Crime & Safety

'I Just Want Justice For My Daughter'

Cheynah Watson was a young woman with a good heart and a hard life, says her father.

She was found on her sister's birthday, stabbed in the backyard of a home on 4th Street in Fairfield. In an instant, Cheynah Watson, 19, became a statistic: The sixth homicide victim so far this year in Fairfield.

But she was more than a statistic. As police investigate the crime, her family mourns and picks up the pieces.

Her father, Don Watson, spoke to Patch Wednesday about the young woman who was.

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"She was a free thinker, very strong ... she had a heart 10 times her size," he said from his home in Brookings, OR. "She was very honest. She had a stubborn mind, she was artistic."

But there was something else, too, he said. She had anger issues, she was poor and then there was the crowd she was with.

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"She was not hanging around my choice of people," he said, adding that like many parents of errant 19 year-olds, there was little he could do because she was emancipated.

"She had a hard life," he said, adding his daughter put worth on earning things. "She has a lot of friends. She has a lot of family that miss her."

Don said he knew something was wrong as far back as two weeks ago. He normally had regular contact with his daughter through phone calls or Facebook, but the calls and contact had stopped.

He grew suspicious. He wanted to call the police, but Cheynah's mother, who is not married to Don, at that time thought it wasn't a good idea.

"I texted her phones and left voicemails," Don said. "She had a Facebook page and I messaged her on that."

Don's girlfriend in Brookings also said it wasn't a good idea to call the police. Later his girlfriend said she got a Facebook message purportedley from Cheynah saying she had lost her cell phones.

"I know that's not true because (the police) found her phones on her," Don said.

For now, Don is focusing on a different day. Cheynah's birthday is coming up on April 12.

"She was a lot like me," Don said. "She was a handful, she was a force to be reckoned with. She was a light in my life...this world is just a whole lot darker to me without her."

Don said he's lived a hard life, too, at one point doing time in an Arizona prison. When he thinks of his daughter's killer, he chooses his words carefully.

"I don't want to do anything wrong. I just want justice for my daughter."


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