True Crime Analysis, Breakthroughs, Insights & Discussions Hosted by Bestselling Author Nick van der Leek

Think You Know the Chris Watts Case? In Which ROOM Does HE Say The Murders Took Place?

In which room is the crime scene at 2825 Saratoga Trail? According to Chris Watts it’s an upstairs room, but which one? Is it a) the kid’s bedroom, b) the loft lounge or c) the parents’ bedroom?

The affidavit places Chris Watts in his bedroom. It’s about as safe a place to be as any, right? This is inferred from him stating he “returned” to his bedroom after discussing a separation with Shan’ann [presumably in the bedroom].

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The affidavit implies a single baby monitor, but there were nevertheless two cameras, one for each child, and one for each room, beamed to the same monitor. The children didn’t sleep in the same room.

https://youtu.be/UgX9bBiWFwo

According to the affidavit, Chris Watts goes downstairs “for a moment” [to drink a glass of water, to eat something, whatever he needs to be doing to not to be upstairs], and then returns an undisclosed time later. Does he make it all the way downstairs, or did he make a u-turn on the stairs? He doesn’t say. What he does say is he returns to his bedroom and while there, witnesses a murder taking place in another room on camera, presumably Celeste’s room.

In other words, Chris Watts places himself everywhere but in the rooms where the children are killed.

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In his version, Chris Watts firstly places himself in his own bedroom, and secondly downstairs and/or on the stairs when Bella’s murder takes place.  When he returns to his bedroom, that’s when he sees Celeste’s being murdered.

Thirdly, it sounds like Chris Watts confronts Shan’ann in Celeste’s room and kills her there, from his description.

What I find dodgy about this version of events is the going downstairs and coming back the same way. In his description, he places himself in neither-here-nor-there land, while something very specific is happening in another specific location.

There are at least two other crimes where we see a similar running around in circles, a sort of directional much-ado-about-nothing. The one is the Oscar Pistorius case, where Oscar gets up, closes the open balcony door and curtains, advances on the bathroom, then returns to the balcony and opens the doors and curtains. In the Amanda Knox case she also heads around the outside of the house to look into Meredith’s window, then heads out a second time. In both instances she’s racing around only to end up back at Meredith’s door, which she somehow never succeeds in opening [someone else has to do that]. Below is an extract from Waiting to be Heard:

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Probably the most absurd version I’ve heard to date is Henri van Breda who basically has himself in the same room as the axe murderer, but he’s basically like an

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invisible zombie. He’s there, but he’s not there. And the axe murderer sort of does what he needs to do and doesn’t bother with Henri. Eventually, in a magical moment, the ax

e murderer notices Henri, the two tussle briefly and Henri removes the axe from axe murderer so easily it’s like taking candy from a baby. Then the axe murderer flees, forgetting to step in blood on his way out and leave any traces of himself. Henri someone manages

to step through the crime scene and not leave any footprints in blood too – like the axe murderer.

In Henri’s version, he’s where the axe murders take place when his brother and fa ther are murdered, but he’s somewhere else [standing like statue in his own room] when the women of the house are murdered. Needless to say, Henri was convicted on all charges.

Now, back to the Watts case. When everyone is dead, Chris Watts  returns to his own bedroom and strips the bed sheets, dumping some of the bedding later in the trash.There’s no mention of him trying to perform CPR on anyone.

 

 

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Does the stripped bed mean the crime happened on the bed? It could. It didn’t in the Oscar Pistorius case. In the Jodi Arias case the bed was also stripped, and bedclothes stuffed into the washing machine, but the crime didn’t take place in the bed or the bedroom.

In the Watts case, we know Detective Baumhover found no blood, and no obvious signs of foul play on the bedding. Chris Watts also chose to bury his wife using a sheet from their bedroom. Presumably this sheet was meant to temporarily cover the corpse and seal in the smells.

