True Crime Analysis, Breakthroughs, Insights & Discussions Hosted by Bestselling Author Nick van der Leek
After two troll reviews back-to-back, including one from this site, the overall rating of TWO POLLYANNAS slipped. But a 7th review today is setting things right again.
Incidentally the CT Brown profile has since changed to CTB in an attempt to throw off blog posts like this one showing 24 troll reviews at last count.
Meanwhile, thanks for your review Terri!
REPORTER: Was justice…served here today?
ROURKE [Rolls eyes, wheels upward]: I think justice was served in the best way we can…uh…in Colorado right now.
The District Attorney also said that Watts’ own statement was the strongest piece of evidence they had, which tells you how weak their cases was.
Chris Watts’ defense attorney is asked at 40:37 [as she rises from her chair] to address the court. She walks to the podium, speaks, and finishes with her representation on her client by 40:57, twenty seconds later. Her entire submission on behalf of her client lasts 14 seconds.
https://youtu.be/6y0cHnKevtQ
I get that the Chris Watts case is already filed away in some Weld Country Court archive, gathering dust, and everyone is getting their closure, but I have one or two niggly little questions. If you don’t mind, I’d like to submit a handful of low-hanging apples with worms in them.
#1. Nichol Kessinger deleted all the photos and messages [aka evidence] linking herself to Watts from her phone before she approached law enforcement with her story.
#2. The Judge has described this crime as the most vicious he’s dealt with in 17 years on the bench, and the prosecutor said he can’t describe the horror of it, can’t fully explain the motive and doesn’t expect Watts to do so either.
Although Watts was strip-searched and photographed from head-to-toe for injuries, he wasn’t subjected to a drugs, alcohol or Thrive patch chemicals in his system test.
#3. Why were the Watts family represented by a Denver-based attorney at the sentencing hearing? And why is almost nothing known or reported about Ms Powers?
#4. How was it that the Watts parents were “misinformed” three months after the murders if they retained legal counsel [and a local lawyer at that] and why did they repeatedly suggest their son was coerced all week long in the lead-up to the sentencing hearing?
#5. The sentencing hearing was scheduled for two hours, yet it was over within 45 minutes. The defense attorney for Chris Watts spoke on behalf of her client for a grand total of 14 seconds. Chris Watts defense amounted to a single sentence in which his lawyer spoke of “hollow words”. Indeed.
The entire trial narrative provided in court by the District Attorney was fielded in less than thirteen minutes. The press conference afterwards after sentencing lasted more than twice as long as the defense and prosecution narratives combined [37 minutes].
Why were so few specifics provided during the sentencing hearing? Even the specifics that were given were vague: no times, no names, no locations actually identified.
Sincerely, TCRS
It’s a story of princes and princesses, castles in the Colorado sky, a sly and seductive mistress, an evil monster and fairy Thrivemothers weaving their magic Thrive wands and spreading the happily-ever-after fairy dust all round.
Which [dark] fairy tale character are you?
Three minutes into the hearing, Shan’ann’s father described a “heartless monster”.
Eleven minutes into the sentencing hearing, Sandi Rzucek described her son-in-law as being given a crown by her daughter. That in itself is telling. Shan’ann put a crown on your head…That suggests Shan’ann was royalty to start off with. Was he not worthy to begin with, and did he not feel like an outsider and an outcast while it was supposed to be his happily ever after too?
The king who was once a prince to his parents, betrayed his queen and his princesses-in-waiting, revealing himself as an evil monster, a clumsy sorcerer conjuring with blood and oil and slippery semantics.
Who is the wicked stepmother? Who is the cruel or jealous or greedy uncle in this story? Who is the heroic sheriff riding into Centennial on his white horse, ready to dispense justice [but with no need for a trial]? Are all princes and princesses destined to be revealed as gleaming fakes?
One of the reasons this story has captured the imaginations of the masses is because of its fairy tale aspect. The characters seem perfect and perfectly happy at face value. The house seems like a wonderful home from the outside. Shan’ann seemed like a happy and successful entrepreneur, her husband a thriving employee at the large Andarko company. The children seemed beautiful and well taken care of.
There was even an adorable little dog who, with his big floppy ears and self-deprecating personality, reminded one a little of Donkey in Shrek, an inverted fairy tale where ogres are heroes, princes are in short supply [ahem] and princesses are…well…neither here nor there.
