Lie Spotting: Test your true crime lie detector nous with the Chris Watts case

/ nickvdl

Is Chris Watts a convincing liar? Really?

Fullscreen capture 20180818 104436Have a look at the seven minute interview Chris Watts gave while his pregnant wife and two daughters were still missing. Make a mental note of any inappropriate behaviour, micro-expressions, mannerisms, phrases or words that raise red flags. Ready? Go!

It hasn’t taken long for the media and the public to draw comparisons between Chris Watts and Scott Peterson. These two assholes even look similar. People magazine’s so-called experts have called Chris Watts “very convincing” in front of the cameras. Here’s the full quote:

Investigative experts tell PEOPLE, Watts’ behavior comes as no surprise. “He has an incredibly large ego,” says Dale Yeager, a criminal analyst and forensic profiler who is unconnected with the case. “He was very convincing in front of the camera, which means he really comes off as sociopathic. That doesn’t mean he is mentally ill, just that he has a personality defect.”

Drawing a parallel between Watts’ case and that of Scott Peterson, who notoriously murdered his pregnant wife and then repeatedly gave interviews, Yeager says, “He’s Scott Peterson, just less charismatic.”

Australia’s News.com.au also fielded one of their true crime specialists to give their “expert” take on Watts.

To the untrained eye, Watts may have given the impression of a quietly anxious husband and father seemingly clueless about the whereabouts of Shanann, 34, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3. But to renowned body language specialist Judi James, the subtle quirks in his physical behaviour told a different story to the one coming out of his mouth.

Ms James has identified nine techniques that Mr Watts may have used to conceal his guilt as he was filmed on the front porch of the family’s home in Frederick, Colorado on Tuesday.

She says Mr Watts may have gone to extraordinary lengths to appear calm and unruffled in the belief that was how innocent people behaved.

What a crock of shit. You don’t need to be a forensic profiler or a body language specialist [whatever that is] to intuit decepion. You just need to pay attention, be alert, and some familiarity with other true crime cases and their patterns doesn’t hurt.

Now, without any further ado, what are Chris Watts’ tells?

