Miami Valley Murder Mystery: Who killed Toni Watkins - Today on News Center 7 at 5
Someone beat a Dayton woman so badly that her family didn’t recognize her.
It happened 35 years ago and the person who killed Toni Watkins probably feels confident that they’ve gotten away with it. However, the Dayton Cold Case is confident too that they can still arrest the person responsible for her death.
News Center 7′s Cheryl McHenry breaks down the timeline of Watkins’ death and how new technology may lead to her killer today on News Center 7 beginning at 5:00.
It was past midnight on May 14, 1989, when Dayton homicide detectives were called to Grandview Hospital after getting reports that a woman was critically injured.
Retired Detective Doyle Burke said, “And found out that she had been wandering around Old Orchard and Kenwood looking for help.”
Burke said the people who helped her told police the woman was disoriented but able to speak.
“Never gave her name, never responsive to questions like ‘what happened? Who did this to you?’ Things like that,” Burke said.
Investigators said she had been raped and severely beaten. “Literally beaten to death,” Burke said.
Watkins lived 12 days in a medically induced coma until her family made the hard decision to let her go.