After the tragedy it turned out the fairy tale was fundamentally untrue in virtually every possible way. The home – they couldn’t afford it. They were being crushed by debt. The woman who’d put a crowd on her husband’s head was suffering from a chronic autoimmune disease while working for a wellness company. Her younger daughter too had serious health issues including a deadly allergy to nuts. And haunting the family on the outside was a mistress who would say – when all was said and done – that she thought the family was already broken up…
The real question though is which character are you? Who are we? Are we the innocent princess who comes to grief? Are we [secretly] the mistress pulling strings behind the scenes, skipping slyly but silently in the background, hoping to manipulate things to our own benefit, and slip away silently back into the shadows when we can’t?
Are we the wicked stepmother, looking on the family with chin raised, poking a crooked finger and crooked nose at the whole scene and saying in a cackling crone’s voice: “I told you so, she/he was never good enough for him/her.”
Are we the little fairies floating around social media, spreading our fairy dust with our extra special social media flourishes, meaning well but not doing much to save sleeping beauty, or wake her up from her spell, but yet busily involved in everyone else’s life except our own?
And who is the evil monster? In your world, I mean. Be careful you get it right, because as we’ve seen, the monster in this story was given a crown to wear. Are you sure you’ve not done the same to the monster in your world, and if you’re the monster in your world – would you – could you, confess to it?
One of the reasons the TWO FACE trilogy was written before any of the evidence came to light was to counter the myth that until there is a court case, “we don’t know anything yet”. Between mid-August and mid-October, Shakedown published about 70 blogs, most of them dedicated to the Watts case, and Rocket Science over the past month almost twice that number – 138 blogs.
On the page Christopher Watts: What else do we know? [UPDATED] 258 snippets of factual or newsworthy information was collected and archived, and that process still continues.
A fourth book, TWO FACE RAPE OF CASSANDRA is waiting in the wings, but is it really worth reading? Don’t we know all there is to know about this case – now – and more importantly, where did all the “Rocket Science” speculation actually take the narrative in three short months?
What TCRS got right…
1. Strangling as a the manner of death for Shan’ann was the position from the very first book. The autopsy has since proved this to be true.
2. No defensive wounds on Shan’ann. The autopsy has proved what the trilogy has maintained all along, that it was a stealth attack and murder.
3. Chris Watts had a slight contusion on his neck. During the sentencing hearing the District Attorney noted this as the only recent injury Watts suffered when he was photographed from head to toe. As early as August 19, Shakedown highlighted this injury [using several highlighted images of the wound] as an extremely likely defensive wound inflicted by Shan’ann during her death throes [Shan’ann had long nails]. This wound was also compared to a similar slight injury to Amanda Knox’s neck found immediately after the death of her housemate, Meredith Kercher.
“He had one small mark on his neck that was observed on the night he was originally interviewed, we don’t know if that’s related or not, but other than that, no, we had him photographed from head to toe that night and nothing was observed that could be consistent with injuries to him as result of a struggle.” —Carl Blesch, Weld County Coroner
4. That all the murders were premeditated. None of them were spur of the moment or in a rage. There was an enormous push back from many readers who felt, because Chris Watts said they had a row which led to an argument, that’s how the murder happened. Don’t always believe what I lying murderer asks you to believe.
5. The time it took to murder Shan’ann has been brought up repeatedly as a sign of Chris Watts’ strong intentionality to commit murder. The District Attorney also brought up the “slow death” that a strangling invokes, as long as 2-4 silent minutes of desperate but fruitless struggle for survival.
6. That the murders and dumping of the bodies were disguised through “plausible deniability”. In other words, far from being the bumbling crime many have epitomized this crime as, Watts was carefully trying to hide the crime in plain site by integrating it [without being seen or detected] in his work day. His call to a co-worker on the evening before dumping the remains reinforces this notion of a carefully calculated and co-ordinated crime as well.
7. That the bodies were dumped through the thief hatch at the top of the tanks. An analysis by an expert on HLN describing the thief hatch as eight inches through a spanner into the carefully crafted scenario in TWO FACE. 8 inches is small, and yes, conceivably too small. But no matter how I looked at it, it didn’t make any sense that the bodies weren’t dumped through the top hatch. To have done otherwise would have required draining both tanks, which would have taken a lot of time – hours – and left a lot of evidence and alarms going off. HLN were happy with this cockamamie scenario, I wasn’t. I insisted they were dumped through the thief hatch, and if the bodies didn’t fit, then I surmised they may have been altered in some way – dismembered or partially dissolved [processed] by chemicals. But this aspect was contingent on them not “fitting” through the hatches in the first place. Now we know they both did, and that poor Bella’s little body was forced through and stomped on, causing abrasions on her buttocks and a divot of her hair and scalp to dislodge on the side of the hatch.
