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Why did Anadarko Fire Nichol Kessinger on August 22nd, less than 10 days after the murders?

If all Nichol Kessinger did wrong was have an affair, why was she fired?

According to the Times-Call:

During this interview, Kessinger gave Koback her phone and signed a waiver allowing him to look at phone calls and texts between her and Watts. While Kessinger questioned why investigators needed everything from her phone, she consented to let them search it. Much would have to be recovered, though, as she had deleted everything involving Watts after she discovered he was lying to her.

“Initially, you drew concern from me when you told me that you deleted everything from Chris,” Koback said, but it appears that concern dissipated. Toward the end of the interview, he told Kessinger to take her mind off the case for a while, suggesting she go out with a friend and relax.

But Kessinger was concerned about the long-term effects of her connection to the case. When Koback said she looked tired again, she said it wasn’t just because of the shock of what Watts did.

“I lost my job yesterday, so that’s where that comes from,” she said. Kessinger had worked for Tasman Geosciences, which contracted with Anadarko Petroleum Co. She told the company her situation a few days after Watts’ arrest, she told Koback, and at first they said it was fine. Aug. 22, a day later, they said they were letting her go because her contract was up.

“I have a feeling that trying to get by for the next five to 10 years is gonna be really hard,” she said.

55 Comments

  1. Jianne Miller

    I just Noticed an interrogation is out on YouTube with his tinder hook up anyone see that ?

  2. Cheryl

    In the interview, NK said her purview was health and the environment. Her position sounds like a safety position, which is responsible for addressing a company’s risk and safety issues. As we know from Anadarko’s 2017 disaster, they have a great deal of exposure and need to address an array of environmental and safety issues going forward. In doing so, I would think they are under intense regulatory scrutiny and will be for many years because of the 2017 explosion. NK’s position typically involves working with supervisors, like Chris, to ensure that equipment is properly maintained and that employees implement required safety practices. While safety positions don’t generally have direct authority over supervisors and their employees, they are assigned a great deal of responsibility to maintain a safe environment and ensure a company has clean audits. I’ll put it bluntly: you can’t be screwing a supervisor and not compromise your oversight authority with him or any other personnel, many of whom likely knew about Chris and NK. Given Anadarko’s 2017 disaster and NK’s steamy affair with a man who at the time was accused of annihilating his family, I’m surprised she wasn’t fired sooner or placed on leave (maybe she was). Since NK’s curious interview, there has been a lot of speculation about her possibly being involved in the murders either directly or indirectly. Again, after 2017, I’m sure Anadarko is keenly concerned about their image, about rebuilding community trust. Oh, well…

    • Rob

      NK was involved with safety and she was doing it with Chris without protection contravening all safety precautions. That’s the reason she was fired.

    • Deana

      I don’t feel sorry for her, she knew Chris was married regardless of what stage that marriage was in.
      she shopped for w doing dresses and looked up Shanan Watts back in sept. 2017. I don’t know what her motives were but I do think she is guilty of very bad decisions and down right immaturity.
      Learn from your mistakes and keep your hands and body off of married men….

      • scottwiley971

        Best comment

        • Shannon

          No body in an affair, could fathom that the other person is gonna kill their entire family. She might not be telling all, and we never know exactly what was said between them.

      • Bruce

        Your right Deana….. It’s in a married man’s best interest to keep your radar on for women like NK… her interests are not in yours…beware !! You will lose the women you tell in love with and married. Ask yourself if a short term fling is worth a lifetime of pain ?
        I was once told this by a very wise older man. “Do you know why the grass looks greener elsewhere ? Maybe It’s because you’ve been watering & fertilizing the wrong yard instead of your own”
        That saying managed to find memory cells in my brain and latched on to it….and it’s meaning because I’ve never forgotten it.

      • lisa

        That is what I thought, someone is telling me it was a typo on the date. NK was hired 4 months before affair or murders. But did not work through as a subcontractor in 2017. I think she did.

    • May

      And being in safety dept also meant NK KNEW that no one who worked in the field would have been allowed to wear jewelry…
      NK ‘s story about not knowing CW was married because he didnt wear a wedding ring was just baloney. She knew.

      Also CW needed to get rid of SW’s Lexus on the 13th- was that why NK ‘s phone pinged in the area? did the police just get there too soon?

    • Tonya

      True, how did she think that she could keep her job when (as you said) she’s screwing a supervisor? A married one with a family at that! Do you think that she was involved at all?

  3. Sylvester

    Tasman Geosciences would like to have other contracts with the great and powerful Anadarko Oil company and not in any way be tainted by this horrible case so her services would no longer be needed just as Lockheed Martin needed to cut John Ramsey’s association through Access Graphics from the mothership. She can’t make a case for wrongful termination if her contract was indeed, up. And who knows really if her contract was up. They can say it was up, period. I’m getting the picture now though, that Anadarko Oil and Gas is the primary source of employment and revenue for the state – at least that region of the state.

