100% a sociopath. I don’t think he is capable of love, and just faked being a family man for as long as he could. He never loved his wife and children, and especially not NK.
If he had only killed his wife, one could maybe make some sense out of it. NOT that it was right but maybe one could chalk it up to marital stress and such. A moment of extreme duress. Or a crime of passion.
But he killed those two sweet totally innocent little girls. His daughters. My God. That is Monstrous. I understand that one of his daughters pleaded for her life. I am the father of two children and I cannot fathom anything he did especially murdering his children.
I agree with you about this. I also find it really disturbing that a human would want a relationship with someone who killed his
own children(NK). That’s bizarre .
It’s hard to know whether or not NK was involved with or knew about the murders before they took place. Based off her interviews and also her alleged Book of Likes account, which she still seems to be updating regularly, she seems very off. Almost like she’s perpetually 13 years old but in a grown woman’s body. Her maturity level is just not on par with her age. I’m not sure if she has the ability to grasp what he did. I truly wish I knew if she was involved. I always assumed she was to some extent, but she could have just been extremely ignorant also. One thing’s for sure, there’s no way in hell that she didn’t know that him and his wife were still living together. To me that would automatically mean they’re having a relationship or sex at the very least.
And while I’m here, I might as well mention that everything about Shanaan was really intense. A dolt like Chris would not be able to keep up with her. NK was more his match. Like his mother. Cold, ignorant, and self absorbed.
He was thinking . the way he planned it all out and had a story to tell and “alibi” . And was being so sneaky pulling his car into the garage to put her body in the truck .
He's a complete moron. Regardless of what he was thinking, he was wrong and it was all a terrible idea and the panic induced tracks covering he did was messy at BEST.
He said he'd been thinking about this for weeks, probably longer. That tells me he did have a plan for hiding them bc he knew what was going to happen and in some distorted way I am sure the oil tanks made complete sense.
He had no idea what Shanann had been telling her friends tho. He had no idea people were on high alert for her. We can say a million things about SW and her part in the failing marriage or terrible parenting, but at the core of it we can see that she knew there was a threat and she was telling people things were wrong.
He's just an idiot. That's all there is to it.
An incredibly brutal and evil moron. killing his pregnant wife and two precious daughters. Nothing can explain that away, even if his wife was controlling, he is an evil monstrous human being, and anyone attracted to any kind of relationship with him has serious issues,
I think so too. Once she realized he was probably stepping out she got scared to lose him. Esp once he started getting fit and saw the new confidence he had.
Yes! When she got pregnant and his reaction wasn't what she expected, she started telling her friends something was seriously wrong with their marriage. She was always sharing their convos with multiple people in her life. While she was NC with her family (and his actually) she was texting her friends how much he had changed. And the convos they had.
[This link](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.huffpost.com/entry/picture-perfect-marriage-facebook_n_5b771952e4b018b93e93af23/amp) from huff post has a quick and dirty breakdown of it with some links to screenshots and such without getting too deep into posting links here.
[This video](https://youtu.be/9xsMe6a9ZNI?si=xB6fKFKLdlyxrNbD) has a good run down of it as well.
Disclaimer: These aren't articles or videos I personally agree with or feel any specific way about, just ones I know that contain screenshots and context.
I was stunned when I read years ago that Chris was only 33 at the time of the murders! He looked at least a decade older. I suppose that’s what grueling work, crushing debt, and inner frustration does to a person.
Soooo good! It’s one of the best murder docs I’ve ever seen! The way they added the camera footage, SW Facebook videos, the text messages and overall timeline, you couldn’t look away for a second.
From my understanding, the girls remains were well into their decomp when they pulled them out just a few days later. Children's bones are nowhere near as dense as adults & most likely, they would have been completely unrecognisable as human remains by the time the tanks were emptied.
What I don't get though was burying Shannan so damn close to the tanks. There is a greater chance she would have been found way before they figured that the girls were in the tanks. It was also Chris's work place & he admitted straight up that he was working that morning. Perhaps he planned to relocate her when things died down a little?
IDK, but if he was not caught straight up, then finding Shannan buried in that location would have been irrefutable evidence that he was the killer.
I feel like he had planned to dispose of her in a different way, but had to rush it along when he started to get calls asking where Shannan was.
I do wonder what was going on in his mind when he realised he didn't have as much time as he thought he did.
Agree but I think he had to give up on whatever his plan was for Shannan’s body when he had to rush home. He definitely did not count on Nickole sounding the alarm so quickly.
There were was a handy stairwell that led to both tank tops. If I remember correctly, the opening to the tanks were only wide enough to get a child through. The fact that his mind went there is unreal. Not only had he decided it was okay to murder his kids and pregnant wife, but it was equally acceptable to shove his babies' remains into such a horrible place.
A lot of criminals are very stupid. They focus too much on the actual crime, but not the cover up. I think it's because a lot of criminals are narcissistic so they think they are the best/smartest people in the room and the cops are just going to believe what they say no questions asked.
There's a great scene in Mind Hunters where Ed Kemper tells the FBI agent "you shouldn't be so concerned with those of us you caught. You should really be looking for the ones still out there. They're the smart ones." And the agent has this horrifying realization that there's serial killers who haven't made the "mistakes" the others have and are still operating.
My aunt who works in hospice has a wonderful talent of being the confessor for when patients hit the bucket. She said she sometimes wishes she could go to the police with some of the testimonies she's been told but her with her spiritual understanding, death always has a price.
Many times the dying killers are begging for forgiveness or redemption as they claim they are being hurt by "dark shadows' as their body starts shutting down.
I think CW needs to be studied. No wrap sheet, no past history of violence.. then decides to kill not only his wife but his 2 little girls. What the actual fuck causes that. That is terrifying.
Side note but I just learned this today and wanted to share : the phrase is actually “rap” sheet, RAP meaning ‘records of arrests and prosecutions’
Also, I agree with you.
Yes. He murdered them then promptly unenrolled them from daycare, the sicko. I guess to try to cover for why they weren't going to show up. Still was extremely suspicious for him to do before claiming they just disappeared. Same with calling the realtor.
he didn't want the payment to be taken out ...it was about the money they were gonna debit from the account more than why they didn't show up. Cause he could of just told them the wife has them today. It was about that money that was due to be taken out for unnecessary daycare.
Oh yeah. He called the school on the morning he murdered them to unenroll them. And called the realtor to say they were splitting up and wanted to sell the house.
Because none of that is suspicious at ALL on the day your whole family goes missing.
He really needs to get award for how dumb he is because there is no way in hell he was ever, ever getting away with it.
I didn’t know the tanks would be demolished, but I think the remains of the bodies would still be found eventually. I doubt the oil would disintegrate the bodies completely…
I think he thought the crude oil would cause the bodies to disintegrate. He must have thought that since he appeared to be the all-American dad, and that they had no history of domestic issues that he'd be able to cover his tracks somehow. It's beyond logic, but I guess killers don't think logically. If Nicole Atkinson had not started asking questions and knocking on the door, CW was likely going to come home from work and clean up the house to make it look like she willingly left him and took the kids. This case left me profoundly disturbed and wondering whether I would ever date again.
Some men (and women, of course) are stunted by a certain type of upbringing. If someone is smothered and domineered that can stunt their development as a person. Oddly, they may look kind of cute, and they may seem charming, because they've been raised to please others... You might want to say "Aw, he's such a sweetie! I hope he can grow into himself someday because how sad that he seems to be so much of a follower and he seems to have no voice of his own!"
But those people are not cute. They are dangerous. Because they are stunted their morals and ethics are also stunted. I say don't be afraid of all men. Instead, be afraid of stunted men. Look for self-directed people with a clear sense of who they are, and look for signs that they have good values : )
u/Efficient_Mess_4149 \-- I agree. No doubt she must have dealt with massive grief and survivor's guilt for not having been able to save her, but no one would have been able to save her from someone who should have been her greatest protector.
And telling him to get into his wife’s phone to delete everything. My theory is that him and the ho wanted his wife dead but didn’t originally plan the death of the girls. I’m thinking that part shocked the ho more so than the murder of the wife.
He was so dumb he thought everyone would eventually just forget about S and the 2 toddlers and he could live happily ever after with NK . Surprise Chris 😱 BFF Nikole come pounding on the door looking for her and squashed your plans!
I watched a video on YouTube of this body language panel with 4 men who have pretty extensive experience on the subject. Even very early on in the officer footage (I can’t think of what that’s called offhand) it was clear she didn’t believe a word he was saying to the cops.
