There seems to be a little corroboration to support the Gay Man Mistress scenario. However, one wonders whether the man’s description of Chris Watts’ car and home didn’t simply come from watching the news or snooping on Facebook. Something similar happened with John Mark Karr in the JonBenet Ramsey case. His “inside knowledge” turned out to be not so inside at all – it turned out anyone who’d been paying a lot of attention to the media would have known what he knew. The same could be true here.
Chris’ alleged ex-lover, whom HLN said had been sought out by their team, said that he and Chris were allegedly in an approximately 10-month relationship after meeting online last June.
They saw each other off and on through the spring, ending things in March or April, the man said.
His story has not yet been independently corroborated by news outlets, including PEOPLE, but his account of an alleged relationship with Chris does contain details about Chris’ life that are not readily available online and in public documents. Identifying information about Chris’ truck and his home matches PEOPLE’s reporting.
A source close the investigation tells PEOPLE that Chris has had relationships with both men and women outside of his marriage.
If this part is right, then Chris Watts shares the same trait with Scott Peterson. Peterson was cheating on Laci since even before they were married, and then throughout their marriage. Laci appeared either unaware of it, or pretended not to know if she did.
It’s hard to imagine Shanann would have pretended not to know, especially if the affair involved another man. Perhaps she found out, or perhaps she was murdered before she could find out. Perhaps part of who Chris Watts felt he needed to be involved not being married and not being a father.
According to the Daily Mail“the other man” and Watts met after chatting via dating app MeetMe just a short time before Shanann. Celeste and Bella were murdered.
‘He reached out to me and messaged me,’ the man alleged. ‘It was small talk. He told me his age. He had two daughters.
‘He told me he was looking for a relationship in the long run. I asked why his profile said straight. He said he was not out and not ready to be out as far as sexuality.’
‘We had many conversations,’ the man told Banfield. ‘I asked him to make sure he’s not bisexual cause he had two children. He told me he didn’t know. At that moment he was attracted to me as a male.’
The bombshell allegations even state that the man spent time with Watts’ family.
With the anonymous person speaking to Banfield, telling her Watts lied about his relationship status and reassured the man that he and Shanann ‘didn’t have sex anymore’.
‘Bella made a comment… She asked if she could sleep with him and mommy,’ he said. ‘That’s how I found out he was married. I asked why he lied to me. He told me he knew he wouldn’t have a chance with me if he told me he was married. He told me what I wanted to hear. He knew I had good morals.’
And then here is where it gets dodgy and in my view, less than credible:
According to the interviewee, Watts told him his spouse [Shanann] was ‘verbally and emotionally abusive,’ that ‘he didn’t love her’ and that ‘she didn’t love him’.
At this point it’s very early, it’s just hit the media. Trent Bolte is the man in question.
Bolte [whose twitter feed is protected] describes himself as Nurse, MUA, beauty guru, boy who loves makeup. I like dancing, jenga, cheddarwurst, and inspirational speaking. My passion-EVERYTHING.
He also appears to be an ex-stripper based on his bio hashtag.
Since Shanann worked in a children’s hospital, it’s possible she met Bolte through her work.
The Twitter profile is located in Casper, Wyoming, which makes the claim feel like a stretch. Casper is about 270 miles from Frederick, Colorado, or 4 hours drive.
A guy on Reddit was saying the caller interviewed by HLN was very hesitant in his answers, and had to be prodded repeatedly. He says his gut instinct is this is a con.
Another post on Reddit:
He posted on fb about the affair, stating that it’s a witchhunt to find watts mistress
@TVAshleigh this guy said on FB 2 days ago saying he met #chriswatts two times now it is a 10 month affair? You are the laughing stock of FB right now!
Was Chris Watts cheating on his wife, Shanann, before allegedly killing her? Was he losing weight and looking muscular for another woman? https://t.co/GKPb6WhYMk
In terms of True Crime Intertextuality, there’s the Shrien Dewani case. Dewani was engaged to a beautiful Indian bride and was murdered on her honeymoon. Although Dewani was implicated he was ultimately acquitted. It later transpired he was a closet bisexual. Read about that here.
I’m just watching HLN and apparently Chris Watts was having an affair with another man. #ChrisWatts
Supposedly Chris Watts was bi-sexual . His male lover is on HLN right now giving details of their love affair . Chris Watts even took his children to meet his male lover #MindBlown#WTF#Secrets#ChrisWattsIsAChildMurderer
Josh Rosenberg is the (mistress). Both Josh & Chris Watts worked for Thrive. Police found texts between Chris & Josh. Detectives spoke with Josh who retained an attorney. Shanann snapped when she found out Chris was leaving Shanann for Josh. Per Source. pic.twitter.com/MactFxDUmf
It’s important that we look and pay attention and listen for the family dynamics beyond the sensational headlines and forensic evidence in the Chris Watts case. Authentic family dynamics aren’t always easy to see, especially not by outsiders, and especially when there’s a scenario of keeping up appearances as there are here.
Family dynamics are the key to understanding what happened here. To address that, we must listen to the why of the thing, the human desires that are there but hidden. If we do, and if we learn to see and recognize these impulses that are not so different from our own, then that’s something that can be salvaged from this awful end to a mom and her innocent children.
But what is it we’re supposed to see exactly?
Part of how we begin to see those human desires in others is to understand our own. Why are we interested in this case to begin with, and not any other case? How does our wiring work, and what does it tell us about us? About human nature?
As part of intertextual research on the Casey Anthony case, specifically along the lines of why parents intentionally harm their kids, I came across a truly despicable crime. Heather Jones didn’t only torture her 7-year-old stepson over a period of months, she posted selfies of herself doing so on Facebook. She documented her abuse, apparently enjoying the approval of a private group of Facebook pals.
Those images stored on her iCloud have since been made public, and they’re truly heartbreaking. Over a period of weeks filled with pain and suffering, the light gradually went out of that little boys eyes. And then the father bought pigs and fed the child’s body to them.
When the cops were called on a domestic dispute, Heather – trying to implicate her husband who’d fired a gun at her – told them to search the property. She said they’d find human remains. It took them more than a day, but eventually the police did find remains, a few small bones. It would take weeks to prove that they once belonged to a little boy who’d not been seen for several weeks.
As horrible as the Jones Case is, it’s somehow horribly predictable as well. The parents lived in a pigsty, they acted like pigs, they expressed themselves in a vulgar way, and so clearly, they weren’t living in a fairy tale. So when things turned ugly, even macabre, it’s shocking but it also feels inevitable, even familiar.
If true crime voyeurism is based on horror alone, this grisly story ought to be a favorite.
What fascinates us about true crime is the same thing that troubles us, and truly terrifies us. It’s when we realize how closeto home a crime can be to our lives that we become truly uncomfortable.
It’s when we see a fairy tale, a beautiful couple, the sort of setup we all want, and then realize it’s not real and we’ve been duped that we begin to wonder about or own lives, and our own attachments to our very own fairy tales, don’t we? Beneath the fairy tale these people with perfect lives have somehow been living a lie.
And this is how that lie ends. It’s shocking, but it’s also a warning sign.
All of us have our own fairy tales, and they’re important to us. They’re an idea about the world, and how we wish it to be, and how beautiful and happy and loved we wish to be in it. It’s about belonging, shining, thriving and living life to the full. It’s about living the best life. It’s about the good life. But what is the good life? And why is it that right next to good things and fairy tales are evil things and monsters?
The bigger and better the fairy tale, the more lavish and picture-perfect the homes and neighborhoods, the more handsome the man and beautiful his wife, the more adorable the children the more difficult it is to reconcile when a nightmare unfolds inside of it, or perhaps because of it.
This is why the JonBenet Ramsey case is still so deeply unsettling and compelling more than 20 years later. It’s why Madeleine McCann, the sweet 3-year-old daughter of two attractive well-to-do doctors who vanished in Praia da Luz Portugal while on holiday, still disturbs Britain more than ten years later.
Chris Watts and Shanann looked the part of a fairy tale. The smiles looked real. The colorful photos looked happy. But none of it was. Those patches on the arms in so many photos suggest something wasn’t quite as it seemed, even when everything else looked just right. And what that does, is it asks us to look at what was really going on there, and then dares us to look at our own lives. Is any of that stuff in our lives? If it is, beware. Re-examine your fairy tale. Make sure it’s real and realistic, and not just for you, for those you share your living space with.
It would be useful to study the original note to determine a few basics: the overall length. The type of paper used and where he got it. The pen used, and where he got that [and where the pen is now]. Also, the fingerprints on the note. And finally, to have a look at Minnie’s habit – was he in the habit of writing notes [by hand], and if so, what did that look like? That can be compared to other post-its, if available. Also, did he write letters to his children? How did he usually communicate?
Then there’s the broader question. It addresses the entire hypothesis.
Do you think it’s the realm of conspiracy theory that suicide notes aren’t staged – or can’t be? In the archive of high profile true crime cases, there are countless examples of writing masquerading as something that it isn’t: fake diary entries [Jodi Arias], bogus Ransom Notes [JonBenet Ramsey], counterfeit prison diaries [Amanda Knox, Casey Anthony], a fake suicide message painted on a door [Rebecca Zahau].
Below is an excerpt of the alleged suicide note of Bird Island co-author Mark Minnie. Do you think it’s genuine?
“The pitiful cries of the lost boys of Bird Island have haunted me for the past 31 years. At last their story is out. Chrissy, don’t give up now. You are almost home. No government officials preventing you from investigating this time round.”
And here’s the alleged suicide note of Dave Allen from 1987:
“I have committed suicide. There is no one to blame for this. I have suffered incredible back problems since a motor accident many years ago and I have decided to end things.”
If you’re unfamiliar with this story, and want to find out how Allen’s alleged suicide and Mark Minnie’s alleged suicide are related to one another, read this article.
12 Similarities
Indirect despair. In the Minnie note, a reason is given for committing suicide. Minnie is “haunted” by the suffering for others. He’s not haunted by his own experience of childhood rape. Anyone who doesn’t understand true crime will fail to see the difference, but there’s a big difference in being in a car accident, and being aware of someone else being in one. The trauma is completely different. Imagine saying you were scared to drive because you read in a newspaper about a car accident? Compare that to being injured in a car accident, and then being too afraid to drive. In the Allen note it’s the same. Incredible back problems are given as a reason for despair. An authentic reason would cite pain and difficulty moving around, the actual experience of it.