    • PSM

      I should think that employees should reasonably expect their livelihood to be protected after they are merely accused of a crime but, then again, it is backwards America you’re talking about.

  4. Shannon

    Looks good on her.

  5. VT

    Can I ask why in the world the FBI or law enforcement never checked out her alibi?!

    Or while they had her phone her health app activity for the night of the murders?!

    I don’t know if I believe she was involved that night but it’s so puzzling that her alibi was never even looked at or documented!!

  6. D.HOLLY

    Next 10yrs are going to be hard to get by???
    Yeah right, seeing her research on Amber Frey she’s planning on selling herself .. books , interview, documentary.
    Hard to feel bad for her…

    • Tonya

      Exactly

  7. Maura

    She became a liability to Anadarko especially with the extensive media coverage of the case which isn’t going away soon.

  8. nan

    People will always be wondering about her level of involvement because of her sketchy behavior, sketchy personality, and her destroying evidence while acting “helpful”.
    Too many unanswered questions. Like her internet search for Shanann Watts in 2017, and her phone call FROM Frederick at 6:16am, the morning of the murders, August 13 as noted on her Verizon Phone Bill.
    Doubtful she will ever have a moment of peace in the near future.

    • Deborah Ripoli

      I did not see anywhere that she received a phone call that morning. I did see after the murders Chris sent her a photo of the site with flowers and she remarked that she liked flowers as if he was telling her he had done the job. That makes her as guilty as hell in my book.

      • Nick

        Beware of making defamatory statements. Effectively you’re accusing Kessinger of being an accessory to murder. Would you like to get sued?

      • nickvdl

        1701 hours: Kessinger made two unanswered calls to watts l4L – TLi 7937 – 79381 Deleted 1705 hours: Watts called Chase Bank and held a nearly two minute conversation. He called a separate number for Chase moments later and held a two and a half minute conversation 141. – rr 7940,79421 1730 hours: Watts made an unanswered call to Kessinger l4l – rL: 79481 Deleted

        • MichaelHN

          Is it possible that Nichol’s call to Jim at 0616 that morning would’ve pinged a tower in Frederick because she was taking the I-25 north and was just west of Frederick at the time?

      • Tonya

        Yes, her phone pinged in Frederick @ 6:16am on the Monday morning of the murders. I agree.. I think that she helped him too.

    • Tonya

      Yes..and I hope she never does.
      Do you think that she was involved?..
      Imo she was

  9. Rob

    Nichol Kessinger sounds so phoney.

  10. Kaye

    If I were an investigator, I’d be curious to figure out how Chris had acquired so many Anadarko gift cards. Did he save them up over a long time? How often did he get them? NK said in an interview that those cards were given out as rewards for observing safety on the job. And wasn’t one of her main responsibilities was to oversee safety?

    • nickvdl

      Excellent point Kaye.

    • Marie

      You are probably right Kaye. Lunatic Chris was probably always so broke , he couldn’t even pay attention

    • Maura

      Kaye, good point. I wondered about the gift cards too. Some companies give them out as rewards for meeting health goals and he was all about getting fit this year. Besides getting them as a reward, perhaps he signed up to buy additional ones via work that came out of check so his wife couldn’t touch that money.

      • Union Wife

        My husband works for a oil refinery & on pipelines & they give out gift cards all the time for different things, he’s in a union so he gets called for different jobs & they can last from a few weeks to a couple yrs & they give the cards out all the time for enforcing safety mainly. Usually the safety person is the 1 who gives them out.

  11. Vengeful

    “its gonna be hard to get by the next 5 to 10 years”

    well dont have a relationship with a married man, atleast you’ll be alive the next 10 years

  12. Shannon

    I wonder know where she is. A new job, a new apt, maybe trying to visit Chris. I’m not the distance from his parents live to JAIL.
    Same with her, distance.

    Yuk….Dr Phil doing a show in Tuesday…Watts case.
    YouTube posted it, 500 comment then closed.
    Another site…people dissing show, Phil and Nancy Grace.

  13. Cindy Reynolds

    A healthy happy company needs healthy and happy employees. A good Home and family life are very important when it comes to the well being of a companies employees. You can’t have the worlds latest most famous ho-bag working for a testosterone dominant company like Anadarko and not get blowback from the wives of these guys! She’s a hinderance!

    • Tonya

      Yes, I agree with ya

  14. bassekrokke

    Nicole is one of those women that other women dislike. Where are/were Nicole’s girlfriends? Why no pics of Nicole and her girlfriends? Are there any? Shanann was not my cup of tea, but she was able to nurture relationships with other women. Nicole is repellent.

