Connecticut Mom Has Been Missing for Days — and Ex-Boyfriend Is Accused of Assaulting Her

Jason Watson was arrested for allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Perrie Mason, 31, who has been missing since Friday

Perrie Mason
Perrie Mason. Photo: Meriden Police Department

A mother of two who recently moved to Connecticut from Hawaii has been missing since Friday as police arrested her ex-boyfriend Tuesday for allegedly assaulting her before she vanished.

Perrie Mason, 31, of Meriden, was reported missing on Sunday by her sister, Vao Horlback, of Georgia, when she failed to reach her for two days, local station WTNH reports.

Mason is the mother of two boys, ages 11 and 12, and worked in Hartford, recording court proceedings in family court, the Hartford Courant reports.

Using Mason’s password that she had “in case of emergency,” Horlback checked her sister’s phone and was stunned to see that she made two short 911 calls on Saturday at about 7 p.m., Horlback told Hawaiian TV station KHON2.

“They both lasted for less than a minute,” Horlback told KHON2. “I called the police station, they verified that contact was made, however, they couldn’t hear anything on the phone. They tried calling her back, the phone was picked up and once again they didn’t hear anything.”

Authorities obtained a search warrant, a forensics team swept through Mason’s apartment, hunting for any clues as to what happened, said Horlback, who flew to Connecticut to care for her young nephews, KHON2 reports.

After Mason vanished, her children were placed in the custody of the state Department of Children and Families, the Courant reports.

On Tuesday, police arrested Mason’s ex-boyfriend, Jason Watson, for allegedly attacking her before she disappeared, the Courant reports.

Jason Watson
Jason Watson of Meriden, Connecticut. Meriden Police

Watson is charged with second-degree strangulation, third-degree assault, first-degree unlawful restraint, and disorderly conduct, police said Wednesday.

He was arraigned on Wednesday but did not enter a plea. He is being held on $650,000 bond as he awaits his next court date on Sept. 12.

It is unclear whether he has retained an attorney who can speak on his behalf.

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During his court appearance, a Meriden Superior Court judge called Watson “the prime suspect in the missing person case,” the Courant reports.

Watson has previously been convicted of violating probation and sexual assault, authorities said, the Courant reports.

Watson called police on Sunday afternoon to report Mason missing, saying later that he thought she could “be at a friend’s house and she was mad at him,” an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by the Courant states.

Mason and Watson had recently broken up after engaging in “heated fights,” though they still lived together, Horlback told police, the affidavit states.

Early Sunday morning, Mason sent Horlback a text with photographs of injuries she allegedly sustained from Watson’s attack, including “red dots around her eye, a fat upper lip, (and) redness on her neck,” the affidavit states.

Mason alleged Watson “strangled her to the point where she couldn’t breathe and to the point where she lost consciousness,” according to the affidavit.

On Monday, Watson called his probation officer to let her know he had spoken to police, crying “hysterically” during the conversation, the affidavit says.

After learning from police that Watson had allegedly assaulted Mason before she disappeared, the probation officer reported that she allegedly saw texts Mason sent to Watson saying “something to the effect of, ‘you almost killed me’,” the affidavit says.

Watson said he didn’t assault Mason, the document says.

Mason is described as a light-skinned African American woman who is 4 feet 11 inches and 130 lbs. She has brown hair and brown eyes.

Friends and family have set up a GoFundMe account for her and her children.

Anyone with information about her is asked to call Det. Femia of the Meriden Police Department’s Major Crimes Division at 203-630-6219.

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