Indirect timing. Suicide is premeditated murder. There may be a precipitating tension, a driving force, but also a trigger. One is emotionally compromised, one is vulnerable, and then something pushes one over the edge. So what’s the trigger here? Both the Minnie Note and the Allen note reference the same word: years. But what’s changed in all this time? Surely the best time to commit suicide is right in the beginning, not after years of recovery, and in Minnie’s case, even recovering enough to write a book, which in itself requires enormous willpower and resilience.
“Many Years.” Both notes invoke long periods of time. Suicidal people are caught in a bubble. A precipitating event causes them to despair, and to lose hope in dealing with their problems. They’re overwhelmed. Just as suicidal people can’t imagine suffering in any other way besides being interminable , they can’t look beyond the moment that’s consuming them either into the future, or into the past. In short, there’s too much savvy perspective for someone at the end of their rope.
Handwritten. The Allen suicide note can be forgiven for being written by hand, seeing it was the late 1980’s. Even so, why write I note by hand and then head outdoors and risk the note being lost or soiled by weather? If you don’t want to kill yourself at home, why not in your car? Why outside? The handwritten note and the outside element are a mismatch. Ditto the Minnie note. It’s even less likely that someone who has written a book, and has the use of a smartphone and email in the early 21st century, wouldn’t make use of these tools. If he’d written a book, and a note, and fielded dozens of interviews just prior to the “suicide”, then you can be sure it would have been uppermost in his mind that the note would be scrutinized, and could help get the message out regarding the book he’d toiled on. So why not do that? Why not send a group email to friends and a group email to the media [Minnie’s note is separated into a message to his co-author] and a message to family? Why not communicate directly to his family? Why not communicate directly to his partner?
Too self-evident, and probably not true. In the Minnie note the words “you are almost home” are too self-evident, ditto “I have decided to end things” in the Allen note.
Hinging. Both notes have a hinge where something is set up, and then dramatically relieved. In Minnie’s, he’s haunted, he’s struggled, but that’s okay, Chrissy – it’s up to you now. The problem is stated. The problem is solved. In Allen’s, no one is to blame and that’s hinged on himself who has decided to end things.
Have. Without seeing the full Minnie note, it’s difficult to make an accurate call on this. The word have is often used in bogus 911 calls. Patsy Ramsey: We have a kidnapping. It’s the wrong word for an emergency situation, because it suggests the situation is under control, especially in the mind of the person reporting it. The Minnie note is just too clear on how haunted he is. It’s not the boys haunting him either, or his own suffering, it’s the pitiful cries. In the Allen note the word features three times. I have committed/I have suffered/I have decided. Compare that tohave haunted me.
Similar cadence. Consider these two sentences. I have committed suicide. There is no one to blame for this. It could also be written: I have committed suicide, there is no one to blame for this. Compare that to: Chrissy, don’t give up now. You are almost home and Chrissy, don’t give up now, you are almost home.
Wrong Tense for a Suicide Note.I have committed suicide, there is no one to blame for this. As soon as it’s one sentence, what feels glaringly wrong is he hasn’t committed suicide yet. The letter’s already written in the past tense. Wow. That’s a lot of perspective for a suicide note, thinking about how the reader will be seeing it when he reads it. Chrissy, don’t give up now, you are almost home is less on the chin, except it’s also intuiting Chrissy’s response, and soothing her.
Veiled threat. If both these notes are staged, then someone has gone to a lot of effort. Staging involves sadism. The Ramsey Ransom Note is replete with a taunting tone. There may not be explicit taunting here, because the priority is to pass the note off as a suicide note. But there does seem to be subconscious taunting. Think of these words: Pitiless cries…their story is out…don’t give up now…you are almost home. No government officials preventing you from investigating this time round…In the Allen note There is no one to blame for this is just as ironic as don’t give up now. Seen otherwise, of course someone is to blame for Allen’s death, whether it is Allen himself or someone else. Ditto, of course Chris Steyn should consider giving up, irrespective of whether Minnie has really committed suicide or not.
An Afrikaans Speaker? The entire Minnie note just feels slightly stilted. Pitiful cries...It’s not a word that’s commonly used, except to express contempt. [That’s pitiful! That’s a pitiful attempt!]. I know what is trying to be communicated, but if these boys were abused and tortured, then something more personal, more intimate, more charged would be more appropriate. But Minnie was never there to hear them? A stronger way of communicating it would be to leave out the pitiful cries completely and simply say I’m tortured by their suffering… In Allen’s note he refers to a motor accident. Perhaps he spoke that way in general. Most of us would say a car accident, or a car crash. There’s also this in the Minnie note: You are almost home. No government officials preventing you from investigating this time round. Would English-speakers say: You are almost home. Imagine someone running the Comrades and at the finish line, with seconds left on the clock, a slow, staccato: YOU ARE ALMOST HOME. It’s a colloquial expression, and Minnie’s a colloquial, rough-around-the-edges guy: You’re almost home! No government officials preventing you from investigating this time round. It should read: No government officials are preventing you from investigating this time round. The fact that the are is missing elevates the are, and turns it into a question: Are government officials preventing you from investigating…? The word “preventing” is also very formal for an ex-cop. Why not just say: No one can stop you now! That’s how you would say it, but when you do, it doesn’t like that’s really the case, does it, even if Minnie did kill himself.
Minimum Safe Distance. The biggest giveaway in both notes is the inherent distancing. It’s not just the words, many of them self-evident, it’s what’s not there. There’s no emotion. In the Minnie note the only hint of an emotion in terms of himself is in the word haunted. There’s residue in him telling his partner not to give up. Haunted is hardly a motion driving one to despair. In the Allen note the back problems are elevated to “suffered incredible back problems”, because the author knows back problems on their own won’t cut it, they need to be incredible, and saying where they came from also helps. In the Minnie note, the author is just as explicit saying where his suffering and problems came from: The pitiful cries of the lost boys of Bird Island have haunted me…
Ironically I think there is a kernel of truth in both notes that the writer perhaps didn’t intend to leave. Both these statements, I believe, are true and remain in effect:
The pitiful cries of the lost boys of Bird Island have haunted me…
At about 0:45 Chris Watts does a tongue flick. To the untrained eye, poking the tongue out of the mouth may seem like innocent licking of lips. But when a criminal is on camera, every movement is carefully controlled.
A tongue flick tends to happen between efforts at control. As I mentioned in this blog post, the important thing to look for is what elicits the tongue flick. It’s a very idiosyncratic motion – what is the context in which it happens?
In this case, Watts is talking about “what happens next”, meaning, what happens now that his wife and kids are gone. His actual words are:
I dunno where to go from here right now.
Amateurs might dismiss this and say, so what. We know he was having an affair, and he knew that when he gave this interview. Does he really not know where to go, or who to go to? The licking of the lips shows nervous relish at this next step. A lot of emotional and psychological investment has gone into this idea of what to do next.
At the end of his saying that hos heart’s racing a mile a minute, he’s also shaking his head. Is he nervous? He looks calm. He sounds calm.
At 72 seconds something else slips through, and it links up to the tongue flick highlighted above. He says:
I didn’t think last night was a good time to…stay with anybody else…
He’s trying to be forthright, but now he’s being too forthright, so he backtracks to verbally edit and explain what he means. When he does this, he digs the hole even deeper, which is why he stutters:
I mean I [shrugs] I-I-I’ve-I’ve wa-wanted friends here to be here with me because that just makes me feel better.
And right after that, he does another tongue flick.
The third tongue flick comes as he goes over how great the police investigation is going.
They’ve been on top of everything [shaking his head], missing person’s reports, everything’s been- [a barking dog cuts him off, and that’s when he does the tongue flick].
The critical information here seems to be “missing person’s reports”. That’s exactly what he wants. He wants the idea that his wife and two kids are missing.
Now the fourth tongue flick.
I have no inclination where she is [smiles]. Every friend that I’ve called that has – has a car seat, that has, I mean that could have come in, that could’ve come and got here…
Here he’s indirectly implicating his friends. Who could’ve come and got her? The tongue flick after this may have to do with visualising where she is and how she got there.
After confessing, he told the cops he loaded all three bodies in the rear seat of his truck. So that’s on his mind, that image. The idea of kids sprawled on a seat, rather than sitting. He’s now inverting this idea that someone else with a car seat may have done what he did, except it doesn’t make sense.
Why would it matter if there was a seat in a car? Because they’d need it for the kids? He’s overthinking it.
The fifth tongue flick happens when the reporter tells him about the search going on in his house, and the describes the line of police cars outside. Then he says:
I’m so happy that they’re here.
Maybe in a sense he is. The sixth tongue flick follows an appeal:
Shanann, Bella and Celeste, if you’re out there [chuckles], please come home.
At 2 minutes 50 he describes coming home and “walking into a ghost town”. This is also a peculiar description. Why is an empty house suddenly a town? What he’s trying to do is be honest about his real feelings, without being too honest. Unfortunately for him, his casual attitude to all this revelations means he is being too honest. The ghost town reference may be a visual of the dumping site, which has a Mad Max quality in terms of the towering drums and dust and dirt roads. At night, especially at dawn, it probably did have a ghostly atmosphere.
When the reporter asks him if he saw the kids in the morning too, he gives his seventh and final tongue flick:
Just in the monitor.
He did see the kids in the morning, just not in the monitor.
Below is some additional analysis that I thought was food for thought, from Janine Driver.
Below is a rough collection of media snippets and information collected on Christopher Watts. This list will be updated so be sure to leave a comment with anything you know that should be added to it.
Shanann’s flight was unexpectedly delayed by three hours. That’s why she arrived home at 01:48 on Monday, August 13th.
In the days before her death, Shanann shared fears with friends that Chris was cheating on her. She also complained of not feeling well.
On May 7 2018 the Watts family appeared in Strive magazine, the official magazine for Thrive brand promotors.
In the article Shanann articulated how she turned herself inside out to make others happy: “My role was as a caretaker and to make people feel better, yet I was wiped out…I was working 65 hours a week and was also taking care of my kids. I rarely got any sleep, but my passion for wanting more for my kids was stronger than anything else.”
Nicole Atkinson, the friend who last saw Shanann alive, attended the same business trip.
Atkinson described the last time she saw Shanann, after dropping her off from the airport: “She went inside, turned around and waved at me and shut the door.”
The parents faced a hefty court fine with Wyndham Hill Master Association Inc.a homeowners association. They were due in court on August 24 to face a lawsuit for a $1,533.80 debt. An attorney was not listed in court records for the Watts.
Shanann had a doctor’s appointment on the same morning of her murder. She was expected to hear her unborn child’s heartbeat for the first time.