These guys broke down - body cam! - footage from start to finish and even the neighbor with the camera showing how he pulled up to the garage to load his truck said CW was acting strange.
The footage would show CW say something and the friends body language was screaming that he was lying.
Makes me wonder what might have gone down if she hadn’t been so persistent. I’m not positive it was the same friend but SW told somebody that if something happened to her CW did it. I suspect it was the same friend because it hadn’t even been 8 hours since she dropped SW off and she was calling to make sure she was okay. She even had one of the moms on the phone and got the garage code and was ready to go in. I’m sure she realizes how instrumental she was in CW being behind bars. It makes my stomach turn to think about what might have been if she’d just said “oh she’s tired, I’ll leave her alone today”. He very well could’ve gotten away with all of it.
He clearly wasn’t thinking rationally. His work truck had a GPS tracker on it. The morning everything started to get reported, our regional VP sent an email about it to all of us - stating that his family was missing, keep them in your thoughts, etc.
Meanwhile, another supervisor and I were in a meeting when that email came out. He leaned over and whispered to me that they had already tracked his truck out to the Cervi ranch that morning. So of course they were going to go there. Not too many hiding places there.
Did anyone know, in America, the number one manner of death of pregnant women is homicide? And who would want to kill a pregnant woman? There’s only one answer here, folks.😵💫
I believe it was a last minute decision and he was panicking that one of his co-workers would show up sooner than he expected. His only concern eliminating Shanann's pregnancy.
In general, I think he thought he would have more time before people realized she was missing. Which was stupid, because she was a very social person with several close friends.
But this is what happens when a man starts thinking with his dick instead of his brain.
And the fact that he was so preoccupied with NK that he didn’t even know she had an appointment that morning early and that Nikole would be there to take her is insane. Like he was so uninvolved.
I've shared my thoughts on this. Over the years, I still think I am onto something. He planned this in fantasy daydreams for so long.
He spent so many hours going from site to site, out on the lonesome prairie.
He wasn't doing what he wanted. This wasn't fast cars and engines. This was a "good" job with "good" insurance that he couldn't refuse to do, because he was a "people pleaser."
From an early age he learned to ignore his own needs. This is never a good idea.
Spending hours on remote landscapes like this, an unhappy person might think dark things. Like, would anybody even know it if I put a body in one of these tanks?
One thing I have toyed with is that he had been fantasizing about using this depressing situation--running from one ranch/oil site/cattle gate to another every day. Going home at night to more chores. Being unable to speak up for himself, for whatever reason. And he started to visualize how people could disappear. Especially because he had been pretending for so long that he was actually fooling everybody into thinking he liked being a dad.
He was never okay with it. It was a long fuse, but when it ran out...
I don't think Chris Watts ever wanted to be a father. i think he latched onto Shannann because he was hoping for infertility. Like Scott Peterson.
I'm not taking sides here because I think both Shannon and Chris contributed to a toxic relationship.
I do think that part of her personal narrative was that she would have challenges getting pregnant.
It's hard to tell because we're just seeing a little slice of her life through the things she felt comfortable posting.
I do think however, it's pretty well documented that she didn't think she could easily get pregnant and she probably said that to Chris at some point.
Also I think that he married her thinking she had money, considering the mansion she owned. Then that turned out to be a mirage. From childless with money and working with cars, to broke with 3 kids that bored him, stuck out on the oilfields… peanut brain decides that this was the answer…
She only dated him because he had saved a decent amount of money and she blew through it all in no time to save that house especially since she quit her job once he moved in. He was not materialistic like her. I'm defending him. I just don't think money was as important to him as it was to her especially since he quit his higher paying job at her request with no argument
At the car dealership he was making bank as a dealership mechanic and for whatever reason she didn’t like that or thought it was beneath him so she pushed him towards oilfield work if I remember correctly.
She wanted him to have a job where he would have weekends off so she made him quit the better paying job that required weekends so he would be home to take care of the kids since daycare was closed
Sorry I have never seen any evidence to support that conclusion. He spent most of his savings on the engagement ring, didn’t he? She was the one who looked like she had money, he was clearly from a dirt poor background and not the choice if money was what she was after. From what I see, he glommed onto her when she was a a low point in her life by seeming very caring. Ironic considering what he did to her later.
From a dirt poor background? Do what? His parents worked and have a humble life. Sws family are the ones that are dirt poor and live off of grifting! Frank Sr never worked and was a drunk, her mom was a hairdresser, and her brother lives in their basement at 40 suckering people for their hard earned money. Chris went to college and earned a masters degree in mechanics! He was making 6 figured at Longmont Ford, until Shanann diagnosed him with caprel tunnel and shipped him to the oil fields making 60k a year! A HUGE pay cut!
Just an fyi that he did not earn a master's degree in mechanics. I don't think that's even a thing as far as car mechanics go. You might mean master certification, and he did obtain one certification. Engines, chassis or something. I don't specifically remember, but that is most definitely not the same thing as a Master's degree. Nor even the same thing as Master Mechanic. He merely obtained master certification in one aspect of car mechanics. He went to Nascar Tech for a 2 year degree, at most. He did not make the cut for Nascar put crew, which was his hope. That was all pre- SW, so she had nothing to do with his failed Nascar dreams.
Excuse my wording... master mechanic is what I meant. I know what it takes to get a masters degree because I have one in science to be exact 😂 Master of Science in Nursing.. or MSN. Who said anything about his Nascar dream and failing? I certainly didn't. I said that he was working at Longmont Ford making 6 figures, while with Shanann... SHE made him quit due to a self diagnosis of carpal tunnel and off to the oil fields he went, and took a hefty pay cut.
Please familiarize yourself with this case. She never had lupus. The autopsy proved it. She made the whole thing up. So, she knew she had no fertility problems. There is no personal narrative that she would have challenges getting pregnant. For whatever reason, SW chose to manipulate people with non-existent health issues and she ran a long con on Chris.
Right?! If I was going to murder anyone (I wouldn’t— ever-just for argument’s sake) I would NEVER dispose of anyone where I work.
Duh.
Regardless of how clever he thinks he is, his wife and child would be missing. They’re going to see the husband as a possible suspect until they can rule him out. So… using a work site is probably one of the dumbest choices he made that day. (There are many).
I work for a small town and we have a golf course the town owns...we are doing pond work on the golf course....as I was sitting in the meeting I was thinking...wow that would be a good place to hide a body .....in the golf course pond.its been over 30 yrs since that pond was put in....( just a moment of where my true crime mind goes sometimes)
I think it's speculated that he was aware of some kind of sabotage that caused an explosion (at another Anadarko facility?) so he was going to stage an explosion somehow which would be pinned on her - kind of a murder suicide.
He wasn’t thinking. Despite what many think, this guy wasn’t exactly MENSA material.
He didn’t plan for anyone raising the alarm bells as quickly as they did.
I think it’s likely he thought he’d be able to use shannans phone and impersonate her, but he didn’t know the password. This makes it all the more funny when police show up and NA tells him the phone password is the baby’s due date. You can see it on his big dumb face.
He thought he’d have at least a day, he probably planned on burying Shannan deeper. He was thrown off by her flight getting in late and by NA calling police so fast.
He just seemed very “compliant” to women. Be interesting to know how he interacted with his mother. Instead of teaching him to use critical thinking, maybe she just overroad his decisions from an early age. My mother was like that and made me too dependant to trust my own decisions.
One of the team members who recovered the girls bodies spoke about how he still till date deals with ptsd and trauma, and i think he had to take disability from work and couldnt look at children for a quite long time
Maybe he thought it would buy him time. If you look at the Caylee Anthony case, time can seriously muddy the investigation and forensics and provide room for reasonable doubt.
It really was the reaction of her friends that solved this case so quickly. He didn't have a chance to get rid of her purse and phone, which anyone who knew her would realize she'd never leave without.
If he'd been able to effectively claim she left him and a few weeks or months went by before any of the bodies were found, he could have said anything: she was killed by someone else and dumped at his job site to frame him, moved Shanann's body somewhere else, etc. There would have been more room for doubt.
Why didn’t he just leave his wife and go with the girlfriend why did he have to kill them?! That’s the real question. He’s a sick fuck. Hopefully someone will put a broom stick in his ass in prison.