If Chris Watts version is to be believed, then all three murders took place upstairs in the children’s bedrooms, and Shan’ann was murdered in Celeste’s room.

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But should Chris Watts’ version be believed? If not, what’s the alternative?

57 Comments

  1. Karen

    I’ve read that many people think she was killed as soon as she came in the door. I may have thought that for a minute myself but I do believe she went upstairs. The fact that her suitcase downstairs only meant to me that she was too tired to take it with her at the time or maybe she was going to have Chris carry it up. I’m still trying to figure out how the monitor plays into the scenario because I know they do. Just a feeling I have but I don’t know if we’ll ever really know since he’s such a liar.

    • nickvdl

      I think you need to read TWO FACE.

      • Karen

        I did read Two-Face but it’s a lot to absorb and you’re right, it needs to be read slowly and when I read it the first time the links weren’t working but they were the 2nd time. It makes much more sense and things are more clear. I just finished Beneath the Oil for the 2nd time. Anxiously awaiting the third one now

      • Molly Salyard

        I believe K-9’s…

  2. piktor

    One monitor watches both girls:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgX9bBiWFwo

  3. Pauline

    I would like to know if the dog alerted to Chris’s bed. Whether he sedated them first, then smothered them, overdosed them, or strangled them wouldn’t it be easier for him to have them in one area, laid out on his bed. Consider if it was strangulation. CeCe is still in a crib. It might have been difficult for him to reach down over the railing and strangle her. Conversely it would be difficult in Chris’s version for Sha’nann to do that as well.

    So whether he let the girls go to bed or take a nap in his bed (and there are other videos of the three of them on the master bed) or sedated them in their own bed and crib, I think he laid them out on his bed, otherwise why throw some of the bedding in the trash.

    Also would like to know if any bodily fluids were present on the sheet and pillow cases he threw in the trash (actually I think it said on top of the trash can). Saliva or urine, just as urine was found outside the wine cellar door belonging to JonBenet.

    • piktor

      If you know you will strangle someone, you do it with aplomb, with force, no second thoughts. Can’t reach someone’s neck, you do what you have to do to get to that neck and strangle it. A three year old is no match for an adult. It is sheer animal violence focused on annihilation of a life.
      Asphyxiation is bloodless- police were looking for spots or streaks of blood. Something that told them there was foul play at that home.

    • GK

      Cece was in a regular twin sized bed so he had no problem in smothering them, he didn’t strangle the girls just Shan’ann. My theory is he smothered the girls first before Shan’ann arrived, then when she went in to check on them she noticed something was wrong and he probably took her down in one of their rooms and then strangled her as he held her down, the coroners report stated that the hand mark was only on one side of her neck, enough to choke her to death. He probably took all three downstairs to the garage and placed them there till morning when he got ready to put them in his company truck, remember there were only a few hours between when she arrived home after 1 am and when he drove off after 4 am.

      • mitzi2006

        If it had been that long that their bodies were in the garage wouldn’t the cadaver dog pick up the scent. I just see him killing her before she got close to the upstairs especially because she could look in on the kids and if they were already dead he would have had a hysterical Shan’ann to deal with, screaming and marking him up in a fight. He’d also have to drag her down the stairs which physically would be possible for him but I just see him figuring out the easiest way to get her into that garage.

    • Sabrina Peters

      CeCe is still in a crib ??? She had her bed like Bella she was not in a crib anymore.

  4. Pauline

    Also if the officer noted “no signs of a struggle” on Watt’s bed, that would fit with a drugging first, perhaps smothering later, with a pillow, then removing the bedding and putting it on the trash can for disposal later.

  5. piktor

    Nick writes:
    “What I find dodgy about this version of events is the going downstairs and coming back the same way. In his description, he places himself in neither-here-nor-there land, while something very specific is happening in another specific location.”

    He has to allow time for his wife murdering her two girls. It’s such a stupidly bland narrative, it beggars belief.

