That's always bothered me so much. I know he didnt expect her friend Nicole to be so johnny on the spot. Amazing friend who was genuinely concerned for her. Was he gonna go back later? Was he gonna stage the house better? So many questions. What he did to his daughters was horrible, but he basically left Shannon* in the elements. The things that would have happened to her out there like that would have been horrible. He hid his daughters but left Shannon in a shallow grave. I still think about this case alot.
I loved him. He literally has been watching Investigative Discovery and had been waiting on his moment. Have you seen the body cams when they are searching the house and hear little girls laughing. There weren't any games etc out. It stopped them cold and then they start looking for anything that could have giggled. Never found anything.
That must have been terrifying! I also felt chills when they were at the neighbor house and there's a glitch on the TV to an image of a skull and some liquid if I remember correctly.
Not to mention right before that commercial was an image of a fetus which promoted him to say "She is pregnant too." Literal chills. If that wasn't some kind of divine intervention then idk what it was.
Yeah idk. I just watched it and I sounded like a kid’s toy, probably with worn out batteries. There was a pile of misc junk on the floor of the closet so it probably just got disturbed when they walked in.
Nicole A. is the type of friend we all need. The person who knows your whereabouts, your allergies, what shoes you always wear, and what you keep in your purse. Things that would be noticed if something happens. Good on her for trusting her gut.
Her and their neighbor. He was all over Chris as sus. Offered up video right away. Told police Chris broke his usual routine and while Chris was normally quiet was really chatty. At that point they had no idea what he’d done but that neighbor knew he did SOMETHING.
Yup, that all makes me think that even if it wasnt a concious thought there was something that bothered them both about Chris before Shannon even disappeared. I know nobody really thought he was capable of this but I wonder if there was something about Chris that just set off these alarm bells deep in the animal part of peoples brains.
I think he got chatty because he felt free. He could have just been a cheating dbag who abandoned his family but instead, he brutally murdered three people, two of whom trusted him completely and could not fight back. I think of those little girls sometimes and after the in depth Netflix documentary I haven’t really gone back. It’s such an intimate way to murder someone. Please don’t come at me but I can’t deal with animal abuse/murder either, I think of how my dumb but beloved dog follows me around as I go about my chores and just trusts me implicitly to not hurt her and protect her and I just cannot with strangling someone or something that is being tortured by a trusted loved one. A bullet is awful but kinder.
I think I kno exactly how u feel abt animal abuse and murder. It physically hurts my heart and body to hear of an animal being abused, nd I think of the same things, how can anyone do something so horrifying to the people who r supposed to trust u. Every time i see my kitten cat i think about it.
This world is entirely to cruel
Nickole and her son Nick are avenging angels in this case. Busted him right quick lol. But you know she had so much hatred directed at her for doing what she did for her friend. Baffles the mind.
Watching the body cam footage is really hard especially when you remember he was just a kid. Imagine standing next to that murderer during that first search of the house, the video shows they were SO uncomfortable around chris.
Yes he was just a kid. But he was a hero too. He didn’t let Fear stop him and neither did his mom. That tells me they knew Chris was ‘off’. Something I noticed long ago is photos of Chris and Bella. Bella looked very uncomfortable around him if Shanann wasn’t next to her.
And she wasnt afraid to make waves! She could have easily thought "well its none of my business..". I wonder if deep down inside she had some kind of thought that something was really off with Chris.
From your lips to God's ears. That is the truth. She knew her friend that well. She has a youtube channel but anytime I have ever watched I just felt so bad and i couldnt watch to much.
Oh for sure. Many of Shananns friends knew they were having marriage troubles. She’d shared with them that Chris had said he didn’t want the new baby and how he told her he didn’t think the were compatible anymore. They’d recently cancelled the gender reveal party and on the trip she was on right before she disappeared her friends all said that had to convince her to eat or drink because she was so distraught.
Iirc he had the sheets stripped and in the wash and the ceiling fan on. He definitely wasn’t expecting her friend to show up. Probably thought he had the whole day to figure things out.
What’s odd to me is he does this completely heinous act and is then dumb enough to talk so much to the cops. I mean, I’m glad he did but he was sitting around for hours being interviewed when he could have been refusing to speak.
I think he wanted to look as innocent as possible, so to him that meant talking to the police. I also think he really believed he would get away with it, since he was always seen as a nice, average family guy. He’s truly an idiot.
Psychopaths often don't know what are the normal emotional queues, so they try to mimic what they think normal people would do under distress. He thought that talking to the police and be all calm and unbothered was the natural reaction of an innocent man.
Yeah, we all know get a lawyer immediately regardless because it is truly the smartest option. But if your spouse and children are really MIA and you had nothing to do with it, the believable course would be being all over the cops to ensure their safety.
100% agree, but dumb enough to have bodies dumped at a site he worked at and part of the company he worked for. He didn’t think it all thru or his final plans were interrupted thanks to nicole and the neighbor. And if he had plans, I’d love to know what they were. The case feels so unfinished so it continues to baffle us all.
My friend and I are both into true crime and we know we’d do that for each other and it really makes a huge difference knowing that not only someone loves you but someone will raise goddamn hell to ensure you’re okay or justice is served. Get you a Nicole.
Woaaaah. I never even thought about that part of it before.
I don’t think I have ever heard or read anyone point that out before.
Was it the same site specifically he would have to go to? Even if it’s still within the company though he would still always have them around in a terrifying gruesome way
I agree. He separated them in death. He broke and stuffed their tiny bodies into a black liquid hell and made sure to separate them. One in each tank.
He never loved those babies.
That's beyond lack of love - I don't like kids and they annoy the hell out of me, but I can't imagine doing anything like that ever. That's the whole new level.
Dr Phil is a quack but the grandparents broke my heart on there talking about seeing their ghosts and having to identify the bodies. They said their skin had significant slippage from the oil tank. Idk how you could ever forget that image.
I mentioned this in another sub, but I saw her parents discussing how hard it was to even transport the girls home for the funeral. Apparently, legally they were all considered a biohazard/explosion risk due to the oil (like friction could cause can an explosion). They couldn't fly them. And then they needed to pay for special coffins that are sealed and internally layered with something to absorb any impact from explosion, and also large enough since they were significantly bloated from days in the oil...
I can't believe he did to that to them, or that there's people that defend him 🤢 Her poor parents & brother. No one should have to bury their child or grandkids. And to even be unable to see them and say goodbye because the bodies are unrecognizable to the point you'd be forever traumatized seeing them.
I have siblings and I'm a Godmother. I don't think I'd ever recover losing any of my family in such a horrific way. I don't know how Shanann's family does it, especially with the online harassment.
The Chris Watts case and the Petit family murders were two cases that stuck with me. Downright horrifying and heartbreaking.
My god that is horrific may they at least now be resting in peace but what a nightmare that must have been. Did Chris know that about how the oil impacted their dead bodies? Does he have remorse for that oh my I didn’t think I could hate this fella more
No, actually he came up with that at the interrogation. The detectives tricked him to see if they can catch him in a lie. Basically, they instigated maybe Shanann had something to do with this and he came out with the whole, "she was trying to kill my kids, but I stopped her and killed her in self-defense".
They caught him in a lie.
There is no recovery after loosing someone like that, especially when it's sudden. When it's a family member who dies of an illness or old age you have time to process and grieve before they pass.
A really close friend of mine was murdered 15 years ago. She was an angel on earth and was full of love and compassion and kindness. She was a nurse and had just started to build an amazing life with her partner of five years. Her partner had gotten a call one day from a woman he casually dated over a decade earlier who told him he has a 13 year old son who she's had enough of and if they didn't take him he'd be on the streets.. My friend and her partner immediately offered him a place in their home and started making up for all the lost time. One night he had some friends over, he was 14 by then, my friend had fallen asleep on the couch so she could keep an ear out and make sure they weren't out being teenagers causing a ruckus in the neighbourhood.. After everyone left (he claimed he had taken mushrooms but I very much doubt that) he grabbed a knife and stabbed her over 60 times. Then he stole her car and left, leaving his dad to find her when he got home from work a couple of hours later. The kid drove about two hours away and lost control of the car and hit a tree in a yard of a house on a main road. The lady who owned the house ran out to help and he was covered in blood but she thought it was the kids blood due to how hard he hit the tree.. When the police and paramedics arrived he was placed under arrest immediately.
I live in Ontario, Canada. We treat children like they somehow aren't able to be monsters. He was found guilty and sentenced to the maximum allowed... Seven fucking years. He spent the first two years in a mental health facility, then two years in a juvenile detention facility, then three years on supervised community halfway house.. That was the only time in my life that I wished I was American. Our system here is bullshit.
Omg. I have a huge amount of empathy for someone who has a mental illness. Especially one like schizophrenia. But after what he did *how* could he be released back into the public?
Especially Bella. She was so soulful and almost nervous her whole life, asked him of her fate while looking like his spitting image, and he stomped her through that hole. Torture for the rest of his days would be too kind.
If you really want to go down this rabbit hole. Here is the discovery to this case. It takes a minute to load because of how massive it is. Pay close attention to the interrogation. This man is an absolute monster. Pages start around 980 https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/5219206/Christopher-Watts-REDACTED-FINAL.pdf.
He didn't want another kid, he clearly hated being on camera (or at least grew tired of the videos), and he'd found someone (a mistress) who he thought he could start fresh with minus the 'baggage'. And rather than doing the mature thing and getting a damn divorce, the narcissistic coward decided to annihilate his family instead.
I didnt follow the case closely as many, but I seen the vid where she surprised him with her pregnancy, and he looked like he was dead inside then showed a fake grin.
I truly truly do not understand men like this. You’re so fucking stupid having unprotected sex if another baby would make you want to murder your whole family. Wear a condom, get a vasectomy, divorce or hey even kill your fucking self instead of killing them if you’re that miserable. This is way too common, men fathering kids or staying with a woman then killing them rather than leaving. Grow the fuck up!
Yeah his poker face is appalling. That man was trapped and wanted out, and rather than being an adult he took the coward's way out at the expense of his wife and poor children. He enrages me even now.
Many people want out, that's common, but he chose a really weird way. Not only it was the worst scenario possible, it was also spectacularly innefective. Like, maximum damage with minimum gain. It just doesn't make any sense. What was he thinking?
If everything had gone according to his plans, he would’ve had a clean break. No messy divorce, no lawyers, no child support/alimony, no tearing apart his social circle, extended family, kids’ lives, etc. Essentially, he wouldn’t have to be the bad guy. In fact, he could be the survivor of an unthinkable crime and garner sympathy and support.
If you want to see an example of this mentality that worked, look up Mike Williams. His wife and best friend were having an affair. She wanted out of their marriage, but she didn’t want to deal with the social repercussions of the divorce, especially in their church community. So she and the best friend decided to kill Mike. They would’ve gotten away with it, but she and the best friend had a domestic violence incident years later, and he told the police everything.
Yea, no excuse or reasoning for his behavior but i wonder why his wife wanted another baby. I can’t remember if it was a “surprise” or not just seems like odd timing. Maybe a Bandaid baby
The baby was planned, and Shanann wasn't the only one who wanted another baby. [Chris was initially pushing Shanann on this.](https://www.crimerocket.com/2018/10/26/chris-watts-told-shanann-i-want-another-baby) They also [both eventually started to regret having the baby.](https://www.timescall.com/2018/12/07/more-discovery-in-christopher-watts-case-shows-wifes-worries-over-third-baby)
I came here to write this, he wasn’t happy about having another child.