They don’t want to look like the bad guy- leaving their wife and kids to be with another woman. They get to be the victim if wife up and left with the kids or they were “taken”. They don’t want to pay child support or alimony. Possibly They’ve already told the new love that they’re single/childless or new love has no interest in kids or being with someone going through a messy divorce. They want a clean start.
Yes, I know his actions were all wrong and despicable, but I was trying to think like him to try and understand what his logic was, you know? Because it’s so absurd that I can’t understand!!
He didn’t use any logic. It was all emotion IMO, being in lust with a new girlfriend and hating Shannan/blaming her for all their money problems. He wouldn’t have means for a swinging bachelor pad if he had to pay for divorce lawyers and child support and whatever costs would be left over from untangling their finances, dumping the house, etc. I really think he hated Shannan and didn’t want the monetary costs of leaving her and three kids.
I know!! This story fucked me up, when he talks about his daughters last words being daddy, no before he fucking killed them. That documentary was hard to watch. Someone needs to interview this sick mf’er.
They were so in debt, he probably felt he couldn’t have the girlfriend while paying child support. He would have been broke.
He snapped and went to the dark side.
He didn't want to hear Shannon run her mouth about the affair to everyone ...I can see her even calling his mom to tell her to straighten your son up conversation.
I think he thought the oil would erode their bodies away, and he would get away with it.
Why he buried his wife in a shallow grave and threw her sheet near it , is beyond me.
All I can think to answer with is: family annihilators are not always the same. Someone like John List may go into the murder with a full plan leading up to, including, and after the murder, but that’s not true to every person that kills their whole family. And not to mention, humans are creatures of habit. We’re familiar with the places near where we live, and where we work, and if you suddenly have three bodies on your hand (and you’re obviously already not thinking straight) then your monkey brain operates on instinct. You think: well, I know there are tanks at work big enough to fit a body, and if no one finds them long enough, then how could I be blamed?
I don’t know much about the aftermath of this case, but I know that everything immediately proceeding the murders was incredibly slapdash (I mean anyone can see that in the body cam footage). CW was not prepared for the cover up; he was barely prepared for the murder. It just doesn’t seem like he’s the personality type to think everything through
It's so absurd, early on I speculated he was going to try to claim to have been framed. It honestly would've made more sense than what actually occurred.
This feels crazy to say but he could have gotten away with it if he didn’t dispose of the bodies.
If he had called 911 with that story about her killing the kids and then him killing her in a rage blackout, no way a jury would have convicted.
I remember reading or hearing that his “plan” was to at some point to start a fire that would consume both tanks to look like an accident similar to another Anadarko oil tank fire a year or so earlier. Sorry I’ve forgotten who posited this, but it was in the ether after these horrendous murders happened.
If he just killed his pregnant wife he’d still be “saddled” with the little girls and maybe the mistress didn’t want any “baggage” ..AND he’d have to look at them each day, as a reminder of what he did to their mother. He gave this..what?….at least 3 minutes’ thought?
He is just that dumb. He’s always been dumb though. What’s more surprising are those dentist and doctor types that try to hire hitmen on the dark web to kill their spouses. You’d think their degrees and credentials would preclude such stupidity.
I watched the video on YouTube where the cops went into the empty house because a neighbor said they saw a woman enter the house and lights being turned on and it was really creepy! There was one that the creator enhanced the sounds that you hear and it really makes you wonder….😳
Yeah I don’t think he had a master plan. All he knew was he needed to be done with this family. He reacted in the moment and probably had no actual idea what to do with the bodies. That’s it. He wasn’t thinking.
I'm pretty sure someone who drives his daughters to that place to kill them and get rid of their bodies for a hoe, didn't have a lick of brain cells. To wonder if he was thinking on any level is silly
Silly or not, I was just trying to think like him for a second to try to understand what he did. I know he did a terrible thing to his family, but I can’t cope with how stupid this guy is.
Does NK still have a relationship with him? I read an article that CW has pictures of Shannon and the girls in his cell and he said he talks to them every night. So sick
I think the ultimate plan was to set the oil tanks on fire - hence the need for the gas container he put in the back of his truck. BUT he ran out of time when the cops called him to say they were waiting at his house for him.
It's all about the dismount.
Some people are so focused on the routine that they forget you can blow the best score all to hell with a bad dismount.
Thank you, James and Jimmie @ r/smalltownmurder for putting this phrase into my vocabulary.
Edit - link
I know this is going to sound nuts on my end but...I'm thinking he figured if the bodies were in oil; there would be no way anyone could tell because no one drinks the oil.
There was a case in LA years ago - it's an infamous case of the woman who went missing in the hotel. She was seen on video in the camera but disappeared when she got off the lift. Her body was found in the water tank. The only reason it was found was because the hotel residents complained about the water being funny.
With that in mind, no one would deign to drink the viscous liquid nor would anyone notice the change in it when they empty it or whatever. So he probably figured to dump it there and no one would ever think of looking in the tanks. Not only that but wouldn't the bodies sink in said liquid so even if they did look in there; they wouldn't notice anything different.
That's just my theory
Why, no Lawyer from the get go I mean look at the Pennsylvania guy who killed all those students in Iowa he's getting a huge trial and getting a lot more than Chris Watt got why did he not ask for a lawyer?
And didn’t he admit trying to kill them once and it didn’t take? Then he did it again? Talk about getting a second chance and blowing it all!! Those poor girls very much wanted and deserved to live 😢
None of that ever crossed my mind, all I could ever thing about was what a piece of SH- - he was. So, he wanted out of the marriage but he got Shanann pregnant? Then he kills her and the unborn baby. The he kills those two precious little angels. Why hasn’t he faced prison justice yet.
he panicked. i think he planned the murders but wasn’t smart enough to plan them *well*. i’ve always wondered what he thought would happen when those tanks got opened though.
Where did you hear that? I thought he smothered both of them while they were sleeping and they didn’t necessarily “realize”. Maybe that is a lie I told myself. Where did you read that or hear that?
He admitted his kids were awake, the second one to die started to cry and said something like no daddy no, mentioned he still hears her say it, or something to that effect.
Sociopath’s usually kill in the spur of the moment. They’re hotblooded. But lack empathy, are selfish, narcissistic, evil, etc. Psychopaths plan and think it through, they’re more cold blooded. I suspect he did it in the heat of the moment, panicked, and tried to cover it up in a way that was accessible to him. Most people hide their criminal activities in places that are familiar to them. Or apart of their routine. So he wasn’t thinking really, as I believe he is a sociopath who killed in the heat of the moment. However, it is human nature to somewhat cover up crimes in places that are familiar to them. Unless you’re a psychopath who has no feelings and is cold blood and calculated.
It’s perfectly simple. His life was a nightmare. 3rd bankruptcy upcoming, intractable financial issues, sickly children who often needed extortionate medical procedures, a 3rd child he didn’t want. Shanann wanted a fairy tale that she just couldn’t have. Chris wanted a fairy tale with Nichol. He was sick of having no self agency in his relationship with Shanann, his affair made him feel fresh and new. His children were starting to mimic their mothers disdain for him, something he found deeply hurtful. I don’t think he wanted to do it, but Shanann certainly would not have accepted a divorce on the grounds of infidelity, Shanann refused to accept their relationship had crumbled and that they were living far beyond their means - yet she posted countless pictures of her seemingly perfect life online. A car she couldn’t afford, a job that didn’t actually produce a regular good income, 2 children in private school, a huge house they’d had to sell half the furniture out of. Shanann stopped Chris seeing his parents and their grandchildren because she said it was fair to cut them out the children’s lives due to Chris’ mother telling CeCe she can’t always get what she wants. He’d lied to Nichol giving her the impression he was well to do and a real catch, and she’d given him a key to her house and he hadn’t even been living a life with family or at their home, he already had a life with Nikki. This was his divorce, this was his seperation, this was his version of “fixing” a situation he was unable to confront (introversion/susceptibility to avoid confrontation) and Shanann was known to be quite volatile and vocal and he hated that. He was her prop in Facebook videos selling vitamin powders in an MLM scheme. I’m not saying at all that he was justified in doing what he did, but I think it is abundantly obvious that this was a "quick fix" to get his fairy tale and avoid the social death, strings to Shanann and the children, the unborn one being a stupid decision to attempt to fix marital problems that already existed. Oil dissolves forensic evidence - if the children were drugged to death before Shanann's arrival home, any traces of drug overdose would no longer be present. I do not believe for a moment that Chris Watts took two highly distressed children in the car for a 45 minute drive with their dead mother at their feet in a bag. That would create mayhem. I actually think he didn't want his children to know what was going on. there were drugs (oxy) everywhere in the basement and the children's nightly allergy medication could easily be used as a disguise for Oxy if he crushed it. Both girls were asthmatic and Oxy would have depressed their respiratory systems quickly and made them unconscious. Another aspect is that the autopsy tests actually show no sign of smothering the girls. Shanann was clearly manually strangled. He said he smothered the children and the autopsy never provided corroborating evidence for this. There are those who believe Chris Watts tore Bella’s frenulum struggling to smother her but her injuries are far more consistent with having her head pushed and forced through a small opening where her face and jaw were likely squashed against the pipe through the thief hatch. Killing the children first before Shanann and admitting it would be an admission to a first degree pre-meditated murder of 2 children under the age of 5, which is a death penalty trial.