    He changed the time of the “emotional conversation” from 5 to 4am because he subconsciously “forgot”
    4 am is his routine wake up time to go to his Anadarko job.

  6. Pauline

    What time was Deeter heard barking? It was early morning, wasn’t it? If Watts strangled his girls much earlier, before he was seen barbecuing, wouldn’t he have wanted to sequester Deeter then? Would Deeter be barking because he was behind a closed door or because he was behind a closed door and something stressful was going on? Would he have sequestered Deeter during the killing of the girls, or only for the killing of his wife. This is another reason I don’t believe Chris strangled the girls. It’s just a theory, but I think he sedated them, then used a pillow to suffocate them. Any ideas Piktor as to why he would have stripped his bed, and thrown one sheet and pillow cases on top of the trash can unless something occurred on his bed? If all he wanted was one sheet to wrap, cover, or help transport them to his truck to hide them in the back why throw the rest of the bedding on top of the trash can?

  7. piktor

    Neighbors say Dieter barked “all night”. Dogs sense the unusual. Unusual noise, unusual smell, unusual goings on at home.
    Dieter slept in the garage, so it was behind a closed door that something unusual made him sound the alarm and begin barking “all night”.
    I don’t see Watts strangling two small girls. Maybe asphyxiation either with a pillow or drowning them in a bathtub.
    A lot happened on that bed. He would not be sleeping inside those sheets. He probably was running out of time so he stripped the bed and later, after work, would lay fresh sheets.
    He probably threw the sheet and pillowcases on the trash can in disgust at the sight of them and what they meant to him. Out with the old.

    • Nick

      How do you know the dog slept in the garage? And what night are you referring to when neighbors heard him barking?

  8. Pauline

    In with the new (girlfriend).

  9. Spock

    What has never, and still doesn’t fit for me is the timeline.
    Any help on this will be greatly appreciated because it’s beginning to hurt my brain.
    CW has all weekend. If we focus just on the night of the crimes he has about 10 hours.
    If he’s lying in wait and Shanann never makes it upstairs why in the hell is the bedding removed from the master bed? If he murdered his daughters in the master bed before Shanann got home and there is evidence on the sheets, he has hours upon hours to remake the bed and bag up the sheets to take with him and remove them from the scene. If he murdered Shanann in that bed he still has 3 hours.
    I don’t think he was dismembering anyone. If he was, then that would account for a lot, if not all of the 10 hours. But i don’t think it was necessary – the small girls could be made to fit. (This line of thought is horrible). Broken bones would do the trick. Footprint on a plastic bag…
    Due to her late flight he knew he didn’t have time to dismember Shanann if that was the original plan. I assume she wasn’t dismembered or she wouldn’t have been placed in a shallow grave. (The piece of exposed sheet really defines the word shallow).
    If he needs something to cover the bodies – once again he’s got all weekend to find the linen closet.
    Why not use some of this vast ocean of time to stage the scene? His story is that she just “vanished” with the children. He sets his story up with the “emotional conversation” possibly in an attempt to lead everyone to believe she left because she was upset about the separation. No car, no purse, no money, no credit cards, no keys, no car seats, no medications, no Thrive protein bars and most importantly NO PHONE. (She could have grabbed her suitcase on the way out and had clothes and toiletries). With all the doors locked and no signs of foul play he’s cleverly left us with only one option – alien abduction. Beam me up Scotty.
    I realize we only have bits and pieces to work with at this point but the timeline is my mental stumbling block. If he’s planned this. If he murdered the children before she got home. If he’s laying in wait and murders her as soon as she comes through the door. Then he has way too much time on his hands to leave such a disorganized/unstaged crime scene.
    Is it possible (and this is really hard for me to believe) that he was arrogant enough to believe once he had annihilated his family that he and Dieter had the house all to themselves again and he would just clean up the mess after work on Monday? But that doesn’t explain why he seems to be leaving late for work Monday morning. Was he leaving late? Did NUA’s showing up at the house literally serve up his life sentence because he was so arrogant?
    Be gentle, but please feel free to point out where I might be stuck on stupid with this line of thinking.