  1. Lack of affect. The biggest clue that something is seriously wrong and seriously off here is the most obvious. Watts simply doesn’t look or sound upset. On many occasions in the interview he smiles.  A genuinely grieving father and husband to a 15-week pregnant wife would be anxious, distraught and overwhelmed. There’s none of that here.
  2. No urgency. When the reporter asks Watts what’s going on, Watts immediately leaks a smile of contempt while shaking his head. Why? Because he knows – or thinks he knows – k9 units or cadaver dogs aren’t going to find anything at his home. [Watts killed his wife and two daughters and later dumped his wife’s body near an oil rig where he worked, he stuffed the bodies of his two daughters, Bella [4] and Celeste [3] into a large gas drum to disguise the smell]. It’s noteworthy that the first thing Watts thinks about when asked what’s happening is the dogs [and the idea of scent and smells].
  3. When the reporter asks the very open-ended question about what’s going on, Watts’ tongue darts out of his mouth. This is at about 33 seconds into the clip, and happens so quickly, if you blinked just then, you’d miss it. In a scenario where a killer goes to a lot of effort to kill and cover up, when asked what happened, this is an opportunity not only to savour his efforts, but to verbally cover them over. The licking of the lips is the psychological equivalent of being about to dig into a meal. Often this poking of the tongue is also intended to hide or cover a microexpression. As Watts begins to answer, he seems to be holding back a smile. Fullscreen capture 20180818 110955
  4. When Watts actually answers the question, he starts off with a stutter. Well, he has a reason to be nervous. What happened? Watts’ story is the typical story you hear, everything is “perfectly normal”. But if it was perfectly normal, why are things fucked up? Something was far from right, something did happen – triple murder – but Watts is doing his best to pass it off as no big deal. The problem is, that’s completely inappropriate to the situation. It’s a big deal that his wife’s gone, that his children are gone, and by trying to seem unemotional about the circumstances prior to and around their disappearance [in effect his words are hiding what he did], Watts is revealing a mismatch.
  5. Watts’ words matter. He refers to texting his wife, and Shanann not texting him back. “If she doesn’t get back to me that’s fine,” he says, and shrugs. Shitballs it’s not fine. In an emergency situation when you want someone back, them not getting back isn’t fine. This narrative aspect is also a mismatch to what Watts says later in the interview, that he really hopes he gets his family back. Also, what really concerned “a lot of other people” [not him] wasn’t that Shanann didn’t get back to him [as if that was normal or reasonable], but because she didn’t get back to them.
  6. Once again, the microexpression as Watts describes Shanann “not getting back” to him is so quick at 52 seconds, it’s almost invisible. The screengrab below doesn’t quite capture the triangular curl of the lip, so it’s better to watch the clip in real time a few times to catch it. There’s a slight snarl, a slight lifting of his left upper lip. This is a key indicator of contempt. Contempt in true crime is a critical red flag. A genuine victim tends to feel the opposite – helpless, humble, agonised. Contempt is a kind of sadistic and scornful pleasure at the expense of a murder victim, after the fact.Fullscreen capture 20180818 111856
  7. When Watts describes walking into the house there’s another microexpression, another smile leaking through. He’s dismissive and flippant. Rather than sympathising with his own feelings of anguish, or reliving them, he’s smiling. All that comes from the first 75 seconds, and these are just the highlights.Fullscreen capture 20180818 112747
  8. When the reporter asks Watts to spell his wife’s name, the second tongue flick happens. Once again, Watts is either trying not to smile, or he’s enjoying the new context he’s in. There’s duping delight in spelling out something as basic as his wife’s name when he knows so much more, and he’s not going to tell them, when he’s done so much more, and they don’t know! Fullscreen capture 20180818 112959
  9. When Watts names his daughters at 1:24, there’s another slight smile. Fortunately the cameraman zooms in at this point, as if he’s also trying to catch the little nuances.One of the ways we try to hide a smile is by pinching our cheek muscles against our lips, causing the smile to be crushed or overpowered by the cheek muscle. Again, the screengrab doesn’t really do the mechanism of this microexpression justice, and since it’s so reflexive, it’s better to catch in real time and the context of what is said when it happens. When Watts has finished spelling out Celeste’s name, he briefly repeats the same “cheek-crush” microexpression.Fullscreen capture 20180818 113212
  10. When Watts provides the ages of his two dead daughters,  Watts gulps and immediately afterwards there’s another tongue poke. Once again, providing such basic information to the reporter may be amusing to Watts given what he’s done to them. Watts is relishing this, taking sadistic pleasure in being able to account for the complex details of the crime in such simple terms, information he knows is virtually useless in the scheme of things. But there’s also a degree of anxiety underlying the questions and his answers – the stakes are high, is he being convincing? Fullscreen capture 20180818 113735
  11. When the reporter asks how many times Watts called his wife, Watts tilts his head and says matter-of-factly that he called Shanann three times and texted her three times. Here Watts tries to turn on the charm, trying to convey himself as a caring spouse. He crinkles his forehead and continues to talk matter of factly. Again, what’s missing here is requisite emotion. There’s no concern, no anxiety, instead, there’s charm and swagger.
  12. The reporter has asked Watts a very simple question. How many times did Watts call his wife. He goes into verbal diarrhea, providing a lot of extraneous information, suggesting that he thought she was just busy, that’s why she didn’t answer, or that she was getting back to other friends and not him. Again, not only are the words themselves inappropriate [he seems resigned to the fact that she’s not communicating with him, but is communicating with others], but Watts only figures something is wrong when his wife’s friend showed up. Only then did it “register” that something was wrong. All the reporter asked was how many times he called his wife, and Watts has confessed here that it took a friend to “bring it home” that something was amiss with his wife, despite the fact that she wasn’t home, and the kids weren’t, and he was. [Shanann and the two girls were all murdered in the home, and then their bodies dumped at the oil refinery where Watts worked]. Throughout Watts’ overly long answer, he hardly blinks, he touches his face a few times and otherwise stands with his arms folded.