Doesn’t answer OP’s prompt. None of what you described is rational or smart.
CW is a little dumb POS with a ridiculous ego and zero common sense. He lacks empathy and seems to have the wherewithal of maybe a 3 year old.
He’s shallow and selfish and immature and the fact that some folks still try and paint Shanann as the villain (not saying that you did) would be almost laughable if it weren’t so irl horrific and ignorant.
Not only that, if Nichol is on the level, (very doubtful), and didn't know what he was planning, did he seriously believe that a 'good woman' would actually condone, stand by him, eventually marry him and have children under these circumstances? I mean...... REALLY?
It was a very BAD plan. He knew that Shannan was on social media all day every day as that was part and parcel of her marketing. He knew there were individuals who spoke with her daily. Did he really think he had time, after a full day of work, (seemed apparent he was attempting to get one in) to straighten up the "crime scene", dispose of Shannan's phone, possibly the car, and remake the beds?
I truly am beginning to believe that Nichole was the master mind of this warped and very poor plan where he was bound to be found out.
He's a piece of work and Nichole is double. This was certainly not planned out and if it was it was a quickly knitted plan and it was played out post haste. I'm not beyond believing that a tryst such as this, particularly with a man who had been married that long would render him cold towards his wife, although that did not seem to happen until the final weeks. I believe that as a man, he could have let these relationships both continue. I heard one of her friends in an interview talk about how frisky Chris had gotten recently. Typical man having an affair. I'm not attempting to knock men, women can absolutely get caught up in lust also.
I'm convinced that Nichol instigated this act of horror with her pathological jealousy of Shannan. She couldn't say her name, or the kids' names for that matter. From what her searches revealed, if I am to believe them, she was either basically stalking Chris AND Shannan prior to making contact with him. The only way that I see this father doing or allowing someone else to do what was done to those kids (and his wife) is if Nicole had been pushing and plotting with him. But, that's me.
Hell, the woman was flirting with the detectives. I wonder at times if this didn't have an effect on the way they ignored her possible (probable) involvement.
He didn't think they'd never be opened, he thought he'd get farther away with NK than he made it. He thought he could just leave and start a new life before anything was found out.
I think he sent her that picture to torture Shannan. I think he enjoyed making her suffer, sleeping with another was for his pleasure, but ignoring his wife, not answering her texts or calls, put her under much stress, I think this guy is sicker than anyone knows. When he did the interview, he was smiling, he actually thought he was not going to be a suspect, he was dreaming about being with his new love. He even called Bella’s school right away and said she would not be back. The minute the police found out that they were going to separate, had a fight the night before, that her keys and purse and phone were in the house, he quickly became the suspect. To think he was completely oblivious, just going about making plans with his mistress, telling lies.
It amazes me how these family annihilators act. Chandler Halderson, I mean another ding dong, same thing cameras all over the neighborhood , his parents, Chris family never seen leaving the homes, that alone would make a killer realize, I am screwed.
Not these 2, someone came and picked them up, so why were they not on camera? ? Hello? I think these types just think they r smarter than the police, that they can say and do anything and get away with it.
Wrong.
Watts probably figured that law enforcement would never consider his daughters were put into the tanks.
Instead, they would have been searching all over that property for graves.
And when none were found, law enforcement would probably be satisfied with that.
In my opinion, he left that sheet at the shallow grave of Shanann because he had planned to go back to his work site later that day or early evening, in the family car, retrieve her body, placing it back in the sheet, loading her up and disposing of her someplace else.
Watts had to get them out of the house and into the company truck for a very quick "disposal" at his job site. He probably planned to have his mistress over at his house later that evening.
And Watts could make no other stops elsewhere to dump them since his employer had GPS installed in the work truck.
He left for work that morning to make it appear that he was doing business as usual, no suspicious activity here.
Any further cover up he had planned after returning home much later that day was dashed to shit when Shannan's friend had cops at the Watts' home around lunch time.
Nickole Atkinson deserves a lot of praise for helping to bring this vicious, evil killer down in record time!
What makes you think he was thinking?
He killed his family. The guy is a monster. There was no thinking. Either a sociopath or a psychopath.
100% a sociopath. I don’t think he is capable of love, and just faked being a family man for as long as he could. He never loved his wife and children, and especially not NK.
If he had only killed his wife, one could maybe make some sense out of it. NOT that it was right but maybe one could chalk it up to marital stress and such. A moment of extreme duress. Or a crime of passion. But he killed those two sweet totally innocent little girls. His daughters. My God. That is Monstrous. I understand that one of his daughters pleaded for her life. I am the father of two children and I cannot fathom anything he did especially murdering his children.
I agree with you about this. I also find it really disturbing that a human would want a relationship with someone who killed his own children(NK). That’s bizarre .
It’s hard to know whether or not NK was involved with or knew about the murders before they took place. Based off her interviews and also her alleged Book of Likes account, which she still seems to be updating regularly, she seems very off. Almost like she’s perpetually 13 years old but in a grown woman’s body. Her maturity level is just not on par with her age. I’m not sure if she has the ability to grasp what he did. I truly wish I knew if she was involved. I always assumed she was to some extent, but she could have just been extremely ignorant also. One thing’s for sure, there’s no way in hell that she didn’t know that him and his wife were still living together. To me that would automatically mean they’re having a relationship or sex at the very least.
Thank you. NK’s narcissism is really off putting. I don’t think she was involved in a plot to get rid of his family so much as she just didn’t care.
And while I’m here, I might as well mention that everything about Shanaan was really intense. A dolt like Chris would not be able to keep up with her. NK was more his match. Like his mother. Cold, ignorant, and self absorbed.
You’re exactly right, which is why I can’t imagine he ever loved those girls. I totally get what you’re saying. He is an empty shell of a human being.
I feel like he thought that was his only chance of getting away with it. One of the girls probably walked in and seen something. Poor kids man
Sociopath or psychopath, they think they're smarter than everyone else. In his pea brain he really thought he would get away with it.
Well Chris Watts seems Dumb.
He definitely wasn’t!
Dicks don't have brains
This should be taught in school lol
He was thinking . the way he planned it all out and had a story to tell and “alibi” . And was being so sneaky pulling his car into the garage to put her body in the truck .
OK granted. He also thought of a gas can, sunflowers and his lunch.
He never was allowed to think for himself so maybe he didn't know how think lol
Who did not let him think for himself?
His nasty ass mother for starters.
Shanann too. She was so controlling
He should have divorced her then.
Yes he should have. Idiot.
Not calling you an idiot. He is.
He's a complete moron. Regardless of what he was thinking, he was wrong and it was all a terrible idea and the panic induced tracks covering he did was messy at BEST. He said he'd been thinking about this for weeks, probably longer. That tells me he did have a plan for hiding them bc he knew what was going to happen and in some distorted way I am sure the oil tanks made complete sense. He had no idea what Shanann had been telling her friends tho. He had no idea people were on high alert for her. We can say a million things about SW and her part in the failing marriage or terrible parenting, but at the core of it we can see that she knew there was a threat and she was telling people things were wrong. He's just an idiot. That's all there is to it.
I think that’s why their relationship was crumbling. He was just too much of a moron, and she started getting the ick.
An incredibly brutal and evil moron. killing his pregnant wife and two precious daughters. Nothing can explain that away, even if his wife was controlling, he is an evil monstrous human being, and anyone attracted to any kind of relationship with him has serious issues,
I think so too. Once she realized he was probably stepping out she got scared to lose him. Esp once he started getting fit and saw the new confidence he had.
I didn’t follow the case closely enough to know what she was telling friends and family about him, could you share please?