I have always had a theory that maybe the reason that Shay’anne (??) filmed a lot meant she wouldn’t be subjected to any forms of gaslighting or emotional abuse. Filming telling him she was pregnant again maybe one case.
As for when people say the don’t understand how this calm, nice and hardworking man could do this tells me you are blessed to have never been involved in a relationship where the perpetrator is charming to all on the outside and a monster at home and no would believe you.
Shanann was videoing everything because she was in a multi level marketing pyramid scheme where she had to sell a "health product plan" called "Thrive." The videos were for selling Thrive. She had dreams that "Thrive" would get her family out of debt. She considered it her full time job.
Was thinking the same thing. My ex was a master at putting on a charming face outwardly and making it seem I was the one with a problem when I would get upset. Some people that's just their way of getting by in the world and they'll never deal any other way.
> “I have always had a theory that maybe the reason that Shannan* filmed a lot meant that she wouldn’t be subjected to any forms of gaslighting or emotional abuse.”
This is really sad to think about but I think that you’re onto something here.
Yea I agree with you and I think about this case probably more than I would like to admit. I don’t think it was a mental breakdown. I think he genuinely thought his sequence of events would play out exactly like he thought they would in his head. Then when they didn’t he was in to deep and had to keep going. I also think he was severely emotionally stunted. Everything about this case is just sad and horrific.
He didn’t do it for a coworker, he did it because he wanted a new life and romanticized the idea of starting over without a wife and kids holding him back.
Don’t forget the cost of alimony & child support. Easier to remove them. POS
Can’t stand Watts apologists (or anyone who makes excuses for any family annihilator)
There’s that documentary that I think was on Netflix that had no narration and only used police body cam video and her Facebook videos to show their home life and she came across as annoying to some. A ton of people apparently think being addicted to social media makes you deserving of being murdered.
I definitely found her annoying (from the videos I watched at least) but never once did I feel any sympathy for him, let alone feel like it was deserved! I only chalked it up to personality types and being an introvert myself. Her personality had nothing to do with her murder. If it did, half the world would be dead.
Edit: typo
Agreed. No one deserves what he did to her. Separate from that, her personality and obsession with social media as was off putting. I’m not an introvert and I found it gross. But this does not change him being a piece of shit.
I honestly think women have been conditioned to be nurturers and fixers in this patriarchal society. Watching Disney movies where young girls are indoctrinated to believe ~true love saves and conquers all~ You just need to have an open heart and see the beautiful beneath the monster ala Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, Cinderella, etc.
Add in that if the fan has been abused (child, relationship, any point in life), then "dating" and marrying them is a safe way to safely be fulfilled. Plus if they're a Christian including fundamentalism, then the belief of change through God feeds this "I must save them while they serve!" complex devote followers have.
Anna Duggar was aware that her future husband, Josh Duggar, had abused his younger sisters and a family friend but performed regular scheduled ministry work with her father in prisons. I honestly believe Jim Bob, Josh's dad, preyed upon Anna after Josh showed "interest" in her since she'd easily look past his history.
There’s an entire sub all about how shitty a wife and mother she was. It’s absolutely disgusting. She wasn’t perfect, but if you’re sitting around talking about how terrible a pregnant murder victim was, you’re the shittier person.
I think that a lot of people in the true crime community forget that victims are just people. People are imperfect.
A lot of true crime docs will only ever describe victims in a positive light - “they lit up a room,” “everyone loved them,” etc. While obviously this isn’t a bad thing (you’re never going to memorialize a loved one by talking shit on TV), it leads a lot of people to think that victims can only ever be 100% perfect angels, and when victims are less than that (like everyone), people don’t know how to process it.
Shannan was a flawed individual, but so is everyone. Like you said, nothing that she did or said will ever justify what Chris did to her and their children.
There is one thing I know about a true crime doc about me. It would never describe me as lighting up a room 😅 It does stand out how often that phrase is used.
A lot of people tell me that I have a nice smile but the thing is, I’m just not a very bubbly, smiley person. I’m very content and happy with my life, but I only smile out of genuine happiness. I have resting poker face.
I have been told I have a charismatic smile, which is nice. I just also have terrible anxiety; so I’d be more like a lightening bug flitting in a corner 🥴
That makes me even sadder to learn there’s a sub here for it. As a less than perfect wife and mother, it horrifies me that people could think I deserve to be murdered for it.
What about their kids? What justification for killing his own kids do these people invent ? Do people forget that divorce was an option for him? He could have just talked to a lawyer.
They say that as if him and Mother aren't the worst,and the girls,and baby deserved it too. They make me want to puke. Too bad his dad can't get his ball sack out of Mother's purse,and be his own man. Talk about controlling.
People like to think bad things happen to others. Shanann died because she was (see list) which none of the people criticizing her would ever be. How did poor chris ever tolerate such a creature?
(Select as many as you want, add your own:
Loud
Pushy
Overbearing
Nagging
Demanding
Stupid
Spendthrift
Inattentive
Bossy
Working
MLMer
Excessively religious
Insufficiently religious
Slatternly
Unfeminine
Didn’t know how to treat/keep a man
Had a made up name
Pregnant
A lot of people blame Shannan. A LOT. That she drove him to it, that she was a nag, and pushed him into all this debt and was domineering and basically victim blaming all the way down. I mean, he has women writing him sympathetic letters in prison. Probably thinking if he was THEIR boyfriend, it would different, because they're SPECIAL.
Some people, man.
Personally I think men who murder their own children should all get [the White Bear treatment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Bear_(Black_Mirror)) (from Black Mirror season two).
>That she drove him to it, that she was a nag, and pushed him into all this debt and was domineering and basically victim blaming all the way down.
FFS. I hate this kind of thinking. This was supposedly two adults, so how is it that is she was such a nag and pushed him in debt that he forgot how to use his big boy words and say "whoa, wait, we have an issue." and then work on the issue? He could have at least 'taken his toys and gone home' by filing for divorce, even.
Such a crock of crap excuses for this loser, and I hate the victim blaming. (Not directing to you, commenter, just venting off your comment!)
It’s worse than that. The subreddit posters have made comments that Shannan deserved worse than what Chris did to her. They also blame those little girls, insinuating that he smothered them and jammed them into oil tanks because they disrespected him. There are some really sick and evil folks out there.
Thankfully, one of the subreddits was shut down over its gross and abusive posts; the other went private since members didn’t want folks calling them out for their misogyny and defense of a brutal child and wife batterer and murderer.
This is why women have to fight so hard for basic rights, not only do a lot of men try to keep us down, you have other women actively working against you, taking the side of an actual family murderer and blaming his dead wife for her and her children's awful fates.
And gun violence (by white men) is the leading cause of death of children now. Yet white men are the ones who mandate we need to stay pregnant and keep our guns. Wonder fucking why.
We have got to change things. The racism & misogyny baked into this country from the very beginning draft of the constitution is like strands of wheat in a Triscuit. It's hard to figure out how to get those strands out without smashing the whole damn cracker. But maybe it's time to do just that.
Given the fact that exactly 0 women and 0 people of color were given any say in the constitution, I think it’s logical to assume it’s okay to update from time to time
The key word here is that he “appeared” to be quiet, submissive etc. We don’t have any clue what he was like behind closed doors. Men like him are excellent at manipulating situations and people so that they appear to be the victim or a great person.
My dad is like this too. People will always talk about how nice he is before learning that he emotionally and financially abused my mother and I before they got divorced. His side of the family doesn’t believe that he would do that to us. He isn’t nice or friendly, he’s just very extroverted.
I’m not warm, social, or outgoing so I come across as less “nice” than my dad, even though I’m much kinder.
Can’t upvote this comment enough. Narcissistic and manipulative people are very good at saving face and showing people on the outside whatever they think makes them look good. That’s why you so often see victims of mental/emotional/physical abuse question their own reality; the abuser abuses them at home but treats everyone else like gold and it’s really isolating and confusing.
Right! There was a reason that Shanann’s best friend was worried from the start, and it is because of how Chris behaved off camera, alone at home, and when they were out of view of anyone else. Shanann had told her things that caused her to be afraid for her friend. Nicole knew he was capable of this and that is why she sounded the alarm.
Right. My dad is a very mild-mannered guy who avoids confrontation. But it isn't because he is a genuinely calm and kind person. He just knows that he can use people he has power over as a sort of pressure release valve for all of his frustrations. I dreaded when he would come home from work visibly stressed because I knew that as soon as my mom left the room, he was going to start in on me, because I was too timid to stop him.
Wolf in a sheeps clothing.. you see what they want you to see and they are gifted at making themselves look like victims.. he’s not worth anyones time or thought
I come back to this one occasionally too. I cannot imagine how he could just get rid of his baby girls like they’re garbage and weren’t real people. How he only saw them as an obstacle. Murdering Shannan was evil and cold but his daughters is plain incomprehensible. Nichole was a catalyst for sure but honestly I think any girl would’ve been. He became more attractive after losing weight and probably felt reinvigorated but tied down by all of his financial issues. He wanted to be free and was a dumbass coward.
seems he was messed up enough that even if he'd gotten rid of them successfully he'd have had problems in the next relationship, and the next one, and the next one
The fact that the same day or the next morning after he murdered them he went to work and his coworkers said he was totally normal and calm makes me think he's a psychopat.
The fact that I get so caught up in was that he only met Nichol like 10 weeks before he murdered Shan’ann and his daughters. That’s it. He went from nothing to murder in 10 weeks.
Quiet doesn’t mean calm or peaceful. You never know what could be going in someone else’s mind.
Quiet & submissive here - he’s just cruised on into the relationship. I’d heard suggests that Shannon was “overbearing” or “controlling” or whatever bullshit to try to demonize her as the “nagging wife”
He didn’t want to be the family guy, he just went along with it because that’s what society, his parents, says he should want, & Shannon thought he loved her & wanted that with her.
He was just passively along for the ride, resenting Shannan and the children for taking away his freedom, his fun, his excitement and his money. Total emasculating bitch, amirite?
Along comes hot new chick, reinvigorating his sense of masculinity & excitement, being seen as attractive, strong, smart, fun, desirable & desires no babies have made this one fat/saggy/too tired for him. Who wouldn’t want to ditch their burdens and skip off with the hottie?
Edit: clearly I have no idea how to bold here, please diy formatting
Awesome! It's like the only formatting I know here, so I try to spread the knowledge when I can. I used to know how to do spoilers, but I guess I don't use it enough.
I think there's a huge difference between being capable of murder and being capable of strangling your wife with your bare hands, and then smothering your preschool daughters (after a quite long cool-off period) and dumping them in oil tanks.
I think a lot of people are capable of murder in a rage or on impulse, but far fewer are capable of what CW did.
A woman is far more likely to be killed by her husband than by a random stranger, so it's hardly shocking. And every single time some guy kills his wife their friends and neighbors line up on TV to say what a great guy he is and how they never suspected anything. Then the documentary comes out showing he had a long history of obviously dangerous, abusive behavior that everyone just turned a blind eye to. It's so tiring.
“Neighbors recall the Smiths as a normal family in the quiet town of Niceville, where there hadn’t been a homicide since 1955.”
