Crimestoppers offers $5K reward for information about Fayette teen's death from 1974

Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for information about the death of a 14-year-old Fayette County teen nearly 50 years after he was fatally shot.

John David Watson originally was reported as missing when he failed to return home after bicycling to purchase cigarettes for his mother around 9 p.m. at Pines Motel. Witnesses said he made the purchase and played pinball before he left.

Authorities believe he was killed that night — May 2, 1974.

His body was found the next day in Dunbar Township with a gunshot wound to the head.

State police in 2015 arrested a Mt. Pleasant man who had long been suspected of involvement in Watson’s death. Troopers said in court papers that a rain-soaked jacket the man wore the night Watson went missing was confiscated by authorities in 1974 and, years later, tested positive for gunshot residue.

A homicide charge, which had been recommended by a grand jury, against Joseph Leos was dismissed at a preliminary hearing after a district judge ruled that prosecutors hadn’t presented enough evidence that Leos likely was involved. Leos was 17 at the time of Watson’s death and was living with the boy’s family. Witnesses told police Leos seemed frightened, frantic, upset and agitated that night.

An autopsy found Watson was shot in the back of the head with a small-caliber weapon, most likely a .22-caliber, according to a police affidavit of probable cause.

Anyone with information about Watson’s death is asked to call Trooper Bell at state police in Uniontown at 724-439-7111 or Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at 1-800-4PA-TIPS or leave an online tip here.