Watch Stopped at 11:47: The Jar That Reopened a Murder

Watch Stopped at 11:47: The Jar That Reopened a Murder

The discovery of a mason jar on a roadside marker in August 2022 held a crisp 1991 document and a Seiko watch stopped at 11:47 - items impossible to have sat there for three decades on a marker installed in 2016. Why did a watch stopped at a specific minute resurface evidence that would unravel a thirty-one-year-old suicide ruling?

In this episode, we present the timeline and key discoveries that led detectives to reopen a closed case, tracing the missing complaint, the crossed-out note in the original file, and the links between a landlord's observation and a mysterious visitor at the victim's door. How did those details change the story investigators accepted in 1991?

Person: Kevin Richardson Date: August 17, 1991 Location: apartment where Kevin was found Case: initially ruled suicide after 23 days of investigation Detective: Iris Navarro reopened the case in 2022

- The jar was found by Linda Farrell at 6:00 AM on August 14, 2022 on a concrete drainage marker installed in 2016. - Inside the jar was a document dated August 9, 1991 and a Seiko wristwatch with hands stopped at 11:47. - Kevin Richardson was 48 years old in summer 1991 and had worked 11 years at Portsmith Community Health Clinic. - Kevin filed a Bureau of Indian Affairs complaint on August 9, 1991 and planned to hand-deliver it on August 20, 1991; the complaint was not found in his apartment after his death. - Original lead Detective Thomas Bellew closed the case in 23 days; a blue-pened line in his file noted "Garza - no gas insp, scheduled. Unknown man w/toolbox, Aug 14" which had been crossed out.

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