I’m not 100% convinced Bella’s injuries [as reported in the autopsy] were suffered when she murdered [including the biting of the tongue]. I suspect they may have been inflicted post mortem during the dumping process. But that’s based on intuition and how other aspects of the case hold together. I will need to apply my mind further to reach more certainty on this point.
8. Because the grave sites of Shan’ann and the daughters differed, the manner of death likely differed as well between Shan’ann and her daughters. This turned out to be true. While Shan’ann was strangled in a killer move that caught her by surprise, Bella and Celeste were both smothered, officially, though it’s less clear to me that Bella was smothered.
9. Nichol Kessinger was identified as early as August 23rd, ten days after the murder, as Chris Watts’ mistress, on Shakedown. It was also the position in TWO FACE that his affair with Kessinger played a significant part in the overall motive. This has subsequently been confirmed:
10. It was also stressed that Nichol Kessinger was a co-worker of Chris Watts [and her father was his boss], something that was addressed in the media a week before the sentencing trial, but not addressed in court whatsoever, in fact Kessinger’s name wasn’t so much as mentioned in court.
11. TWO FACE made the contention that the six week period when the couple were apart was a sort of trial separation. Watts told his mistress they were separated and getting divorced. Shan’ann, her parents and his parents knew. There was also significant push back on this, with many people insisting that she was simply away on vacation and the marriage was still fine. It wasn’t. This aspect too was confirmed more by Cindy Watts than the trial coverage.
12. TCRS also unambiguously called the plea deal here before anyone else, and on twitter called the plea deal about two minutes before it broke in the mainstream media [time is recorded in GMT not MST].
Anything else TWO FACE and these blogs got right?
I don’t want to deal with what the District Attorney got wrong, but their assessment that Chris Watts’ finances were an issue just as they are for any other couple simply doesn’t wash.
The fact that he called a realtor hours after dumping the bodies of his wife and children isn’t just a sign of Watts’ monstrous and reckless inhumanity, it’s also a sign of the debt monster that was breathing down his neck. The fact that the District Attorney is so blasé about the family debt is a massive miss in my view.
Another aspect that TCRS disagrees with: the District Attorney believes Shan’ann came home and there was an emotional conversation in the night or early morning [that no one heard] immediately prior to the murder/s.
The prosecutor, the media and both families still seem completely in the dark about why this crime happened. This is the central question – a question of psychology, identity, desire and motivation – that the ongoing TWO FACE series of books has attempted and continues to answer.
What TCRS got wrong
1. The girls may have been dead by as early as Saturday. It wasn’t stated that they were definitely murdered on Friday or Saturday, just that if it was a premeditated murder, it’s possible they may have been killed earlier rather than later. Why wait?
Information emerged later that they were looked after by a babysitter on Saturday and at a birthday party on Sunday afternoon, and metadata from a camera at the party shows they were alive at least until 14:30 and likely for a few hours afterwards.
The autopsy doesn’t provided a time of death for any of the victims, so this is another area that it left to the true crime writer [and readers] to figure out.
2. That the girls were sedated. Although Bella clearly wasn’t sedated [according to the literal reading of the autopsy reports], Celeste may have been. It’s very shocking that the older child, who was similar to her father in so many was, was killed by him apparently without regard for her suffering. Poor child!
An important reason why I felt the girls were sedated was no screams were heard. It may be that Bella bit her tongue post mortem [as mentioned above], of course, while getting stomped through the thief hatch.
If she bit her tongue when she was alive, it’s difficult to believe she wasn’t screaming in agony, but even if she was, she could have been dispatched in the basement or subdued and silenced very quickly.
JonBenet Ramsey was just two years older than Bella when she died, and she managed to scream just before she was garroted and bludgeoned over the head. If Bella was smothered while biting her tongue, would that have muffled her cries?
3. Chris Watts didn’t withdraw his guilty plea. Because of the media blitz and cries of coercion, is seemed likely he could withdraw his plea. When the anonymous woman explained the media blitz as a mistake, that the parents were simply misinformed, I must admit, I was surprised. That switcharoo still requires some figuring out.
4. HLN was correct in saying that GPS data was used by law enforcement to track the location of Chris Watts truck.
My assessment [posted on October 10] was that this had to be read in conjunction with the video surveillance footage. Shan’ann and the girls never left the house, and round-the-clock video surveillance confirmed this. But when the cops arrived none of them were home, so it stood to reason they left with Chris Watts, and wherever he went that morning, that’s where the bodies would be.
