AURORA — Neighbors sometimes heard arguing from the married couple, who lived in the 3200 block of South Helena Street. The baby sitter across the street said the man had a shotgun over his television set “just in case.”
So she and others said they were not surprised when police swarmed the Aurora neighborhood Monday afternoon, found that the woman had been killed and took her husband into custody.
Police did not release many specifics about the killing. But neighbors said the woman who lived at the house was Cora Watkins, 31, a school bus driver. Her husband was Jim Watkins, 39, apparently a stay-at-home dad, neighbors said.
After police arrived, the two young children who were inside the home when the woman was killed were taken by a neighbor until social workers arrived.
Andrew Tate, who lives a few houses down, said he talked to the boy after the incident.
“The little boy told me, ‘Papa killed my mother,’ ” Tate said.
The two children, believed to be about 4 or 5 and 1 or 2 years old, were apparently not injured, neighbors said.
It was unclear how the woman died.
“This is a tragic case of domestic violence,” Aurora police spokesman Bob Friel said.
Friel said police received a call about 2 p.m. that someone had been killed inside the home. When officers arrived, they found the victim and the man, who was arrested without incident, Friel said. He said several weapons were found inside the home.
Investigators believe the family may have been moving from the home where the homicide occurred to a house directly to the south of it, on the same block. Detectives were getting search warrants for both houses, Friel said.
Tamarra Thain, who lives across the street, babysat for the couple many times. Thain recently learned that Cora wanted to divorce Jim and take the kids. Jim apparently didn’t like that idea, Thain said.
“In his belief, he was the man of the house, and if she did something wrong, he punished her,” Thain said. “Anything that Cora did always got him riled up.”
But Tate recalled a kinder man. Watkins would shovel his driveway when it snowed, and if Tate needed something, Jim Watkins would always help.
“They were nice people, but you never know what happens behind closed doors,” he said.
Denver Post researcher Barbara Hudson contributed to this report.
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com.
