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Crime

Woman’s Body Found in Billings Home, Linked to Three Other Deaths

Investigators are trying to determine the identity of the second woman and how she died

By Associated Press

BOZEMAN — A second woman was found dead in Montana on Tuesday in a case tied to a couple who were being sought for the killing of one of their mothers when they died in an apparent murder-suicide near West Yellowstone, officials said.

The woman’s body was found in a residence in downtown Billings, about 10 blocks from the house where the beaten and strangled body of Roxann Renee Watson, 64, was found Thursday. Watson was the female suspect’s mother, police said.

Investigators were trying to determine the identity of the second woman and how she died, police Lt. Brandon Wooley said in a statement.

The deaths of Watson and the second woman were considered related, but police did not specify how. Police said the residence where the second body was found was “associated” with the suspects but didn’t give further details.

Wooley said no one else was being sought in the killings and there’s been no indication of any additional victims.

Officers were pursuing Henry Porter, 22, and Erika Miller, 28, for questioning in Watson’s death on Thursday night when the pair left their vehicle and ran into the woods near West Yellowstone, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) from Billings.

Officers did not pursue them into the woods but set up a perimeter and later heard two gunshots, Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer said. The county’s K9 unit found their bodies about four hours later.

Porter and Miller, both of Billings, died of single gunshot wounds to the head, the sheriff’s office said Monday. Officials did not say who was believed to have fired the fatal shots.

The second body in Billings was discovered when officers responded to a report of a deceased person just after 1 a.m. on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear when that woman or Watson died.