At the time I didn’t think GPS was absolutely necessary to ascertain where he was, but it appears it was fairly key after all. It should be noted though that CERVI 319 wasn’t the only site Watts visited that morning. He also visited CERVI 1029.
This means if Watts hadn’t spoken to the media, hadn’t confessed to his father, had lawyered up, and if law enforcement weren’t able to find the bodies early on, they may only have ever discovered Shan’ann’s remains, and even that wasn’t guaranteed. An oil site is likely to be smelly and odors of death might be misinterpreted as natural gas odors for some time.
A smarter man, and a more socially savvy murderer – using the same scenario – could well have gotten away with this crime.
What’s still uncertain…
1. Time of death. This applies to all the victims.
2. Given Bella’s defensive wounds it’s not completely unlikely that Chris Watts strangled her in a rage. If that’s the case then Bella’s murder triggered all the others.
3. What’s the expert medical opinion on the date Shan’ann conceived Niko? The autopsy curiously leaves out Shan’ann’s medical history even though it was completed on October 2nd.
4. Will Watts appeal?
5. Is he bisexual?
Anything else?
So many questions remain, but so many answers have been provided over the last week, compared to three months ago. There’s a treasure-trove of reading-between-the-lines that remains to be done in this still unfinished criminal case.
After a week-long blitz during which Chris Watts’ parents appeared on a spectrum of American media criticizing the plea deal and undermining the investigation, when they appeared in court Monday with an anonymous “representative” they appeared to have had a sudden change of heart.
The representative, speaking on their behalf, indicated that they’d been misinformed.
Interestingly, Ronnie Watts, like his son, never spoke at the hearing. He did speak to his son indirectly though, through the slick representative dressed in black standing beside them. While Chris Watts stared in front of him, not making eye contact but appearing emotional, the woman read his father’s words:
“We still don’t have all the answers and I hope one day you can help us. You are here today accepting responsibility but I want to tell you this now: I love you. Nothing will ever change that. And I want you to find peace and today is your first step. Chris, I forgive you, and your sister forgives you, and we will never abandon you.”
His sister didn’t seem to be in court, and declarations of clemency at a sentencing trial seem – to me – out of place. How do you forgive someone when they still haven’t told you what they did, or why? Obviously Chris Watts can’t fully confess, because even he can’t forgive himself for what he did.
While the designee – representative, whatever – read his father’s statement, Watts bobbed silently in the background, as if a child himself, trying to contain his emotions by rocking, by trying to soothe unvoiced and unvoicable torments.
But his mother did speak. She spoke genuinely and with compassion, and it seemed her words may have reached even deeper into the heart of stone sitting behind her. And yet, even his mother said to him, “We [still] love you…maybe you can’t believe it either.”
Below is the full original interview with Cindy Watts a week before the sentencing hearing. She makes an interesting point about the plea deal in it. Was she really misinformed? If so, how did that happen – how could it – three months after the murders?
It was most important to hear from “the evil monster” today, and yet the monster – true to his mostly introverted form, chose to remain silent. On his behalf, the District Attorney has described Watts’ motive as simply “a desire for a fresh start, to begin a new relationship with a new love”. But there’s a problem with that. Tens of millions of married couples have exactly the same motive when they choose to get out of their marriages. They separate and divorce with no harm done, no foul.
So was Chris Watts too lazy to get a divorce? Was he too dumb to get a divorce? We know that prior to the murders he’d communicated to his own parents and to Shan’ann’s parents that they intended to separate, and incidentally, he communicated the same thing to his mistress, Nichol Kessinger.
One of the big questions that still remain is when did he express the desire to leave his wife for the first time? Was it before his wife became pregnant or shortly after? We know from Kessinger that their affair apparently began in mid-June, exactly when Shan’ann announced her third pregnancy. Was the third pregnancy an Oops we did it again! – or something else?
At 23:41 in the above conference, a reporter asks the District Attorney a question about why. He’s answer is slightly different to the one given in court. Let’s look at the transcript:
REPORTER: I know you don’t know why exactly [Rourke nods, sniffs, purses his lips] but can you talk about what the motive…was…or the reason for it [Rourke abruptly looks down]. Or the reason for a seemingly normal father to-to do something so horrible?