    • nickvdl

      If you have a tape, measure out 8 inches [20 centimeters], and then try to imagine stuffing a 4 year old child through that opening. I doubt whether a head, hips or ribcage would fit through such a small opening.

      If you read the post comparing the Watts Case as an imperfect murder to the Khashoggi Case, then you see how quickly an adult male body can be dismembered. The real issue with the timeline is why was he a little later to leave than usual? It can’t be because the murders took a long time to play out, so it has to do with some sort of clean-up operation.

      Who knows, maybe a lot of that time was spent cleaning up social media, or messages on her phone, not necessarily the crime scene.

      The removal of the bed sheets is to get rid of evidence, not necessarily of something happening on them that is crime-related, but something not happening. For example, if you [or the victim] haven’t slept in a bed, then there won’t be fibers etc. So the removal of the sheets is to contaminate that aspect of the narrative. It’s like wiping out fingerprints. Not all fingerprints matter, but by getting rid of all of them, you leave the investigator in the dark.

      If you think the murders weren’t premeditated then you’re excused from considering the following point. If they were premeditated, no murderer is going lie in bed [probably awake] for hours next his victim when he can get busy killing and cleaning up, especially with so little time to play with.

      Besides that, you’d have to be an idiot to kill someone in your bed. It’s about as close as it’s possible to come to signing your name on the murder victim. It’s really the last place a murderer wants to commit a crime, especially a premeditated crime. For this reason, in his affidavit, he places the crime scenes everywhere upstairs except in the parents’ master bedroom. As soon as the crime happens there, either in a version of events or in reality, the inevitable suspect HAS to be him.

      In my opinion, none of the murders happened upstairs.

      • Spock

        Wow. Thank you for taking the time to hugely broaden my perspective. Lots to re-think here!
        I apologize for getting off topic with my post but that master bedroom bedding has been sitting behind my eyes and poking at my brain for weeks.
        I believe these murders were premeditated. I think the premeditation was over a long period of time and the longer he mentally massaged the idea of murder the more he mentally justified his own victim status.

    • nickvdl

      “Then he has way too much time on his hands to leave such a disorganized/unstaged crime scene.” – I’m not sure what was disorganized about it. A disorganized crime scene leaves behind a lot of evidence. The Oscar Pistorius crime scene is disorganized, but even in the few minutes he had, there was a lot of wiping, cleaning up and moving. His victim was also washed – at least, her face was. And he also washed himself, all within minutes of the crime.

      The sheets dumped into the trash, yes, but Watts had every reason to suspect the cops wouldn’t be called until HE called them. He doubtless knew about the doctor’s appointment, and if she didn’t turn up for that, she had to be somewhere else [not necessarily at the house]. He could, theoretically, have taken her phone and her car that evening and parked it and left it somewhere, and that alone would have stymied investigators about what happened to her, and where she went.

      Also bear in mind that if it was planned, the flight delay over several hours may have caused him to rush and make changes more than he’d anticipated.

      • Spock

        The Pistorius case is a good comparison for me. I haven’t read your book(s) on the case so I don’t know your opinion but I wholeheartedly believe that he premeditated Reva’s murder. Avery/Dassey is in my mind another blatant example of premeditated and planned murder.
        Your replies have made it obvious to me that in trying to find the devil in the details in this case that my perspective is not broad enough and my own perspective is tripping me up and at times bringing me to a complete stop. My circular thinking is like a hamster in a wheel. I’m in the right wheel and going like hell but confining myself to repeat the the same path over and over.
        I continue to try to climb inside the mind of CW but apparently I keep lugging a giant overstuffed suitcase of “me” in there.
        Back to the subject of this post. I will have to re-think where CW committed the murders because unfortunately I followed him right up those stairs to the pile of bedding on the floor. Shit. Shit. Shit.
        I’m trying hard to break this emphasis on “logical” thinking. If I can’t, it won’t be for a lack of trying.
        Thanks for all your help.