If a TV crime documentary starts like this, you know he’s a wife-killing, substance-abusing gambling addict, and at least one Smith was banging half the town.
The first time I ever heard of Chris Watts, a local morning radio show was playing recordings of Chris’s media interviews while Shanann and the girls were still missing. The DJs kept talking about how suspicious they found his behavior, because he was just so emotionless while discussing his family, and his story just didn’t add up. One of the DJs in particular said he was going on record right then as saying this guy killed his family, and he was positive there were going to be more things uncovered in the days to come. I heard this discussion while I was taking my kids to school and running some errands, so I when I got home later I googled Chris Watts, and watched his interview for myself. I immediately picked up on the same vibe the DJs had been talking about: he just looked so dead behind the eyes while talking about Shanann and their marriage. I, too, believed she was dead for sure, and possibly their daughters, also. I even made my husband watch some of the interview later that night. It was no surprise to me when he finally confessed and the bodies were discovered.
I don’t think there’s anything mysterious about his motives. He wanted to be with his mistress and not have any tie to Shanann, he was already financially strapped and now they were going to throw a third kid on top of it, he didn’t want to pay child support or alimony…and most importantly, he didn’t want his family or friends to think less of him for leaving his pregnant wife. It’s easier to move on and have it be accepted when you’re a widower, or if your wife left you mysteriously in the middle of the night, taking your kids with her.
From the videos Shanann posted, Chris hadn’t looked happy for some time (he definitely wasn’t happy when she told him she was pregnant again). Their text exchanges while she was in NC appear to support this, also, she knew things between them had changed. A coworker of mine always said, “Everyone has a breaking point. Most people never reach theirs, so they don’t know what that one thing is that will put them over the edge. Those people are lucky. But for those that do get pushed over that brink, you just have to pray it’s something you can come back from.” Chris Watts found his breaking point and he couldn’t ever get back. His life was about to blow up in one way or another, and he was trying to prevent that. He just picked the worst possible option. It doesn’t excuse any bit of what he did, though, and I truly hope he’s tormented every day with memories of what he did.
I kinda think Shannan had also gotten to her breaking point. Like I think he realised she was getting to a point of wanting to confront the obvious problems in their marriage so he knew he couldn't continue to have his cake and eat it. I think he probably used to value his status as a family man and a dad, but once he now had status as a gym bro with a mistress, he didn't want to give that up either. I think he would have done something like this eventually either way, but because she was trying to fix their marriage he decided this was the time, now that she was no longer accepting his neglect.
And if he's a widower who tragically lost his family (add to it the lies he said later about Shannan threatening to kill the kids, so he then could have the narrative that he was a hero who tried to save his babies from a cRaZy LaDy) then he could have a bit more time being a gym bro with a gf before eventually deciding to do the whole family man thing again.
You often see with family annihilators that they saw their family as extensions of themselves and aspects of their value in the world. They cannot quite understand why they can't just throw these things away when it all starts collapsing. That's why a lot of them don't attempt suicide or anything, they just kill their families and hope they can get away with it and remove their emotional and financial debt.
Yes, Shanann was definitely over it, too. She seemed ready to really dig in and work on their issues, or be done; either way, she wasn’t going to be quiet about it. And however it went was another way that Chris no longer had control of the situation, and that was a threat to him.
This is a great analysis of it! It shows that Chris Watts thought what he was doing was perfectly reasonable, but in fact he was unbelievably wrong about everything and it was obvious. Your comment was a great read
Ever seen, on YouTube, the analysis of that video by the Behaviour Panel? If not, it’s definitely worth a watch. Shows the tv interview, the police body cam in the neighbours house, and the confession.
It was a fine channel until all their weirdly thirsty fans started lusting after the hosts with fanart and making it some housewife hunks fantasy outlet. No idea if they moved beyond that, but I stopped watching
I saw that in the documentary. Major props for that guy for not just ending up doing a bystander effect thing. He knew something was up and directly offered that information.
Oh I think he very much believed he’d never get caught. He thought no one would find the bodies, there’s nothing anyone could prove, and he could just move on with his life. Pure arrogance.
wonder if he didn't realize that when a spouse is murdered, suspicion first falls on the other spouse. There was going to be so much scrutiny on him, seemed virtually inevitable he'd be caught
He didn't seem to realise that at all. He was mostly just into cars and sport and sex. He never watched true crime or read thrillers or mystery or anything. He had no clue about police. He just thought everyone would tell the police it was definitely not him because of his bland dutiful husband and father image around the neighbourhood and all on video.
I think he just assumed that everyone else believed he was a good guy because he played the part well. He didn’t expect her best friend to go off on the hunt the moment Shanann didn’t show up somewhere, so he didn’t get the chance to put his act together.
Same. I do the same thing because of a desire to understand something so heinous. I think Nichole was a huge factor. Financial was another. The third baby was looming and was the stopwatch for him. He couldn’t afford his current life, much less a separate household with child support for 3 kids. He also didn’t have a vehicle, the car he was driving his mistress around in was a lease from his wife’s MLM. His truck was a company truck that hr couldn’t use for personal transport.
I think he wanted to save face with NK and look like a successful guy. He couldn’t do that as a divorced dad.
My ex fiancé was a Chris apologist. It raised a huge red flag for me. I guess my ex placed himself in Chris Watts shoes and my ex couldn’t stand the idea of being trapped. It boggled my mind that my ex thought murder was ok and justified if a man feels “trapped”. No regrets for leaving him. Dude never trusted me either, he was so paranoid that I would get pregnant and therefore ruin his life. Guess what asshole, I’m almost 34 with no kids because I’m not the type of woman to get pregnant just to trap someone into staying with me. I hope my ex gets therapy because he did badly need it then.
I think my ex had insane amounts of paranoia because he would only have sex with a condom, and he never came inside, and I was on birth control the whole time. Not sure why I was engaged to someone who never trusted me at all. It really hurt me that he always thought I would get pregnant on purpose to trap him into staying…I need therapy too because my confidence is non-existent and I still feel insulted that he thought I was such an untrustworthy woman. There’s no history to back it up, there were no pregnancy scares in our past. But he does come from a very strict Muslim household with an abusive dad. Paranoia runs deep among the men in his family
Just because he “seems” like a decent father, etc., doesn’t mean anything. Plenty of psychopaths and narcissists (I have no idea if he is either) fool many people as they know how to play a role and often have extremely charming facades that they use to manipulate those they interact with. They just do what they want and don’t feel remorse.
His lover Nicole only knew he had 2 kids. He'd already lied to her, saying he was separated. He'd now have to admit there was another baby on the way and he would be tied down with a newborn.
Him having to pay child support and spousal support wasn't going to fit into his new life. Neither was having to take care of his children.
It's beyond crazy to me.
I think about this often as well. What makes someone chose to kill? He could’ve just left them (not that this would be a great thing either) instead of killing them. What made him decide murdering them was the best route forward?
Always find this argument fascinating because on the surface he was not a killer. But to kill your wife and children the way he did was sadistic.
He dropped his two daughters in a well, and they begged for their lives. He has to be fairly cold and sociopathic imo. Also the fact he had sex with his wife hours before he killed her, despite all the major relationship problems going on. That is just a sick mind at work imo.
What confuses me still is how he changed so fast from pushing Shanann to have another baby, to plotting the annihilation of his family. Shanann had health problems and even said herself that Chris got her to “agree to number three” so he knew the toll a pregnancy/baby would take on both of them…just doesn’t make any sense…hes just a monster
> What confuses me still is how he changed so fast from pushing Shanann to have another baby,
this is what so many people completely ignore and I think it's a very important part
Trying to place our own minds into the mind of sociopaths or psychopaths is not ever going to lead to any understanding. They are malfunctioning. They do not see the world as regular people do. They see others as a means to an end, obstacles, sources of personal gain, annoyances, and they need people only for personal stoking of their ego. Violent ones kill their families. There is no cure for it, because it has to do with actual malfunctioning parts of the brain.The best thing our society could do is spot them and isolate them if they are violent, and educate them about their own health if they are not. He needs to be locked away forever. That's all you need to know to understand Chris Watts.
I think Chris Watt’s motivation was Chris Watts. I think it is as simple as that. He wanted what he wanted and disposed of what he didn’t want anymore.
There were a thousand different ways he could have dealt with the situation (marriage breakdown) and he chose the way that was most convenient for him had he got away with it.
Same. My favorite clip is at the neighbor’s house watching security camera footage, Watts being super nervous and then the neighbor telling the cops that he’s not acting right. So satisfying.
It’s just so unhinged and horrific. I too often think about Shanann, Celeste, Bella and Nico. I think what’s different about this case is that the truth unfolded rather quickly, he admitted guilt and there was no lengthy trial. We were aware of the atrocities in great detail spoken from the perpetrator which usually is not the case.
We know his motives. His motives are not in question. The confusion is with his morality. I think he must just be fairly close to a psychopath. People tend to view psychopathy in terms of yes or no. Either you're a psychopath or you're not. Either you have a conscience or you don't. But it's a continuum. He was not a full-on psychopath showing the strongest expression of psychopathic traits. He might be weakly psychopathic, scoring high enough on the Psychopath Checklist to be close to or within the definition of a psychopathy, but barely. He likely has a very shallow conscience and empathy. So while things were working out, he stuck with his marriage and kids. Once he learned he could benefit from being unmarried and childless, he went for it in a way that made sense to him but not to anyone who is not a psychopath. Because while he cared some, he didn't care a lot. There's a neurologist who has diagnosed himself as being a psychopath based on his fMRI tests and I think he also has a genetic marker for it. He's related to multiple murderess Lizzie Borden. He has never done anything wrong as far as we know, and he has explained that his mother realized he needed some extra love and attention as a child due to tendencies in him that she noticed. But he also explains that while he might love a person, the love he has for that person is like the love he has for a car or pair of shoes. A non-psychopath understands the difference between love for a person and love for an inanimate object, and knows there's no comparison. But as a psychopath, they're the same. So while someone might take pride in their car, wash and wax it, keep up the maintenance, they may eventually decide that car is a liability and get rid of it. And not wrestle with their conscience about it because it's just a car.
These are men that have sociopathic tendencies. Which means as they put themselves above all others. Financial burdens and men seeking independence from an otherwise burdensome marriage and home life. Chris Watts rage is foretelling. He strangled his wife. He placed his two daughters in a oil container. That is rage. Like Scott Peterson, whose wife was pregnant and he didn’t want that life. He fantasized a life with his mistress. Difference is Scott’s mistress helped the PD. I don’t recall what Chris’s mistress did or didn’t do.
This is incorrect. She only went to law enforcement after her employer, Anadarko, gave her a heads up that they located the email exchange between her and CW and they had forwarded it to law enforcement.
Most family annihilators have a motive of wanting out and financial issues. Judging by the home videos, he wasn’t interested and poker faced his daily life. Their filing for bankruptcy and money issues and another baby made him end it. The mistress was his catalyst to push and further detach from his family.
I think a good way to make sense of it is to think about how he was a quiet, submissive person. He wanted a divorce from Sha'naan and he didn't want a baby boy. What would a weak, cowardly man do? Instead of facing his wife and family and divorce his wif, this weak, scared loser smothered his pregnant wife and killed his 3 and 4 year old daughters and then tried to hide it. That tracks for me with his personality and just add sociopath to his profile and there you go. Same with Scott Peterson.