    He’s too controlled under the circumstances, and when emotions do leak through, they’re the wrong ones. Also, he keeps smiling or looking like he’s about to smile.Fullscreen capture 20180818 114706

  13.  Just after 2 minutes, the reporter asks: “Do you think she just took off?” There’s another tiny snarl of the upper lip. It’s another expression of contempt. Think about contempt in the context of that question. Do you think she just took off? Is there contempt for the reporter, or for the idea that she’d dump him, and not the other way round?
  14.  Have a look at Watts face as he says he doesn’t want to think about what happened to her [or talk about it – and for obvious reasons]. Then he says: “I hope she’s somewhere safe right now, and with the kids.” The duping delight is etched prominently on his face, and once again there’s a slight sneer of contemptuous and cruel satisfaction, and yes, he’s still smiling.
  15.  At 2:48 Watts describes his “traumatic night just trying to be here…” Why is being at home traumatic? What should be traumatic is wondering how is family are? This is evidence of Watts’ ego and sociopathy. He’s trying to convey emotion, but all he can convey is his own narcissism. And he’s still smiling.
  16.  As the reporter gears up for another question, Watts sways slightly from side to, purses his cheeks, and gulps again. On a few occasions in the interview he seems slightly out of breath. He’s nervous, but trying to look composed. It’s the wrong emotion for an innocent man. An innocent man doesn’t care how he looks, he cares about the victims and he’s emotionally compromised. There’s grief and anxiety – for them.
  17. When asked about his relationships with the kids, Watts nods and bites his lower lip, repeating an earlier expression. Clearly the family dynamics played a crucial role in why Watts felt justified in murdering his wife and children. But is he really going to say what the dynamics were really like? Is he really going to reveal his motive? Well, that’s why he’s biting his lip.Fullscreen capture 20180818 121154
  18. When Watts actually answers the question, he stutters and shakes his head while saying “the kids are my life”. Obviously the opposite was true. Watts felt his children were killing him in some way; perhaps financially, perhaps robbing him of his freedom, who knows.  When Watts tries to think of an example of how he loves and misses his kids, what he comes up with is the cliched example of a parent telling his kids to eat their vegetables. That’s his favorite memory of his children? This kind of vapid persona suggests extreme narcissism, someone incapable of feeling someone else’s feelings.
  19. 19. At 3:09 Watts cracks a joke: “You know, you’re not going to get your dessert…” Again, Watts takes sadistic pleasure in comparing this expression to the reality. The reality is both his daughters are dead and dumped in an oil drum. He knows they’re never going to get their dessert ever again, and this is a source of amusement, even delight to him.  This is a sick bastard, but then he had to be to commit quadruple homicide [his wife, his unborn child, and his two small children]. That makes Watts a mass murderer, given that the definition requires the killing of four people without a cooling off period.Fullscreen capture 20180818 121822
  20. As Watts describes his daughters’ patterns, he can’t remember what exactly they watch. Again, he’s flippant. His memories of his kids aren’t personal or intimate. It’s not a father playing with his kids or sharing a moment, it’s him seeing them watching television. It’s sterile. And Watts is callous and offhand about it, smiling and flapping his hand casually – these gestures from the head of the house tell a lot about the true family dynamic underlying this terrible tragedy.Fullscreen capture 20180818 122214

That’s an analysis of less than half the interview, but I think it’s enough. Why is it important to study a shithead like Watts and figure out his MO, and his patterns? Because the failure to figure out when someone is lying to you, especially someone close to you, could get you killed. You could be a child, or a spouse in a family, you could be pregnant or engaged, or trying to make it work, and you might be living day to day with someone who means to kill you, or if not kill, do harm to you. Perhaps financially. Perhaps in a host of ways.

