https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Eugene_Watts
Shirley Small, a 17-year-old high school student from Ann Arbor, Michigan, was fatally stabbed twice in the heart outside her home on April 20, 1980. Glenda Richmond, 26, was the victim of a comparable assault on July 13, 1980, in front of her summer residence in the Ann Arbor region. A diner manager, she sustained 28 knife wounds to her chest. At both crime scenes, there was insufficient evidence to convict anyone. However, both of the murders displayed characteristics of Watts' crimes. Graduate student Rebecca Huff, age 20, of the University of Michigan, was found dead on September 14, 1980, in front of her house. She had suffered about 50 stab wounds. Her case was the first homicide that could be directly attributed to Coral.
A 20-year-old lady named "Dalpe" was attacked and stabbed on October 6 but managed to live. She ended up with partially paralysed muscles, weak muscles, could hardly eat or move her head, and her arms barely moved over her head due to the deep slashes she sustained to her face, one of which ruptured her jugular vein. On November 1, "Angus," a 30-year-old woman, spotted a black man wearing a hooded sweatshirt as she was making her way home from a Halloween party. She kept an eye on him. He bent down to tie his shoe as soon as she pulled out her keys and then immediately followed her. She ran to her front door while screaming at the top of her lungs. He was startled by her response, so he turned and fled the other way. She identified Coral Watts from a line-up of photos, but she was not sure because the outside area was dimly lighted at the time of her attack.[7]
Canadian authorities also believe Watts crossed the border into Windsor, Ontario that October, assaulting 20-year-old Sandra Dalpe outside her apartment, leaving her near death with multiple wounds to the face and throat but she survived. By that time, Watts had fallen under scrutiny from local homicide investigators. A task force was organized in July 1980 to probe the Sunday slashings, and Watts was placed under sporadic surveillance; a November court order permitted officers to plant a homing device in his car.[7]
On November 15, at around five in the morning, two police officers on patrol in the vicinity of Main Street in Ann Arbor saw a suspicious man in a car following a woman who was walking home. She attempted to hide in a doorway after realising she was being followed in the hopes that her stalker would lose her. Coral "nearly went crazy" when he lost track of the woman he was pursuing. Coral was detained by the police after they pulled over his automobile for having outdated licence plates and a suspended licence. Additionally, they examined his car and discovered a package containing wood-filing equipment and a few screwdrivers. Their most important discovery, however, was a dictionary that belonged to Huff and had the carved phrase "Rebecca is a lover" on it. It was insufficient proof, though, to hold him responsible for her slaying. Coral relocated to Columbus, Texas, in the spring of 1981, where he worked for an oil firm. He spent his weekend nights travelling more than 70 miles to his next hunting ground in the Houston region.