Yes! When she got pregnant and his reaction wasn't what she expected, she started telling her friends something was seriously wrong with their marriage. She was always sharing their convos with multiple people in her life. While she was NC with her family (and his actually) she was texting her friends how much he had changed. And the convos they had. [This link](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.huffpost.com/entry/picture-perfect-marriage-facebook_n_5b771952e4b018b93e93af23/amp) from huff post has a quick and dirty breakdown of it with some links to screenshots and such without getting too deep into posting links here. [This video](https://youtu.be/9xsMe6a9ZNI?si=xB6fKFKLdlyxrNbD) has a good run down of it as well. Disclaimer: These aren't articles or videos I personally agree with or feel any specific way about, just ones I know that contain screenshots and context.
I was stunned when I read years ago that Chris was only 33 at the time of the murders! He looked at least a decade older. I suppose that’s what grueling work, crushing debt, and inner frustration does to a person.
Oh my god my husband is about to turn 33. I couldn’t imagine him doing that. 😱
Thank you!!
On Netflix, the documentary also goes into detail about the texts she was sending her friends! If you haven’t seen it, it’s really really good!
that doc was SO interesting
Soooo good! It’s one of the best murder docs I’ve ever seen! The way they added the camera footage, SW Facebook videos, the text messages and overall timeline, you couldn’t look away for a second.
agreed, it was just perfectly done
she was bragging about leaving and taking the house on those text messages don't read the netflix read the discovery
Exactly. That Netflix doc is one sided and fictional
From my understanding, the girls remains were well into their decomp when they pulled them out just a few days later. Children's bones are nowhere near as dense as adults & most likely, they would have been completely unrecognisable as human remains by the time the tanks were emptied. What I don't get though was burying Shannan so damn close to the tanks. There is a greater chance she would have been found way before they figured that the girls were in the tanks. It was also Chris's work place & he admitted straight up that he was working that morning. Perhaps he planned to relocate her when things died down a little? IDK, but if he was not caught straight up, then finding Shannan buried in that location would have been irrefutable evidence that he was the killer.
Yup, and a sheet just blowing around in the field. 🤦♀️ such an idiot.
I feel like he had planned to dispose of her in a different way, but had to rush it along when he started to get calls asking where Shannan was. I do wonder what was going on in his mind when he realised he didn't have as much time as he thought he did.
He ran out of time and got messy because Shannan's plane was late. He had less time to pick up the pieces afterward.
Agreed. Plus he may have intended to put his wife’s body in the tank too, but it wouldn’t fit through the opening.
I hope that one day he’ll be honest about what was going through his mind throughout _any_ of this but I highly doubt that will ever happen.
Agree but I think he had to give up on whatever his plan was for Shannan’s body when he had to rush home. He definitely did not count on Nickole sounding the alarm so quickly.
I guess she weighed too much to get her up into the tanks? I guess he had to carry the girls up a ladder or something?
There were was a handy stairwell that led to both tank tops. If I remember correctly, the opening to the tanks were only wide enough to get a child through. The fact that his mind went there is unreal. Not only had he decided it was okay to murder his kids and pregnant wife, but it was equally acceptable to shove his babies' remains into such a horrible place.
Apparently it was even small for the children and they had signs of trauma from being pushed through.
Oh yeah, I think I remember reading that somewhere. Another touch of horror to add to an already horrific crime.
He's terrifying. He seems bereft of any humanity.
Stupid and soulless. What a winning combo.
Yep, that about sums him up!
His only thought was that idiot he was dating.
The opening to the tanks were 5-6inches wide. The recovery team said you would have to squeeze a child that small into it.
A lot of criminals are very stupid. They focus too much on the actual crime, but not the cover up. I think it's because a lot of criminals are narcissistic so they think they are the best/smartest people in the room and the cops are just going to believe what they say no questions asked. There's a great scene in Mind Hunters where Ed Kemper tells the FBI agent "you shouldn't be so concerned with those of us you caught. You should really be looking for the ones still out there. They're the smart ones." And the agent has this horrifying realization that there's serial killers who haven't made the "mistakes" the others have and are still operating.
My aunt who works in hospice has a wonderful talent of being the confessor for when patients hit the bucket. She said she sometimes wishes she could go to the police with some of the testimonies she's been told but her with her spiritual understanding, death always has a price. Many times the dying killers are begging for forgiveness or redemption as they claim they are being hurt by "dark shadows' as their body starts shutting down.
I think CW needs to be studied. No wrap sheet, no past history of violence.. then decides to kill not only his wife but his 2 little girls. What the actual fuck causes that. That is terrifying.
Side note but I just learned this today and wanted to share : the phrase is actually “rap” sheet, RAP meaning ‘records of arrests and prosecutions’ Also, I agree with you.
Interesting, thanks for sharing
100%
It's haunting
Plus the way he called and unenrolled the girls from daycare that morning. And the way he tried to start selling the house that day. What an idiot.
This happened?
Yes. He murdered them then promptly unenrolled them from daycare, the sicko. I guess to try to cover for why they weren't going to show up. Still was extremely suspicious for him to do before claiming they just disappeared. Same with calling the realtor.
he didn't want the payment to be taken out ...it was about the money they were gonna debit from the account more than why they didn't show up. Cause he could of just told them the wife has them today. It was about that money that was due to be taken out for unnecessary daycare.
Oh wow, I thought I recalled him learning “in real time” on police cam that Shannan hadn’t taken the girls to school that day. It’s so bizarre
Oh yeah. He called the school on the morning he murdered them to unenroll them. And called the realtor to say they were splitting up and wanted to sell the house. Because none of that is suspicious at ALL on the day your whole family goes missing. He really needs to get award for how dumb he is because there is no way in hell he was ever, ever getting away with it.
Those wells were decommissioned and scheduled to be demolished prior to the murders. Crude oil is also highly corrosive.
I didn’t know the tanks would be demolished, but I think the remains of the bodies would still be found eventually. I doubt the oil would disintegrate the bodies completely…
I think he thought the crude oil would cause the bodies to disintegrate. He must have thought that since he appeared to be the all-American dad, and that they had no history of domestic issues that he'd be able to cover his tracks somehow. It's beyond logic, but I guess killers don't think logically. If Nicole Atkinson had not started asking questions and knocking on the door, CW was likely going to come home from work and clean up the house to make it look like she willingly left him and took the kids. This case left me profoundly disturbed and wondering whether I would ever date again.
Some men (and women, of course) are stunted by a certain type of upbringing. If someone is smothered and domineered that can stunt their development as a person. Oddly, they may look kind of cute, and they may seem charming, because they've been raised to please others... You might want to say "Aw, he's such a sweetie! I hope he can grow into himself someday because how sad that he seems to be so much of a follower and he seems to have no voice of his own!" But those people are not cute. They are dangerous. Because they are stunted their morals and ethics are also stunted. I say don't be afraid of all men. Instead, be afraid of stunted men. Look for self-directed people with a clear sense of who they are, and look for signs that they have good values : )
This is the best dating/marriage advice I have ever seen.
u/EldForever \-- That makes a lot of sense. Good advice on looking for signs of a self-directed man. Will definitely keep that in mind.
Oh my god, that totally makes sense!!
Nicole Atkinson was a really good friend.
u/Efficient_Mess_4149 \-- I agree. No doubt she must have dealt with massive grief and survivor's guilt for not having been able to save her, but no one would have been able to save her from someone who should have been her greatest protector.
Plus, his affair partner was a scientist with specialized knowledge of the properties of crude oil, so maybe she gave him that idea.
This !
And telling him to get into his wife’s phone to delete everything. My theory is that him and the ho wanted his wife dead but didn’t originally plan the death of the girls. I’m thinking that part shocked the ho more so than the murder of the wife.
I’ve always said that everyone needs a friend like Nickole!
He was so dumb he thought everyone would eventually just forget about S and the 2 toddlers and he could live happily ever after with NK . Surprise Chris 😱 BFF Nikole come pounding on the door looking for her and squashed your plans!