It’s important that we as social creatures are awake and alert to the many little gestures that give away a spectrum of our inner feelings, from mostly harmless disassociation, to toxic and callous sadism, to seditious and insidious and potentially destructive narcissism.

It’s important that we’re wise to these expressions masking incredibly destructive impulses in those close to us, and those around us. If it doesn’t apply to us in our relationships or friendships, it may come in useful with someone out there and our ability to look into their relationships, where those in them maybe can’t see the wood for the trees.

True crime has always been about figuring out ourselves and each other through the struggles and motivations, the life and death stuff going on with other people. Failure to figure this out places us at risk, if not in danger in the real world. In a world where tabloids and their “experts” advise us on how convincing the likes of Watts is in an interview, we need to be sharper than that. And with a little practice and attention to detail, we can be.

The good news is, when you know what you’re looking for, and when you’ve seen it once, it’s easy to pick up the pattern. The trick is to look and listen carefully,  to pay attention not only to the words but to the context of the words, and to have the confidence to think for yourself, to make up your own mind, rather than accept someone else’s version of events as gospel.

In a marriage, especially a doomed marriage, this simple ability to discern the difference between a genuine person and deception, could save lives. In the real world, the ability to discern the difference between reality and fiction can mean the difference between success and failure. A society that can read itself right is self-correcting. The same applies to us as individuals.

When we develop the capacity to intuit lies, we’re forewarned. Because we have a handle on reality, we’re less easily to mislead or manipulate. We can act, we can change reality before it happens, rather than as we see so often in true crime, piecing it all together when it’s too late, after the fact.

Notice how different Watts presents himself in court. The glasses are meant to convey sensitivity and minimize the perception of masculine aggression, and malice.

Visit this link to watch Chris Watts’ reaction to his wife’s pregnancy test. Given that they’d bought an expensive house in 2013, and Watts’ had filed for bankruptcy in 2015, the news couldn’t have been received well in his heart of hearts.

According to the Daily Mail:

The couple declared bankruptcy in 2015, and despite Shanann’s frequent Facebook posts boasting of the Lexus and frequent paid trips she was awarded for selling health supplements, the couple [in 2018] was facing a $1,500 civil suit from their homeowners’ association. They purchased their five-bed, four-bath home for $400,000 in 2013, and their mortgage payment was about $3,000 a month, according to bankruptcy records.

Ironically Watts situation and Scott Peterson’s are almost a carbon copy – new house, new child on the way, and a job that’s not quite paying the bills. Divorce more messy than murder? Only if you’re a sociopath.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl7cFW2gL_x/?taken-by=shanannwatts

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61 thoughts on “Lie Spotting: Test your true crime lie detector nous with the Chris Watts case”

  1. Great catch. I immediately thought of Scott Peterson, too, on seeing the news.

    Biting his tongue, is literally that. Amanda Knox does it a lot. Smiling is a classic sign of lying. [ditto].

    At least childkiller Ian Huntley had the grace to at least try to look concerned, so what kind if a sick **** is this?

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Did you say tongue? John Ramsey? Great intuitive breakdown. Most people lack the skill to detect what’s authentic and what’s not in terms of human behavior. It’s only teachable to a certain level. Emotional intelligence plays a prominent role in being able to see through the bullshit.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Thanks. Covered that in some detail in The Day After Christmas series. I remember Burke “playing the piano” with his right hand on the armrest, and smiling throughout. Even as an adult he seemed to be struggling to sit still and not fiddle.

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  4. Several things. Most obvious is the lack of affect, similar to Scott Peterson. He says it’s okay if she doesn’t contact him, but not okay when she doesn’t contact “her people.” That may have been a bone of contention for him, that he felt she wasn’t giving him as much attention as she did other people in her life, her job, the children, and for a narcissist who needs all of the attention he wouldn’t have liked that. Also he starts to say he left work around 5 a.m., then changes it to “left for work.” Could he have killed them much earlier, clocked in at work, then returned home to dispose of their bodies? He starts to say how “traumatic” it was for him trying to be in the house after they had “van…” – vanished? then stopped, perhaps knowing that wasn’t going to be his story, but unsure what is going to be his story since he already remarked that she returned from a work event around 1:48 a.m. then was in bed by 2:00. Nope, “vanishing” can’t be his story, he’d then have to speculate where they could have vanished to. No signs of a struggle on his arms, no cuts, bruises, scratches, much like Peterson. A “silent kill” would be consistent with strangulation of all three. Very very sad.

