A killer sent a text saying he was "30 seconds from your door" minutes before strangling a mother to death, a new TV documentary has revealed.
Adam Watson was jailed for life with a minimum term of 21 years in 2024 for the murder of Samantha Holden, 56, in Farnborough, Hampshire. She was found dead in her flat on September 9, 2022, after being suffocated and strangled.
Channel 4's Murder Case: The Digital Detectives, which aired on Thursday July 30, revisits the killing and shows how mobile phone data helped investigators track Watson's movements and his communications with Ms Holden that day.
The crucial text messages
Just before the attack, at 12.44pm, Watson sent Ms Holden a message reading: "Joanna I am 30 seconds from your door x." She replied minutes later: "come up x."
In the programme, higher analyst Elaine Lucas explains the significance: "When we download the data from Watson's phone, we found texts between Sam and Watson on the day of her death. Watson doesn't refer to Sam by her name, he calls her Joanna. Digital media confirmed that, despite his 'no comment', he was the client. Sam had seen Adam Watson before, on at least three occasions. So the text messages suggest that he was arranging to go to Sam's that day."
Body found by son
The court heard Ms Holden's body was discovered by her 18-year-old son shortly after 4pm. She was lying on the floor, covered with a blue dressing gown, and pronounced dead at the scene. Watson's DNA was found on her neck and beneath her fingernails.
Watson had first made contact with Ms Holden through an adult website in May 2022, where she advertised as "English blonde lady". They had met several times, and the judge concluded Ms Holden trusted him.
After the murder, Watson fled to Belgium, disposing of Ms Holden's phone at St Pancras station before boarding a Eurostar. He was arrested at a hotel two days later and extradited to the UK.
Life sentence
At Winchester Crown Court in 2024, Watson, then 37, was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 21 years.
In a victim impact statement, Ms Holden's daughter Rebecca Elliott described her mother as her "best friend, my soul mate and most importantly my mum".
The court heard Watson had a violent criminal history. He was on extended licence after serving a sentence for sexually assaulting another woman in 2013, having admitted the offence, and had previously been charged with wounding members of his own family in 2008.
Episode three of Murder Case: The Digital Detectives is available to watch on Channel 4 now.
