Business partner charged in murder of missing Pennsylvania mother

Police charged the business partner of the missing Pennsylvania mother who was found wrapped in plastic in a shallow grave with first-degree murder. 

Blair Watts, 33, was arrested on Friday for allegedly killing 43-year-old Jennifer Brown and disposing of her body, police said.  

Brown and Watts entered a business partnership together in late August, police said. The two planned on opening a restaurant called “Birdies Kitchen” in Phoenixville at the end of January, police said.  

On the afternoon of Jan. 3 — the day before Brown disappeared — records show $17,000 worth of transfers were sent to accounts controlled by Watts that weren’t part of written agreements between the business partners, police said.

Brown was last seen on Jan. 3 in Limerick Township and was reported missing when she didn’t pick up her 8-year-old son from the school bus that afternoon after the boy had spent the night at Watts’ residence for a planned sleepover to “give Brown a break,” police said. 

Family members had said she would never leave her sons without letting anyone know. Her family had offered a reward of $15,000 for information about her disappearance and the community had handed out missing flyers.

Brown’s body was found wrapped in plastic in a shallow grave partially buried late Wednesday afternoon in Royersford, which is located about 30 miles northwest of Philadelphia. 

Watts, of Hunsberger Drive in Royersford, drove a grey Jeep Renegade and a red Jeep Cherokee, police said search warrants were obtained for the vehicles. A cadaver dog searched the Jeeps and indicated human remains had previously been inside, said police.

Watts is currently awaiting arraignment at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility, police said.