The doctor’s appointment was at 10:00.
They planned to name their unborn son Niko.
A Change.org petition started by friends demands that Colorado adopt a new law, named “Niko’s Law,” to make the killing of an unborn baby like the Watts’ son first-degree murder. If passed it will recognize an unborn 15 week old foetus as having the legal right to life.
Another friend had arranged to meet Shanann on the day of her death. Shanann never showed up.
A drone spotted a bedsheet in a field near the oil tanks.
The sheet matched the pattern of several pillowcases and a top sheet recovered from a kitchen trash can from [Watts’] residence early that day.
Christopher worked for Anadarko Petroleum Co.
Shanann worked for Le-Vela, a company that sells Thrive health and wellness products.
She worked at Le-Vel since January 2016 and had become a successful brand promoter, rising to the 80K level.
Christopher’s income was close to the $60K mark in 2018.
Shanann had been with her children visiting family for six weeks before her work trip. She then returned home on August 7 and left again for Arizona on August 10, leaving her daughters at home with her husband.
Shanann’s father is Frank Rzucek Sr., the most prominent family member to speak out about the events thus far.
On July 31, Shanann wrote enthusiastically on Facebook about her August plans.“I’m so excited about August! Girls and I Fly home August 7th! I fly to Scottsdale Aug 10-12 for an amazing weekend with my Le-Vel family! Gender Reveal for Baby Watts #3! Our team is having lots of success, growth both personally and business, several new friends starting their Thrive Experience and lots of new Promoters who decided to change their life! Lots of excitement, Lots to be Thankful for!”
Shanann was 34 years old when she died. She was a year older than her husband.
Christopher Watts was originally from Oklahoma.
In recent times, the Watts family had undertaken overseas trips and appeared to be going through a more prosperous phase. These included vacations to New Orleans, Toronto, Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, Las Vegas and San Diego.
Christopher’s colleagues seemed to be aware that he was having an affair.
Their list of assets included their home valued at $400,000, a 2006 Ford Mustang with more than 97,000 miles on it, wedding rings and a dog, which they valued at $5.
The list of creditors included Ford Motor Company and Toys “R” Us.
Their debts included $11,245 in student loans, according to Denver U.S. Bankruptcy Court records.
Choice Recovery in Columbus, Ohio, was seeking to recover $740 for health and chiropractic services.
Byron Falls, who bought Shanann Watts’ house in Belmont, west of Charlotte, said the Watts family had been in a hurry to sell and left behind the furniture as part of the sale.
The Watts appeared to be going through a rocky period when they moved from North Carolina to Colorado in 2012.
The address of their home in a quiet subdivision 10 minutes drive east of Frederick, Colorado: 2825 Saratoga Trail.
On August 8th, 5 days before the murders, Shanann posted the following message on Facebook:“Two loads of laundry, dusted the whole house, cleaned the refrigerator and pantry, went grocery shopping to two stores with the kids, took Celeste to a doctor’s appointment, emptied seven suitcases and three backpacks, fed kids a ‘million’ times, showered, went through six weeks of mail, washed the kitchen floor, cleaned up a kids’ disaster and repacked my suitcase for Arizona this Friday. All while four months preggo!”
Four-year-old Bella has been described as a talkative child, for her age.
A pair of women’s shoes that had been kicked off lay by the front door.
A suitcase, apparently from her Arizona trip, stood at the bottom of the stairs.
The bodies were dumped at a work site 40 miles east of the family’s home.
The oil site has been identified as CERVI 319 with GPS coordinates 40.21624374, -104.36667
The girls’ bodies were submerged in crude oil for four days.
The bodies of the children were submerged in separate tanks.
Shan’ann was buried near two oil tanks.
Watts worked at the location until he was arrested.
The Watts couple married in North Carolina less than six years ago, in 2012.
They moved to Colorado soon after getting married.
On Tuesday, the day before his arrest on Wednesday August 15, Watts issued a televised plea for the return of his wife and daughters. The plea occurred on the morning after the murder.
According to Chris Watts’s 2015 paycheck he was paying $1.20 per month in Child Lie Insurance, and $3.00 per month in Spouse Life Insurance.
Shanann had a dog called Deeter. In one interview, a dog barks and Chris Watts reacts disproportionately. Dogs also played a role in the Scott Peterson case. Laci had a dog called McKenzie.
According to Amanda Thayer, Shan’ann had only jokingly mentioned suspicions of Chris having an affair.
“Honestly, she wasn’t worried, but when your husband doesn’t answer his text messages, as a woman, your thought process just goes to the wrong things. It was never a serious concern of hers.”- Amanda Thayer
Shan’ann met Chris online during “Dark Period 8 Years Before Murder” – People
“I believe that everything in life happens for a reason, and I also believe people are placed in our life for a reason.”- Shanann Watts Facebook post, April 2018.
In the half-hour Facebook-Live clip posted below, we get an inside glimpse into the Watts household. It’s an extended view. In the first few minutes Shanann comments about her younger daughter’s restlessness: “This child does not sit still – ever!”
At ten minutes into the clip Shanann says: “No matter what you do, you just have to love what you do. And I love what I do.” When she tries to illustrate it with examples, Shanann thinks and apologises for rambling. It’s an interesting moment, because one can’t help wondering – are you really happy?
From the same clip: “I will continue not letting the haters get in my way. I will continue not to be discouraged. I will continue not letting people judge…me, or what I do. I will continue to not let people influence my decisions on what I do in life. I will continue fighting…for my children.For my husband. For myself.” [Shanann seems a little tearful here]. “And nobody’s gonna hold me back…from…my future. My kid’s future. No one’s gonna tell me the right way of living life. No one’s gonna tell me what I should and shouldn’t do for a job. Like…if I’m bringing in income and taking care of my family then I’m being a better mom than I’ve [with emphasis] ever been because I’m here….You have to be strong, you have to be confident…You have to be you at the end of the day.” What does she mean by this? Chris is in the room with her – is she saying what she’s saying purposely to communicate with him?
“You’re on top of the world when you surround yourself with people that make you better. Like, they don’t bring the bad outa you, they bring the good outa you. And from that point on I fought like hell. I worked my tail off. I busted my butt. I was never a big…um…dreamer sort of thing, cos…I-my insecurities brought me down. But I was single for a long time [gulps emotionally] and my goal was to buy a house. I was tired of paying someone else’s mortgage, because you know that’s what you do when you rent. And…I wanted to buy a house. Aaannd…I wanted to buy a house that I could resell one day and make a profit off of. And so I worked and worked and worked and worked. I lost a lotta friends because a lotta my friends were still young. And I was 25-years-old when I built my first house. My family doesn’t come from money, we always worked hard for what we had. And…I did. I bought my first house at 25-years-old. And that was the biggest accomplishment I felt I’ve ever done because it felt like I did it by myself. I did it by working my tail off [laughs]. And…um…I had that to show for it. Ummm…and then I met Chris. Uhh…my health challenges happened. Um…I was diagnosed with uh…um…health challenges…[gulps emotionally] and…then I met Chris. I met Chris because of those health challenges. Um…my friend actually sent me a friend suggestion for him. It was actually from his cousin’s wife. And…um…I deleted it. Like…I’mm not interested…I don’t wanna meet a guy. Um, so I deleted her friend suggestion for him…” This has echoes of Laci writing a message on a note, or was it a napkin, and Scott throwing it away. That lives can turn, can be made or broken, on such fickle behavior, such small moments is frightening.
“I was diagnosed two months later…and I went through…I would say…one of the darkest times of my life because things just got scarier. Um…worse. I thought my life was crumbling underneath me and I didn’t know which way to turn. I didn’t have a lotta friends at the time because [dog barks]…friends I did have I lost because they didn’t understand that I looked perfectly fine, and I felt horribly inside. Uhm…horribly. I felt a lot of discomforts. A lot of aches. A lot of bad moods. Ummm…I met a lotta friends online…aannnnndd in the part where I gave up on everything, I quit my job [it was kinda temporarily] of nine years. I just said I’m done. I can’t do this anymore. You don’t understand me. You don’t understand what’s going on in my life and I quit. And…I…gotta friend suggestion-friend request from Chris.” Smiles.
“I was in a really really really bad place, and I gotta friend suh-friend request from Chris on Facebook. And I was like – uhhhh, what the heck. I’m never gonna meet him. Accept.”
“Well one thing led to another and eight years later we have two kids, [gushes breathlessly] we live in Colorado and he…he’s the best thing that has ever happened to me. And because of my health challenges. Because I got so sick, I let him in. And he only knew me at that time. He knew me at my worst. And he accepted me.”
“And [brushes the hair off her face]you know, through your vows, like through sickness and everything…he’s been there. He was the one who let me lay on him and fall asleep for 3-and-a-half hours, on his lap, while he had to pee. Um…he is the best thing that has ever-ever happened to me.”
“Know that no matter how hard life gets. No matter how low you feel, know that deep down, like in your heart, that’s there’s a purpose, there’s a reason – for everything. We may not understand it at the time. It’s hard to understand it at the time [laughs]. I’m telling you, when I met Chris I pushed him away. I gave every excuse for him to run [looks at the sky] …I gave him an out every single day. I gave him an out. And if you guys know my story with Chris, you know I gave him an out. I mean, he went to my colonoscopy. I…tortured him. I rejected him. I pushed him away time and time and time again. But when I cancelled dates – last minute – cos that’s how life is with my health challenges, you cancel things last minute and it’s hard for people to get, it’s hard for me to understand, but – he stuck around. And he stuck around because…he was the one for me. And he…is amazing. And I can’t tell you how wonderful he is.”
“But on top of all of that, when I got sick I reached out to support groups online. And I built relationships with so many – so many people that have similar health challenges or the same, and we’ve built a relationships stronger than some relationships I’ve known for over 20 years. Some that I’ve known over – my whole life. And these people are in my life for a reason.”
“Life happens [Dog barks, Shanann snaps her finger]. So write down all the things you think are bad in your life. All the negative in your life. Write it down. [Sniffs]. But then I want you to…on the other side of the paper, write down what has happened in your life that you’re grateful for. The third step is – take a pen and mark over, like the connect the two things that happened.”
-5:30 – -5:00: “Do you see what I want to do here. I want you to connect the negatives with the positives in your life. And when you look at that, life becomes so much brighter. Like [glances up], so much brighter when you can do that. So, you know, sometimes we have to reassess. Like…reassess our life, like…[glances sideways]…sometimes we feel like life’s attacking us. And when we do, we have to sit back and look at the big picture. And it may not be something right away, and if it’s happening to you right now, you may not see the big picture. You may not see it until six months down the road, or what the connection is. But when you do, it’s gonna all make sense. It’s all gonna click. And you’re gonna be like, why was I beating myself up for no reason at all! Like no reason at all! At all. “
On August 2nd, two weeks before the murders, Chris seemed indifferent to his wife and children.