  10. Pauline

    I like that very much. That the murders may not have happened upstairs at all. And I think the last night he slept in his bed (and if he was plotting he likely didn’t sleep much) was Saturday night. D day was Sunday. He could have tossed his bed Sunday some time. But given the outlay of the house, the upper windows of the house and the risk that daylight or moonglow might shine through and neighbor cameras everywhere, he had to move with stealth. I am a little surprised that a small house dog would have to sleep in the garage, that’s a big house with many rooms a dog could be put in overnight so I think he would only be sequestered for special occasions, like the night in question since the neighbors didn’t hear him barking Friday or Saturday night. Only Sunday-Monday.

  11. BAMS13

    His story is so full of holes and like you say, no mention of CPR or rescue attempts.

  12. BAMS13

    I also feel that he didn’t strangle the girls as that’s just too violent considering how close they all were. Assuming that he did kill them then I think he would have tried to do it as painlessly as possible so maybe heavy sedation first. I just hate to even visualise anything happening to those little girls.

    As for Dieter, if he was really barking all that night then something about that just does not add up for me. CW was likely highly anxious and I doubt he would have let the dog bark like crazy and risk drawing too much attention. It makes me wonder if he wasn’t there for much of the night prior to SW returning home? Assuming he killed them that afternoon or early evening after the neighbours party, then maybe that’s when he was disposing of their bodies. Dieter might not have been fed and unused to being locked up with nobody home. My dog goes absolutely nuts when this happens. If it was premeditated I personally just can’t see him deciding to kill them all at home and transport all three together. I’d think that it would take far too long and be far too risky. SW was no light-weight and disposing of her alone would have taken several hours. I think only she was taken in his truck after 5am that morning.

  13. Shannon

    BAMS13. Good answer.
    Chris slept in the basement. But with her away, maybe upstairs.
    There’s no mention of Chris coming and going from house the nite Shanannn comes home. Before she gets home.
    I think all 3 removed the one time from house to truck, Or
    Maybe kids already in truck, she doesn’t even get upstairs, he kills her near the garage inside house, easier to drag, phone thrown upstairs in coach. I don’t know if there’s a door from garage to house.
    To lug her downstairs, out door into truck, would be alot of time. She would be heavy.
    Dieter in garage for abit, cause he would be running around, get in way.
    My thoughts

    • M Gift

      Good analysis. However, if you read the 1960-page Watts Discovery File, the neighbours video camera captured CW backing his truck into the driveway when he said that he did, which was at 5:20 am on August 13. The video corroborates that there were no other event showing him backing his truck onto the driveway, thus proving it was only at that time, at 5:20 on 08/13 that he loaded up the 3 bodies. He can be partially seen loading articles into the back cab of the truck, as he claimed it had been tools in his first police interrogation, when it was actually his family for which he ultimately confesses to. Also, CW told investigators the night he confessed when they asked what they would be wearing when they found them, that SW would be wearing a purple t-shirt & underwear. This is exactly what she was found to be wearing when they recovered her body. This means she must have gone upstairs after she returned home from her trip and obviously changed before climbing into bed. It would be the only logical explanation, being they found her in this purple T & Blu underwear. Her wedding rings were also recovered on her side of the night stand. Highly doubt even if Shanann did not remove them, that CW would have buried her with them on, as in his mind this would have been extra money because he could pawn them, so he would’ve removed them. His mistress Nicole Kessinger mentioned that he could pawn her wedding rings at some point in their 5-week courtship, why would she say this? She should hold some accountability for what happened also. She certainly has not been as forthcoming as she should have been and why would she, she doesn’t want to be added to the list of worlds most hated women, a home wrecker, destroyer… but in fact she is. CW would have never buried SW with her wedding rings because he needed as much money as he could get his hands on. Only CW truly knows all the gruesome details he carried out that early morning of August 8/2018. He will never divulge what really happened. What doesn’t sit well with me, as to why I believe he is guilty, is why he didn’t help his kids if its true that he says he caught SW in the act of hurting CC. Not one parent would ever accept the death of their child even if it was true, they would try anything – CPR, call for help, call 911… He did none of the above. It doesn’t ring true as if he did catch her in the act of smothering CC and throwing her off of her as he claimed that he did, then it would mean that CC would’ve still had a fighting chance to be saved. He is a LIAR, he is evil. Shannann and his kids became a liability to him, many health issues and the new baby would have had some too I’m sure. He probably even regretted ever marrying SW because of her health challenges as these were in his mind passed on to the kids. His saw a new life with NK believing in his sick mind that he would just replace the kids he had by having new but healthy ones with her. CW is a disgrace and he deserves everything bad that will happen to him in this lifetime and the next.

