Coroner works to find peace for murderer her husband convicted in 2010

Ron Wilkins, Lafayette Journal & Courier
·5 min read
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LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Tippecanoe County sheriff's Lt. Steve Kohne cracked a 1980 cold-case murder in 2009, but he died from cancer in June 2010 — one month before Dion Watkins was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the killing.

"It's over," Watkins muttered as he left the courtroom, according to a Journal & Courier report after the sentencing. Watkins was escorted by Purdue police Det.-Sgt. Carrie Costello, Kohne's widow. She symbolically represented Kohne's dogged work on his last big case by taking Watkins to jail to serve his prison sentence.

But the ties between Kohne, Costello and Watkins have resurfaced nearly 14 years later, after Watkins died in Tippecanoe County and Costello, now the county's coroner, investigated his death and tries to locate his next of kin.

After the sentencing hearing

“Steve’s not here. I’m going to escort him," Costello said, noting she insisted on being one of the officers to bring Watkins to and from the courthouse for his sentencing. “Dion didn’t know who I was."

They're sometimes significant, the brief conversations between people sharing a ride in an elevator.

“In the elevator, I said to Dion, ‘I want you to know that Lt. Kohne, the person you confessed to, is my husband, and he has since passed away from pancreatic cancer. Otherwise, he would be here walking you back and forth,’” Costello said.

“He was actually nice," Costello remembered. "He apologized that he’s sorry Steve passed away.

Steve Kohne, with the Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Department, left, holds a shoe from a man being questioned in the suspected murder on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2006. Tim Payne, a detective with the Lafayette Police Department, is also pictured. Kohne solved a 30-year-old cold case murder in 2009, but he died from cancer in 2010, just a month shy of seeing the killer sentenced.

“I said, ‘I appreciate the fact that you confessed, and we can get this closed and closure for the family,’” Costello said. “He just shook his head yes.

“The feeling I got from Dion was, ‘It’s finally over,’” Costello said.

“He wasn’t hostile towards me," she said. "I wouldn’t so far to say he was remorseful. It was more about him and his life rather than the impact of the murder on the victim's family.”

Then the doors opened, and the two parted company forever. Or so Costello thought at the time.

Watkins' affiliation with Kohne and Costello came full circle this month.

The odd and unexplained

Police work is strange. A name. A face. A smell. These things can trigger one's memories trying to place where an officer might have seen the person or from where he/she might recall the name.

Did the officer arrest the person? Interrogate him?

Tippecanoe County Coroner Carrie Costello discusses how William Kopp's tombstone came to be in the possession of the coroner's office in November 2023. For 26 years, the tombstone has been stored at the Tippecanoe County Coroner's Office. Through a team effort of the coroner's office, the Tippecanoe County Historical Association and the Fountain County Historical Society, William Kopp's tombstone will soon be reset over his grave in Attica.

All of these crossed Costello's mind earlier this month as she began to investigate Watkins' death from apparent congestive heart failure. She focused on finding Watkins' next of kin instead of chasing the mystery playing out in her thoughts.

Still — something about Watkins' name gnawed at her for several days. Why does she know this person?

“What really hit me is he died on the same day that Steve died,” Costello said, noting a 14-year difference between Kohne's death and Watkins' passing. “It took me two or three days.

“I was sitting at the state coroner’s conference, and it hit me,” she said.

Watkins was the killer from her husband's last big case before he died in 2010.

An ironic twist of fate that the widow of the man whose work locked up Watson for nine years now is trying to find Watkins a way home to rest in peace.

Kohne solved a 30-year-old cold case, tying Watkins — a man from Texas with no ties to Lafayette — to the killing of 49-year-old William J. Cooke on July 15, 1980. Cooke was an engineer from Santa Clara, California, with no ties to Lafayette, according to the Journal & Courier reports from 1980 and 2010.

Kohne sifted through the evidence collected from the hotel room in the 4200 block of South Street, where Watkins stabbed Cooke to death and then robbed him of his valuables, according to the J&C. Watkins left a cigarette butt in the hotel room, which was collected as evidence.

In 1980, DNA evidence was science fiction. But in 2009, it was reliable reality, and the DNA on the cigarette butt was Watkins'.

Since Watkins had felony convictions, his DNA from the 1980 matched Watkins' DNA in the national database.

Kohne interviewed Watkins at a Texas prison, according to Costello and the J&C reports.

“When he got to the point, ‘So tell my why your DNA would be found at this place?’ He was done talking,” Costello said.

The DNA evidence was enough to get a warrant for murder, and Watkins was transferred to Tippecanoe County.

Once here, Kohne had a second interview with him at the Purdue University Police Department, Costello said as she described how Kohne was now weak and losing his fight against the disease that killed him.

“Steve was going through chemo through all of this,” she said.

"He ended up confessing to the whole thing," Costello said of Watkins and Kohne's interview with him. "Of course, he blamed the other guy – the victim.”

Watkins serves his time

Watkins pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 18 years in prison, according to J&C reports. He was still finishing his Texas sentence when he was sentenced here for Cooke's killing.

With credit for good behavior, Watkins had to serve half of the 18 years before he could be released, which was in September 2021.

Costello faces the daunting task of locating the next of kin for the man formerly from Fort Worth, Texas, whose beating of an elderly woman sent him to prison there.

The odds of finding Watkins' family are slim.

One of Watkins' local caregivers said he hasn’t spoken with family in 40 years, Costello said.

“No next of kin has reached out to us, and we have no additional leads,” Costello said.

More: Coroner seeks family of Dion Watkins, who might have ties to Texas

Costello said her office has completed its due diligence to find Watkins' family. They've found a person with documented power of attorney for Watkins, and if Watkins' family doesn't turn up soon, his remains will be released to the documented power of attorney.

“It just felt like I needed to be there to complete his case," Costello said, reflecting on then and now. "He would have been there, and it wouldn’t be finished unless one of us was there to watch him be sentenced and go to prison.

“Now, here I am trying to find (Watkins’) next of kin to see if they want to take responsibility for his remains.”

Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Murderer relies on widow of man who solved his case to rest in peace