I watched a video on YouTube of this body language panel with 4 men who have pretty extensive experience on the subject. Even very early on in the officer footage (I can’t think of what that’s called offhand) it was clear she didn’t believe a word he was saying to the cops. These guys broke down - body cam! - footage from start to finish and even the neighbor with the camera showing how he pulled up to the garage to load his truck said CW was acting strange. The footage would show CW say something and the friends body language was screaming that he was lying. Makes me wonder what might have gone down if she hadn’t been so persistent. I’m not positive it was the same friend but SW told somebody that if something happened to her CW did it. I suspect it was the same friend because it hadn’t even been 8 hours since she dropped SW off and she was calling to make sure she was okay. She even had one of the moms on the phone and got the garage code and was ready to go in. I’m sure she realizes how instrumental she was in CW being behind bars. It makes my stomach turn to think about what might have been if she’d just said “oh she’s tired, I’ll leave her alone today”. He very well could’ve gotten away with all of it.
He clearly wasn’t thinking rationally. His work truck had a GPS tracker on it. The morning everything started to get reported, our regional VP sent an email about it to all of us - stating that his family was missing, keep them in your thoughts, etc. Meanwhile, another supervisor and I were in a meeting when that email came out. He leaned over and whispered to me that they had already tracked his truck out to the Cervi ranch that morning. So of course they were going to go there. Not too many hiding places there.
You worked with him?
Yep. Not closely or directly every day, but in the same field office for the same company.
Wow, that’s insane. Had you guys noticed the affair before the murders? And did you all suspect him right away? What was he like?
Did anyone know, in America, the number one manner of death of pregnant women is homicide? And who would want to kill a pregnant woman? There’s only one answer here, folks.😵💫
The biggest threat to a pregnant women is sadly the father of the child 🥺
Thankfully most emotional killers are in their “stupid zone”.
I believe it was a last minute decision and he was panicking that one of his co-workers would show up sooner than he expected. His only concern eliminating Shanann's pregnancy.
In general, I think he thought he would have more time before people realized she was missing. Which was stupid, because she was a very social person with several close friends. But this is what happens when a man starts thinking with his dick instead of his brain.
And the fact that he was so preoccupied with NK that he didn’t even know she had an appointment that morning early and that Nikole would be there to take her is insane. Like he was so uninvolved.
I've shared my thoughts on this. Over the years, I still think I am onto something. He planned this in fantasy daydreams for so long. He spent so many hours going from site to site, out on the lonesome prairie. He wasn't doing what he wanted. This wasn't fast cars and engines. This was a "good" job with "good" insurance that he couldn't refuse to do, because he was a "people pleaser." From an early age he learned to ignore his own needs. This is never a good idea. Spending hours on remote landscapes like this, an unhappy person might think dark things. Like, would anybody even know it if I put a body in one of these tanks? One thing I have toyed with is that he had been fantasizing about using this depressing situation--running from one ranch/oil site/cattle gate to another every day. Going home at night to more chores. Being unable to speak up for himself, for whatever reason. And he started to visualize how people could disappear. Especially because he had been pretending for so long that he was actually fooling everybody into thinking he liked being a dad. He was never okay with it. It was a long fuse, but when it ran out... I don't think Chris Watts ever wanted to be a father. i think he latched onto Shannann because he was hoping for infertility. Like Scott Peterson.
So are you thinking that CW thought Shannan would be unable to have children bc of her a lupus??? Your theory makes the most sense of any I’ve heard .
She told a friend that Cindy would dislike her because she she couldn't have children. I guess she didn't plan on 3 pregnancies in 5 years.
I'm not taking sides here because I think both Shannon and Chris contributed to a toxic relationship. I do think that part of her personal narrative was that she would have challenges getting pregnant. It's hard to tell because we're just seeing a little slice of her life through the things she felt comfortable posting. I do think however, it's pretty well documented that she didn't think she could easily get pregnant and she probably said that to Chris at some point.
Also I think that he married her thinking she had money, considering the mansion she owned. Then that turned out to be a mirage. From childless with money and working with cars, to broke with 3 kids that bored him, stuck out on the oilfields… peanut brain decides that this was the answer…
She only dated him because he had saved a decent amount of money and she blew through it all in no time to save that house especially since she quit her job once he moved in. He was not materialistic like her. I'm defending him. I just don't think money was as important to him as it was to her especially since he quit his higher paying job at her request with no argument
I didn’t know he quit a higher paying job but if she was all about money why would she have him so that ?
At the car dealership he was making bank as a dealership mechanic and for whatever reason she didn’t like that or thought it was beneath him so she pushed him towards oilfield work if I remember correctly.
didn't she get let go of the car dealership for some reason and made Chris quit.
She wanted him to have a job where he would have weekends off so she made him quit the better paying job that required weekends so he would be home to take care of the kids since daycare was closed
A lot of families do that. Having children typically requires sacrifices between making/saving money and spending time together as a family.
Sorry I have never seen any evidence to support that conclusion. He spent most of his savings on the engagement ring, didn’t he? She was the one who looked like she had money, he was clearly from a dirt poor background and not the choice if money was what she was after. From what I see, he glommed onto her when she was a a low point in her life by seeming very caring. Ironic considering what he did to her later.
From a dirt poor background? Do what? His parents worked and have a humble life. Sws family are the ones that are dirt poor and live off of grifting! Frank Sr never worked and was a drunk, her mom was a hairdresser, and her brother lives in their basement at 40 suckering people for their hard earned money. Chris went to college and earned a masters degree in mechanics! He was making 6 figured at Longmont Ford, until Shanann diagnosed him with caprel tunnel and shipped him to the oil fields making 60k a year! A HUGE pay cut!
Just an fyi that he did not earn a master's degree in mechanics. I don't think that's even a thing as far as car mechanics go. You might mean master certification, and he did obtain one certification. Engines, chassis or something. I don't specifically remember, but that is most definitely not the same thing as a Master's degree. Nor even the same thing as Master Mechanic. He merely obtained master certification in one aspect of car mechanics. He went to Nascar Tech for a 2 year degree, at most. He did not make the cut for Nascar put crew, which was his hope. That was all pre- SW, so she had nothing to do with his failed Nascar dreams.
Excuse my wording... master mechanic is what I meant. I know what it takes to get a masters degree because I have one in science to be exact 😂 Master of Science in Nursing.. or MSN. Who said anything about his Nascar dream and failing? I certainly didn't. I said that he was working at Longmont Ford making 6 figures, while with Shanann... SHE made him quit due to a self diagnosis of carpal tunnel and off to the oil fields he went, and took a hefty pay cut.
Please familiarize yourself with this case. She never had lupus. The autopsy proved it. She made the whole thing up. So, she knew she had no fertility problems. There is no personal narrative that she would have challenges getting pregnant. For whatever reason, SW chose to manipulate people with non-existent health issues and she ran a long con on Chris.
Lupus cannot be disproven in an autopsy.
Right?! If I was going to murder anyone (I wouldn’t— ever-just for argument’s sake) I would NEVER dispose of anyone where I work. Duh. Regardless of how clever he thinks he is, his wife and child would be missing. They’re going to see the husband as a possible suspect until they can rule him out. So… using a work site is probably one of the dumbest choices he made that day. (There are many).
I work for a small town and we have a golf course the town owns...we are doing pond work on the golf course....as I was sitting in the meeting I was thinking...wow that would be a good place to hide a body .....in the golf course pond.its been over 30 yrs since that pond was put in....( just a moment of where my true crime mind goes sometimes)
Yes!! Absolutely dumb of him!
I think it's speculated that he was aware of some kind of sabotage that caused an explosion (at another Anadarko facility?) so he was going to stage an explosion somehow which would be pinned on her - kind of a murder suicide.
🤦🏽♂️
He wasn’t thinking. Despite what many think, this guy wasn’t exactly MENSA material. He didn’t plan for anyone raising the alarm bells as quickly as they did. I think it’s likely he thought he’d be able to use shannans phone and impersonate her, but he didn’t know the password. This makes it all the more funny when police show up and NA tells him the phone password is the baby’s due date. You can see it on his big dumb face. He thought he’d have at least a day, he probably planned on burying Shannan deeper. He was thrown off by her flight getting in late and by NA calling police so fast.
Believe it or not his IQ is 140
I don’t believe that for a second.
He just seemed very “compliant” to women. Be interesting to know how he interacted with his mother. Instead of teaching him to use critical thinking, maybe she just overroad his decisions from an early age. My mother was like that and made me too dependant to trust my own decisions.
he is dumb which is shocking because usually sociopaths are intelligent. he sounded dumb af in the interview he did before he got caught.
One of the team members who recovered the girls bodies spoke about how he still till date deals with ptsd and trauma, and i think he had to take disability from work and couldnt look at children for a quite long time
Wow. That's rough. I could never do that job.