“I’m living proof that something good comes out of everything negative. Something good comes out of everything you don’t want.”
Unconfirmed on August 28 [and probably not true]: Chris Watts may have been having an affair with an ex-stripper, a man. More here.
Shanann was suffering from the auto-immune disease lupus, which causes fertility problems and high-risk pregnancies. Longevity is also curtailed. More here.
On August 29 People provide teasing “corroboration” that Chris Watts was a serial adulterer with both men and women, claiming: A source close the investigation tells PEOPLE that Chris has had relationships with both men and women outside of his marriage. That may or may not be. If the man claims to have been in a 10 month relationship with Watts, doesn’t he have a single selfie, or a photo taken at Watts’ place? If he had, that story would be gold to the tabloids. So where is it?
Chris Watts and Shanann were seeing arguing earlier in the summer of 2018. One could say “all couples argue” but this argument becomes relevant and important given what ultimately happened to the other half of that couple. It would be useful to know what they argued about and if Shanann ever told anyone. According to People:“I think they were always putting on a show,” says Melinda Phillips, who recalls seeing Chris and Shan’ann “clearly having an argument” in their driveway one day earlier this summer.“Their body language was really angry, and they were just fighting back and forth,” Phillips, 34, says. “He was gesturing his hands and they were shaking their heads, and it was definitely an argument.”“I didn’t really think much of it, because Lord knows that I’ve had the same arguments with my husband,” she continues. “They caught my eye and suddenly, everything changed. They stopped being so angry, and they started talking a lot more calmly. He even gave her a hug. Mind you, this was in the space of 30 seconds to a minute.”“From a full-blown fight to hugs in less than a minute, it was incredible,” she says.
Shanann Watts’ friend, Ashley Bell, told KDVR the “gender reveal” party was going to be held at the Watts’ home on Saturday 18 August in the town of Frederick, north of Denver. Shanann and her children were murdered early on Monday morning, August 13.
Shanann’s funeral, along with her children, was held at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Boles Funeral Homes oversaw the service.
A tribute from her younger brother Frankie Rzucek read: “She was born to be a mother, boy was she ready. She couldn’t wait, she was my mum x10. Growing up she was a perfect role model. he was ready to take on the world, and we know she did.”
Frank Rzucek described his daughter at the funeral with two words: “Pure love.”
From the funeral nomenclature it’s clear that her name is spelled Shan’ann. Apologies for previous posts and mentions that spell her name otherwise.
There may be further “evidence” on Trent Bolte, the alleged gay lover of Chris Watts. The problem is it’s also from Trent Bolte. And since it’s from Bolte’s own Facebook account, and no other media are covering it, it seems less and less likely that Bolte has anything to do with the Watts family. Personally I still don’t buy the Trent Bolte gay lover theory, but here goes. On September 1, “pasdar” posted this on reddit: I’m not convinced he is telling the truth, but he apparently posted on his Facebook page that he met with detectives on Friday night and provided DNA samples, buccal swabs and texts that he exchanged with Chris. He also said that they took towels that apparently had Chris’ DNA on them. Also took a gold chain that Chris had given him for Valentine’s Day. The detectives also told him he could have been next, that Chris was plotting against him because he blames him for breaking up his marriage after Shan’ann found texts from him to Chris on July 4. Could it be true? I guess time will tell. Shan’ann was is NC on July 4th, so how did she see the texts? (Unless that’s when Chris was visiting or she somehow had access to his texts). Also, he’s been broken up with Chris since April and he still has used towels laying around? But if it is true, it shows how messed up this guy was that he could portray this devoted family man to the world…
“You are always Daddy’s little girl.” – Frank Rzucek
“From a young age I always knew my sister was going to be successful and nothing would stand in her way. She was born to be a mother. Boy, was she ready! Closets were full even before she knew she was pregnant. She couldn’t wait. She was my mom, times ten — whether either one of them wanted to admit it. She had ambition in her eyes and wanted a great life for her children and herself. She was ready to take on the world and we know she did.” – Frankie Rzucek. Notice the mismatch between Frank’s message and her brother’s. Funerals are all about sentiment, and it may be unkind to read to deeply into emotional messages, but it’s also at funerals where a crucial aspect is revealed – the identity of the victims. What we get here is this contrasting idea of someone who is prepared and ready, and someone who is, in a sense, still a little girl. It’s not necessarily the case that murder victims are naive. Sometimes killers are cold, cruel and callous no matter how paranoid their prey. But in a family murder, we really do have to look at the idea of naivete and vulnerability. Were either of these adults really ready to take on the world? Were they really ready to be married? Were they really ready to be parents? Was the one more ready than the other in one area, and the other less ready than the other in another area? If we consider this idea from the perspective of the two meeting on Facebook, it casts further aspersions on their experience of real life and real love. Couldn’t they meet the right people in the real world the “right way”? Or is meeting people on Facebook with a view to romance the new normal? If so, how do we tell what’s not normal on social media?
A colleague of Shan’ann’s mother told WRAL that the couple “was having problems” and that Shan’ann’s mother, Sandi Onorati, told her that Shan’ann and Chris were planning to separate. It may be that Shan’ann was continuing to peddle a fairy tale on social media simply to make money.
According to TheDaily Beast 2 friends said Shan’ann had confided in them that Chris was cheating on her:Two of Shanann’s friends said she suspected Chris was cheating on her. Amanda Thayer told Denver7 that Shanann thought infidelity was “a possibility” but had said Chris wasn’t a player. “At the same time, she was like, ‘He has no game.’ He didn’t have it with her when they first met… She did everything,” Thayer said.Nickole Atkinson—the last person besides Chris to see Shanann alive—told ABC Newsthat Shanann “entertained the idea” that he was unfaithful. “He wasn’t being the loving Chris that he normally was. He wasn’t touching or hugging or doing stuff like that. He wasn’t being as attentive to the girls as he normally is,” Atkinson said.
Chris’s friends described him to The Daily Beast as reserved, smart and gentle, and a man known to get along with anyone. In other words, a charmer.
Brandi Smith, a high-school friend, told The Daily Beast:“Everyone liked him. It’s actually amazing how many people that knew him have completely turned on him and think he’s this monster when he hasn’t even been convicted…Chris found himself as a father. Those girls brought him to life and out of his shell. He’s not a crazy person. He’s not a violent, abusive or mean person.I’ll be broken if he’s convicted and it was a lie but there’s a chance… and it’s not fair that he’s being crucified.”
But why was he in a shell to begin with if everyone liked him?
“This was one of the smartest students I ever had … the guy had a photographic memory. He knew chapter and verse, everything you could ask about NASCAR. Anything.” — Retired automotive teacher Joe Duty, on Chris Watts
Smart – but how smart is smart in the context of an auto mechanic?
“It’s amazing that my husband and I have created more memories in the last two years than we did in the previous eight,” Shan’ann in STRIVE article
Shan’ann boasted of Chris’s fitness progress—he went from a pants size of 38 to 32 in 2018
In a June Facebook post, Shan’ann discussed grocery shopping for Chris, who would be a “bachelor” for five weeks while the family was gone. He joined them for the last week of the vacation.
“He was very passive … She was very aggressive with him. Bossy. Do this. Do that. Telling him what to do. Dominating the relationship.” — Greg Alore, Shanann’s former boss
Now some evidence on Bolte that’s not from Trent Bolte, but from his brother. The fact that The Daily Beast is citing this is significant:When reached by The Daily Beast, the man’s brother said the story was true. “I know my brother saw a different side of ‘loving’ Chris Watts,” the sibling said, adding that Chris “gave my brother his first lip botox injection.”The alleged lover told HLN that Chris “portrayed himself as this victim” who “would be shunned and he wouldn’t be allowed to see his girls” if he came out as non-heterosexual.“He told me that he was the victim of emotional and verbal abuse, and he was trapped in a loveless marriage,” the man said. “And he didn’t know any way out because of the kids.”
Why did the Watts family move to Colorado in the first place? Alore said the Wattses moved to Colorado after Chris accepted a job as a mechanic at the dealership in 2012. Shan’ann was hired by the company’s internet sales department and, according to online reviews, was a talented salesperson.
“Shannan went out of her way to find the vehicle I wanted, as well as tirelessly went back and forth to get me the payments that I needed to get me into a new car. She was never pushy, and while I know she really wanted to sell a car, she never tried to sell me something that I didn’t want,”one customer wrote in April 2013.
Linda Biggers, a realtor who listed Shanann’s home, told The Daily Beast she believes the couple moved because Chris got a job out West. “I think she wanted to get married and move to Colorado with him,” Biggers recalled. “The house was hers; it wasn’t his…. She just had a really beautiful home, it was beautifully furnished.”
Shan’ann King hurried to sell her residence and left furniture behind as part of the sale, the buyer told the Associated Press. A deed for the house was signed in August 2012 while Shan’ann was living in Colorado, property records show.
Bella Marie was born in December 2013
A month before the birth of Celeste in July 2015 the couple filed for bankruptcy
In April 2017, Shanann announced was leaving her job at the children’s hospital to become a full-time stay-at-home mom working for the Le-Vel supplement company, which makes Thrive dietary patches.
On her one-year anniversary with the brand, she told Facebook friends she was “broke” when she started Le-Vel.
“Sometimes when you have children and your relationship starts to deteriorate a child could help repair it.”
— Chris Watts, in a YouTube video on ‘Relationship Deterioration and Repair’
March 15, 2018: Had about 2 hrs of sleep last night. I couldn’t sleep, I had a lot on my mind with girls surgery today. Took my 3 simple steps and I feel good! Love my Thrive. I can be awake and focused for my girls.
May 7th post by Shan’ann of her husband: “Someone’s thrivin’…Up for work at 4am. Just got home and now mowing the grass. #likeaboss#helovesme
June 15: “Chris, just said he’s been more talkative since he started #Burn! Talking to random strangers. #Hesaintrovert.”
“I am really feeling the need to ‘gift’ this to my hubby for Father’s day!” one of Shan’ann’s friends commented. In response, Shan’ann joked, “Gift it then leave for the day.”
Frankie Rzuce: “They were always well-dressed and well mannered. [Shan’ann] taught them to be brave and independent, just like Shan’ann. She was very successful and independent, before any man came along — and that’s just the way she wanted it.”