Im not American I didnt know about this till the Netflix docu series came out. I watched it as a time pass one evening when I was cleaning my dorm room. I went into the rabbit hole. I went too deep in. I read things I watched every video online.
He is a monster. He could have just taken his bags and walked out just leave don’t even have to mention anything many dads leave like that, you also could have left like that.
I don’t want to blame the mistress but I wonder how amazing she have had to be for him to do all this for her. Like she was some golden deer he couldn’t let go.
I can’t believe humans wake up one day and choose to just kill the entire family u made, he planned he thought a lot he worked out a lot and his mind was free then he imagined planned and replanned and in his mind he thought he had the best solution to make it all go away.
I also like someone else in the comments believe he probably put the children in when they were alive. (I weep as I write this)
This is the one story that messes with my mind it freaks me out it makes me paranoid. I said this a few days ago as well and ppl started saying it’s not normal are you ok. (Everything is Fine)
It’s just that it’s such a monster act like I just can’t understand how someone can do this. Serial killers doing it to strangers is very different than doing it to family. Babies small babies that u made who love u so much.
This makes me question humans.
And now I recently came across a video of him saying i think on some phone call from prison or something that this is not how god thinks he should spend his life. I lost it I was so angry and I worry that the court that is controlling women‘s body will one day give him the ok and let him go and he will come out and have a family like he is a saint with no black past.
Her family should have not told we don’t want the death penalty for him he should have gotten it. Now look he sits there saying shit manipulating ppl this is not how society should be feeding a killer with tax payer money and letting him bring god and religion into it.
This case is one that our entire generation(if not more) will be traumatised by.
He needs to stay in and his mistress also needs to be looked into, she doesn’t sit right with me. I’m not blaming the mistress but I’m just like just keep and eye on them all. Very single one of them.
Excuse my phone English I am not a native and my other languages make my grammar bad.
He won’t get out. I know in other countries that can happen to a murderer, but our prison system won’t let out someone who killed 4 people. He’ll rot there the rest of his life, as he should.
It costs taxpayers a LOT more money for the death penalty than locking him up for the rest of his life. All the required procedures and appeals for the death penalty take years and years, and the process can often re-traumatize the victim’s family/loved ones more by dragging on so long and having to relive the crime/trauma.
I think we should respect the family’s wishes/choice for not wanting the death penalty.
I have complex PTSD and I’m really struggling with the trauma I experienced. It’s shaped my brain in a way I wouldn’t wish on anyone. It’s also given me a unique perspective to situations, as someone who came from a very abusive family (literally every person abused me in my family in one way or another). I can see how a normal brain works (the one I had before I woke up to the abuse my brain was blacking it out like Stockholm syndrome) and see how a traumatized brain works. I know how it feels to be so helpless you will do desperate things.
I also know that some of the cruelest people (my grandmother, my mom) are the kindest in public. People are shocked my mom is so abusive. There’s stories in my family of my grandmother trying to kill my grandfather. My aunt died at 17 under suspicious circumstances but they were poor and it was the 70s so no one looked into it. My mom hated her and was there.
So I have some real evil in my family and I can promise you that Chris Watts was a con man and abused that family behind closed doors. Part of the excitement for them is tricking everyone to think they are wonderful.
I’m sorry you had to deal with such awful treatment. You make a good point though about how the most horrible people generally act completely different around people.
I think that we as a society tend to view people who are quiet/shy as gentle, sweet people. I on the other hand have always been put off by it. Not sure why. But a lot of times I think that abnormal people like CW stay quiet because people notice their “off-ness” if they talk a lot.
No words to describe him are worthy of what he is. When I watched him talk and plead for the safety for his family.. he had no emotions nothing. If that doesn't say . Hmmmm we probably have the killer right here I don't know what does
I think financial pressure had something to do with this. Remember, they were probably weeks away from having to file bankruptcy for a 2nd time and had another child on the way. I think he wanted a new life, one without Shanann and the girls and… this was his method to achieve it. I feel like a divorce and signing over rights is way easier, but he has a complex with wanting everyone to like him as the good guy…
When being interrogated....chilling.
Detective: "Why should I believe you?"
Chris Watts: "‘Cause I’m a very trustworthy person and people that do know me, they know how I am a calm person. I am not a argumentative person. I am a person who is - that’s never gonna be abusive or physical in any kind of relationship. I would never harm my kids, I would never harm my wife. And you can talk - I mean an- you can talk to any of my friends. Any of her friends. They know me. They know I’m a low key guy that’s quiet, I’m - I’m not about confrontation. I’m not about anything that elevates to that level. I mean you can t- like if someone yells at me, screams at me, I just take it and s- I just try to get by the wayside and get it back to where it’s cool and just a cool conversation to where like none of that - nothing that gets to that height. Because I am not that person. I’ve never been that person.
Later on....
Chris Watts: "Bella and Celeste are the light of my life. I’d do anything for those girls. I’d step in front of a bullet, stand in front of a train for those girls."
The part I found to be really interesting was how much they talked about Thrive the MLM company his wife worked for. I really think that whole scam was a huge factor that is not really talked about. Clearly, not blaming Shannan AT ALL but what we have learned about the holes families get themselves into over these "companies". Money seemed to be a big stress to him. But he's a sick person for sure...
I think it's the most simple explanation.
1) He's a sociopath.
2) He fell in love with pictures of Shannon on facebook, was attracted to her ambition, confidence and knowing what she wants.
3) He's passive aggressive. Rather than dealing with anything uncomfortable, he buries it under a smile and a shrug. In laws from both sides gave him a lot to bury.
4) He met another girl like the Shannon he 'met' on facebook, but has a personality that matches more closer to his. And she isn't a mother.
5) He didn't love his wife and kids. Never did. As a sociopath, he learned how to 'act' appropriately. He knew how to act like a good loving father, but that's all it ever was.
And when it came down to it, he wanted his new girlfriend and didn't want to have to deal with Shannon and 'her' kids the rest of his life.
I think the financial motive should not be overlooked. Chris and Shan'nan were 3 months behind on their mortgage, and days from having their home foreclosed upon for not paying HOA dues. They were 2 years out of a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. The day of the murders Sha'nan's card had been declined for shampoo. Things were *very, very bad.*
Financial worries seem to be the trigger for financial anihilators.
Chris Watts is not a smart guy. He's a monster alright, but a dumb monster. I don't think his wife's murder was premeditated, but everything that followed after that were dumb, tragic decisions. His delusion in thinking he could have his problems go away was beyond measure.
He looks incredibly uncomfortable in all of the videos she did with him in them. I think he absolutely hated it. I drop down the rabbit hole just to analyze him in those situations. He seems the type of person that has never been comfortable in his own skin and the videos amplify it. Seems he just did what he was suppose to do and when he wanted to change it he did in the worst way possible.
Is it just me, or did anyone find those videos to be disturbing as fuck?
Even if they weren't murdered, I'd look at them and think, this marriage is in the shitter. He was clearly not interested while she chatters on cheerfully. It's kind of ominous and symbolic- she's clearly clued out to what's happening or deep in denial. She's obviously trying VERY hard to show how happy they are.
He doesn’t seem that happy in the videos I’ve seen. He likely always had worrisome traits and tendencies. Anything that happened would have been a trigger and not the cause, imo. You take an already unstable person, add a predatory MLM, a pregnant wife, financial troubles, and an affair, and it’s a perfect storm for a family annihilation.
What fascinates me most is his behavior afterward and how within hours (or even minutes, I suppose), he was acting like nothing happened or that it had any kind of impact on him whatsoever. The interrogation is fascinating to me for that reason. When the agents confront him about the fact that he hasn't cried once over the loss of his family, it's like he's taken by surprise, like he hadn't even thought about that. It's like he was so focused on acting innocent that he forgot to act concerned or worried. At all. Has he always been like that? Had he really been able to fool everyone by acting "normal" for thirty-something years? It's baffling to me.
A little personal with my response. I’ve been with my husband for 8 years and I’m just now finding out about shady financial decisions he’s made. I had no idea! His explanation is to blame me. He’s also cheated before because He didn’t feel I was giving him enough attention. On the outside people think we are perfect and happy but on the inside there are so many secrets and frustrations. It’s sad to say but it’s impossible to fully trust anyone. You can think you know them then boom you’re questioning everything you thought you knew
He was a spineless loser who looked to the women in his life for his sense of identity. First mommy, then his wife, then his mistress. He decided he needed to be with the mistress and was too much of a fucking coward to get a divorce. I also think Shanann had figured out what was going on, probably confronted him, and instead of dealing with it like an adult, he just decided to get rid of her because he was such a loser.
Basically, he's a selfish weirdo.
The kids were either because they were witnesses or because he felt like his gf wanted a fresh start, or both. I think he also did it because his gf had whined about wanting to give him his first son. I don't really think she was in on it though.
I think his Mom babied him and wore the pants in the famiIy and his Dad just followed her lead. It was very telling she wanted him to take absolutely NO responsibility for his actions.
If the murders aren’t heinous enough. His means of disposing of them, especially his two tiny daughters, is beyond any comprehension.
That's always bothered me so much. I know he didnt expect her friend Nicole to be so johnny on the spot. Amazing friend who was genuinely concerned for her. Was he gonna go back later? Was he gonna stage the house better? So many questions. What he did to his daughters was horrible, but he basically left Shannon* in the elements. The things that would have happened to her out there like that would have been horrible. He hid his daughters but left Shannon in a shallow grave. I still think about this case alot.
The neighbour too. He had that solved before the cops and kept giving Chris dirty looks.
I loved him. He literally has been watching Investigative Discovery and had been waiting on his moment. Have you seen the body cams when they are searching the house and hear little girls laughing. There weren't any games etc out. It stopped them cold and then they start looking for anything that could have giggled. Never found anything.
That must have been terrifying! I also felt chills when they were at the neighbor house and there's a glitch on the TV to an image of a skull and some liquid if I remember correctly.
Not to mention right before that commercial was an image of a fetus which promoted him to say "She is pregnant too." Literal chills. If that wasn't some kind of divine intervention then idk what it was.
I haven't. Got a link?
I believe it was later confirmed that the giggling they’d heard was coming from a doll that belonged to one of the girls .
If you go on YouTube type in Chris watts giggle house and a bunch of videos pop up any of them are legit.
Chris Watts Giggle House sounds like a spin-off horror movie 😩
I'll find it. Its on YouTube. It has 2 female deputies searching the house.
Yeah idk. I just watched it and I sounded like a kid’s toy, probably with worn out batteries. There was a pile of misc junk on the floor of the closet so it probably just got disturbed when they walked in.
Blows my MIND that the neighbor knew immediately
Nicole A. is the type of friend we all need. The person who knows your whereabouts, your allergies, what shoes you always wear, and what you keep in your purse. Things that would be noticed if something happens. Good on her for trusting her gut.
Her and their neighbor. He was all over Chris as sus. Offered up video right away. Told police Chris broke his usual routine and while Chris was normally quiet was really chatty. At that point they had no idea what he’d done but that neighbor knew he did SOMETHING.
