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Excellent Footage of the Moment Officer Coonrod Arrives on the Scene at 2825 Saratoga Trail

This footage confirms something that’s been frustratingly difficult to establish for sure. It may seem like a silly detail, but I wanted to know where Deeter was and why no one heard him when Nickole Atkinson came knocking.

Thanks to this footage, that mystery has been solved. Deeter was in the basement, which from the neighbor’s perspective, was virtually soundproof. From someone standing at the front door, you can just barely hear the dog barking when Officer Coonrod shouts Shan’ann’s name [see second Instagram clip below].

What this also shows is the lack of detail and holes in perception even when there are three different people on the scene. None of them made note of the dog because they didn’t think it was important. But locking Deeter in the basement should have been the first sign that Shan’ann wasn’t at a friend’s house. She wouldn’t have left the dog there when she went out, she’d have let him outside in the back garden [most likely]. Or, if she left the house, the dog would have free run of the main level, assuming the motion detectors were turned off or tuned to ignore doggy-sized disturbances.

The other aspect is leaving Deeter in an almost soundproof basement shows a) that Watts didn’t want the dog attracting the attention of nosy neighbors [remember, after the murders he was completely on his own for almost nine hours, from 05:00 to 14:00, and if everything had gone according to plan, Watts would only have arrived home at 17:00 or 18:00. 13 hours is a long time for a dog to be left on its own, especially for a dachshund. It also shows b) Watts’ postmeditation. How he “took care of the dog” demonstrates the amount of meticulous thinking [only some of which we’re aware of thus far] that went into the premeditation.

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Notice this outside porch light [below] was left on; unless it’s motion activated, it may be further sign of Watts’ hasty exit earlier that morning.Fullscreen capture 20181205 064717Fullscreen capture 20181205 064956

It’s also worth noting that the neighbor also had a dog, which means if Deeter was barking for a length of time, the neighbor’s dog would start barking “in sympathy”, something Watts would want to avoid.Fullscreen capture 20181205 081724

Even when Coonrod scoots down to peer in the basement, he doesn’t see or hear Deeter. This may be because Deeter was sequestered in the basement stairway, assuming there was a door or barrier of some kind at the bottom as well.

It’s also possible Coonrod simply didn’t see the dog in the darkness and clutter inside. But it’s unlikely the dog didn’t see the officer. If he did, he’d have scampered around and barked at the would-be intruder.

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Final point. Notice how when Watts opens the front door he immediately turns away, towards the wall, and walks quickly to the kitchen. Once Coonrod is in the kitchen he strides quickly to the basement. Coonrod is still trying to get his attention, talk to him and catch up. When Coonrod asks if he can look around, Watts says yes, appears to go somewhere, but then abruptly reappears. Watts had a lot of on-scene cleaning up and picking-up to do that he hadn’t anticipated when he left that morning.

This is another version of what probably happened in the Ramsey home for seven hours while the cops were in the house, and the friends they’d invited into the crime scene, while JonBenet lay dead inside. Crimes aren’t just covered up immediately after they’re committed, when they’re premeditated there is covering up before [removing data from phone and other devices, deactivating Facebook], at the scene with officers present, and Watts was still in clean up mode on the night of August 13th.

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11 Comments

  1. LW

    So is this why he darted straight down to the basement, to let the dog out?

    • nickvdl

      Yes, and it looks like there was a little gate at the bottom too. If it was closed, then Deeter couldn’t go anywhere except the basement stairs.

  2. Sylvester

    Animal abuse! What I”m wondering though is his security alert system says the basement door was left open at 5:26 a.m. Would he have any thought to Deeter’s bathroom needs before he hastily left the house by leaving the basement door open? If so then he wouldn’t have been sequestered on the steps. Then at 5:27 a.m. the overhead garage door 2 was left on and never shut.

    • nickvdl

      I also wondered about that. Maybe he figured the dog’s bathroom and the basement could be one and the same, now that Shan’ann was gone.

  3. Maura

    I was surprised that Nickole didn’t tell the officer that Deeter was usually loose on the first floor if that was the norm. The video provides a good view of how close the neighbors are to them. By locking up Deeter all day Chris didn’t care about him except to ensure he was out of earshot.

    Two huge reasons Chris’s tale of his family gone missing wasn’t believable are that Shannan’s phone and purse were found inside a locked house along with her car, and the neighbor’s video confirming that no one left the house EXCEPT Chris that morning. He was delusional if he thought he’d be able to explain these things.

    Their neighbor Nathan was the one who’d heard them’ fighting often. Was Nathan suspicious of Chris right away?

    https://www.denverpost.com/2018/11/30/christopher-watts-neighbors-heard-screaming/
    Christopher and Shanann Watts’ neighbors heard them “flat-out screaming”
    “Trinastich goes on to tell Coonrod that he often hears the Watts fighting verbally. The last time he heard them fight was before Shanann Watts went to North Carolina,” he said.

  4. Maura

    Another link where Nathan described how Chris sounded during the fights he overheard.

    http://www.dailycamera.com/top-stories/ci_32303505/christopher-shanann-watts-marriage-neighbors

    The last time he heard them fight was before Shanann Watts went to North Carolina, he said. “To be completely honest with you, my wife and I were wondering when she was on vacation if something happened, because I’ve heard them flat-out screaming at each other at the top of their lungs, and he gets crazy,” he said.
    Trinastich also thought that Watts was acting suspicious, talking more than he usually did and “trying to cover his tracks.”

  5. Syzia

    Dang he really did not care about any of that. Not his family, the house, the dog. He was so over it and wanted it all gone. I am wondering how long his resentment towards it all has been building up. I don’t think it started with Nichol.

  6. Blexy

    Just read that Watts has been moved to a prison in my state- WI.

    • LGW

      Great! Wasn’t Dahmer killed in prison in WI?

  7. Joe S

    ” do you remember me?” – Nicole’s son
    Guess that’s another story.
    Doesn’t matter of course..
    Shanann has friends that were concerned.
    It’s hard not to obsess on this case like a movie.
    Thanks for all the uploads Nick!

  8. Duttdip

    In hindsight, the officer and Nicole should not have roamed around and touched every piece of object. All it needed was Chris Watts to be black to give it a Johnny Kochranesque defense.

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