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    • Also, he’s a serious narcissist. If my entire family were missing, the last thing I would talk about would be myself and my “trauma”. None of that made any sense at all and was another huge red flag to investigators. If he was having an affair, as was reported, then his performance was done to gain something for himself. He looks like a “Merry Widow” in that interview!

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    • I want to make it perfectly clear that I find these crimes a total afront to human decency, but I have a theory to put forward. Let me be clear! This is not victim shaming or blaming. I believe that Sha’nann knew b4 she married Chris that he was either bi/ gay. They both felt strong feelings for each other and truly believed they could ride that wave of initial love and strong emotion and build a marriage. Maybe they had an arrangement? Somewhere along the way, the new wore off and things started not working out as they planned. Meanwhile Shan’ann is all over the internet inventing literally( physicall appearance, ) and the man she wishes he would be for her. I think he truly loved the kids( maybe autopsy will tell the tale) that’s why Shan’ann can’t stop posting how great he is to everybody and anybody. She’s building herself the perfect husband and dad for the world to see. I believe Shan’ann was the dominant partner in the relationship. I believe everybody knew that when that cell phone came out it was time to ” perform” for the camera. As an only child I can tell u, kids catch on quickly as to how u want them to act in front of the camera. Chris Watts doesn’t seem happy in front of that camera, either. Chris Watts told somebody that Shan’ann was verbally and emotionally abused him. In every lie there is a bit of truth. Remember that Shan’ann told a friend that “Chris had no game.” Not something that really is complimentary to ur husband said in public! What’s being said in private? It’s possible/ not at all probable that Shan’ann came home from that trip to a continuing( they talked , my guess, when Chris met them that last wk of their vacation in one if the Carolinas and more after that. This wasn’t new news)conversation. She realises that this time it’s over. She has carefully crafted this family charade. Sold her husband as perfect. Her life as perfect. She may have threatened him in the past to “out” Chris and he may have stayed but not this time.Maybe he turned the tables on her and told her to go ahead and tell and he’ll disclose she’s always known or maybe something else he had on her. She goes up stairs and decides to end the entire thing. Maybe she was going to blame him? But y if he did in fact find Shan’ann killing the last small daughter, and for the sake of argument, let’s say she’s beyond help, y not call police? Or if in fact u killed them all on the same morning, y not make up a better lie? Say u had to kill her because she was coming after you? Call the cops and all.ur problems are solved. Your a free agent again. Like I said earlier, the aupotsy is where the truth will hopefully be found

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      • Maybe not! Maybe it was a planned murder. Everything comes down to those autopsies. Prob was. All I have is a theory like everybody else. Just saying Shan’ann was a bit strange herself. This doesn’t condone murdering her or anyone!

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  7. I see the red mark on his neck now in video above. The couple seem to favor coordinated t shirts with writing on them in many of the photos. Look at us, we’re a cohesive fun family – all a facade for this man who was likely living a lie. Sharon Rocha said to Scott during victim impact statements – why not get a divorce – but for some reason for Peterson and Watt’s, divorce isn’t an option but murder is.

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    • Because they like the sympathy they got when their wives disappeared. They became the story. Divorce would only get them attention in a small circle of friends. These narcissists relish the attention, plus the feeling that they got one over on everyone. They think they’re smarter than everyone else.

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      • If chris watts is a narcissist, then what was his wife? I’ve never seen a woman hungrier for validation and attention than Shanann. She constantly had to brag about her life when none of it seemed brag worthy.