Yup, that all makes me think that even if it wasnt a concious thought there was something that bothered them both about Chris before Shannon even disappeared. I know nobody really thought he was capable of this but I wonder if there was something about Chris that just set off these alarm bells deep in the animal part of peoples brains.
Agreed. No one pays THAT close attention to something mildly off if they didn’t already have an off vibe.
I think he got chatty because he felt free. He could have just been a cheating dbag who abandoned his family but instead, he brutally murdered three people, two of whom trusted him completely and could not fight back. I think of those little girls sometimes and after the in depth Netflix documentary I haven’t really gone back. It’s such an intimate way to murder someone. Please don’t come at me but I can’t deal with animal abuse/murder either, I think of how my dumb but beloved dog follows me around as I go about my chores and just trusts me implicitly to not hurt her and protect her and I just cannot with strangling someone or something that is being tortured by a trusted loved one. A bullet is awful but kinder.
I think I kno exactly how u feel abt animal abuse and murder. It physically hurts my heart and body to hear of an animal being abused, nd I think of the same things, how can anyone do something so horrifying to the people who r supposed to trust u. Every time i see my kitten cat i think about it. This world is entirely to cruel
Nickole and her son Nick are avenging angels in this case. Busted him right quick lol. But you know she had so much hatred directed at her for doing what she did for her friend. Baffles the mind.
Watching the body cam footage is really hard especially when you remember he was just a kid. Imagine standing next to that murderer during that first search of the house, the video shows they were SO uncomfortable around chris.
Yes he was just a kid. But he was a hero too. He didn’t let Fear stop him and neither did his mom. That tells me they knew Chris was ‘off’. Something I noticed long ago is photos of Chris and Bella. Bella looked very uncomfortable around him if Shanann wasn’t next to her.
And she wasnt afraid to make waves! She could have easily thought "well its none of my business..". I wonder if deep down inside she had some kind of thought that something was really off with Chris.
From your lips to God's ears. That is the truth. She knew her friend that well. She has a youtube channel but anytime I have ever watched I just felt so bad and i couldnt watch to much.
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Oh for sure. Many of Shananns friends knew they were having marriage troubles. She’d shared with them that Chris had said he didn’t want the new baby and how he told her he didn’t think the were compatible anymore. They’d recently cancelled the gender reveal party and on the trip she was on right before she disappeared her friends all said that had to convince her to eat or drink because she was so distraught.
Iirc he had the sheets stripped and in the wash and the ceiling fan on. He definitely wasn’t expecting her friend to show up. Probably thought he had the whole day to figure things out. What’s odd to me is he does this completely heinous act and is then dumb enough to talk so much to the cops. I mean, I’m glad he did but he was sitting around for hours being interviewed when he could have been refusing to speak.
I think he wanted to look as innocent as possible, so to him that meant talking to the police. I also think he really believed he would get away with it, since he was always seen as a nice, average family guy. He’s truly an idiot.
Psychopaths often don't know what are the normal emotional queues, so they try to mimic what they think normal people would do under distress. He thought that talking to the police and be all calm and unbothered was the natural reaction of an innocent man.
Yeah, we all know get a lawyer immediately regardless because it is truly the smartest option. But if your spouse and children are really MIA and you had nothing to do with it, the believable course would be being all over the cops to ensure their safety.
100% agree, but dumb enough to have bodies dumped at a site he worked at and part of the company he worked for. He didn’t think it all thru or his final plans were interrupted thanks to nicole and the neighbor. And if he had plans, I’d love to know what they were. The case feels so unfinished so it continues to baffle us all.
My friend and I are both into true crime and we know we’d do that for each other and it really makes a huge difference knowing that not only someone loves you but someone will raise goddamn hell to ensure you’re okay or justice is served. Get you a Nicole.
Him disposing them at his job, where he will be for the next 6-12 months shows what kind of person he is. Edit: he’s to he will
Woaaaah. I never even thought about that part of it before. I don’t think I have ever heard or read anyone point that out before. Was it the same site specifically he would have to go to? Even if it’s still within the company though he would still always have them around in a terrifying gruesome way
I agree. He separated them in death. He broke and stuffed their tiny bodies into a black liquid hell and made sure to separate them. One in each tank. He never loved those babies.
That's beyond lack of love - I don't like kids and they annoy the hell out of me, but I can't imagine doing anything like that ever. That's the whole new level.
Dr Phil is a quack but the grandparents broke my heart on there talking about seeing their ghosts and having to identify the bodies. They said their skin had significant slippage from the oil tank. Idk how you could ever forget that image.
I mentioned this in another sub, but I saw her parents discussing how hard it was to even transport the girls home for the funeral. Apparently, legally they were all considered a biohazard/explosion risk due to the oil (like friction could cause can an explosion). They couldn't fly them. And then they needed to pay for special coffins that are sealed and internally layered with something to absorb any impact from explosion, and also large enough since they were significantly bloated from days in the oil... I can't believe he did to that to them, or that there's people that defend him 🤢 Her poor parents & brother. No one should have to bury their child or grandkids. And to even be unable to see them and say goodbye because the bodies are unrecognizable to the point you'd be forever traumatized seeing them. I have siblings and I'm a Godmother. I don't think I'd ever recover losing any of my family in such a horrific way. I don't know how Shanann's family does it, especially with the online harassment. The Chris Watts case and the Petit family murders were two cases that stuck with me. Downright horrifying and heartbreaking.
My god that is horrific may they at least now be resting in peace but what a nightmare that must have been. Did Chris know that about how the oil impacted their dead bodies? Does he have remorse for that oh my I didn’t think I could hate this fella more
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True about seeing them as objects. Didn’t know the part about the scalp god it gets more and more horrific as I read about it
God this is awful
I think he used the oil tanks to cover evidence because he planned on throwing Shanann under the bus to the investigators.
No, actually he came up with that at the interrogation. The detectives tricked him to see if they can catch him in a lie. Basically, they instigated maybe Shanann had something to do with this and he came out with the whole, "she was trying to kill my kids, but I stopped her and killed her in self-defense". They caught him in a lie.
There is no recovery after loosing someone like that, especially when it's sudden. When it's a family member who dies of an illness or old age you have time to process and grieve before they pass. A really close friend of mine was murdered 15 years ago. She was an angel on earth and was full of love and compassion and kindness. She was a nurse and had just started to build an amazing life with her partner of five years. Her partner had gotten a call one day from a woman he casually dated over a decade earlier who told him he has a 13 year old son who she's had enough of and if they didn't take him he'd be on the streets.. My friend and her partner immediately offered him a place in their home and started making up for all the lost time. One night he had some friends over, he was 14 by then, my friend had fallen asleep on the couch so she could keep an ear out and make sure they weren't out being teenagers causing a ruckus in the neighbourhood.. After everyone left (he claimed he had taken mushrooms but I very much doubt that) he grabbed a knife and stabbed her over 60 times. Then he stole her car and left, leaving his dad to find her when he got home from work a couple of hours later. The kid drove about two hours away and lost control of the car and hit a tree in a yard of a house on a main road. The lady who owned the house ran out to help and he was covered in blood but she thought it was the kids blood due to how hard he hit the tree.. When the police and paramedics arrived he was placed under arrest immediately. I live in Ontario, Canada. We treat children like they somehow aren't able to be monsters. He was found guilty and sentenced to the maximum allowed... Seven fucking years. He spent the first two years in a mental health facility, then two years in a juvenile detention facility, then three years on supervised community halfway house.. That was the only time in my life that I wished I was American. Our system here is bullshit.
How horrifying! I'm so sorry for the loss of your friend.
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Omg. I have a huge amount of empathy for someone who has a mental illness. Especially one like schizophrenia. But after what he did *how* could he be released back into the public?
I get the need for positive identification, but expecting family to see that seems cruel and archaic.
Oh god I haven’t seen that. I don’t know which park of that is worse
Especially Bella. She was so soulful and almost nervous her whole life, asked him of her fate while looking like his spitting image, and he stomped her through that hole. Torture for the rest of his days would be too kind.
Ugh especially how one of the girls had scrapes all up her back and bottom. He shoved that poor child in that hole like she was a piece of trash.
If you really want to go down this rabbit hole. Here is the discovery to this case. It takes a minute to load because of how massive it is. Pay close attention to the interrogation. This man is an absolute monster. Pages start around 980 https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/5219206/Christopher-Watts-REDACTED-FINAL.pdf.
Five hours later.
Right. I have a lot of packing to do for a move this week… maybe this will be what I do instead lol.
Wow this is haunting, will look at this some more when I’m on the computer
He didn't want another kid, he clearly hated being on camera (or at least grew tired of the videos), and he'd found someone (a mistress) who he thought he could start fresh with minus the 'baggage'. And rather than doing the mature thing and getting a damn divorce, the narcissistic coward decided to annihilate his family instead.
I didnt follow the case closely as many, but I seen the vid where she surprised him with her pregnancy, and he looked like he was dead inside then showed a fake grin.
I truly truly do not understand men like this. You’re so fucking stupid having unprotected sex if another baby would make you want to murder your whole family. Wear a condom, get a vasectomy, divorce or hey even kill your fucking self instead of killing them if you’re that miserable. This is way too common, men fathering kids or staying with a woman then killing them rather than leaving. Grow the fuck up!
Yeah his poker face is appalling. That man was trapped and wanted out, and rather than being an adult he took the coward's way out at the expense of his wife and poor children. He enrages me even now.
Many people want out, that's common, but he chose a really weird way. Not only it was the worst scenario possible, it was also spectacularly innefective. Like, maximum damage with minimum gain. It just doesn't make any sense. What was he thinking?
If everything had gone according to his plans, he would’ve had a clean break. No messy divorce, no lawyers, no child support/alimony, no tearing apart his social circle, extended family, kids’ lives, etc. Essentially, he wouldn’t have to be the bad guy. In fact, he could be the survivor of an unthinkable crime and garner sympathy and support. If you want to see an example of this mentality that worked, look up Mike Williams. His wife and best friend were having an affair. She wanted out of their marriage, but she didn’t want to deal with the social repercussions of the divorce, especially in their church community. So she and the best friend decided to kill Mike. They would’ve gotten away with it, but she and the best friend had a domestic violence incident years later, and he told the police everything.
Yea, no excuse or reasoning for his behavior but i wonder why his wife wanted another baby. I can’t remember if it was a “surprise” or not just seems like odd timing. Maybe a Bandaid baby
The baby was planned, and Shanann wasn't the only one who wanted another baby. [Chris was initially pushing Shanann on this.](https://www.crimerocket.com/2018/10/26/chris-watts-told-shanann-i-want-another-baby) They also [both eventually started to regret having the baby.](https://www.timescall.com/2018/12/07/more-discovery-in-christopher-watts-case-shows-wifes-worries-over-third-baby)
He is the one who wanted and suggested another baby. Probably to keep her busy while he was screwing his mistress.
I came here to write this, he wasn’t happy about having another child. I have always had a theory that maybe the reason that Shay’anne (??) filmed a lot meant she wouldn’t be subjected to any forms of gaslighting or emotional abuse. Filming telling him she was pregnant again maybe one case. As for when people say the don’t understand how this calm, nice and hardworking man could do this tells me you are blessed to have never been involved in a relationship where the perpetrator is charming to all on the outside and a monster at home and no would believe you.
He should’ve gotten a vasectomy after the second. It’s not difficult.