ROURKE [Gazes down, purses his lips]: Like I said this morning [gazing into the middle distance, Ren is in picture, glancing up at him]…I think that…based upon his…um…Google searches, his cell phone searches, some of things he was doing while Shan’ann and the girls were in North Carolina, I think it became pretty obvious that…he found a new love interest. And for whatever reason in his mind [blinks], divorce wasn’t an option. Um…I can’t speak as to why [shakes head] anyone…would take the…take the steps that he did…but during the course of our investigation, other than the normal stressors of financial stress, that I think most of us have, um…the occasional marital stress, we couldn’t find anything else [shrugs] that was a significant enough motive [gazes up and to the right, glances back at reporter] to…annihilate your family [purses lips]…in the manner that he did [purses lips again].
In my opinion, Rourke either knows the real reason and isn’t telling [and that’s part of the plea deal], or he doesn’t know. Which is worse?
Welcome to what appears right now to be the end of the legal road in the Chris Watts case. November 19 is just three months and six days after the tragic murders that rocked the small, thriving Colorado town of Frederick in mid-August.
Today the legal journey is expected to conclude with Judge Kopcow officially accepting Chris Watts’ guilty plea [on all charges]. In exchange Chris Watts will be spared the death penalty and sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of parole.
Irrespective of the legal outcome in this case, an entire family has been completely destroyed through the events that played out sometime between August 12 and 13 this year. According to the District Attorney, they have – and are satisfied with – a “partial motive” to this crime. This “partial motive” will be revealed in court today by Michael Rourke.
BRIEF BACKGROUND
There’s more to it than this, of course. On November 16 the Greeley Tribune spelled some of the shenanigans out:
1. Chris Watts’ parents do not want him to accept the plea deal and have claimed they’ve been denied access to their son, and that the plea deal was/is coerced. If that’s true, the plea deal is invalid. The District Attorney has not responded to these allegations, but the Rzuceks have through an anonymous legal representative.
2. According to the Tribune:
…on Monday [November 12], the court received an email from a “K Almand,” an assumed representative for Cindy and Ronnie Watts. In the letter to Judge Kopcow, Almand claims the Colorado Public Defenders Office, which is defending Watts, has denied Cindy and Ronnie access to their son.
Cindy, Ronnie and an unnamed sister finally gained access to Watts for 30 minutes each the night before the sentencing hearing, Almand claims. Cindy asked her son if a plea deal is what he wanted.
“Do not ask him that or we will shut this (expletive) down now,” said an unnamed attorney before Watts could respond, according to Almand’s letter.
Almand said that type of “bullying” has been common in the Watts family’s dealings with the public defender’s office.
“It is the opinion of Mr. Watts’ family that he has been coerced, has been denied his constitutional rights and more — all in an attempt to quickly close this case,” Almand wrote. “They want to have a new attorney speak to Chris, on their behalf, to determine if this is a true confession or one that is based on inhumane treatment at the hands of the Public Defenders Office of Weld County.”
Almand closed the letter by saying Cindy Watts wanted to speak to Judge Kopcow about her son’s case and possible mistreatment. Kopcow issued an order saying he was barred from having any conversations about the case outside of the courtroom.
3. The autopsy reports regarding the remains of Shan’ann Watts [34], Bella Watts [4] and Celeste Watts [3] have not been released prior to sentencing. These reports, completed on October 2, will be released after sentencing according to the District Attorney. This release of the autopsy reports will likely neutralize a civil hearing on the matter that was originally scheduled for December 21. The District Attorney’s original position on the autopsy reports was unusual in that it was claimed their release “could taint witnesses, make it difficult to seat an impartial jury and the victim’s cause of death would be critical evidence at trial”. If Rourke felt the autopsy evidence was so sensitive, then why did the defense feel they had no case to plead? Why did they make/accept the plea deal?
4. A raft of publications including the Tribune claimed in a court motion on October 12th that the withholding of the autopsy reports from public scrutiny could “cause substantial injury to the public interest.”
NOVEMBER 19
Welcome to a bitterly cold day in Greeley, Colorado. Minimum temperatures today were 17°F [-9°C] at 06:00 and may climb to a crisp 46 °F [7°C] by the time the press conference is scheduled at 13:00.
The day will start mostly sunny in the early morning, and remain bright and sunny throughout, a typical early winter’s day in Colorado with a slight breeze blowing over the snow-covered prairie.
This is a big change from the weekend, which saw a big cold front roll in and dump snow and drizzle over the mountains and plains surrounding Denver. On Thanksgiving Thursday, another cold front is due to move in and change the regions weather, for the worse.