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  8. And they also live a lot of their lives on social media. That in itself can lead to excessive narcissism and shallowness.

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    • Yes! The whole family was way over exposed on the videos. She couldn’t put them out there enough. Too much attention seeking. What was she trying to hide or redirect ” viewers” of the videos from?

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      • I thought about that too! The overexposure on social media could be chalked up to the fact she was a saleswoman and selling THRIVE at that. Her photo/video ops could have been to say, “Hey look at us! We are a healthy, happy, and perfect family and THRIVE made it possible!” I mean, she could have done it to sell more product and become more successful. It could also be what you all stated above.

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  9. Pingback: Ode to the Tongue Flick | #SHAKEDOWN

  10. Right! There seems to be alot of “selfie” type photos taken, and video recreations of events for all to see. If you dig deep into this guy I’m sure you would find his “I’m not good enough” feelings of inadequacy but the mechanism needs to survive and for that to occur, in his mind, someone has to die. This would be a good book for you to get out ahead of before others do. Two other similar cases come to mind – Mark Hacking and Neil Entwistle.

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  11. The wife’s social Media postings were equally creepy . He didn’t post anything. She did. Men don’t buy matching outfits for the family. She was a nut job too. Who gets pregnant again after bankruptcy? Someone who can’t understand basic math.

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  12. I read where Shanann met Chris from facebook and thought he was the perfect man for her so Nick is quite correct in that we all need to be cautious and learn that exposure to too much social media, living life from social media, can have dire consequences in a reluctance to see things as they really are and not how they are just pleasantly packaged. People survive bankruptcy, and it’s never just one thing that triggers murder. He was living a lie.

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  13. By the way, what’s with the doll wrapped in tissue paper? above on the leather couch flanked by two orange pillows? That’s beyond eerie.

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  14. He was living a lie, and that’s the profound danger in social media – living a perpetuating a lie. Look at Donald Trump on Twitter. Yes, eerie similarity to the dead doll in the coffin in the Ramsey case too. As if the kids were intuiting some threat to themselves.

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  15. Also JonBenet’s rejection of the life sized doll Patsy had made to look like her, getting tired of being related to as a painted tinted dressed up doll. All was not well in the Watt’s home, things were not as they seemed, much like in the Ramsey home. Nancy Grace has an interesting podcast on her website regarding this case. Someone believes the girls were killed much earlier than when Shannan returned home. Her flight was delayed too (which Chris remarks about in his porch video) and that must have agitated him waiting around in a ghostly silent house for her return.

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  16. Fantastic comment and good observations. It makes sense that the children were killed first. Shows just how premeditated this was. To kill three people so close to you, over a short period of time, requires a huge degree of intent.

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  18. I thought it was peculiar that he would say in the interview that (Bella) was supposed to start school Monday or next week. Why would he use past tense? I knrw since the interview, there was foul play.

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  19. Well, it was very obvious that this man committed this horrific crime from viewing this interview the first time I saw it. From the wife’s Facebook account, it appears that she came across a doll wrapped in plastic supposedly left by her daughters, which she joked about on Facebook. However, I don’t believe that this is true. I believe that the husband left the doll there on purpose. This man is a sadistic killer and sadistic people generally derive a lot of pleasure from knowing things that other people don’t know, which is explicitly shown by his unusual and totally inappropriate responses and expressions in the interview. I strongly believe that HE was the person that left the doll on the sofa in the wife’s Facebook post, and most likely killed the poor children BEFORE his wife even got home that night. Hopefully, forensics might be able to assist with TODs in this case. As there is no doubt that he is, and always has been, a sadistic person, I also suggest that HE was the person who showed the bodies of their daughters to his wife on the baby monitor. That would be the height of his despicable sadism, which he is obviously fully capable of. He is now spinning the whole story to protect himself from receiving the worst possible punishment for his crimes, but all liars usually include a bit of truth in their lies, which is probably what he is doing right now with this twisted baby monitor story, and blaming his deceased wife. If you notice, all of his responses strangely inform on one level, yet deliberately leak opposites, and there’s a kind of pattern to them. I am betting that he most certainly had something to do with the baby monitor, but not in the way that he is now describing. I’m also certain that justice will prevail in this case and that this disgusting man will pay for his heinous crimes. How anybody can do this to their own family, is beyond my comprehension.