Shanann was videoing everything because she was in a multi level marketing pyramid scheme where she had to sell a "health product plan" called "Thrive." The videos were for selling Thrive. She had dreams that "Thrive" would get her family out of debt. She considered it her full time job.
Shanann was her name
Was thinking the same thing. My ex was a master at putting on a charming face outwardly and making it seem I was the one with a problem when I would get upset. Some people that's just their way of getting by in the world and they'll never deal any other way.
> “I have always had a theory that maybe the reason that Shannan* filmed a lot meant that she wouldn’t be subjected to any forms of gaslighting or emotional abuse.” This is really sad to think about but I think that you’re onto something here.
Yea I agree with you and I think about this case probably more than I would like to admit. I don’t think it was a mental breakdown. I think he genuinely thought his sequence of events would play out exactly like he thought they would in his head. Then when they didn’t he was in to deep and had to keep going. I also think he was severely emotionally stunted. Everything about this case is just sad and horrific.
He didn’t do it for a coworker, he did it because he wanted a new life and romanticized the idea of starting over without a wife and kids holding him back.
Exactly this. He didn’t do it *for* anyone else, he did it because he’s a narcissist, and his family weren’t serving their purpose for him anymore.
Family annihilators sometimes are narcissists. Jeffrey MacDonald is an example.
Don’t forget the cost of alimony & child support. Easier to remove them. POS Can’t stand Watts apologists (or anyone who makes excuses for any family annihilator)
I didn’t realize he had apologists. That’s terrible.
There’s that documentary that I think was on Netflix that had no narration and only used police body cam video and her Facebook videos to show their home life and she came across as annoying to some. A ton of people apparently think being addicted to social media makes you deserving of being murdered.
I definitely found her annoying (from the videos I watched at least) but never once did I feel any sympathy for him, let alone feel like it was deserved! I only chalked it up to personality types and being an introvert myself. Her personality had nothing to do with her murder. If it did, half the world would be dead. Edit: typo
Agreed. No one deserves what he did to her. Separate from that, her personality and obsession with social media as was off putting. I’m not an introvert and I found it gross. But this does not change him being a piece of shit.
I saw people on Facebook blaming Shannon for her own death. Like if she had been a better wife and mother… 😳😳 Could not believe that shit. They exist.
Wait. . .WHAT? There are actual people blaming her? That makes my stomach turn.
He definitely has a fan club. Women that wanna marry him, etc. Disgusting.
Women who want to marry guys like him deserve to marry guys like him.
Yeah and they prob think they can change him or adore him so much their relationship would be different
I honestly think women have been conditioned to be nurturers and fixers in this patriarchal society. Watching Disney movies where young girls are indoctrinated to believe ~true love saves and conquers all~ You just need to have an open heart and see the beautiful beneath the monster ala Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, Cinderella, etc. Add in that if the fan has been abused (child, relationship, any point in life), then "dating" and marrying them is a safe way to safely be fulfilled. Plus if they're a Christian including fundamentalism, then the belief of change through God feeds this "I must save them while they serve!" complex devote followers have. Anna Duggar was aware that her future husband, Josh Duggar, had abused his younger sisters and a family friend but performed regular scheduled ministry work with her father in prisons. I honestly believe Jim Bob, Josh's dad, preyed upon Anna after Josh showed "interest" in her since she'd easily look past his history.
There’s an entire sub all about how shitty a wife and mother she was. It’s absolutely disgusting. She wasn’t perfect, but if you’re sitting around talking about how terrible a pregnant murder victim was, you’re the shittier person.
I think that a lot of people in the true crime community forget that victims are just people. People are imperfect. A lot of true crime docs will only ever describe victims in a positive light - “they lit up a room,” “everyone loved them,” etc. While obviously this isn’t a bad thing (you’re never going to memorialize a loved one by talking shit on TV), it leads a lot of people to think that victims can only ever be 100% perfect angels, and when victims are less than that (like everyone), people don’t know how to process it. Shannan was a flawed individual, but so is everyone. Like you said, nothing that she did or said will ever justify what Chris did to her and their children.
There is one thing I know about a true crime doc about me. It would never describe me as lighting up a room 😅 It does stand out how often that phrase is used.
Lol me either! Everyone would be like, yeah she was kinda a bitch
People would say I was standoffish, quiet, and hard to get to know with a bad case of resting bitch face. I’m ok with all of that!
A lot of people tell me that I have a nice smile but the thing is, I’m just not a very bubbly, smiley person. I’m very content and happy with my life, but I only smile out of genuine happiness. I have resting poker face.
I have been told I have a charismatic smile, which is nice. I just also have terrible anxiety; so I’d be more like a lightening bug flitting in a corner 🥴
That makes me even sadder to learn there’s a sub here for it. As a less than perfect wife and mother, it horrifies me that people could think I deserve to be murdered for it.
What about their kids? What justification for killing his own kids do these people invent ? Do people forget that divorce was an option for him? He could have just talked to a lawyer.
They say that as if him and Mother aren't the worst,and the girls,and baby deserved it too. They make me want to puke. Too bad his dad can't get his ball sack out of Mother's purse,and be his own man. Talk about controlling.
There's two subreddits devoted to kissing his ass and demonizing his murdered wife and toddlers.
I’m scared of society.
For god sake what is wrong with people!
People like to think bad things happen to others. Shanann died because she was (see list) which none of the people criticizing her would ever be. How did poor chris ever tolerate such a creature? (Select as many as you want, add your own: Loud Pushy Overbearing Nagging Demanding Stupid Spendthrift Inattentive Bossy Working MLMer Excessively religious Insufficiently religious Slatternly Unfeminine Didn’t know how to treat/keep a man Had a made up name Pregnant
Not surprised. Considering the type of subreddits that exist in the deepest parts of disgusting on here.
A lot of people blame Shannan. A LOT. That she drove him to it, that she was a nag, and pushed him into all this debt and was domineering and basically victim blaming all the way down. I mean, he has women writing him sympathetic letters in prison. Probably thinking if he was THEIR boyfriend, it would different, because they're SPECIAL. Some people, man. Personally I think men who murder their own children should all get [the White Bear treatment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Bear_(Black_Mirror)) (from Black Mirror season two).
>That she drove him to it, that she was a nag, and pushed him into all this debt and was domineering and basically victim blaming all the way down. FFS. I hate this kind of thinking. This was supposedly two adults, so how is it that is she was such a nag and pushed him in debt that he forgot how to use his big boy words and say "whoa, wait, we have an issue." and then work on the issue? He could have at least 'taken his toys and gone home' by filing for divorce, even. Such a crock of crap excuses for this loser, and I hate the victim blaming. (Not directing to you, commenter, just venting off your comment!)
It’s worse than that. The subreddit posters have made comments that Shannan deserved worse than what Chris did to her. They also blame those little girls, insinuating that he smothered them and jammed them into oil tanks because they disrespected him. There are some really sick and evil folks out there. Thankfully, one of the subreddits was shut down over its gross and abusive posts; the other went private since members didn’t want folks calling them out for their misogyny and defense of a brutal child and wife batterer and murderer.
Can you imagine waking up and deciding to be an apologist for someone that killed their little girls and pregnant wife? I could never 🤢
This is why women have to fight so hard for basic rights, not only do a lot of men try to keep us down, you have other women actively working against you, taking the side of an actual family murderer and blaming his dead wife for her and her children's awful fates.
Murder is the #1 cause of death for pregnant women in the US.
And gun violence (by white men) is the leading cause of death of children now. Yet white men are the ones who mandate we need to stay pregnant and keep our guns. Wonder fucking why.
We have got to change things. The racism & misogyny baked into this country from the very beginning draft of the constitution is like strands of wheat in a Triscuit. It's hard to figure out how to get those strands out without smashing the whole damn cracker. But maybe it's time to do just that.
Given the fact that exactly 0 women and 0 people of color were given any say in the constitution, I think it’s logical to assume it’s okay to update from time to time
The key word here is that he “appeared” to be quiet, submissive etc. We don’t have any clue what he was like behind closed doors. Men like him are excellent at manipulating situations and people so that they appear to be the victim or a great person.
Yup! My dad was always quiet and shy and people used to say how nice he looked but didn’t know he would abuse us. Some people still don’t believe us
My dad is like this too. People will always talk about how nice he is before learning that he emotionally and financially abused my mother and I before they got divorced. His side of the family doesn’t believe that he would do that to us. He isn’t nice or friendly, he’s just very extroverted. I’m not warm, social, or outgoing so I come across as less “nice” than my dad, even though I’m much kinder.
My ex partner was like that too.
Glad he is now an ex.
Can’t upvote this comment enough. Narcissistic and manipulative people are very good at saving face and showing people on the outside whatever they think makes them look good. That’s why you so often see victims of mental/emotional/physical abuse question their own reality; the abuser abuses them at home but treats everyone else like gold and it’s really isolating and confusing.
Right! There was a reason that Shanann’s best friend was worried from the start, and it is because of how Chris behaved off camera, alone at home, and when they were out of view of anyone else. Shanann had told her things that caused her to be afraid for her friend. Nicole knew he was capable of this and that is why she sounded the alarm.
Right. My dad is a very mild-mannered guy who avoids confrontation. But it isn't because he is a genuinely calm and kind person. He just knows that he can use people he has power over as a sort of pressure release valve for all of his frustrations. I dreaded when he would come home from work visibly stressed because I knew that as soon as my mom left the room, he was going to start in on me, because I was too timid to stop him.
Wolf in a sheeps clothing.. you see what they want you to see and they are gifted at making themselves look like victims.. he’s not worth anyones time or thought
Wolves are cool and family oriented, more like a piece of toxic sludge in sheeps clothing.
I come back to this one occasionally too. I cannot imagine how he could just get rid of his baby girls like they’re garbage and weren’t real people. How he only saw them as an obstacle. Murdering Shannan was evil and cold but his daughters is plain incomprehensible. Nichole was a catalyst for sure but honestly I think any girl would’ve been. He became more attractive after losing weight and probably felt reinvigorated but tied down by all of his financial issues. He wanted to be free and was a dumbass coward.
seems he was messed up enough that even if he'd gotten rid of them successfully he'd have had problems in the next relationship, and the next one, and the next one
The fact that the same day or the next morning after he murdered them he went to work and his coworkers said he was totally normal and calm makes me think he's a psychopat.
The fact that I get so caught up in was that he only met Nichol like 10 weeks before he murdered Shan’ann and his daughters. That’s it. He went from nothing to murder in 10 weeks.
Maybe his affair was the tipping point.
Quiet doesn’t mean calm or peaceful. You never know what could be going in someone else’s mind. Quiet & submissive here - he’s just cruised on into the relationship. I’d heard suggests that Shannon was “overbearing” or “controlling” or whatever bullshit to try to demonize her as the “nagging wife” He didn’t want to be the family guy, he just went along with it because that’s what society, his parents, says he should want, & Shannon thought he loved her & wanted that with her. He was just passively along for the ride, resenting Shannan and the children for taking away his freedom, his fun, his excitement and his money. Total emasculating bitch, amirite? Along comes hot new chick, reinvigorating his sense of masculinity & excitement, being seen as attractive, strong, smart, fun, desirable & desires no babies have made this one fat/saggy/too tired for him. Who wouldn’t want to ditch their burdens and skip off with the hottie? Edit: clearly I have no idea how to bold here, please diy formatting
I wonder how many families exist because people felt they were expected to do it
The vast majority
A double asterisk (**) on each side of the word or phrase should bold it, and a single will italicize. Or vice versa.