Despite Shan’ann’s independence, Rzucek was always concerned about the distance between them. “I always worried about her and the girls being so far because I couldn’t protect them. Growing up, she was a perfect role model. She had a lot of friends and was very popular, which made it hard for me being her little brother trying to protect her from heartbreak and other things. She moved out at 18 and never looked back.”
SEPTEMBER 2018
By early September, just three weeks after the murders that rocked Colorado, the Chris Watts case has become “an obsession” on Facebook.Shanann painted a portrait of the perfect family on social media. Homemade videos and photos she posted show what seemed to be a doting father and happily-married couple.“Eight years later, we have two kids, we live in Colorado and he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” Shanann said in one of her Facebook live videos promoting her business.Other videos show Chris playing with Celeste and Bella while Shanann can be heard from behind the camera laughing and playing along.But that picture-perfect image was shattered when Frederick police along with Weld County prosecutors arrested Chris Watts for killing his own family and unborn child and then allegedly hiding their bodies at a Weld County oil and gas site where he worked.People from around the world are now combing through Shanann’s Facebook videos for answers or any clue to help them understand how a family who seemed so happy could end this tragically.
According to an arrest affidavit Chris purportedly said he “went into a rage” and strangled Shan’ann. This is Chris’ version of what happened. It’s the “heat of passion” defense, but is it true?
A source who has spoken with Watts in jail tells PEOPLE that the 33-year-old suspect was “aware” of the funeral proceedings, but had no input in it. “He knew better than to suggest anything,” the source says. – People
…detectives believe Watts killed his children first and then killed his 15-week pregnant wife, the Daily Mail reports. According to police documents, Shan’ann was killed on August 13, the same day she returned home from an out-of-state business trip. The charges allege that Watts killed Bella and Celeste “between and including August 12 and August 13”. One way to determine if the children had been killed earlier is to test the cadaver traces. A stronger scent would obviously indicate an earlier death.
The Daily Mail has mistakenly reported the following image as the last of Shan’ann Watts while she was still alive. In fact there is a more recent but blurry image of her here taken at the Thirsty Lion Gastropub & Grill. Shan’ann Watts’ final social media post appears to be after 18:30 on August 12th, in Tempe Arizona. It was a comment following a power outage in response to the above image.
Scenes of the interior and exterior of the Watts home…
Status on September 4th:Since he was put in jail, Watts has been placed under watch protocol, which is better known as suicide watch, and must be checked on by a detention officer every five to 10 minutes.Several times a day, someone enters Watts’ cell to make sure he is still alive and still in custody. There is also a cell check every day, in which he has to be completely searched.For one hour each day, Watts is allowed out of his cell, into a room where he is the only person present. He has also been denied access to television and is not allowed to have reading material in his cell.
Chris Watts had “a lot of secrets…Every day, we learn more and more about him.” – People
Was the fact that Chris was younger than Shan’ann a factor in his wanting to get rid of her the way he did? What’s the inference in a younger man with a slightly older women pregnant for the third time…?
Is it possible for a small screen to capture a scenario of an adult strangling an infant? https://twitter.com/CrimeJusticeHLN/status/1037117441845866496
September 5 according to People: The co-worker with whom Colorado triple murder suspect Chris Watts was allegedly “actively involved in an affair” at the time his wife and daughters were killed has been opening up to police. He had initially denied the work affair to police, his arrest affidavit alleges. But authorities said they carried out a two-day investigation and confirmed the cheating.
Shan’aan’s social media output dropped drastically in the month she was murdered. Did she suspect a serious deterioration in the family dynamic, or was she starting to experience it?
Shan’ann Watts appears to be related to the actor Peter Onorati.
16. Arie King is the brother of Shan’ann’s first husband. Arie King told 9News.com in mid-August 2018: “I am sick over it, honestly. Any family she has here in North Carolina, we are heartbroken.” What was her first husband’s name and occupation? Why did they divorce?
17. The following neighbors have been identified thus far: Colleen Hendrickson, Ann Watt and Bette Marcoux. According to Marcoux:
Watts’ truck was on when she left for the gym early Monday. She goes to the gym at 5:15 a.m. five days each week, she said, and hadn’t noticed him heading out somewhere at that time before. The night before, he was barbecuing, she said.
18. Public records show that they were each arrested multiple times in North Carolina – he three times and her 15 times – but the charges in the arrests are not known. – Daily Mail, August 17. This could explain why the couple left North Carolina in such a hurry, and sold their house with all their furniture still inside. On the other hand, it’s possible the Daily Mail confused Shan’ann Watts with Shannon Ann Watts, a 28-year-old woman arrested 3 times and facing 16 charges in North Carolina.
This snippet was provided by one of the regular visitors to this blog, thanks Pauline.
19. More reason to believe Chris Watts could be bisexual comes via a profile posted on Adam4Adam, and the profile picture, showing a man with a goatee. The couch in the rear of the picture also looks like the same couch the 3 foot doll was modeled onto.
Unless he updated his waist size [last login was April 2008] but didn’t change his age, the waist size is also off.
Chris birthday would make him a Taurus and on one post Shannan praised Chris on going from a 38 to a 32 waist size. So 2 years ago he would have been much heavier.
The area code for Denver Colorado is 80205. Check of this profile for Bi-Guy #80205. Star sign Gemini [21 May – 21 June] Chris Watts’ birthday is May 17, 1985.
Seems to fit the #ChrisWatts profile: "Engineer – Mining/oil and gas drilling" it reads. The Denver zip code, the 31-year-old age means #ShanannWatts husband sought men for 2 years. The 5'11" height and 170 pounds seems about right. And if 30 means his waist, that looks correct. pic.twitter.com/WA7PesLAY8
20. The Walk to the top of an oil tank & Actual Photos of Anadarco Oil Tank Site.
21. Police have found hundreds of hairs in the trunk of Chris Watss’ truck. It sounds like hair fragments, which suggests the hair was cut or shaved. If true, it’s a clear sign of processing a body, which invokes the idea of planning and premeditation.
#ChrisWatts Hundreds of pieces of hair found in trunk of his truck. It suggests processing of bodies, premeditation, planning. pic.twitter.com/1eWfScwf5P
137. Defense attorneys for a Frederick man accused of killing his wife and daughters have filed a motion asking the government to investigate whether the prosecution has made extrajudicial statements or tried to prevent the spread of prejudicial information. What this means is the authorities are accused of leaking evidence to the media and thus potentially prejudicing a jury trial. Stan Garnett, the former district attorney for Boulder County, said it is not unusual for the defense to raise such issues early on, especially in high-profile cases.
While it’s standard to point out potential to prejudice a jury , Garnett said the wording of the motion — requiring “the government” to investigate the issue — is unusual.
It raises an issue, as the district attorney’s office is part of the executive branch of the state.
“If you’re asking them to be investigated, who would do it?” Garnett said. – timescall.com
24. Ashley Bell, a close friend of Shanann Watts who owns a tanning salon, said she got to know her because she was a customer.
Bell said the gender reveal party was supposed to be held at the Watts’ family home on August 18. Amanda Thayer’s daughter Emily was also meant to sleepover at the Watts’ home that weekend.
140. “He didn’t have a plan. Things unfolded so quickly that he was trapped with no alternative but to cooperate with the reporters [in his TV interviews]. I don’t think he anticipated that a friend of his wife would so quickly alert authorities to her failing to show up for a scheduled medical appointment and was not at the house on Monday.” – Philip Stinson, criminologist
Agree? Disagree?
25: Nickole Utoft Atkinson found out Chris Watts planned to separate from Shan’ann on the morning she disappeared, when she called him to find out whether he knew where she was.
“I didn’t find out that they were going to separate or anything like that until I called Chris that morning,” she told ABC (who credited her as Nicole Atkinson). “When I called him [August 13 at noon] and asked him where she was, that’s when he told me and I basically told him that that wasn’t my [concern] at that particular moment, because it wasn’t and that their business was their business, that they would either work it out or they wouldn’t.”
26. “He was defending himself, but it just didn’t make sense.” – Nickole Atkinson
27. “Things were not how I would think that they were…supposed to be…I guess. I had [inaudible] look in the garage, to see if her car was there and it was there, which was like peculiar, because Shan’ann doesn’t [shurgs] like go places without her car, usually, because both of the girls have car seats. The front door was locked different to the way it normally was. The girl’s beds weren’t made. Shan’ann was very OCD. Everything in her house had a place. Everything was labelled.If something was out of the ordinary it was really out of the ordinary for her.” – Nickole Atkinson
28. When Chris Watts told Nickole Shan’ann was on a playdate with the kids, she immediately wondered why she’d go on a playdate without her car, and why did he know she was on a playdate but couldn’t say who with.
“He just kept saying that he didn’t know where she was and that she was on a playdate. But he couldn’t give us the name of the friend. I knew he had something to do with it the day I was at his house with him, but I didn’t want to think that. Anyone in their right mind will start piecing things together and think something had happened, but you don’t want to go there. You want to believe the best in people.” – Nickole Atkinson
29. “I know that Chris and her were having some issues about three weeks prior to everything happening.” – Nickole Atkinson [But three weeks prior she was in North Carolina with her folks and he was in Colorado].
30. Nichol Kessinger’s father appears to be Dwayne Kessinger, Chris Watts’ boss. The image from his LinkedIn page still exists on Google cache, but appears to have been recently removed from his profile.
31. September 12: Motion to obtain clear and visible Polaroid photograph and digital photographs of both Chris Watts’ right and left hands.
32. Kirk Nurmi [who defended Jodi Arias] weighs in.
33. On September 11 an unsubstantiated rumor on Twitter that Chris was involved with a Thrive colleague of Shan’ann’s surfaced. Josh Rosenberg appears in several images from the San Diego trip. This doesn’t appear to be credible line of inquiry.
Josh Rosenberg is the (mistress). Both Josh & Chris Watts worked for Thrive. Police found texts between Chris & Josh. Detectives spoke with Josh who retained an attorney. Shanann snapped when she found out Chris was leaving Shanann for Josh. Per Source. pic.twitter.com/MactFxDUmf
34. Chris Watts does appear to have been actively cheating on his wife. Was it with one woman or several? Was it with women, or women and men? One thing is clear, he was paying an inordinate amount of attention to grooming himself in the lead up to this crime.
