An arrest has been made in the killing of Jennifer Brown, the Montgomery County mom whose body was found in a shallow grave earlier this year.
As first reported by NBC10's Deanna Durante, Blair Watts -- Brown's former business partner -- has been charged with murder and related offenses in Montgomery County after he appeared in a Chester County court Thursday morning on an unrelated manner.
After hearing the charges in the Chester County case -- a harassment charge involving neighbors from last year -- Watts went into the hallway where police and detectives were waiting.
Get top local stories in Philly delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia's News Headlines newsletter.
Watts was arrested and taken to Montgomery County jail where he was being held without bail. Watts' mother, who was present in the courthouse Thursday morning, refused to comment on her son's arrest.
During a Thursday afternoon news conference announcing the charges against Watts, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said he was confident that police have the right individual in custody.
"As you piece this together, it all keeps pointing back to Watts," said Steele.
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
Steele said that an autopsy found that Brown's cause of death was 'homicide by unspecified means." However, he said that the coroner's office had found that three of Brown's ribs were broken before she died and, her death was likely caused by "compression asphyxiation."
Brown had been missing for more than two weeks before her body was found in a wooded area behind an industrial facility along the 200 block of North 5th Street in Royersford on Jan. 18.
A worker at the facility who was outside for a smoke break made the discovery and alerted police.
Brown, of Limerick Township, Pennsylvania, was last seen alive on Tuesday, Jan. 3, by Watts - who Steele called "her supposed friend and business partner."
The arrest came 37 days after Brown went missing.
The case against Watts
Steele said that police now believe Brown was murdered in her home the last day she was seen alive. And, he claimed, Watts waited until the next day to report her missing to the police.
"He tried to cover his tracks and get rid of her body before she was reported missing," said Steele.
The district attorney said that police now believe that Brown was murdered in her home, then her body was moved -- using two different vehicles at separate times -- to the shallow grave where it was eventually found.
In the days following Brown's disappearance, Watts told NBC10 that he and Brown had planned to open a restaurant together.
Restaurant woes
As he detailed the police investigation in this case, Steele said Brown was an investor into Watts' restaurant -- Birdie's Kitchen that planned to open in a new location in Phoenixville -- but, Watts had no chance of opening the business by the end of January.
Steele said there was no signed lease, Watts hadn't paid the owners of the building any money to use the space and he had no key to the building.
In fact, court documents claim that Watts had even threatened to sue the building's owners after a confrontation over money.
Yet, on Jan 3, Steele said, Brown's bank records show that $17,000 had been transferred from her account to an account for Birdie's Kitchen.
Then, Steele said, on Jan. 4 -- a day after police believe Brown was killed -- Watts showed up at the building, telling the owners he had the money they needed.
The night of January 3
Steele also pointed to issues that investigators had with Watts' assertion that he took her 8-year-old son to his house for a sleepover on the night police believe she was murdered.
Watts told NBC10 that he had taken her son on the evening of Jan. 3, to sleep over at his house, and he claimed Brown never called that night to speak with him or her son.
Brown was scheduled to pick up her son from the bus stop the following afternoon on Jan. 4, but never showed up, claimed Watts.
“I put Noah on the bus the next day,” Watts told NBC10.
Watts also told NBC10 he didn't know what happened to Brown between Jan. 3 and the morning of Jan. 4.
“I have nothing to do with anything,” Watts said earlier this month. “Just because I’m the last person to see her, that does not mean anything.”
However, Steele said that, if there was a planned sleepover, Watts had provided no clothes for Brown's special needs son nor had he brought medicine that the boy had to take twice a day.
"This was highly unusual," said Steele.
“She is a doting, I call her, helicopter mom. She loves her son. She would never leave her son,” Tiffany Barron, Brown’s friend, told NBC10.
“It seems like I’m being the one poked at,” Watts said. “And it’s frustrating because I’m the first person that was the one calling the police, trying to kick down windows. Trying to find my friend. Trying to make sure her son is covered.”
Brown’s vehicle was parked outside of her home on Stratford Court, less than two miles away from where her body was eventually found. Her car keys, wallet, purse and work cell phone were found inside the vehicle. Her personal cell phone has not been found and has not been in use since the morning of Jan. 4.
Watts is in police custody in Montgomery County.
Steele noted that he is being held without bail.
This story is developing and will be updated.
Sign up for our Breaking newsletter to get the most urgent news stories in your inbox.