      • nickvdl

        Only CW truly knows all the gruesome details he carried out that early morning of August 8/2018. >>>That’s one of the comments I despise most in true crime. If you believe that, why are there courts, cops, trials, forensic testing? Why bother reading anything about the case if the only person who will ever know the truth is the criminal?

  14. Shannon

    I have been having a hard time reading the documents. Doing it on my phone…very small print.
    Chris gave cops her ring, when they in house. Kids could have been dead in beds, Shanann looks goes to bedroom changes….maybe went downstairs for a drink. He grabs her down there. House probably dark.
    Only thing, we can speculate till the sun goes down, we will only know if he ever talks.

  15. Sheila

    First off this psychopath (CW) is a complete idiot. My question is why was the phone found between the couch cushions? Is this evidence of a struggle in which Shan’ann was attacked? If so, why does the discovery say she didn’t fight back? Did she realize her daughters were murdered when she went upstairs and didn’t want to live without them? Based on his stupidity and motives, who would he kill first?
    He is an awful monster raised by complete moronic monsters and involved with another monster (NK) who most definitely assisted him in his plan to completely annihilate a beautiful family that was too good for him and the horrible Watts.

    Prayers for Mr. and Mrs. Rzucek, brother Rzucek, Shan’Ann, Bella, Celeste, and Nico. Our hearts are all with yours as you face further heinous verbal attacks from complete morons.

    • nickvdl

      She didn’t put the phone there, he did.

      Psychopaths don’t feel emotion, and struggle to show it. In his confession he breaks down crying. If he killed his family because he was in love with his mistress, once again you have emotion. Stop calling him a psychopath. It’s simply not correct.

      • Tracey

        You clearly know very little about psychopathy.
        Psychopaths are EXTREMELY adept at FAKING emotion and most can burst into crocodile tears at the drop of a hat.
        Any crying that CW did was him ACTING. Any regret or anxiety he has ever appeared to show has been entirely for HIMSELF. He couldnt give a flying fairy about anyone else.

        Stop saying he is not a psychopath. You are simply not correct.

  16. Shannon

    Off topic a tiny bit.
    I’m not sure if there is a Post on this.
    Why did Chris not ask for a Lawyer right away and was he read his rights.
    Thank you Nick.
    I love how you write and choose your wording.
    ((*-*))

    • nickvdl

      He was read his rights. See page 610 of Discovery Documents. He didn’t ask for a lawyer, because he thought he was a good liar. That started with his Sermon on the Porch to the media. He must have felt he’d done okay. Of course before the murders he’d been lying for a while, to his wife and probably to his mistress too. He probably thought he did a good job of lying to them too.

      Another aspect is I just don’t think Watts is very smart. He’s an auto mechanic, not a master criminal.