Police say Chris Watts was actively cheating on his wife…but were their signs? Was he getting in shape to impress someone other than Shanann? pic.twitter.com/d2PHt8nPUz
35. Trent Bolte – the man from Wyoming who claims to have had an affair with Chris Watts – has produced communications suggesting an affair between the two men. Previous screenshots of texts appear to have been fabricated so there’s some reason to believe these might be too. It ought to be very simple to prove whether they were in a months-long relationship – a photo of the two together.
Bolte provided CrimeOnline with screenshots of text messages between him and Watts that appear to support some type of relationship with Watts. Bolte said they were the first text messages he and Watts exchanged away from the MeetMe app. The messages differ starkly in tone from screenshots circulating on social media, purporting to be messages between Watts and Bolte. Bolte is aware of the images that have circulated and insists they have been fabricated, pointing out that the messages indicate the two men met on Tinder, which Bolte says is not true.
37. Chris Watts is very specific at turns during his porch interview. He refers to Shan’ann arriving home at 01:48 [that’s very exact] and Nickole Atkinson calling him at 12:10. He also describes Shan’ann going to bed at 02:00 but not getting much sleep. In a police interrogation he said they’d discussed separating at 04:00 that morning. When he descibes himself leaving, he’s vague – it’s between 05:15 and 05:30. In fact he left at 05:37. This specificity is indicative of planning. He’s finely tuned to exact times, just as he had to be to the evolving pregnancy and the deteriorating numbers on their balance sheet.
38: CHRIS: I mean…could she have van- [interrupts himself]. Could she have just taken off, I dunno. But if someone has her and they’re not safe, I want them back now.
He starts off saying “could she have vanished” then tailors that to something better: “Could she have taken off? Could someone have taken her…” He’s doing this to seed the audience’s mind with the most credible alternative to what’s actually happened, to what he knows has actually happened.
39. As part of ongoing research into this case, I contacted a guy I’ve known since school who went from being in law enforcement to working for the oil and gas industry. I sent him information on the Anardarko oil site, and asked for his input on what the conditions are inside a tank. I will address some of the insights in a separate blog post, but a few things that stood out from our discussion included the following:
Only an oil maintenance worker would have the tools/know-how to access and open the tanks. This would in theory limit the chances of discovery by anyone else to almost zero, at least while Watts was in charge of that particular site. This also explains why Watts initially repeated the words “vanished”. He wanted people to think that’s what had happened, because that’s what he intended to happen.
The maintenance of the various oil sites are scheduled, sometimes with annual checks, sometimes once every 5 years. If Watts knew the schedule, and especially if the checks had just been completed for the year [or if Watts himself was responsible for performing them] then he could theoretically supervise and control the access and information regarding his own crime scene.
The interior of the oil tanks is fairly static, with natural gas sequestrated through outlet sieves. These sieves could theoretically be blocked by human hair, and human hair could also theoretically be glued to the lid of the tanks. This might indicate a need to remove excess human hair, and possibly also clothing.
40. More photographs of Chris Watts with Shan’ann during her other pregnancies.
41. When were Bella and Celeste last seen alive? From early reports it seems this could have been at a birthday party in Erie on Sunday, August 12. Erie is less than 20 minutes drive east of Frederick.
The Watts’ home on Saratoga Trail was about half that distance to the Lindstrom’s house in Erie.
The party was held by Jeremy Lindstrom for his 5-year-old son. Chris Watts was there, and so were his two daughters.
Murder suspect Chris Watts and his two little girls, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celste, were just at Lindstrom’s home for Jeremy’s little boy’s birthday party. The girls were happy. They were normal. And, so was Chris. Or so it seemed.
“He would reach out and help anybody that needed help with anything,” Lindstrom said. “He was a good mechanic if you needed help with your car – he’d help you. If you needed help with furniture, he’d be over there in a heartbeat to help you out. You don’t know what, when, why, where or how everything goes weird.”
42. Should the DA pursue a death penalty in this case?
Will they?
According to Colorado law, a district attorney has 63 days from the date of an arraignment to determine whether to pursue capital punishment in a murder case. An arraignment hearing isn’t on the docket yet and won’t be scheduled until Watts’ next hearing in November. – Denver Post
43. Photos of Chris Watts as a young man:
44. More photos of Shan’ann during previous pregnancies and the aftermath after giving birth.
45. Chris Watts isn’t talking to his family, even though he has nothing else to do except sleep all day. He’s not allowed reading material or television, and has virtually no one to talk to except the prison guards who look in on him every 15 minutes as part of an ongoing suicide watch.
If Chris Watts isn’t talking to family this may be because:
He knows [and perhaps they do too] that calls are monitored, and that anything they say over the phone can and will be used against him [or them] in a court of law.
He doesn’t want to talk to them [for the above reason and perhaps other reasons].
They don’t want to talk to him.
We know Chris Watts’ dad flew in to see his son at around the time of his arrest and confession. We don’t know much more than that – who Watts senior is, what he does etc. We do have a photo of him at the house on Saratoga Trail, however.
46. Shan’ann’s father was in court during the initial hearing, and was memorably emotional about the fate of his daughter and granddaughters. Chris Watts’ father, evidently wasn’t in court, even though he possibly was in town. Interestingly, neither of the mothers were in court, perhaps because they couldn’t all afford to travel.
GREELEY, CO – AUGUST 21: Christopher Watts is in court for his arraignment hearing at the Weld County Courthouse on August 21, 2018 in Roggen, Colorado. Watts faces nine charges, including several counts of first-degree murder of his wife and his two young daughters. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
47. On September 17, 2018 District Attorney Michael J. Rourke vehemently opposed the release of autopsy reports on the basis of “injury to the public interest”. As the motion notes, autopsy reports are public documents, so Rourke is likely to have an uphill battle withholding them from the public and also from the media, until November.
The motion is explicit in that all three victims were dead when they were moved from the crime scene [the Watts residence]. The District Attorney notes that the cause of death has not yet been made public. I’m not sure that’s accurate.
Police and prosecutors have not said officially how any of them died, though court records suggested they were strangled. – Denver Channel
Besides that, Chris Watts has suggested the same and that irrespective of who committed murder, it was murder by strangling. Possibly this isn’t accurate, but even if it isn’t, the defense attorneys will be in possession of the same facts. It may be that by going through the motions of putting forward this motion, the District Attorney wishes to be seen as being responsible and conservative, as opposed to purposefully and recklessly leaking sensitive documents.
Given the high profile nature of this case, it seems a stretch to imagine October will go by without even a redacted version at least being made public, as occurred in the Ramsey case which also had a sensitive autopsy-situation.
In the Ramsey case it took as long as seven months for portions of the autopsy to be made available, prior to any hearing. In that case there was an army of lawyers and a reluctant prosecutor’s office holding the tides at bay, and ultimately they succeeded – the case never went to criminal court.
An example of a redacted autopsy report [although minimally redacted] is the autopsy of Travis Alexander, the infamous murder victim of Jodi Arias.
Back to the Watts case: the District Attorney, through this motion, also appear to be concerned about autopsy results tainting witness testimonies and “impacting” potential jurors. By handing this over to the court, the prosecutor’s office effectively keeps their side of the story clean, and the onus for the release then lies on the partiality of the presiding Judge.
48. HLN’s Ashleigh Banfield interviews Richard Hodges, a former college roommate Chris Watts. This is going back more than 13 years – approximately 2003 – 2005. What was he like? “Straight as an arrow,” according to Hodges. It doesn’t seem like he intended this as a double entendre on the word straight.
Hodges describes Watts as very dedicated, and he does look the part of the dedicated husband – washing dishes, mowing the lawn, keeping fit etc. But Hodges goes further, describing Watts as a dude that didn’t go out partying when everyone else did. He was “very hard on himself” according to Hodges.
Banfield raises an interesting point when Hodges admits he was the closest to Watts out of their group of friends, and that even they weren’t really close. They weren’t Facebook pals either.
“Chris was quiet. He was pretty reserved. But not in like…what I would say a negative fashion….He was more of the kind of guy who you become friends with…out of like…happenstance. We were obviously friends because we were in classes together, and that’s how we ended up meeting. He very very rarely went out with us, so maybe that contributed to it…He wanted to get those good grades. He wanted to do well. So he would never do anything to jeopardize that like partying, or drinking…”
163. Just in from the Longmont Times-Call, a daily newspaper serving Northern Colorado, prosecutors are asking the court to order Watts to provide ink footprints [as opposed to fingerprints]. This is according to court documents filed on September 18th.
Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke wrote in the motion that the Colorado Bureau of Investigation has “developed possible bare foot impressions” from “items of evidence.” The items of evidence are not described in the motion, but Rourke does say they were collected at the scene where police found the bodies of 34-year-old Shanann Watts and her children, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste. – Longmont Times-Call
49. Ashleigh Banfield interviews a tech expert on the data her Apple series 3 watch may have stored [automatically uploaded to the cloud] in the last hours of her life. Apple watches automatically record movement and effort level. Both Shan’ann and Chris had these expensive Apple watches. Banfield raises a good point. The data rests in the cloud for 30 days, and that period has now passed since she died. Have prosecutors managed to extract the data in time?
50. In an order oddly dated two days from now, Judge Kopcow denies Chris Watts’ request to investigate leaks by the law enforcement.
166. Chris Watts has also refused to consent to DNA tests citing lack of probable cause.
51. Chris Watts case: Expert says ‘trace DNA’ could be found on daughters’ bodies – this turns out to be lousy clickbait, with a play on the word “could”. The article isn’t about stating that trace DNA was found as fact, but that it could [foreseeable] be found. The news cycle seems to be slowing down and drying up.
The only useful point in the above article notes that both sides are being very thorough because this is lining up to be a death penalty case.
52. In the same way that the Denver Channel appears to be using suggestive language to lure clickbait, the Daily Camera is at as well.
53. If his adultery [adulteries] played a significant role in why he committed murder [murders?], then Chris Watts must be aching to see his lover/lovers. But to do so could wreck his legal case if the “list” were made public. Something of a conundrum, right?
A judge has denied the request of an accused Colorado killer to keep the names of all his jail visitors under seal. – Daily Mail
54. The autopsy results must be submitted to court no later than today [under seal] – September 25th.
The prosecution meanwhile is already doing all it [can] to keep the autopsy reports under seal…
55. Meanwhile, on HLN:
The above discussion analyses the importance of bruise patterns on the children’s necks. In the Amanda Knox case, the bruises on Meredith Kercher’s neck were so clear, investigators were able to tell that they matched the size and shape of a woman’s fingers. But it’s no as conclusive as a fingerprint unless there’s DNA present as well.
