehower? Gret Glyer Murder Suspect Was Arrested
Where Is Ricky Severt’s Family Now?
According to the obituary posted by Find A Grave, Ricky Severt was born in 1969 to an American family in Merrill, Wisconsin, USA.
However, there has been no evidence of the present whereabouts of his family. His father’s name was Gordon Arthur Severt, while his mother’s identity is still missing.
Besides the victim of the 1999 murder, Jennifer Lee Watkins’ family lives in Colorado. She was the second child out of four of her parents. She wanted to be a nurse from the very beginning.
Michael had a drug problem. Jennifer was a victim of domestic violence who required emergency department care on many occasions. Michael found a job in maintenance at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs after they had been married for around three years.
According to Watkins’ mother, Irene Skinner,” her life went downhill from there” after she met Michael. Jennifer had two children, Michael Jr., and Mariah.
