A 37-year-old mother from Virginia, USA was charged with indecency this week after police caught her naked with a missing 15-year-old boy — whose twin brother she is also accused of abusing.
The Arrest
Ashleigh Watts was initially arrested when police came to her Chesapeake, Virgina home in July looking for the teenager and she asked them to wait outside while she put on a bra and let her dogs out.
‘Officers advised several minutes later that Watts returned to the door with her two dogs still in the residence, allowing them to enter,’ court records obtained by Law & Crime state.
‘As officers removed the mattress in an upstairs bedroom, they were able to see a white male juvenile hiding in a small space that was only wearing boxer briefs.
‘When asked by officers if he was [the runaway boy], he advised he was and presented his Learner’s Permit.’
At the time, Watts was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, but her crimes have since been updated to include three counts of indecency with a minor for the abusive relationship she had with the teenagers.
The delinquency of a minor
The twins lived across the street and were friends with Watts’ son, who was around the same age, according to court documents.
Watts allegedly began preying on the brothers over a year before she was caught.
Police began investigating the mother of two when an anonymous tipster reported an alleged sexual relationship with the boys in February.
Also in February, Watts’ husband would come home around 2 a.m. to find his wife topless on their couch alongside one of the teenage boys, who was ‘pretending to be asleep,’ he would later admit to investigators.
When questioned by his parents, the boy reportedly said that he had gone to Watts’ home to smoke marijuana and fell asleep on the couch.
The two families were ‘very close friends’ and had an open-door policy between their homes, which lay across the street from one another.
The boys’ parents told officers that the brothers were frequently at the Watts home for what they assumed was to spend time with their son.
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Behind closed doors, however, Watts was allegedly sexually and emotionally manipulating the teenagers, with one of the boys revealing the abuse to another neighbor.
‘[The neighbor] told him that [redacted] confided in her that he has been having sex with Ms. Watts since June 2022,’ police wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
‘[Redacted] told her that he and Ms. Watts were in love and when he turned seventeen (17) years old, she was going to divorce her husband and they were going to get married.
‘Authorities said that after the alleged 13-month-long relationship was exposed, the teen ran away from home and was found hiding in Watts’ bedroom three weeks later on July 26, WAVY reported.
His brother confessed to investigators that Watts would invite him over to smoke weed and give him pairs of her underwear.
He also claimed she would touch him inappropriately, despite his pleas for her to stop.
The teenagers’ parents and Watts’ husband filed protective orders against her.
The documents filed by her jilted husband describe large amounts of cash, marijuana and a prepaid cell phone that were reportedly found after her arrest.
Watts now faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