      • Viki

        Speaking of not being very smart.. it has always dumbfounded me on how he thought he could get away with it being that her purse, phone, meds, car, were all in the house… front door latched from inside forcing an exit only from the garage in which his neighbors camera was certainly to have captured anyone departing. Plus his own damn door bell camera was also there to record. The only thing “leaving” was him backing his truck up at dawn to “load” something!!! This paints a pretty darn clear picture. His only option left is she vanished into thin air! If he was planning on returning after work to remove those items.. all still would be captured on camera’s plus where would he leave the car and walk back?

  17. Shannon

    Thank you.
    He needed to watch some true crime stories. He did not do anything right in his situation.
    With Shanann’s friend coming so quickly to the house. He had no time to do anything.

  18. nickvdl

    Hi Shannon

    Thanks for reading and thanks for your interest.

    You can order from Amazon in Canada at this link:

    https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1?ie=UTF8&text=Nick+van+der+Leek&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=Nick+van+der+Leek&sort=relevancerank

    To set up an account with Amazon you simply register with a username and password much as you do with Facebook. You’ll need a debit or credit card to make purchases.

    If you need any further assistance let me know.

  19. Shannon

    Even thou Chris not thinking before and after….he could have taken the sim card out of her phone, throw in toliet. And not give to cops.

  20. Duttdip

    Few things leave me split-brained on this:

    1. Argument for not-premeditated: I am surprised that he committed a premeditated murder without any research either on the internet or books. Remember Scott Peterson did research on Bay Area tides, purchased a boat, etc. In this case, unless he was an expert in strangulation, I would have expected him to do some research, thereby leaving trails.

    2. Argument for premeditated:
    a. There were no defensive injuries on either the perpetrator or the victims. Especially when you attack someone upon seeing her strangle a kid, you are most likely to throw punches or objects.

    b. If it was indeed an “accident” or an attack to restrain Shanann, guess who would he have called first? His dad (the same person who he eventually confided to). “Dad, SOS! Disaster here! What should I do?” Maybe he could have told his dad the cooked-up story rightaway to create supporting witnesses. Yet, instead he proceeds to dump the bodies. The only explanation is that he wanted to hide, and was confident at that.

    Overall, I am more inclined to believe that it was premeditated, though I cannot rule out a hybrid scenario (that he wanted to murder Shanann but the rest were collateral damages).

    • nickvdl

      Argument for not-premeditated: I am surprised that he committed a premeditated murder without any research either on the internet or books. >>>Good point, but if he did research it, he could have done so watching TV [especially coverage of Casey Anthony, JBR and Scott Peterson cases] or reading print magazine articles, newspapers or print paperbacks. Also, he may have deleted his browser history on his phone. It’s unclear whether the Secret Calculator app can be used to browse in secret, but there are certainly ways to remove this data and keep one’s browser history secret if that’s what one wants to do do. Also, that information may exist but may have been withheld or redacted from the Discovery Documents.

  21. Viki

    Here is my theory:
    Shanaan arrives home at 1:48.
    She places her luggage at the foot of the stairs and plops her purse on the kitchen counter before going upstairs
    Chris is laying in bed pretending to be asleep
    At this point the children have already been killed … he covered them up to make it look like they were sleeping
    Shanaan undresses and crawls into bed
    Chris continues to pretend to be sleeping… waits for her to fall asleep
    He then quietly gets out of bed, retrieves her phone from her night stand and hides it between the cushions in the loft couch (so she can’t reach for phone and call for help)
    He then straddles her with his knees covering both her arms and strangles her
    He then wraps her in the bed sheet, hauls her and the kids down to the garage.
    The reason he waited till she was asleep was so he could have the least amount of resistance and be in control from the start. Remember he had already killed the kids allowing him the time for this.
    After he moved them to the garage, he stripped the bed and threw them into the kitchen trash… panic mode
    I believe he planned on doing additional clean up and removing her purse, cell and car after work but Nicole spoiled that plan.
    As for the emotional conversation about separation? That happened days before on the 8th and not on that fateful day.
    This was premeditated … hastily planned during the last part of her NC visit

    • nickvdl

      On your 2nd point – her handbag was only placed on the kitchen counter after the investigators arrived. Why would Chris be in bed upstairs if they were separating, and he’d been sleeping in the basement prior to her trip to North Carolina?