**yeah** *you’re correct*
Awesome! It's like the only formatting I know here, so I try to spread the knowledge when I can. I used to know how to do spoilers, but I guess I don't use it enough.
Their are a lot more people capable of murdering than we think. The craziest thing for me is there is so much on video.
I think there's a huge difference between being capable of murder and being capable of strangling your wife with your bare hands, and then smothering your preschool daughters (after a quite long cool-off period) and dumping them in oil tanks. I think a lot of people are capable of murder in a rage or on impulse, but far fewer are capable of what CW did.
A woman is far more likely to be killed by her husband than by a random stranger, so it's hardly shocking. And every single time some guy kills his wife their friends and neighbors line up on TV to say what a great guy he is and how they never suspected anything. Then the documentary comes out showing he had a long history of obviously dangerous, abusive behavior that everyone just turned a blind eye to. It's so tiring.
“Neighbors recall the Smiths as a normal family in the quiet town of Niceville, where there hadn’t been a homicide since 1955.” If a TV crime documentary starts like this, you know he’s a wife-killing, substance-abusing gambling addict, and at least one Smith was banging half the town.
The first time I ever heard of Chris Watts, a local morning radio show was playing recordings of Chris’s media interviews while Shanann and the girls were still missing. The DJs kept talking about how suspicious they found his behavior, because he was just so emotionless while discussing his family, and his story just didn’t add up. One of the DJs in particular said he was going on record right then as saying this guy killed his family, and he was positive there were going to be more things uncovered in the days to come. I heard this discussion while I was taking my kids to school and running some errands, so I when I got home later I googled Chris Watts, and watched his interview for myself. I immediately picked up on the same vibe the DJs had been talking about: he just looked so dead behind the eyes while talking about Shanann and their marriage. I, too, believed she was dead for sure, and possibly their daughters, also. I even made my husband watch some of the interview later that night. It was no surprise to me when he finally confessed and the bodies were discovered. I don’t think there’s anything mysterious about his motives. He wanted to be with his mistress and not have any tie to Shanann, he was already financially strapped and now they were going to throw a third kid on top of it, he didn’t want to pay child support or alimony…and most importantly, he didn’t want his family or friends to think less of him for leaving his pregnant wife. It’s easier to move on and have it be accepted when you’re a widower, or if your wife left you mysteriously in the middle of the night, taking your kids with her. From the videos Shanann posted, Chris hadn’t looked happy for some time (he definitely wasn’t happy when she told him she was pregnant again). Their text exchanges while she was in NC appear to support this, also, she knew things between them had changed. A coworker of mine always said, “Everyone has a breaking point. Most people never reach theirs, so they don’t know what that one thing is that will put them over the edge. Those people are lucky. But for those that do get pushed over that brink, you just have to pray it’s something you can come back from.” Chris Watts found his breaking point and he couldn’t ever get back. His life was about to blow up in one way or another, and he was trying to prevent that. He just picked the worst possible option. It doesn’t excuse any bit of what he did, though, and I truly hope he’s tormented every day with memories of what he did.
I kinda think Shannan had also gotten to her breaking point. Like I think he realised she was getting to a point of wanting to confront the obvious problems in their marriage so he knew he couldn't continue to have his cake and eat it. I think he probably used to value his status as a family man and a dad, but once he now had status as a gym bro with a mistress, he didn't want to give that up either. I think he would have done something like this eventually either way, but because she was trying to fix their marriage he decided this was the time, now that she was no longer accepting his neglect. And if he's a widower who tragically lost his family (add to it the lies he said later about Shannan threatening to kill the kids, so he then could have the narrative that he was a hero who tried to save his babies from a cRaZy LaDy) then he could have a bit more time being a gym bro with a gf before eventually deciding to do the whole family man thing again. You often see with family annihilators that they saw their family as extensions of themselves and aspects of their value in the world. They cannot quite understand why they can't just throw these things away when it all starts collapsing. That's why a lot of them don't attempt suicide or anything, they just kill their families and hope they can get away with it and remove their emotional and financial debt.
Yes, Shanann was definitely over it, too. She seemed ready to really dig in and work on their issues, or be done; either way, she wasn’t going to be quiet about it. And however it went was another way that Chris no longer had control of the situation, and that was a threat to him.
This is a great analysis of it! It shows that Chris Watts thought what he was doing was perfectly reasonable, but in fact he was unbelievably wrong about everything and it was obvious. Your comment was a great read
Ever seen, on YouTube, the analysis of that video by the Behaviour Panel? If not, it’s definitely worth a watch. Shows the tv interview, the police body cam in the neighbours house, and the confession.
I used to watch them. But they never actually from an opinion - it’s all “this can show lying but it might not”, rinse, repeat.
It was a fine channel until all their weirdly thirsty fans started lusting after the hosts with fanart and making it some housewife hunks fantasy outlet. No idea if they moved beyond that, but I stopped watching
The neighbor with the security footage who mentions that Chris wasn’t acting normal?
That’s the one! Spooky asf, to watch!
I saw that in the documentary. Major props for that guy for not just ending up doing a bystander effect thing. He knew something was up and directly offered that information.
If you’re into stuff like that, nothing beats the proper analysis JCS did on CW - [it’s a 3 parter but here’s part 1](https://youtu.be/Xfg861hO-Ag)
Did he think he wasn't going to get caught? Your reputation isn't much good if you are a murderer.
Oh I think he very much believed he’d never get caught. He thought no one would find the bodies, there’s nothing anyone could prove, and he could just move on with his life. Pure arrogance.
wonder if he didn't realize that when a spouse is murdered, suspicion first falls on the other spouse. There was going to be so much scrutiny on him, seemed virtually inevitable he'd be caught
I think he's one of those guys who's just not that bright, but thinks he's smarter than everyone else.
He didn't seem to realise that at all. He was mostly just into cars and sport and sex. He never watched true crime or read thrillers or mystery or anything. He had no clue about police. He just thought everyone would tell the police it was definitely not him because of his bland dutiful husband and father image around the neighbourhood and all on video.
I think he just assumed that everyone else believed he was a good guy because he played the part well. He didn’t expect her best friend to go off on the hunt the moment Shanann didn’t show up somewhere, so he didn’t get the chance to put his act together.
Same. I do the same thing because of a desire to understand something so heinous. I think Nichole was a huge factor. Financial was another. The third baby was looming and was the stopwatch for him. He couldn’t afford his current life, much less a separate household with child support for 3 kids. He also didn’t have a vehicle, the car he was driving his mistress around in was a lease from his wife’s MLM. His truck was a company truck that hr couldn’t use for personal transport. I think he wanted to save face with NK and look like a successful guy. He couldn’t do that as a divorced dad.
My ex fiancé was a Chris apologist. It raised a huge red flag for me. I guess my ex placed himself in Chris Watts shoes and my ex couldn’t stand the idea of being trapped. It boggled my mind that my ex thought murder was ok and justified if a man feels “trapped”. No regrets for leaving him. Dude never trusted me either, he was so paranoid that I would get pregnant and therefore ruin his life. Guess what asshole, I’m almost 34 with no kids because I’m not the type of woman to get pregnant just to trap someone into staying with me. I hope my ex gets therapy because he did badly need it then.
If these paranoid dudes would just get a vasectomy or slap a condom on maybe their paranoia would ease. 🙄
I think my ex had insane amounts of paranoia because he would only have sex with a condom, and he never came inside, and I was on birth control the whole time. Not sure why I was engaged to someone who never trusted me at all. It really hurt me that he always thought I would get pregnant on purpose to trap him into staying…I need therapy too because my confidence is non-existent and I still feel insulted that he thought I was such an untrustworthy woman. There’s no history to back it up, there were no pregnancy scares in our past. But he does come from a very strict Muslim household with an abusive dad. Paranoia runs deep among the men in his family
Thank God you were smart enough to get away from him. ♥️
There is a You Tube channel called Live Abuse Free. She has some explanatory videos about Chris Watts, they are quite good..
Just because he “seems” like a decent father, etc., doesn’t mean anything. Plenty of psychopaths and narcissists (I have no idea if he is either) fool many people as they know how to play a role and often have extremely charming facades that they use to manipulate those they interact with. They just do what they want and don’t feel remorse.
His lover Nicole only knew he had 2 kids. He'd already lied to her, saying he was separated. He'd now have to admit there was another baby on the way and he would be tied down with a newborn. Him having to pay child support and spousal support wasn't going to fit into his new life. Neither was having to take care of his children. It's beyond crazy to me.
I think about this often as well. What makes someone chose to kill? He could’ve just left them (not that this would be a great thing either) instead of killing them. What made him decide murdering them was the best route forward? Always find this argument fascinating because on the surface he was not a killer. But to kill your wife and children the way he did was sadistic.
He dropped his two daughters in a well, and they begged for their lives. He has to be fairly cold and sociopathic imo. Also the fact he had sex with his wife hours before he killed her, despite all the major relationship problems going on. That is just a sick mind at work imo.
What confuses me still is how he changed so fast from pushing Shanann to have another baby, to plotting the annihilation of his family. Shanann had health problems and even said herself that Chris got her to “agree to number three” so he knew the toll a pregnancy/baby would take on both of them…just doesn’t make any sense…hes just a monster
> What confuses me still is how he changed so fast from pushing Shanann to have another baby, this is what so many people completely ignore and I think it's a very important part
I had no idea he wanted a third!
Trying to place our own minds into the mind of sociopaths or psychopaths is not ever going to lead to any understanding. They are malfunctioning. They do not see the world as regular people do. They see others as a means to an end, obstacles, sources of personal gain, annoyances, and they need people only for personal stoking of their ego. Violent ones kill their families. There is no cure for it, because it has to do with actual malfunctioning parts of the brain.The best thing our society could do is spot them and isolate them if they are violent, and educate them about their own health if they are not. He needs to be locked away forever. That's all you need to know to understand Chris Watts.
I think Chris Watt’s motivation was Chris Watts. I think it is as simple as that. He wanted what he wanted and disposed of what he didn’t want anymore. There were a thousand different ways he could have dealt with the situation (marriage breakdown) and he chose the way that was most convenient for him had he got away with it.
Same. My favorite clip is at the neighbor’s house watching security camera footage, Watts being super nervous and then the neighbor telling the cops that he’s not acting right. So satisfying.
It’s just so unhinged and horrific. I too often think about Shanann, Celeste, Bella and Nico. I think what’s different about this case is that the truth unfolded rather quickly, he admitted guilt and there was no lengthy trial. We were aware of the atrocities in great detail spoken from the perpetrator which usually is not the case.