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    • I don’t think it’s beyond comprehension, that’s the horror of it. Please read the blog post It’s time to ask Why. Same thing happened to Laci Peterson. Dismissing these people as monsters or these crimes as monstrous simply postpones our ability to figure them out. It’s time we did.

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      • I think you have completely misread what I have written. It is beyond my emotional and moral comprehension as to why someone could commit a heinous crime against their own family. Certainly, criminal investigators and forensic professionals will use their well-honed, professional skills to understand the truth of what really happened in this case, but to understand the “why” of it will be next to impossible, especially if you are a human being with moral and ethical convictions and boundaries. That is what is so difficult to comprehend. This man obviously has no such moral and ethical boundaries, and as such, fits the definition of a sadistic psychopath. There’s really not much to “understand” here, or parse through. Look at the interview tape again without the sound on, in slow-motion, and it’s all right there, as I’m sure that the investigators noticed, and this article clearly and astutely shows. He is NOT a convincing liar at all, and if he fooled anyone, it is because constant, indirect communication, through social media has adversely affected some people’s ability to spot inconsistencies in tone, words, emotions, physical posture, and facial expressions. Sorry, but the only thing that you need to “understand” is that this man IS a monster in every conceivable way.

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    • Reading the arrest affidavit, Chris mentions seeing his daughter on the baby monitor from his bedroom. I don’t understand. Baby monitors are like walkie talkies, they record sounds, not images. If they did have a video set-up then you might think it would capture images of Chris himself strangling his daughters. Here is a quote from an author in describing a character: “psychologists believe people can change. Law enforcement believe people tend to make the same stupid mistakes over and over.”

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      • Pauline I believe you are perhaps not aware that modern baby monitors have cameras built in and a parent in another room can both watch and listen to their baby. They’re not even expensive, they’re pretty standard.

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    • And then maybe more to the point DK is why someone took a picture of the doll wrapped on the sofa and POSTED it. Maybe one of the post-modernism deadly sins should be obsession with social media.

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      • Pauline, I agree with you completely about social media if you are talking about the propensity of people to constantly document their curated lives online and only include everything that is flattering while omitting the reality. As far as I’ve read, the wife posted the picture of the doll wrapped in a Twister game mat. At least she ASSUMED it was her daughters that did that, and like everything else she documented online, she posted that picture to Facebook. However, the wrapping of the doll looks much too precise to have been done by 3 and 4 year old girls, which is why I strongly believe that the psychologically sick husband did it, just as I believe that the girls were killed BEFORE the mother even returned home. This would definitely fit the profile of a sadistic psychopath. I’m hopeful that the truth will come out about what actually happened on August 12th and August 13th. The family of the victims deserve that at least, but I seriously doubt that a sadistic psychopath will be willing to change his version of events, since that would mean giving up control of his newly revised narrative.

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    • I totally agree with all that you’ve said I was thinking exact same things last night , the doll the baby monitor, she saw them in baby monitor, not him , maybe Shanann caught him strangling one the girls either when she got home or after their ‘emotional discussion ‘ re separation , therefore the lie is loosely based on a fact I was wondering whether the person he’s having affair with would be called to trial ?

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    • I’m not sure if anyone else has talked about this, but I strongly believe he (and I’m not sure if he was alone or maybe that masculine side piece was with him) had killed his daughters before shanann got home from her flight. The reason is that I’m sure she, like many moms, would get home, take her shoes off, and immediately go to them and kiss them even if they’re asleep. So he had already killed them and he had to hurry up and kill her before she found out and became loud about it.

