Cause of death still mystery

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, July 25, 2012

This Alabama Street home in Florala a potential crime scene in a two-state investigation of a mysterious death.

No new charges have been filed in the mysterious death case of a Florala woman found dead in a Crestview, Fla., driveway earlier this month.

It’s been more than two weeks since 28-year-old Jacqueline “Jackie” Roughton Watson was dead found in a lawn chair dead at her grandmother’s home on Sikes Drive.

Since then, Kenneth Wayne Harrison, 43, of Florala, has been detained as “a person of interest” in Watson’s death while local police and the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office await the toxicology and autopsy results.

A Florida newspaper has reported that preliminary results from an autopsy that took place at the Pensacola, Fla., medical examiner’s office revealed that Roughton might have been alive when she was placed at the Crestview, Fla., residence.

Bedsole said when Harrison was interviewed by local and Florida authorities earlier, he admitted to driving Watson across the state line, but maintained she was alive when he left.

“The biggest questions we’re waiting to answer are exactly when and how (Watson) died,” Bedsole said. “We’re just waiting and wondering.”

According to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, there were no visible signs of trauma on Watson’s body.

Harrison remains in the Covington County Jail without bond on a violation of probation warrant and is under an investigative hold; however, he also faces a slew of drug charges after authorities found narcotics inside his home while conducting Watson’s death investigation.

Authorities said Harrison could face additional charges in Alabama and Florida, pending the results of Watson’s autopsy.