Far more key, in terms of evidence, will be the autopsy results, particularly the food contents of the girls’ stomachs. It could turn on whether the birthday cake treats from Sunday were still in their digestive tracts or not when they were killed.
Ashleigh Banfield is completely consumed by the #ChrisWatts case.
56. Many were expecting the arrival – if not the release – of the autopsy reports today. At noon the Denver Post confirmed that according to the prosecution, the autopsy reports were not available.
58. There appears to be unprecedented interest in gaining access to the autopsy results of the four victims. Not only have media made their intentions clear, but members of the public as well. Media is apparently calling the Weld County Coroner’s Office on a daily basis.
59. Shan’ann made a Facebook page for Bella when she was born. From the list of 38 friends on Bella’s page, some are family and several list themselves as “Brand Promoter at Le-Vel”. The page lists her favorite sports teams as the Pittsburgh Steelers, and her favorite music as Bruno Mars. Final activity on the page was on May 24th, 2014.
60. Chris Watts isn’t supposed to have access to any media reports, but apparantly he’s aware of how “infamously famous” his case has become, including internationally.
Watts has said he feels the public doesn’t know the full story, the source says. “He feels like no one understands him, and nobody knows what happened,” says the source. “He thinks if they did understand, they’d realize that he’s not the monster everyone says he is.” – People
My personal view is that he’s right that most people don’t understand who he really is, but I’m not sure that makes what he did any less monstrous.
61. Large moving truck arrives at Saratoga Drive. Shan’ann’s father Frank seen moving a bed-frame and mirror into it under police supervision. An unknown 30-year-old woman was with him.
We dig deeper into the oil tanks Chris Watts allegedly dumped his two daughters in. A petroleum engineering professor explains how he thinks Chris could have placed his kids into these tanks. pic.twitter.com/ovLAjKHTJK
Some factoids that emerged from the interview with the petroleum engineering professor:
CERVI 319 was producing about 200 barrels of oil per month.
The expert believes liquids were shifted from one tank to another in order to gain access from the bottom, which he says requires not only a lot of technical knowledge but also requires a certain amount of time. He doesn’t specify how much time, but one can assume it would take weeks to fill the tank even a little, rather than days or hours.
It would take three months to fill the tanks naturally.
HLN notes what Shakedown indicated earlier, that the access hatches are too small to place an adult inside.
HLN believes they were also too small to fit the children’s bodies in.
The professor suggests the clean-out manways [plural] at the bottom had to be opened to dump the bodies, a rigorous process involving the loosening and refastening of a large number of bolts.
The time to unfasten and refasten the bolts [presumably for both manways]? The professor estimates an hour.
That’s an eternity at a crime scene trying to get rid of three bodies with the sun coming up..
The only problem with this line of questioning is this, which is a screengrab taken from the video below, depicting a bird’s eye view of the setup similar to CERVI 319.
If that’s an access ladder it suggest there’s enough space not only for a child, but for an adult technician to descend into it. Here’s another diagram showing the internal ladder but not connected directly to any access hatch.
It’s difficult to make out on the HLN image; the angle doesn’t show a stairway leading to the top of the oil tanks, and clearly there was one. The reverse angle does show the staircase.
The below image is of a “floating roof” tank. Although that’s not the sort of tank design at CERVI 319, the design in the floating roof does allow for a hatch with a ladder through it.
63. Image of Deeter posted to Shan’ann’s Instagram.
64. HLN interviews Matt Francis, Shan’ann’s high school teacher. Francis describes “being very impressed with how she did Facebook Live…and how she’d become such an encourager”. He also describes Shan’ann as having come a long way. “You’d be amazed at how far she’s come. She’s a wonderful, beautiful human being…she was a very insecure young ladywho didn’t have a lot of friends when I met her at 14-years-old.” She was also teased a lot – humiliated – while in high school.
Francis pronounces Shan’ann’s name as Shanna ‘ann, and says she didn’t correct his mispronunciation of her name in three years.
Francis also describes Shan’ann as “thriving” while under her tutelage. Methinks he’s just another dude that’s drunk a little too much of the MLM Kool-Aid.
65. Chris Watts is inmate #360519 in a Greeley Colorado jail cell.
66. HLN noted in late September that Chris Watts made numerous complaints to the Judge about press leaks. He referred specifically to many complaints but apparently had no comment about People magazine articles discussing his affairs, including with another man.
67: “Listen, everything about this case is over the top. And I think it’s because nothing about this case makes sense. You don’t typically have an accused family annihilator with a background like Chris Watts, with a wife like Chris Watts, with children like Chris Watts. With Facebook pages like Chris Watts. A guy like this who everbody, I mean literally everyone who we contacted, has said, ‘This is not…the guy.” – Ashley Banfield, September 29th, 2018
There’s as good a description as you’ll find for a man with two faces.
OCTOBER 2018
1. TWO FACE BENEATH THE OIL is published on October 1st, 2018, exactly 3 weeks after the first book in the K9 series. The second book digs far deeper into issues of identity, backstory and the motives for the murders.
The second book also presents a possible scenario for the murder of Shan’ann Watts, including where in the house it may have taken place, and how it was executed.
2. It appears CERVI 319 is situated on the Guttersen Ranch, a 35,000 acre-ranch 10 miles sutheast of Kersey, which holds Guttersen’s family homestead, barns.,outbuildings and horses. The ranch also is a working cattle ranch with about 3,000 head of cattle that run between Guttersen’s and an adjoining ranch to the east.
4. Motion for an emergency hearing. This appears to be about time-sensitive inheritance law. Shan’ann died intestate [without leaving a will], and so, under normal circumstances the surviving spouse would inherit. Life insurance policies of Bella and Celeste will probably be disputed.
Unconfirmed – a comment was made on #Shakedown that she’s the daughter of Chris Watts’ boss.
At 15 weeks baby Niko’s arms & legs were developing, he could sense light, & taste buds were forming. He also had a HEARTBEAT, meaning he’s a HUMAN, he’s a person, he had a future, & he deserves JUSTICE!!
1) Nichol Kessinger: 30. Works in the oil industry as a field engineer for Halliburton. This most likely is the “coworker” of #ChrisWatts with whom he has been having the affair. I’m assuming she had her Internet presence scrubbed because there is zero social media presence.
There is some reason to believe it may be Nichol Kessinger. A few artefacts are still available online, but the original sites are gone.
There is no social media presence for Nichol Kessinger.
There is a Stephanie Kessinger listed on LinkedIn based in Denver Colorado, listing experience as a Measurement While Drilling Field Engineer for Halliburton from 2014-2016, who may be a relative.
Nichol Kessinger appears to reside in Arvada Colorado, which is 22 miles due south following the I-25 S route – a 34 minute drive.
I'm the first one who Tweeted Nichol Kessinger. Remember that name as the next Amber Frey.#ShanannWatts
“We were talking about general things, about how her two girls were doing and how life was out in Colorado. She didn’t give me an indication that there was anything wrong. She seemed pretty happy.” – Joe Beach, former neighbor in Aberdeen, North Carolina
If Shanann gave her neighbor the impression that everything was fine, and that she and the kids were pretty happy, and they all ended up dead, was the neighbor right, or was the impression he got, wrong?
We know in the Scott Peterson case, Laci also gave an impression of sunny fortitude to many who encountered her. Many but not all. A few close friends did notice the odd gripe or complaint.
In the Watts case, clearly there are friends who were closer to her who knew some of Shanann’s private concerns – but kept them private. If we are to find insights, they’re not going to be in obvious places, they’re going to be subtle. Let’s probe three areas, and look at some of the latest information that’s been exposed by the mainstream media.
a) Finances
Scott and Laci opened up a burger joint, the business failed and they limped back to Modesto to start from scratch again. Recovering from bankruptcy is arduous. It’s especially hard when you’re not recovering, and your family’s demands are growing. Scott Peterson’s family was growing at the time he murdered his pregnant wife.
After the murder, Scott sold his wife’s car and bought himself a new vehicle, and wanted to sell their home all within two months of her disappearance while she was still missing. He couldn’t put the sale of the house through, and when it was sold, he was denied the money. We know they were pawning jewelry Laci had inherited, including on eBay. Scott appeared to pawn a very expensive watch and diamond ring around the time Laci disappeared. What we see here is an effort to convert a human being into cash, flesh into gold.
In the Watts case, we see a similar pattern. In July 2015, just three years before the murder, the couple sought Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. Their liabilities were close to half a million dollars [$448,820].
The key insight we get from this is that it would take years to recover from a debt of this magnitude. After three years it was obvious that they weren’t recovering. And with a third child on the way, Chris Watts had probably done the math. They could never recover. Part of the reason for that was Chris Watts. According to People:
Chris, 33 reported earning a monthly salary of around $5,400 from Anadarko Petroleum…When the couple filed for bankruptcy, Shanann worked at Children’s Hospital Colorado, earning a monthly salary of $2,977. But for reasons not made clear in the filing, the couple’s reported combined income was tumbling — from $147,256 in fiscal year 2013, down to $90,789 in fiscal 2014, and then to $40,491 at the time of their 2015 filing.
The reason is actually obvious, and it’s the same reason that plagued Laci Peterson. As soon as Shanann fell pregnant, she could no longer earn as consistently as she had been, and three consecutive pregnancies can hemorrhage an already cratering bank account to a critical level in no time. Chris Watts was unable to raise his game, and if anything, lowered it, just as Scott Peterson was failing as a salesman, and yet continuing to be a spendthrift.
Medical and credit card debt had combined with mortgage payments on their $400,000 home in Frederick, Colo., to undermine their financial stability, the record shows. Christopher Watts had gotten a job six months earlier as an operator for Anadarko, and paystubs indicate his annual salary was about $61,500. Shanann Watts was working in a call center at a children’s hospital at the time, earning about $18 an hour — more for evenings, weekends or extra shifts she sometimes worked. The couple had a combined income of $90,000 in 2014. But they also had tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, along with some student loans and medical bills — for a total of $70,000 in unsecured claims on top of a sizable mortgage.
They said in the filing that their nearly $3,000 mortgage and $600 in monthly car payments formed the bulk of their $4,900 in monthly expenses.
Do the math: Chris Watts was earning $5,400 a month when their expenses were $4,900. Soon, Shanann would take another break from work, and then there’d be a fifth mouth to feed and maintain. There just wasn’t going to be enough credit for that, let alone money.
So what we see here is an effort to convert a human being into cash, flesh into gold.
b) Faking the Fairy Tale
We’ve already seen how busy Shanann was on social media. Not all of it was a show just for the sake of showing off. Shanann was promoting herself and selling her products through Instagram, for example, and so part of that was putting up perfect pictures.