    • nickvdl

      One close friend of Nichol’s we know about is Charlotte Nelson. Another is a guy called Jim. Did Shan’ann have any friends who weren’t Thrivers?

      • bassekrokke

        nickbdl I thought of that after I had already posted my comment! Sorry about that! I probably would have been an acquaintance of Shanann’s (very small doses or in a group w/others.) On the other hand, I would avoid Nikki like the plague. That chick is not gf material at all!

      • Liz

        Lauren Arnold was one of her friends from high school who remained a friend. I’m sure there were others.

      • Alexa

        Yes she did, she kept in contact with many from North Carolina before Thrive days. What is your point?

        • nickvdl

          Shan’ann didn’t seem to have many friends beyond the Thrive crowd. Many who were her friends on Facebook were turned off by the constant Thrive promos – several a day, every day. She also says in one of her videos she lost a lot of friends and was in a dark place when she had serious health problems. Probably around 2009. And then she met Chris, and he was the best thing that ever happened to her.

  15. K o

    She’s in witness protection. Gave her 60k and new identity

    • JGD

      She was never a witness. There was no trial. You can’t just go into witness protection because you screwed up your own life. If she changed her name, she had to pay for that herself, and figure out a way to support yourself.

  16. Crystal

    She no doubt got fired because of the publicity surrounding the case (that is why Shanann’s brother lost his job) and the fact that the victims bodies were dumped on their property\in their oil tanks.

    I don’t feel any sympathy for her because her life might be hard for a few years but she is still luckier than the victims, the Rzucek and Watts family because all she lost was a job and probably some friends. She should just be grateful that the cops don’t consider her a suspect despite her lies and that Chris made idiotic mistakes when trying to cover up his crimes saving her and any future children she might have had with him from meeting the same fate as Shanann, Bella, Celeste and Nico when Chris would eventually have gotten bored of their life together, found her replacement and wanted another fresh start without any baggage.

    • Shannon

      Where does it say Frankie lost his job?

      • Crystal

        Youtuber Molly Golighty who has become friends with Frankie and I think his mother as well. I forget what it is called but she did a video where she talked about stuff they told her about Shanann (with their permission) and she mentioned that Frankie started a new job a few weeks before the murders but was let go shortly after the murders because of the publicity surrounding the case.

  17. Shannon

    Are you serious.
    She came forward. Big deal she deleted info on Her Phone.
    She had to move to another area, away from her family, friends.
    Lose her job.
    All she did was meet a guy, have feelings.
    A twinkle in her eye.
    Now……. nothing.
    How would you feel.

    • Bon

      Boo hoo! Cry me a river for her! And it is a very BIG DEAL when the cops discover you’ve deleted things from your phone when you were having an affair with the murder victim’s husband!

      She IS NOT the victim here! His dead wife and 3 dead children are the victims!

      • Tonya

        Exactly, I agree 100%

  18. Liz

    A contractor is usually informed a couple of months or so that the contract will not be renewed. Since NK was worried about losing her job, she obviously had not been slated for a non-renewal prior to this incident. The men were upset at the company after Chris admitted some guilt and having NK work there was no longer viable to a well-oiled operation. To keep her at the site would have possibly been catastrophic to the employees who needed healing and keeping their minds focused on their sometimes dangerous jobs, so that could have been a snap reason to not renew her contract. It would be interesting to know if her position has been filled by another contractor. I’m sure there were other reasons, such as company image, and like one person said earlier, other men’s wives getting their dander up like Cindy Reynolds said earlier.

    • Laverne T

      This is incorrect. I am a contractor and I have worked several different contracts in the past 3 years. I speak from “MY” personal experience when I say that many times there is very little notice given as to when a contract is about to end. During the hiring process, we’re usually told how long a contract is “expected” to last (but this is never set in stone). My last contract was supposed to last for 6 months, but only ended up lasting 4 months. I was given exactly 2 days notice that the contract was ending 2 months earlier than expected (basically, I was told on a Wednesday that my last day was on Friday). The only reason we were even given a few days notice, is because there were too many of us to go through offboarding all at once.

  19. Kathleen

    NK reminds me of Jodi Arias in some ways. Definitely not as sharp as Jodi but I believe she is devious and had her eye on the prize for longer than Chris even knew she existed. I haven’t heard/seen much discussion about the Metalica song Battery. I pulled up the lyrics this morning as I was listening to the 5 hour interview and my goodness, there is something there with that song and why on Earth she sent him the lyrics to ask him what he thought.

  20. Roni

    I would have fired her for, like, saying, like, “like” every time she, like, opened her mouth. On top of that the grating voice…yeah, outta here, cupcake.

    • Tonya

      Same here for sure! 👌🏻

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