It’s 05:55, one hour until sunrise. Sunrise on August 13 was at 06:08, 42 minutes earlier than today. At this time three months ago Chris Watts was on the road, driving to CERVI 319.
In ten minutes the sun will rise over the sandstone courthouse in Greeley, Colorado. Did you know Greeley was the setting for Pulitzer prize-winning historical fiction author James A. Michener’s Centennial. Michener studied in Greeley, and was so inspired by the setting and the history of the region, he used it as the backdrop for his bestseller, which was also made into a miniseries in the seventies.
The scene in front of the Weld County Centennial Center. Notice the spattering of snow in the background.
In the morning news, two large fires are under investigation, including one that started as an explosion in Aurora. The Aurora fire included reports of a gas leak days prior, and conflicting reports on whether the gas company notified residents in advance via email.
Other news making the headlines – the weather on the run up to Thanksgiving on Thursday, Black Friday sales, a shocking report on flu vaccinations, rezoning plans, a new name for a baseball team, a new Disney on ice show, getting water supply from a distant mine to Aurora, a new Marijuana store opening in Longmont [Longmont is a town close to Frederick where Chris Watts and Shan’ann worked at a Ford dealership], how to prevent peanut allergies, a surge in porch piracy, Denver-based Furniture Row Racing finishing second at the NASCAR championship, Christmas tree-cutting tips, a Christmas countdown, what teens want for Christmas according to a recent survey and lower gas prices.
Chris Dekker defense attorney: “I wasn’t surprised…I think Michael Rourke deserves quite a lot of praise. He was smart and brave, and acquiesced to their [the families’] desires.”
David Beller defense attorney: “The speed at which this deal was reached…is extremely unusual…”
Rachael Gibbs from Nags Head, North Carolina said she also spotted a rainbow this morning.
What to expect from today’s sentencing hearing in a nutshell:
Megan Lopez has tweeted a couple of photos about the media presence outside court. Wish we could see more pictures of the court building. Just a wide shot to get a sense of the whole area.
Meghan Lopez says she’ll be tweeting from outside court because no tweeting is allowed inside court. Seems excessive and extreme, doesn’t it?
LIVELINK:
So from beginning to end the sentencing hearing lasted less than 45 minutes. A total of about six people spoke, including Cindy Watts, a representative on behalf of Ronnie Watts, Frank Rzucek, Michael Rourke reading Frankie Rzucek’s statement, Sandi Rzucek, a brief 15 second statement by Chris Watts’ legal representative, and then a delineation of the evidence by the District Attorney, which lasted about ten minutes.
Throughout the proceedings Watts drummed his foot on the floor, and appeared to struggle to contain his emotions. He breathed heavily, but made no sound, and repeatedly curled his lip and bit it. At one point, while his father was speaking I believe, a single tear streamed down his cheek.
At the end, when Judge Kopcow asked him if he wished to say anything, Watts answered softly, “No sir.” His legal representative spoke briefly on his behalf, saying that he was “truly sorry”.
What was unreal was the mismatch between the crime the District Attorney and the Judge were describing, a vicious, calculated, monstrous act, and the demeanor of the defendant. Passive. Voiceless. Trying his best to be emotionless, as if a lack of emotion under these circumstances was some sort of virtue.
When he rose and walked out of the packed court, Watts looked down, not making eye contact with anyone. Not his mother. Not his father.
Welcome to a living hell.
Will Nichol Kessinger testify?
Press Conference [Updates coming soon]
Autopsy Reports
Shan’ann, Bella and Celeste Watts 25 Page Autopsy Report
Analysis of Monday’s Hearing
There were a few things that were downright weird about the hearing. No actual witnesses testified, only family members, and although each statement was emotional and tugged at the heartstrings, it did precious little to advance the narrative of the Watts case.
Rourke did that himself in a ten-minute or so summary, in which he provided a few [very few] insights into the case. He mentioned Bella biting her tongue and fighting for her life, a tuft of her hair snagged on the side of the thief hatch, and scratch marks on her buttocks incurred when she was forced into the tank.
What was more interesting in the sentencing hearing wasn’t what was mentioned, but what was left out. Nothing about time of death whatsoever. No one close to the Watts family in Colorado testified for or against him. The Thayers didn’t appear to be in court, neither did Nickole Utoft or Nichol Kessinger.
In fact the families appeared to be ushered into court via a private entrance, and ushered out privately too. It was all conducted with seamless precision. The crowds roared afterwards, justice is served!
More: Chris Watts has been sentenced, it’s all over and justice is served – but does the DA’s motive wash?
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