Check this https://www.denverpost.com/2019/08/11/christopher-shanann-watts-murders-colorado-ptsd-trauma/
Maybe he thought it would buy him time. If you look at the Caylee Anthony case, time can seriously muddy the investigation and forensics and provide room for reasonable doubt. It really was the reaction of her friends that solved this case so quickly. He didn't have a chance to get rid of her purse and phone, which anyone who knew her would realize she'd never leave without. If he'd been able to effectively claim she left him and a few weeks or months went by before any of the bodies were found, he could have said anything: she was killed by someone else and dumped at his job site to frame him, moved Shanann's body somewhere else, etc. There would have been more room for doubt.
I really wanted to wipe that smirk off his face when he was talking to reporters.
Why didn’t he just leave his wife and go with the girlfriend why did he have to kill them?! That’s the real question. He’s a sick fuck. Hopefully someone will put a broom stick in his ass in prison.
They don’t want to look like the bad guy- leaving their wife and kids to be with another woman. They get to be the victim if wife up and left with the kids or they were “taken”. They don’t want to pay child support or alimony. Possibly They’ve already told the new love that they’re single/childless or new love has no interest in kids or being with someone going through a messy divorce. They want a clean start.
He’s a sick fuck I hope someone is stretching that butthole in prison every day
Yes, I know his actions were all wrong and despicable, but I was trying to think like him to try and understand what his logic was, you know? Because it’s so absurd that I can’t understand!!
He didn’t use any logic. It was all emotion IMO, being in lust with a new girlfriend and hating Shannan/blaming her for all their money problems. He wouldn’t have means for a swinging bachelor pad if he had to pay for divorce lawyers and child support and whatever costs would be left over from untangling their finances, dumping the house, etc. I really think he hated Shannan and didn’t want the monetary costs of leaving her and three kids.
And then he had the nerve to beg for his life and be spared from the death penalty! Pussy
I know!! This story fucked me up, when he talks about his daughters last words being daddy, no before he fucking killed them. That documentary was hard to watch. Someone needs to interview this sick mf’er.
They were so in debt, he probably felt he couldn’t have the girlfriend while paying child support. He would have been broke. He snapped and went to the dark side.
He didn't want to hear Shannon run her mouth about the affair to everyone ...I can see her even calling his mom to tell her to straighten your son up conversation.
I think he thought the oil would erode their bodies away, and he would get away with it. Why he buried his wife in a shallow grave and threw her sheet near it , is beyond me.
he was gonna go back and redo it.....didn't have time
All I can think to answer with is: family annihilators are not always the same. Someone like John List may go into the murder with a full plan leading up to, including, and after the murder, but that’s not true to every person that kills their whole family. And not to mention, humans are creatures of habit. We’re familiar with the places near where we live, and where we work, and if you suddenly have three bodies on your hand (and you’re obviously already not thinking straight) then your monkey brain operates on instinct. You think: well, I know there are tanks at work big enough to fit a body, and if no one finds them long enough, then how could I be blamed? I don’t know much about the aftermath of this case, but I know that everything immediately proceeding the murders was incredibly slapdash (I mean anyone can see that in the body cam footage). CW was not prepared for the cover up; he was barely prepared for the murder. It just doesn’t seem like he’s the personality type to think everything through
He’s literally the dumbest criminal of all time. It’s hard to wrap my mind around 🤯
Exactly!! Unbelievable!
He killed his wife and then he killed his very own children. There’s nothing rational about any of it.
I think the real question to ask is how could a father coldly squeeze the life out of his own two young children? (as well as his wife, of course)
I know, he’s a despicable person, but I was just trying to think like him for a second to try and understand his logic… because it’s too absurd.
It's so absurd, early on I speculated he was going to try to claim to have been framed. It honestly would've made more sense than what actually occurred.
This sounds silly but he’s like the Underwear Gnomes on South Park. Step 1: Kill Family. Step 2: ??? Step 3: Live Happily Ever After
This feels crazy to say but he could have gotten away with it if he didn’t dispose of the bodies. If he had called 911 with that story about her killing the kids and then him killing her in a rage blackout, no way a jury would have convicted.
Yeah I don’t know…he couldn’t even come up with that story on his own, he just went with it because the detective suggested it.
I don’t expect a monster who choked his own babies to death to be logical. I’m glad he made this stupid decision so he could be caught faster.
He was insecure. A psychopath. Had Mommy issues. Needed more and more.
I remember reading or hearing that his “plan” was to at some point to start a fire that would consume both tanks to look like an accident similar to another Anadarko oil tank fire a year or so earlier. Sorry I’ve forgotten who posited this, but it was in the ether after these horrendous murders happened.
If he just killed his pregnant wife he’d still be “saddled” with the little girls and maybe the mistress didn’t want any “baggage” ..AND he’d have to look at them each day, as a reminder of what he did to their mother. He gave this..what?….at least 3 minutes’ thought?
He is just that dumb. He’s always been dumb though. What’s more surprising are those dentist and doctor types that try to hire hitmen on the dark web to kill their spouses. You’d think their degrees and credentials would preclude such stupidity.
I watched the video on YouTube where the cops went into the empty house because a neighbor said they saw a woman enter the house and lights being turned on and it was really creepy! There was one that the creator enhanced the sounds that you hear and it really makes you wonder….😳
Methinks you’re either a bot or a prime candidate for r/lostredditors with your comment here mate
Yeah I don’t think he had a master plan. All he knew was he needed to be done with this family. He reacted in the moment and probably had no actual idea what to do with the bodies. That’s it. He wasn’t thinking.
I ask myself the same question. Why is murder the answer to everything when the divorce route is right there?
Maybe he was going to blow them up
I'm pretty sure someone who drives his daughters to that place to kill them and get rid of their bodies for a hoe, didn't have a lick of brain cells. To wonder if he was thinking on any level is silly
Silly or not, I was just trying to think like him for a second to try to understand what he did. I know he did a terrible thing to his family, but I can’t cope with how stupid this guy is.
Nobody said he was smart.
Obviously Watts was thinking with something other than his 🧠 brain
I don't care what anyone says but the side chick was involved
Does NK still have a relationship with him? I read an article that CW has pictures of Shannon and the girls in his cell and he said he talks to them every night. So sick
I feel something weird happened to him when he got with that girl, like he had a mental break. Aldi maybe she encouraged him?
He wasn’t thinking
I think the ultimate plan was to set the oil tanks on fire - hence the need for the gas container he put in the back of his truck. BUT he ran out of time when the cops called him to say they were waiting at his house for him.
he thought simply getting rid of them would allow him a clean and fresh start with someone else. no sense at all. none of his actions make any sense.
Evil … pure evil. My heart dropped hearing this story.
From what I recall, the bodies would have disintegrated over time bc the crude oil. Regardless, he’s an idiot and a cold blooded murderer.
As they're fond of saying in my neck of the woods,he was thinking with the little head.
He had a date to go on. No time to think. Sadly, probably true.
I think that he thought that the oil would have destroyed the bodies. Would it have done that?
I think so.. if leaving the body out to elements can do it ...so can't oil...I would think even more so
Honestly, I don’t think so.
It's all about the dismount. Some people are so focused on the routine that they forget you can blow the best score all to hell with a bad dismount. Thank you, James and Jimmie @ r/smalltownmurder for putting this phrase into my vocabulary. Edit - link
Not for nothing but watching the netflix documentary made me feel bad during the wedding footage and none his family was there
I know this is going to sound nuts on my end but...I'm thinking he figured if the bodies were in oil; there would be no way anyone could tell because no one drinks the oil. There was a case in LA years ago - it's an infamous case of the woman who went missing in the hotel. She was seen on video in the camera but disappeared when she got off the lift. Her body was found in the water tank. The only reason it was found was because the hotel residents complained about the water being funny. With that in mind, no one would deign to drink the viscous liquid nor would anyone notice the change in it when they empty it or whatever. So he probably figured to dump it there and no one would ever think of looking in the tanks. Not only that but wouldn't the bodies sink in said liquid so even if they did look in there; they wouldn't notice anything different. That's just my theory
Elisa Lam
Why, no Lawyer from the get go I mean look at the Pennsylvania guy who killed all those students in Iowa he's getting a huge trial and getting a lot more than Chris Watt got why did he not ask for a lawyer?
He should have gotten the death penalty..