      • Viki

        I wasn’t aware her purse was put on the counter by the police. Where was it originally placed?
        Chris realized when she was home between NC and Arizona that if he had any chance of succeeding with his horrific plan he had best put her a bit at ease… it would be beneficial. Shanaan would be pleased to see him in bed which in turn would allow him time to privately access the situation and have more control. No one knows exactly how this went down but this is how I have visualized it from the beginning.

        • Sabi

          Her purse was found in her office, Nicki found it and then cops place it on the kitchen counter next to her bag…Go back and watch that video and you will see how Chris started freaking out when he saw her wallet.

      • mitzi2006

        Likely was sleeping upstairs while she was gone to hear the kids. Those kids couldn’t have been killed too early if their stomachs were empty. Shananns dad FaceTimed at dinner time with them and they were eating pizza so that would have taken a number of hours to digest

  22. Viki

    Let’s break this down a bit on what we actually know
    Shanaan had undressed for bed (t-shirt and underwear)
    So we can assume she made it upstairs
    There were no known defensive wounds on either Chris or Shanaan other than bruises on her neck
    Investigators have stated they believe she was asleep when strangled
    They also have stated they believe the children could possibly have been killed prior to her return
    Chris called and texted several of his co-workers Sunday afternoon setting up a plan for body disposal.
    Her shoes kicked off by the door, luggage at foot of stairs, purse in the office and her phone “hidden” beneath the cushions of couch outside their bedroom
    Shanaan returned at 1:48 – Truck pulled out with bodies loaded approx. 5:30
    There are many ways this could have gone down but assuming she was indeed asleep he most likely was near her the whole time in order to make sure she didn’t discover the kids and possibly fight him and escape.
    There’s also the chance he could have pretended a change of heart wanting to have some animal sex… he strangled her once he was on top (pinning her arms down with his legs)
    As for the children’s time of death there are several trains of thought
    Kill the kids first so as to allow more time to deal with Shanaan and also to avoid having to deal with the kids awaking in the middle Shanaan’s death
    Kill the kids last in case something goes askew. Shanaan is able to escape and he is left with 2 dead kids… busted!
    I think in Chris’s interview he twisted his story around in order to accommodate Shanaan killing the kids … His story was a mixture of what really happened and a rearrangement of the scene.

  23. Shannon

    It was cold pizza. Cece wasn’t on camera only Bella. They probably didn’t eat to much.

    • Marie

      Shannon, no, they probably didn’t eat much. But Chris sure did, he grilled 4 chicken breast. Sure was a good size meal for one person.

      • Marie

        When someone is on a diet and they are trying to get cut up like he was, a lot of protein is involved, since he was not getting in any carbs that’s the way people on a diet eat..

  24. Shannon

    Well, at least someone eating. I don’t know how they ate when Shanann was home.

  25. Tracy Braat

    My feeling is that Cece ♡ Bella were passed away for enough time that their bedding had a odor of decomposition…at least 6 hours and when Shanann came home she most likely thought the girls were sleeping so she went to bed….she was stressed out, most likely had butterflies, anxiety had been crying…she fell off to sleep and cw took Shannan♡Niko

    cw most likely [the remainder of this comment has been redacted due to defamatory speculation]

  26. lizellouw12

    After his confession now I bet you wish you waited before publishing a whole book on the case right?

    • nickvdl

      Interesting – so you think his Second Confession “proves” what actually happened? Like the First Confession did, huh?

    • Viki

      Not at all… it was all about our thoughts and imaginations of how this went down.
      I believe Watts planned to kill them each in their beds… and would have if Bella had not woken up

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