MANCHESTER, NH — A Massachusetts man pleaded guilty today to manslaughter in connection with a 1984 homicide that remained unsolved for nearly four decades.
Michael Lewis, 65, of South Boston, Massachusetts, entered the plea in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston to two counts of manslaughter related to homicides that occurred in 1984 and 1993.
One of those cases involved the killing of Brian Watson, 23, whose body was discovered off Interstate 93 South in Manchester.
Watson was last seen alive in mid-July 1984.
His mother reported him missing later that month.
On Sept. 16, 1984, a passerby discovered his body roughly 40 feet from I-93 South in Manchester.
He was identified through dental records.
A joint investigation by the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit, the New Hampshire State Police Major Crime Unit, the Manchester Police Department, and the Boston Police Department linked Lewis to the killing.
Investigators determined that Lewis and another man, both involved in South Boston’s drug trade, fatally shot Watson in Boston and then transported his body to New Hampshire, where it was left along the highway.
The case remained unsolved until renewed efforts by law enforcement in Massachusetts and New Hampshire led to Lewis’s 2022 indictment for first-degree murder.