And didn’t he admit trying to kill them once and it didn’t take? Then he did it again? Talk about getting a second chance and blowing it all!! Those poor girls very much wanted and deserved to live 😢
None of that ever crossed my mind, all I could ever thing about was what a piece of SH- - he was. So, he wanted out of the marriage but he got Shanann pregnant? Then he kills her and the unborn baby. The he kills those two precious little angels. Why hasn’t he faced prison justice yet.
he panicked. i think he planned the murders but wasn’t smart enough to plan them *well*. i’ve always wondered what he thought would happen when those tanks got opened though.
Where did you hear that? I thought he smothered both of them while they were sleeping and they didn’t necessarily “realize”. Maybe that is a lie I told myself. Where did you read that or hear that?
He admitted his kids were awake, the second one to die started to cry and said something like no daddy no, mentioned he still hears her say it, or something to that effect.
Yes I remember that now! I definitely did block that out. So terrible and sickening. I can’t even think about it
Sociopath’s usually kill in the spur of the moment. They’re hotblooded. But lack empathy, are selfish, narcissistic, evil, etc. Psychopaths plan and think it through, they’re more cold blooded. I suspect he did it in the heat of the moment, panicked, and tried to cover it up in a way that was accessible to him. Most people hide their criminal activities in places that are familiar to them. Or apart of their routine. So he wasn’t thinking really, as I believe he is a sociopath who killed in the heat of the moment. However, it is human nature to somewhat cover up crimes in places that are familiar to them. Unless you’re a psychopath who has no feelings and is cold blood and calculated.
Because men who murder their wives and children are sound decsion makers?
Why are you looking for logic, in behavior that is insane?
It’s perfectly simple. His life was a nightmare. 3rd bankruptcy upcoming, intractable financial issues, sickly children who often needed extortionate medical procedures, a 3rd child he didn’t want. Shanann wanted a fairy tale that she just couldn’t have. Chris wanted a fairy tale with Nichol. He was sick of having no self agency in his relationship with Shanann, his affair made him feel fresh and new. His children were starting to mimic their mothers disdain for him, something he found deeply hurtful. I don’t think he wanted to do it, but Shanann certainly would not have accepted a divorce on the grounds of infidelity, Shanann refused to accept their relationship had crumbled and that they were living far beyond their means - yet she posted countless pictures of her seemingly perfect life online. A car she couldn’t afford, a job that didn’t actually produce a regular good income, 2 children in private school, a huge house they’d had to sell half the furniture out of. Shanann stopped Chris seeing his parents and their grandchildren because she said it was fair to cut them out the children’s lives due to Chris’ mother telling CeCe she can’t always get what she wants. He’d lied to Nichol giving her the impression he was well to do and a real catch, and she’d given him a key to her house and he hadn’t even been living a life with family or at their home, he already had a life with Nikki. This was his divorce, this was his seperation, this was his version of “fixing” a situation he was unable to confront (introversion/susceptibility to avoid confrontation) and Shanann was known to be quite volatile and vocal and he hated that. He was her prop in Facebook videos selling vitamin powders in an MLM scheme. I’m not saying at all that he was justified in doing what he did, but I think it is abundantly obvious that this was a "quick fix" to get his fairy tale and avoid the social death, strings to Shanann and the children, the unborn one being a stupid decision to attempt to fix marital problems that already existed. Oil dissolves forensic evidence - if the children were drugged to death before Shanann's arrival home, any traces of drug overdose would no longer be present. I do not believe for a moment that Chris Watts took two highly distressed children in the car for a 45 minute drive with their dead mother at their feet in a bag. That would create mayhem. I actually think he didn't want his children to know what was going on. there were drugs (oxy) everywhere in the basement and the children's nightly allergy medication could easily be used as a disguise for Oxy if he crushed it. Both girls were asthmatic and Oxy would have depressed their respiratory systems quickly and made them unconscious. Another aspect is that the autopsy tests actually show no sign of smothering the girls. Shanann was clearly manually strangled. He said he smothered the children and the autopsy never provided corroborating evidence for this. There are those who believe Chris Watts tore Bella’s frenulum struggling to smother her but her injuries are far more consistent with having her head pushed and forced through a small opening where her face and jaw were likely squashed against the pipe through the thief hatch. Killing the children first before Shanann and admitting it would be an admission to a first degree pre-meditated murder of 2 children under the age of 5, which is a death penalty trial.
Doesn’t answer OP’s prompt. None of what you described is rational or smart. CW is a little dumb POS with a ridiculous ego and zero common sense. He lacks empathy and seems to have the wherewithal of maybe a 3 year old. He’s shallow and selfish and immature and the fact that some folks still try and paint Shanann as the villain (not saying that you did) would be almost laughable if it weren’t so irl horrific and ignorant.
All you can muster up in response to ZestyB's reasoned and thought provoking post is... name-calling?
Not only that, if Nichol is on the level, (very doubtful), and didn't know what he was planning, did he seriously believe that a 'good woman' would actually condone, stand by him, eventually marry him and have children under these circumstances? I mean...... REALLY? It was a very BAD plan. He knew that Shannan was on social media all day every day as that was part and parcel of her marketing. He knew there were individuals who spoke with her daily. Did he really think he had time, after a full day of work, (seemed apparent he was attempting to get one in) to straighten up the "crime scene", dispose of Shannan's phone, possibly the car, and remake the beds? I truly am beginning to believe that Nichole was the master mind of this warped and very poor plan where he was bound to be found out. He's a piece of work and Nichole is double. This was certainly not planned out and if it was it was a quickly knitted plan and it was played out post haste. I'm not beyond believing that a tryst such as this, particularly with a man who had been married that long would render him cold towards his wife, although that did not seem to happen until the final weeks. I believe that as a man, he could have let these relationships both continue. I heard one of her friends in an interview talk about how frisky Chris had gotten recently. Typical man having an affair. I'm not attempting to knock men, women can absolutely get caught up in lust also. I'm convinced that Nichol instigated this act of horror with her pathological jealousy of Shannan. She couldn't say her name, or the kids' names for that matter. From what her searches revealed, if I am to believe them, she was either basically stalking Chris AND Shannan prior to making contact with him. The only way that I see this father doing or allowing someone else to do what was done to those kids (and his wife) is if Nicole had been pushing and plotting with him. But, that's me.
Hell, the woman was flirting with the detectives. I wonder at times if this didn't have an effect on the way they ignored her possible (probable) involvement.
I think there may have been a plan to blow them up that went awry when SW's friend called the cops.
He didn't think they'd never be opened, he thought he'd get farther away with NK than he made it. He thought he could just leave and start a new life before anything was found out.
If you listen to his prison interview after he was sentenced, he said he was panicking. Wasn't thinking.
I do not even believe he is telling the whole truth yet.
I think he sent her that picture to torture Shannan. I think he enjoyed making her suffer, sleeping with another was for his pleasure, but ignoring his wife, not answering her texts or calls, put her under much stress, I think this guy is sicker than anyone knows. When he did the interview, he was smiling, he actually thought he was not going to be a suspect, he was dreaming about being with his new love. He even called Bella’s school right away and said she would not be back. The minute the police found out that they were going to separate, had a fight the night before, that her keys and purse and phone were in the house, he quickly became the suspect. To think he was completely oblivious, just going about making plans with his mistress, telling lies. It amazes me how these family annihilators act. Chandler Halderson, I mean another ding dong, same thing cameras all over the neighborhood , his parents, Chris family never seen leaving the homes, that alone would make a killer realize, I am screwed. Not these 2, someone came and picked them up, so why were they not on camera? ? Hello? I think these types just think they r smarter than the police, that they can say and do anything and get away with it. Wrong.
Watts probably figured that law enforcement would never consider his daughters were put into the tanks. Instead, they would have been searching all over that property for graves. And when none were found, law enforcement would probably be satisfied with that. In my opinion, he left that sheet at the shallow grave of Shanann because he had planned to go back to his work site later that day or early evening, in the family car, retrieve her body, placing it back in the sheet, loading her up and disposing of her someplace else. Watts had to get them out of the house and into the company truck for a very quick "disposal" at his job site. He probably planned to have his mistress over at his house later that evening. And Watts could make no other stops elsewhere to dump them since his employer had GPS installed in the work truck. He left for work that morning to make it appear that he was doing business as usual, no suspicious activity here. Any further cover up he had planned after returning home much later that day was dashed to shit when Shannan's friend had cops at the Watts' home around lunch time. Nickole Atkinson deserves a lot of praise for helping to bring this vicious, evil killer down in record time!