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  21. I noticed right away he said “Celeste WAS three.” Not “She IS three,” but “She WAS three.” What a piece of worthless crap this creature is.

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  22. I know Jane. Really makes us, and other caring individuals, angry. He isn’t exhibiting any grief, either in his porch video or shuffling into the courtroom dressed in orange.

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  23. Pingback: Lie Spotting. – Ganymede’s Adventure

  24. His affect is flat, he keeps grinning where a distressed person’s mouth would be downturned — if you didn’t know the subject matter and turned off the sound he would look like a guy talking about his preferred yard service.

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  25. This crime really bothers me. I think Chris wanted to get rid of the burden of wife and kids, future alimony, and debt and start new with mistress. Wonder if he had insurance policies? How he ever thought he’d get away with it is mind boggling. He may have been a great guy early on.🤷🏼‍♀️ But when he started cheating, he became double-minded and split off. He could no longer be with others without his mind elsewhere. I think he got caught in the belef that murder was the only way to get out of his situation. He thinks blaming his wife for killing the daughters would justify his actions. If he was smart, he’d fess up and skip trial. For him to strangle those little girls and his pregnant wife, to dump their bodies and bury his wife, and then put on a show of caring in front of the cameras is callous and evil. He killed the precious ones that cared about him…. all for the rush of infatuation. The sad thing is that the affair was all an illusion too. That woman will have to testify in the trial and live with the knowledge that she helped destroy several families. She and Chris were living in their own heads thinking life will be great if they can be together. Maybe Chris believed it was true love that enabled him to kill his family?🤷🏼‍♀️ I just wonder if he realizes what he has done? Has his heart grown so cold that he can’t feel a thing anymore? Does his mistress understand what kind of person she was cheating with? It’s so sad.

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  26. HE is gay,he does not have another woman.I told my friend the first time I saw him”he is queer as a two dollar bill”.Last night that came out on tv,icalled my friend and I said,I told you !!!

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    • Remember that the cops gave him the idea that Shanann did something to the girls.
      He fell for it. As he confessed to his father, I bet the cops were outside roaring with laughter at what a sucker he is.

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  28. They ought to be made public within the next few weeks. The media will likely make a legal demand for the release of the autopsy findings. The police might not release the full report though.

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  33. I’ve read all the posts in this series without commenting, but felt I had to comment on this.
    I remember watching this interview on the morning news with my husband. Before Chris could even finish the interview, I turned to my husband and said, “Oh my god, he did it! I wonder when they’re going to reveal he was having an affair.” I knew he did it before the interview was over. Why? Because he was smiling through the whole thing. That is so creepy! Who smiles while their whole family, 2 children and pregnant wife, are missing?
    So, thinking back, I really can’t believe how obvious it was that he had killed his family right from the beginning. It was, what, somewhere between 8 to 10 hours after the murders occurred – at this point, it’s still being treated as a missing persons case – and a stranger watching the news, who has no LE background, can clearly tell that the “loving, concerned husband and father” is a liar, is likely having at least one affair, and is somehow involved in his family’s disappearence. He had no chance of getting away with it.

    Chris could have prevented what happened. Instead of lying and carrying on a double life, he could have told Shan’Ann and Nichole the truth from the beginning. He was trying to manage both and it didn’t seem like he wanted to give either of them up. Even as Shan’Ann was delayed in Arizona in the hours before the murder, Chris was hiding selfies from Nichole. Why would he need to hide the photos if he was planning on killing Shan’Ann as soon as she got home that morning? Why would he care if she saw them?

    I relate to this case and to Shan’Ann. Many, many years ago I had a little one and my relationship with his dad was falling apart. His side piece had started calling me at home and I was making him choose, his family or her. One night, we started fighting when I saw that he was having contact with her while he was with me. The fight moved to the bedroom, with the baby in his bouncy chair at the end of the bed, and he started choking me on the bed. I thought I was going to die and I felt so sad that the baby was watching it. The part that really gets me, the guy’s first and middle name, Christopher Lee…

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