Thirteen Years After Body Discovered in Loudoun, Veteran Laid to Rest

By LoudounExtra.com staff

Friday, August 14, 2009

ARLINGTON - Thirteen years after his murder a Maryland man and World War II Veteran received a proper inurnment at Arlington National Cemetery.

In May 1996 the body of Jasper “Jack” Watkins was discovered by a Loudoun Sheriff’s Deputy stuffed in a trunk and left near a trash can along Route 340 at an access point to the Appalachian Trail in Loudoun County. Because there was no identification with his remains, his body was not identified until January 2003, using military records. Watkins, who served honorably with the United States Army, was laid to rest in the Columbarium in Arlington National Cemetery on August 14, 2009. Watkins was 76 at the time of his murder.

“It took thirteen years of hard work by intrepid investigators and persistent prosecutors for the trunk that served as Jack Watkins’ coffin to make it from a curb in Loudoun County, Virginia, to a courtroom in Baltimore, Maryland, to his final resting place in Arlington National Cemetery,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.

In April 2009, Nancy Jean Siegel, age 61, of Baltimore, MD, was sentenced to 33 years for murder and fraud in a decades-long identity theft scheme. According to Federal prosecutors, Siegel seduced Jack Watkins and stole his money, murdered him and dumped his body in a trunk and left it in the trash so that she could continue to collect his Social Security and retirement benefits for seven years.

In 1994 Siegel met Jasper Frederick Watkins, a widower nearly 30 years older than she, when she sold him a mausoleum and burial services. According to witness testimony, Siegel and Mr. Watkins became inseparable and both represented their relationship as a romantic one, sometimes describing Siegel as Mr. Watkins’s fiancée. Within months, by December 1994, Siegel began to use Mr. Watkins’s existing accounts, making extensive charges for a variety of items, including ladies apparel, jewelry and larger purchases.

Siegel sold Mr. Watkins’s home in April 1996. Mr. Watkins was rapidly running out of assets to liquidate. Siegel began taking steps to have Mr. Watkins wrongfully committed for psychiatric care, while pawning his personal assets. Mr. Watkins was murdered within 48 hours of May 13, 1996, when Siegel drove to Virginia and dumped his body. For seven years after Mr. Watkins’s death and until July 2003, Siegel diverted Watkins’s social security and retirement annuity payments to her own use, and continued to use his identity and financial information to open new accounts and use his existing accounts. She was apprehended in August 2003.

Representatives who worked the case from the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, the Social Security Administration, the Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office attended the funeral service. The Loudoun Sheriff’s Office would like to acknowledge the efforts of the Office of Congressman Frank Wolf (VA-10th) who facilitated communication with the Superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery.

Tagged: crime, Loudoun Sheriff's Office, police

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