Skeletal remains identified as missing DeFuniak Springs man JT Watson

Nearly 11 years after John Thomas “JT” Watson disappeared from DeFuniak Springs, skeletal remains found on Eglin Air Force Base property were finally matched to the missing 38-year-old by DNA, giving Walton County investigators a long-awaited identity and his family a grim answer.

Watson had been trying to rebuild his life after being released from prison on July 1, 2015. The Walton County Sheriff’s Office said he was staying with family and sometimes at local motels while getting back on his feet. In an earlier missing-person notice, investigators described him as 6-foot-3, about 200 pounds, with brown hair, brown eyes and numerous tattoos. Watson also suffered from seizures and was not taking medication when he disappeared.

The case tightened around August 7, 2015, the day Watson was last seen driving a Mitsubishi Mirage in DeFuniak Springs. That same day, the sheriff’s office said, there was also last activity on his bank account and EBT card. He had paid for one night at the Adams Motel in DeFuniak Springs, though investigators never determined whether he actually used the room. Later that month, Watson had bought two used vehicles, a Ford Mustang and the Mirage, adding two cars to a case that soon became a vehicle-trail mystery as much as a missing-person file.

The Mirage surfaced on October 18, 2015, abandoned in a wooded stretch of Eglin property between Coy Burgess Loop and Nelson Road, with the keys still inside. That vehicle became one of the earliest hard clues in the investigation, but it did not lead quickly to Watson. Searches continued, tips were pursued and the case stalled for years until human remains were discovered on November 24, 2025, near Forest Oak Road on Eglin property.

What moved the case forward was DNA. The sheriff’s office said analysis, with support from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and DNA Labs International, positively identified the skeletal remains as Watson. Investigators also found a set of keys belonging to the Ford Mustang near the remains, but no weapons were recovered. The District 1 Medical Examiner’s Office and the Legacy K-9 Search Team assisted in the effort.

Watson now has a confirmed resting place in the case file, but the most important questions are still open: how he died, when he died and how his remains ended up on Eglin property after his Mirage turned up abandoned years earlier. The Walton County Sheriff’s Office says the investigation remains open.