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

First Look Inside Chris Watts’ MAN CAVE

The K9 unit bodycam footage is abysmal. It’s so bad it’s almost unwatchable. Much of the jerky footage appears zoomed in and oriented towards the roof. This means the audio is probably more useful than anything else.

There is virtually zero footage of the actual dogs, so its hard to see where they are reacting, which is a crying shame.

What the bodycam footage does show, albeit in fleeting jerky, very poor quality glimpses, are snapshots of Chris Watts’ Man Cave. Compared to the rest of the house, this subterranean area is a complete mismatch. A black garbage bag is stuck against one window near a makeshift bed, which reminds somewhat of Adam Lanza’s bedroom.

The rest of the basement is a mixture of neat packaging, housing and ventilation pipes, wires, innards and clutter that invokes the Ramsey basement.

Immediately below are screengrabs from the K9 bodycam.

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Fortunately we do have another source for footage of the basement. Although it’s also pretty bad, it’s significantly better than the k9 bodycam. Interestingly, even while in the basement, the officer comments about how “everything is in its place” and how neat “these people” are.

What’s also frustrating about the officer’s search downstairs is that he opens the large white refrigerator and looks inside, but doesn’t open the large black one right beside it.

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https://youtu.be/uBsOJjNcY_c

And then there’s this…

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13 Comments

  1. Syzia

    The house had endless amount of rooms and so much space. I have no idea why would anyone want to hang out and sleep in that basement. I would not let my husband be in there, I would make sure to either carve him out some space upstairs or redo the basement so it looks more livable. I am wondering if that was the only space Chris could have to himself. Honestly I am not defending him but she had a full room just for her shoes and bags yet couldn’t manage to get her husband a proper man cave/gym area? Looks like Chris was extremely submissive and I am wondering if his body transformation had something to do with him finally starting to feel better about himself, feeling attractive and interesting to other women. It’s easy to judge when you don’t know the exact dynamic of that household, but I am wondering if he was so utterly unhappy with her and felt trapped and the only way out he saw was in murder. Very sad.

    • Susan

      Do not feel sorry for this sick murderer. Feel sorry for the wife that trusted him with her life and the lives of her precious babies.

    • nickvdl

      I think vanity and materialism played a huge role in this Syzia.

    • Smart girl

      You are suggesting that the only way out was murder because this loser couldn’t have a man cave? Lmao you’ve got to be kidding me. So, by your speculation he had a right to murder his own little girls because they had their own rooms with lots of toys and clothes? Have you even thought that maybe Nichole asked him to stay down there because she was so pissed off that he was still with Shannan? He was trying to please his mistress while still trying to navigate his way of divorce/murder !

  2. Sylvester

    Watts makes a comment in the video Kaye provided “she doesn’t let me do the finances because I was pretty horrible back in the day.” But the sheer amount of stuff in the basement bins! Both of them going blithely through life without any concern where they were headed.

  3. Diana

    Thank you for posting these Nick! In the first video, did Chris try to set it up like Shan’ann left out the garage door? It’s confusing and maybe I heard it wrong, but I listened twice. Chris told the cops he only got an alert for his front door when Nickole opened the door while he was at work. Here’s what confused me – After Chris tells the cop he got the alert at the front door, it sounds like he then tells the cop that the garage door was opened or left open, but he got no alert it was open nor was it open when Nickole arrived. If he got no alert and it was shut when Nickole arrived, how did he know it was left open?! Did I hear him wrong!? It’s in the beginning of the first video. I was waiting to hear one of those cops say the situation looked shady, but they didn’t, bet they were thinking that though!

    That house just felt big, cold and sparsely furnished, just not homey or something. I get that Shan’ann may have been very minimalistic with the decor, but it just looked bare, never would’ve guessed two toddlers lived there, unless you count the pink Minnie Mouse beach towel covering the garage window. I don’t even get how Chris could go in that house knowing what he did there! I agree it would’ve been nice to see where those cadaver dogs alerted too. I have a yorkie dog sitting with me and she got riled up hearing Deeter in the first video, so I’m going to watch the cadaver dogs video later when my yorkie goes to bed.

  4. Nick

    Yes. He was implying that was an exit point. Trying to think if he said the same thing to media. Seem to remember him telling them the garage door was open or not locked.

  5. Sylvester

    Here it is on Kaye’s video – he’s checking his phone for alerts with the security system and says “it says at 5:27 a.m. the overhead garage too (2?) was left on and never shut” Nickole says it was shut when they got there. He also says “the basement door was left open at 5:26.” Basement door? The inside door? Maybe he let Deeter out before he left, but that gives him 0 time to load up and leave. However it might indicate something he was doing down in the basement. All of this happens around 33:33 on the video.

  6. nan

    I’m puzzled as to what he could be constantly looking at on his phone during all of the released videos. Glued to his hand and always looking down.

    • Maura

      Maybe a text from his girlfriend or to double check that he had put NK’s photos in his Secret Calculator app. If someone grabbed his phone he doesn’t want them to see evidence of his affair.

  7. nan

    Shocking amount of organized “stuff” in that basement. Looks like a warehouse . . . with a double bed.

    • Kaye

      I know—they could have had a mega garage sale and made a small fortune. Makes you wonder if they had such financial difficulty, why not get rid of that stuff and get more money? Also you can downsize to a smaller place with less stuff. I can understand that one or both of them fell into a major materialistic trap—usually people who are addicted to buying things are not happy. When my mom got divorced, she got stuck in a cycle of buying things from a home shopping network for about six months until she finally began to not feel depressed anymore. Getting new things gives you a high momentarily, but then the sheer amount of stuff just starts to weigh you down, like an anchor.

  8. Carol

    They’ve accumulated a lot more stuff than we have in 39 years. Surely that’s not stuff they actually use or it wouldn’t be in storage

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