Texas woman found dead on cruise ship; husband arrested on murder charge

Susan Watford, 31, was found dead in her cabin on the MSC Seascape cruise ship after an alleged dispute with her husband, Jason Watford, 48. Court documents obtained by the outlet indicate the husband strangled his wife for several minutes before releasing his grip, and was subsequently taken into custody when the vessel returned to Galveston, Texas, on Monday.

Watford, a Texas resident, had worked at Target since 2019, advancing from a warehouse associate to a team lead after graduating summa cum laude with a business degree from Colorado Technical University in 2021. The couple had boarded the week-long cruise to Honduras and Mexico on Sunday, hours before the incident.

According to the documents, an argument began during dinner and continued in the cabin, during which the husband admitted he "snapped" and assaulted his wife multiple times, causing facial injuries. A housekeeper discovered Watford's motionless body after delivering towels to the cabin shortly after 9 p.m. on Sunday. The husband was observed changing clothes and later sitting in the hallway scrolling on his phone.

The child present in the cabin was unharmed and is now in foster care. Jason Watford was removed from the ship upon its return to Galveston and arrested on a murder charge. He had previously pleaded guilty to causing bodily injury after a prior dispute with his wife.