BOLLINGER COUNTY, Mo. (TCD) —Â A woman pleaded guilty last month to beating a developmentally disabled man to death and leaving his body in a pond.
The Bollinger County Sheriff’s Office announced a judge sentenced Heather Watson to 25 years in prison after she entered the plea for the second-degree murder of Joshua Taylor. Her co-conspirator in the case, Joshua Proffer, was convicted of second-degree murder in November 2022. He is serving life in prison with the possibility of parole.
On April 2, 2021, at 1:15 a.m., Bollinger County deputies received a call about an unresponsive male and responded to a home on Bollinger County Road 346. When they arrived, they found Taylor “lying face up and partially submerged in a pond on the property.” Deputies determined Taylor was deceased and noted he had bruises, abrasions, and other injuries on his face, as well as laceration marks on his forearm.
Watson and Proffer lived at the residence where Taylor’s body was found. A witness reportedly told investigators Watson and Proffer tied Taylor to a chair in their home and Watson started beating him with her fists and a bar of soap that she placed in a sock. The sheriff’s office said Watson put a towel over Taylor’s face, then “continuously” poured water on it.
Proffer reportedly “was present for the assault and was giving instructions to Heather Watson on how to carry out the assault.”
After determining Taylor was dead, Proffer and Watson moved his body to the pond.
The two were arrested at the time for first-degree murder.
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