For 23 years, Melanie Addie was married to her husband, James Addie, living a seemingly normal life in Missouri.
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For years, James, a corrections officer, did not give Melanie any reason to suspect anything untoward was occurring in his life. However, for over seven years, James was actually having an affair with a woman named Molly Watson.
In a twist of fate, James, 56, had been engaged to Molly, 35, while he was still married to Melanie. Then, on April 27, 2018, the situation took a turn for the worse when James murdered Molly just days prior to what was set to be their wedding day.
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A recent ABC 11 report noted that Melanie found her husband to be acting “like he always did” on that fateful day:
“About seven o’clock, he came into the living room where I was and said he was going to a friend’s house,” she said.
Melanie Addie said she went to bed and woke up at 2 a.m. to the sound of James Addie snoring next to her. She said she did what she always does, which is get up and move to the couch. About 30 minutes later, Melanie Addie said she saw police lights outside.
A few weeks after his arrest, Melanie Addie filed for divorce.
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Strangely enough, photos from a vacation to Walt Disney World Resort played a key role in Melanie’s discover of her husband’s double life. Per the aforementioned article about the bizarre situation:
Melanie Addie said her ex-husband went off on trips. One was to Florida [to Disney World] that she said James Addie told her was for work, and one was a trip to Mexico that she said he told her was a getaway with friends.
“I never really knew his work friends… [so it] seems plausible,” she said.
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In reality, however, James was duping Melanie and many other people in his life for nearly a decade.
Following her now ex-husband’s arrest, Melanie “decided to search the house for any evidence of her husband’s affair. She said she found photos of James Addie and Watson together at Disney World in Florida in a lofted storage area of their garage.”
Molly’s body was sadly discovered on the night she was killed by a local man name Glen McSparren. An ABC News report regarding the sad situation notes that McSparren had been traveling a rural route to his mother’s home when he noticed a car pulled onto the shoulder and something seemingly laying on the road itself.
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The back road was wooded on both sides with a creek running through it.
It didn’t take long for McSparren to realize that the object on the road was, in fact, Molly Watson’s body. This led to James’s arrest, previously described by Melanie.
Molly, an avid Disney fan, had been planning a Princess-inspired red and gold Disney-themed wedding according to Chrystal Graves-Yazici and Tabetha Schilb, who were hired to do hair and make-up for the event.
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This year, Addie was convicted of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of Molly Watson. He was sentenced to life without parole plus ten years.
The former corrections officer has maintained his innocence and is currently working to appeal his conviction.
The Molly Watson Case on TV
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The murder of the Disney-loving bride-to-be has become quite popular on true crime television shows and networks. Investigation Discovery recently posted the following on its official Facebook page:
Molly Watson, 35, was less than 48 hours away from marrying her long-term boyfriend, James Addie, when a passing motorist discovered her lifeless body lying in front of her vehicle. She had been shot at point-blank range in the back of the head.
When authorities established that the woman on the ground was the same woman named in a marriage certificate on the front seat of a nearby car, they drove to the home of the future groom to break the bad news to him.
51-year-old James Addie answered the door of his home where police told him they had some bad news. Just then, Addie’s wife stepped out of their bedroom to find out what had happened.
Furthermore, ABC’s 20/20 aired an episode about the case in January 2022. An official Facebook post and trailer for the episode can be seen below:
What do you think about the Molly Watson case? Is James Addie guilty as charged?