In the image below, it’s not just a happy snap of the couple in a car pasted to Facebook, it’s Chris sporting a patch under his blue shirt sleeve. Even in their leisure family time, they’re selling. And though both are showing their teeth, look closer at the eyes in the picture – neither of them are smiling.
By selling this happy family vibe, what Shanaan was doing was selling herself. But I also think it was part of Shanann’s personality to be showy, to put a positive face on things [just as Laci did], and this is part of what got the family into the difficulties they got into – at least financially. Sometimes you’ve got to admit the fairy tale flag you’re waving isn’t true, and that’s humbling. It’s also difficult if your job requires you to sell sell sell.
Since there’s less information about the murderer, that’s really where we need to look to move the narrative along. How was he faking it? What was his fairy tale – for himself? For Scott Peterson it was golf. Scott saw himself as a pro golfer who missed the train and missed the glory that would have – that should have followed.
According to Patch.com, Chris Watts had similar delusions of grandeur. But like all delusions, they start off with a little bit of reality supporting them:
“[Watts] was one of the best students I ever had. Oh, my God. This is a shock,’ retired teacher Joe Duty told the Fayetteville Observer. Watts graduated from Pine Forest High School in 2003 and…won a $1,000 scholarship to technical institutes in his home state.
So Watts was a promising starter, and so there was a lot of hope and expectation that he was carrying with him, for himself. In the Peterson case there’s the lie that Peterson won a golf scholarship.
But here’s the crucial insight:
“The guy had a photographic memory,” Duty remembered. “I said, ‘Chris, if I ever had a student who was going to be tremendously successful, it’s you.'”According to Duty’s recollection, Watts in high school aspired to be a NASCAR crew chief technician. But instead, Watts worked, until Wednesday, at Anadarko Oil and Gas, earning around $60,000, according to bankruptcy records filed in 2015.
Reading between the lines, even his teacher through Watts was a kind of Golden Boy destined for greatness. But fifteen years after leaving high school, there was no gold, no greatness, and very little of that spirit of hope left. The aspiration to be a NASCAR chief technician shows us in colorful descriptive imagery how Chris Watts idealised himself. Big, glamorous, where the action and the crowds were.
Reality turned out to be very different from that very tale – and even humiliating. There were no crowds, no excitement, no glamour, just the daily grind toiling with grease and oil, and scrubbing to get the muck off his skin each day. Scott Peterson sold fertilizer solvents for a living. It was a long fall from the dizzy heights of the golfing great he always dreamed of becoming.
It’s difficult to say what the implications are of the house in Belmont, west of Charlotte, except to say that it belonged to Shanann. She’d bought it in 2009. The couple were married three years after that – in 2012. According to the Denver Post, the new owner, Byron Falls said the Watts’s were in a hurry to sell and left all the furniture behind.
What does that mean? It might mean they were trying to outrun their debts. If so, this mendacity would have set a precedent for breaking the law, for lying, and getting away with it. For having a debt and not paying it if you felt you couldn’t.
c) Time of Death
Shanaan was last seen on Monday, August 13, by a friend who dropped her off at her home at about 1:45 a.m. According to heavy.com:
Her husband had told reporters he left for work at 5:15 a.m., and then did not hear from her again. Friends also grew worried after she didn’t respond calls and messages and didn’t show up for a doctor’s appointment and a planned outing. Shanann Watts was reported missing that afternoon by her friend, not by her husband.
But the affidavit sketches a different picture.
The affidavit suggests Chris Watts murdered Shanann moments after she stepped inside the door. Between 02:00 and 05:27, when he [like Scott Peterson] backed his truck into the driveway “to load up some tools”, Watts likely killed Shanaan, cleaned up the crime scene and himself, loaded the bodies into the truck, and then left home at the usual time “for work”.
We know the bed linen was stripped, which suggests this had been washed or disposed of during the cover-up. Chris Watts probably took a shower too, before going to work.
Watts likely had to kill Shanann shortly after her arrival, because the children were already dead. But it’s also possible Shanaan was killed first, silently as she slept [at around 03:00] and then the children. This still gave Watts two hours to get done what he needed to do, and drive to where he needed to get, all under cover of darkness.
Sunrise on August 13th was just after 06:00 in Frederick, Colorado.
By bundling them into the truck and transporting them before dawn to a remote work site, he expected not to be seen, and all things being equal, he wouldn’t have been.
By going to work as per usual [just like Scott Peterson did, when he went fishing], Watts could claim plausible deniability in their disappearance. He’d simply gone to work – how should he know where they were? Maybe she’d gone to a friend? Maybe she’d run away with him?
The most vital insight, the gamechanger, is this, from the affidavit:
Neighbor, Nathaniel Trinastich’s home video surveillance system recorded Nicole’s vehicle leaving [the residence] at 01:48.At 05:27 Chris’ truck is observedbacking into the driveway and leaving a short time later.*
This suggests the moment the bodies were transferred from the home to the truck, for disposal elsewhere. When Chris Watts left, he had to leave the home looking like there was no struggle. What he forgot though was if Shanaan had run away, she’d have taken her personal effects. Laci Peterson’s phone was also found in her car, an unlikelihood given Scott’s claim that she’d gone with the dog for a walk.
*It’s not clear whether the truck remained at the residence the entire night, or when it backed in, it was there throughout, and simply just backed in. But since it’s not mentioned, it seems clear his truck only moved at 05:27 to back in and then pull out shortly after.
Do we have to wait for prosecutors to tell us Chris Watts’ motive, or can we figure it out on our own? If we can’t, what does that say about our ability to intuit the thoughts, desires and machinations of those around us? If we can’t figure out hypothetical catastrophes in other folk’s families, do we have any chance of piecing the puzzles [hidden and less hidden] of the motives of those that are part of the fabric of our lives?
What true crime offers is a series of precedents and templates. The criminal psychology is never a new journey, although some tangents along the way may be a little unusual or even novel.
The best place to start in order to fathom a motive for Watts is Scott Peterson. There are many similarities: pregnant wife, business trips, Mr Perfect persona, picture-perfect marriage and family, fairy-tale home, sunny smiles all round versus fertilizer/oil, selling, foreclosure, financial ruin, her earning more than him and the collapse of the Picture Perfect Charade. There’s a lot of vanity in both marriages. There’s also a lot of shallowness. Under the vanity there’s no real wealth, just empty words.
Of course, to intuit a motive in the Watts case requires that we went to the trouble to figure out Scott Peterson’s motive. Did we? Was Scott’s motive that he wanted to have an affair? I hope that’s not your answer, because millions of married folk cheat on each other quite happily, without resorting to murder. The affair was a factor, and I believe it was a factor with Watts. Both good looking, charming and facile men. In both cases, women who knew or should have known their husbands were cheating, but kept up the pretense that everything was just fine, including through the new pregnancy.
Was money a factor? Of course it was. But millions of couples struggle through financial difficulty without resorting to murder, though perhaps less than the group committing adultery. Add together financial difficulty and adultery, and we’re starting to get somewhere, but we’re still not quite there.
The vital element of course is the pregnancy. In the Scott Peterson case, Scott endured the pregnancy for eight long months, until just before Christmas. He figured Christmas was a good time to do things when people would be away or not watching so closely.
In the Watts case, fifteen weeks proved to be his cut-off date. What does the pregnancy reveal about the motive? Simply that her husband’s threshold for commitment had been exceeded by a substantial margin.
It’s not just financial commitment, and financial overreach that’s at issue here. Like Scott, Watts is having a kind of existential crisis. He doesn’t want to be married.
He doesn’t want to be a dad. He doesn’t want to be burdened or pressured by life-sapping and gut-draining expectations. He was living a life he didn’t want to be living, and it was killing him. He was living a lie, and in his fucked psychology, the only way to fix that was by killing them. That way he could get his life back. By taking their lives, he got his.
It’s transactional, but then Capitalist society is rigged that way. Give and take, cash on delivery, no work no pay. So we’re wired to function in a transnational system, but every now and then someone thinks they can outsmart it. How to get something for nothing. How to get what you really want without paying the price.
So in a sense, it is the simply dimension of a man who wants his freedom. He wants to escape the bind he’s in. But we have to look at the scale of the things that are tearing at him. Moneylessness. Pregnancy and the raft of commitments and expectations that are part of that. And probably someone else pulling him away from the marriage, some sort of fairy-tale romance that offered him a better, alternative happily ever after.
When we add all of these together, we need to come up with a simple hypothesis. Why, in a single word, did Watts commit triple [actually quadruple] murder of his own family.
Greed.
He wanted more. But he wasn’t prepared to pay the price to get what he wanted, so he chose subterfuge, so that he could dodge paying for what he wanted, the same way he’d been dodging reality for year.
He wanted to have his cake and eat it. Just like Scott Peterson did. I suspect further investigation will show Watts was a spoiled kid, and used to entitlements. He didn’t like the drudgery of his job. He wanted to convert his family to oil and gold, cash in his chips and start a new life with someone else.
JUST IN from People Magazine – When Nickole Atkinson, Shanann’s friend, didn’t hear from her, she called Chris Watts to find out what was going on. That’s when he made this surprising disclosure to Nickole about his 6-year marriage:
“I didn’t find out that they were going to separate or anything like that until I called Chris that morning. When I called him and asked him where she was, that’s when he told me and I basically told him that that wasn’t my [concern] at that particular moment, because it wasn’t and that their business was their business, that they would either work it out or they wouldn’t.”
Why would Watts be chomping at the bit to tell someone their marriage was in trouble immediately after his wife was dead and the kids gone? Why would it not be okay for his own wife to know [or say] their marriage was in trouble?
So, it’s been reported that #ChrisWatts may have killed his wife because she made more money than he did. First of all, he is very dumb because that is what we call a meal ticket. But secondly, there are a lot of young women on my timeline who need to hear this: (1/2)
There could be other factors too, depending on issues of Watts’ identity. Without knowing his background, his make-up, his backstory, it’s difficult to be more accurate.
Now let’s see what the prosecutors have to say today…
Below is a rough collection of media snippets and information collected on Christopher Watts. This list will be updated so be sure to leave a comment with anything you know that should be added to it.
In fact there is a more recent but blurry image of her here taken at the Thirsty Lion Gastropub & Grill. 
Shan’ann Watts’ final social media post appears to be after 18:30 on August 12th, in Tempe Arizona. It was a comment following a power outage in response to the above image.
#SHAKEDOWN 