Had Beverley

Watson's body been found in Fayette County after she disappeared in 1997,

Fayette County sheriff's detectives had approval to arrest her husband

Jim for murder, according to the lead investigator in the case.

Jim Watson

was suspected of foul play in his wife's disappearance due to several

inconsistencies in his story the first day he reported her missing, said

Maj. Bruce Jordan, who led the investigation for the Fayette County Sheriff's

Department. District Attorney Bill McBroom had agreed to arresting Jim

Watson if his wife's body were ever found.

Jim Watson

is now sitting in jail, convicted for his wife's murder by a Fulton County

jury. Beverley Watson's remains were found in a heavily wooded area of

south Fulton County in March 1999 but Jim Watson wasn't indicted for the

crime until January of this year.

In the early

days of the investigation, the Watsons' marriage counselor told detectives

that Jim Watson was "so obsessed" with his wife that he might

return to the site where he dumped her body, Jordan said. Detectives placed

two tracking devices on Watson's green Mercury Mountaineer in the hopes

he would lead detectives to his wife's body, Jordan confirmed.

But he never

did, and the ensuing weeks and months of surveillance became a cat-and-mouse

game between Watson and Fayette detectives, Jordan said. Watson removed

one of the tracking devices from his vehicle and returned it to the Sheriff's

Department. He never found the other tracking device, which was still

on the bumper of the Mountaineer when the Sheriff's Department purchased

the vehicle after Watson sold it. The department took the vehicle entirely

apart looking for more evidence but found none; the vehicle was later

used for undercover investigations, Jordan said.

Watson's "paranoia"

about being followed "helped us at the time," Jordan said.

"What

it kept him from doing was going back and destroying evidence at the crime

scene," Jordan said.

As the months

went by after Beverley Watson's disappearance, it began to seem that her

body would never be found, Jordan said. As time crept past, Jordan tried

to convince McBroom to file kidnapping charges against Jim Watson.

"Right

away, he admitted to grabbing her arm to keep her from leaving,"

Jordan said, referring to Jim Watson's account of the last time he saw

his wife. Since that could be construed as holding Beverley Watson against

her will, Jim Watson could have been brought up on kidnapping charges,

Jordan said.

But doing so

might have kept Jim Watson from facing murder charges on a legal technicality,

Jordan added.

Jim Watson

made the investigation personal by tailing Jordan and his family, appearing

next to Jordan at his daughter's softball games, Jordan noted.

"It showed

me first hand that he was a stalker," Jordan said. "... If we

followed him, that week he'd make a point to find me and my family."

Detectives

became concerned that Jim Watson, a reserve police officer with Riverdale

at the time of his wife's disappearance, would try to become a full-time

officer, Jordan said. So Jordan tried to convince the district attorney

to file family violence charges against Jim Watson for allegedly breaking

Beverley's arm when he pushed her to the ground years before she disappeared.

If Jim Watson

would have been convicted on those charges, he wouldn't be allowed to

become a police officer because of a Georgia law that forbids people convicted

of family violence charges from carrying a gun, Jordan said.

Watson's police

activities were suspicious because he told other people that he was an

agent for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, Jordan said.

"We perceived

him as a wannabe trying to become a real cop," Jordan said. "...

We wanted to keep him from ever being a real cop."

As for Watson's

murder conviction, Jordan said he felt like he held up his end of the

bargain "and Fulton County did, too." But most of all, Jordan

said he was "relieved" the case was over.

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