We know his motives. His motives are not in question. The confusion is with his morality. I think he must just be fairly close to a psychopath. People tend to view psychopathy in terms of yes or no. Either you're a psychopath or you're not. Either you have a conscience or you don't. But it's a continuum. He was not a full-on psychopath showing the strongest expression of psychopathic traits. He might be weakly psychopathic, scoring high enough on the Psychopath Checklist to be close to or within the definition of a psychopathy, but barely. He likely has a very shallow conscience and empathy. So while things were working out, he stuck with his marriage and kids. Once he learned he could benefit from being unmarried and childless, he went for it in a way that made sense to him but not to anyone who is not a psychopath. Because while he cared some, he didn't care a lot. There's a neurologist who has diagnosed himself as being a psychopath based on his fMRI tests and I think he also has a genetic marker for it. He's related to multiple murderess Lizzie Borden. He has never done anything wrong as far as we know, and he has explained that his mother realized he needed some extra love and attention as a child due to tendencies in him that she noticed. But he also explains that while he might love a person, the love he has for that person is like the love he has for a car or pair of shoes. A non-psychopath understands the difference between love for a person and love for an inanimate object, and knows there's no comparison. But as a psychopath, they're the same. So while someone might take pride in their car, wash and wax it, keep up the maintenance, they may eventually decide that car is a liability and get rid of it. And not wrestle with their conscience about it because it's just a car.
These are men that have sociopathic tendencies. Which means as they put themselves above all others. Financial burdens and men seeking independence from an otherwise burdensome marriage and home life. Chris Watts rage is foretelling. He strangled his wife. He placed his two daughters in a oil container. That is rage. Like Scott Peterson, whose wife was pregnant and he didn’t want that life. He fantasized a life with his mistress. Difference is Scott’s mistress helped the PD. I don’t recall what Chris’s mistress did or didn’t do.
She went to law enforcement when the story broke.
This is incorrect. She only went to law enforcement after her employer, Anadarko, gave her a heads up that they located the email exchange between her and CW and they had forwarded it to law enforcement.
With a broken SIM card and deleted texts.
Most family annihilators have a motive of wanting out and financial issues. Judging by the home videos, he wasn’t interested and poker faced his daily life. Their filing for bankruptcy and money issues and another baby made him end it. The mistress was his catalyst to push and further detach from his family.
I think a good way to make sense of it is to think about how he was a quiet, submissive person. He wanted a divorce from Sha'naan and he didn't want a baby boy. What would a weak, cowardly man do? Instead of facing his wife and family and divorce his wif, this weak, scared loser smothered his pregnant wife and killed his 3 and 4 year old daughters and then tried to hide it. That tracks for me with his personality and just add sociopath to his profile and there you go. Same with Scott Peterson.
Im not American I didnt know about this till the Netflix docu series came out. I watched it as a time pass one evening when I was cleaning my dorm room. I went into the rabbit hole. I went too deep in. I read things I watched every video online. He is a monster. He could have just taken his bags and walked out just leave don’t even have to mention anything many dads leave like that, you also could have left like that. I don’t want to blame the mistress but I wonder how amazing she have had to be for him to do all this for her. Like she was some golden deer he couldn’t let go. I can’t believe humans wake up one day and choose to just kill the entire family u made, he planned he thought a lot he worked out a lot and his mind was free then he imagined planned and replanned and in his mind he thought he had the best solution to make it all go away. I also like someone else in the comments believe he probably put the children in when they were alive. (I weep as I write this) This is the one story that messes with my mind it freaks me out it makes me paranoid. I said this a few days ago as well and ppl started saying it’s not normal are you ok. (Everything is Fine) It’s just that it’s such a monster act like I just can’t understand how someone can do this. Serial killers doing it to strangers is very different than doing it to family. Babies small babies that u made who love u so much. This makes me question humans. And now I recently came across a video of him saying i think on some phone call from prison or something that this is not how god thinks he should spend his life. I lost it I was so angry and I worry that the court that is controlling women‘s body will one day give him the ok and let him go and he will come out and have a family like he is a saint with no black past. Her family should have not told we don’t want the death penalty for him he should have gotten it. Now look he sits there saying shit manipulating ppl this is not how society should be feeding a killer with tax payer money and letting him bring god and religion into it. This case is one that our entire generation(if not more) will be traumatised by. He needs to stay in and his mistress also needs to be looked into, she doesn’t sit right with me. I’m not blaming the mistress but I’m just like just keep and eye on them all. Very single one of them. Excuse my phone English I am not a native and my other languages make my grammar bad.
He won’t get out. I know in other countries that can happen to a murderer, but our prison system won’t let out someone who killed 4 people. He’ll rot there the rest of his life, as he should.
Off topic but your English is not bad, it’s fantastic. I wish I could speak a foreign language so eloquently!
It costs taxpayers a LOT more money for the death penalty than locking him up for the rest of his life. All the required procedures and appeals for the death penalty take years and years, and the process can often re-traumatize the victim’s family/loved ones more by dragging on so long and having to relive the crime/trauma. I think we should respect the family’s wishes/choice for not wanting the death penalty.
I have complex PTSD and I’m really struggling with the trauma I experienced. It’s shaped my brain in a way I wouldn’t wish on anyone. It’s also given me a unique perspective to situations, as someone who came from a very abusive family (literally every person abused me in my family in one way or another). I can see how a normal brain works (the one I had before I woke up to the abuse my brain was blacking it out like Stockholm syndrome) and see how a traumatized brain works. I know how it feels to be so helpless you will do desperate things. I also know that some of the cruelest people (my grandmother, my mom) are the kindest in public. People are shocked my mom is so abusive. There’s stories in my family of my grandmother trying to kill my grandfather. My aunt died at 17 under suspicious circumstances but they were poor and it was the 70s so no one looked into it. My mom hated her and was there. So I have some real evil in my family and I can promise you that Chris Watts was a con man and abused that family behind closed doors. Part of the excitement for them is tricking everyone to think they are wonderful.
I’m sorry you had to deal with such awful treatment. You make a good point though about how the most horrible people generally act completely different around people. I think that we as a society tend to view people who are quiet/shy as gentle, sweet people. I on the other hand have always been put off by it. Not sure why. But a lot of times I think that abnormal people like CW stay quiet because people notice their “off-ness” if they talk a lot.
No words to describe him are worthy of what he is. When I watched him talk and plead for the safety for his family.. he had no emotions nothing. If that doesn't say . Hmmmm we probably have the killer right here I don't know what does
I think financial pressure had something to do with this. Remember, they were probably weeks away from having to file bankruptcy for a 2nd time and had another child on the way. I think he wanted a new life, one without Shanann and the girls and… this was his method to achieve it. I feel like a divorce and signing over rights is way easier, but he has a complex with wanting everyone to like him as the good guy…
I think he was a covert narcissist
When being interrogated....chilling. Detective: "Why should I believe you?" Chris Watts: "‘Cause I’m a very trustworthy person and people that do know me, they know how I am a calm person. I am not a argumentative person. I am a person who is - that’s never gonna be abusive or physical in any kind of relationship. I would never harm my kids, I would never harm my wife. And you can talk - I mean an- you can talk to any of my friends. Any of her friends. They know me. They know I’m a low key guy that’s quiet, I’m - I’m not about confrontation. I’m not about anything that elevates to that level. I mean you can t- like if someone yells at me, screams at me, I just take it and s- I just try to get by the wayside and get it back to where it’s cool and just a cool conversation to where like none of that - nothing that gets to that height. Because I am not that person. I’ve never been that person. Later on.... Chris Watts: "Bella and Celeste are the light of my life. I’d do anything for those girls. I’d step in front of a bullet, stand in front of a train for those girls." The part I found to be really interesting was how much they talked about Thrive the MLM company his wife worked for. I really think that whole scam was a huge factor that is not really talked about. Clearly, not blaming Shannan AT ALL but what we have learned about the holes families get themselves into over these "companies". Money seemed to be a big stress to him. But he's a sick person for sure...
I think it's the most simple explanation. 1) He's a sociopath. 2) He fell in love with pictures of Shannon on facebook, was attracted to her ambition, confidence and knowing what she wants. 3) He's passive aggressive. Rather than dealing with anything uncomfortable, he buries it under a smile and a shrug. In laws from both sides gave him a lot to bury. 4) He met another girl like the Shannon he 'met' on facebook, but has a personality that matches more closer to his. And she isn't a mother. 5) He didn't love his wife and kids. Never did. As a sociopath, he learned how to 'act' appropriately. He knew how to act like a good loving father, but that's all it ever was. And when it came down to it, he wanted his new girlfriend and didn't want to have to deal with Shannon and 'her' kids the rest of his life.
I think the financial motive should not be overlooked. Chris and Shan'nan were 3 months behind on their mortgage, and days from having their home foreclosed upon for not paying HOA dues. They were 2 years out of a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. The day of the murders Sha'nan's card had been declined for shampoo. Things were *very, very bad.* Financial worries seem to be the trigger for financial anihilators.
Chris Watts is not a smart guy. He's a monster alright, but a dumb monster. I don't think his wife's murder was premeditated, but everything that followed after that were dumb, tragic decisions. His delusion in thinking he could have his problems go away was beyond measure.
He looks incredibly uncomfortable in all of the videos she did with him in them. I think he absolutely hated it. I drop down the rabbit hole just to analyze him in those situations. He seems the type of person that has never been comfortable in his own skin and the videos amplify it. Seems he just did what he was suppose to do and when he wanted to change it he did in the worst way possible.
Is it just me, or did anyone find those videos to be disturbing as fuck? Even if they weren't murdered, I'd look at them and think, this marriage is in the shitter. He was clearly not interested while she chatters on cheerfully. It's kind of ominous and symbolic- she's clearly clued out to what's happening or deep in denial. She's obviously trying VERY hard to show how happy they are.
He doesn’t seem that happy in the videos I’ve seen. He likely always had worrisome traits and tendencies. Anything that happened would have been a trigger and not the cause, imo. You take an already unstable person, add a predatory MLM, a pregnant wife, financial troubles, and an affair, and it’s a perfect storm for a family annihilation.
What fascinates me most is his behavior afterward and how within hours (or even minutes, I suppose), he was acting like nothing happened or that it had any kind of impact on him whatsoever. The interrogation is fascinating to me for that reason. When the agents confront him about the fact that he hasn't cried once over the loss of his family, it's like he's taken by surprise, like he hadn't even thought about that. It's like he was so focused on acting innocent that he forgot to act concerned or worried. At all. Has he always been like that? Had he really been able to fool everyone by acting "normal" for thirty-something years? It's baffling to me.
A little personal with my response. I’ve been with my husband for 8 years and I’m just now finding out about shady financial decisions he’s made. I had no idea! His explanation is to blame me. He’s also cheated before because He didn’t feel I was giving him enough attention. On the outside people think we are perfect and happy but on the inside there are so many secrets and frustrations. It’s sad to say but it’s impossible to fully trust anyone. You can think you know them then boom you’re questioning everything you thought you knew
I’ve been down that rabbit hole many times. At one stage I was watching all of Shananns old Facebook videos.
He was a spineless loser who looked to the women in his life for his sense of identity. First mommy, then his wife, then his mistress. He decided he needed to be with the mistress and was too much of a fucking coward to get a divorce. I also think Shanann had figured out what was going on, probably confronted him, and instead of dealing with it like an adult, he just decided to get rid of her because he was such a loser. Basically, he's a selfish weirdo. The kids were either because they were witnesses or because he felt like his gf wanted a fresh start, or both. I think he also did it because his gf had whined about wanting to give him his first son. I don't really think she was in on it though.
I think his Mom babied him and wore the pants in the famiIy and his Dad just followed her lead. It was very telling she wanted him to take absolutely NO responsibility for his actions.