TRUE CRIME ROCKET SCIENCE

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

Year: 2019 (Page 14 of 42)

The murder of the Watts children at CERVI 319 as Dramatized in FAMILY MAN, FAMILY MURDERER

June 8, 2019 / / 5 Comments

Chris Watts was pretty clear that he didn’t want to talk about “this part” – the murders of his daughters, but in the end, he did talk about it. What he said wasn’t much, and it wasn’t convincing, although it seems many are convinced by it and accept it as genuine and true.

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In the same way that Shan’ann allowed herself to be killed without a fight, without screaming, without so much as a sound or a scuffle apparently, Ceecee and Bella seemed mute as first the one and then the other was strangled.

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It’s possible. Anything is possible. But when one studies these children in the dozens of videos, they seem quite skittish and anxious. Christmas Eve of 2017, for example, illustrates this where Bella is terrified of Santa Claus. A week before her death, Bella was afraid of the water at Myrtle Beach. On the night before her death she was afraid if she went to sleep, Ceecee would die in her sleep.

See, it’s hard to imagine she would sit by while her sister was strangled beside her, and do nothing, and say nothing. So why doesn’t FAMILY MAN, FAMILY MURDERER acknowledge that?

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More: There’s a reason Chris Watts can’t remember Bella’s Last Words

Overall it was a poor effort by Investigation Discovery. There was absolutely no attempt to study the dimensions of the thief hatches, or the autopsy reports, and no commentary on the openings of the hatches vis-a-vis the the children’s bodies. There was very little footage of the fracking tanks themselves, and no mention of the company Watts worked for.

In effect, the dramatization of the murder of the children was simply showing Watts saying what he said, and then showing him in his truck. That’s not true crime. While an actual dramatization using real models would have been disturbing, and even distasteful, instead of depicting this aspect it could have been examined, analysed and discussed, rather than simply running through Watts’ version of it superlightly, as if it was all 100% accurate.

TCRS has maintained from the first book and blog post that:

  1. All four murders were premeditated.
  2. The children were murdered first, several hours before Shan’ann arrived home.

The position of the district attorney, the FBI and law enforcement following the First Confession appeared to be that the crimes were indeed premeditated [committed intentionally “after deliberation”] in spite of Watts’ latest “just snapped” version. In fact the plea deal itself confirms []and affirms] this.

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So if the plea deal contradicts Watts version, why the hop-skip to Watts’ version?

In theory, if Watts’ second version [below] is truly as palatable to prosecutors as it seems to be, he has a viable angle in defense, at least to do away with the “premeditated” aspect of the crime. This in turn has implications for mitigation, potentially minimizing the maximum sentence.

TCRS’ position isn’t that Watts’ sentenced should be reduced, but that the prosecutors and media be more forthright about where the facts and analysis of this case take us. And that the garbage below, from the Second Confession, is just that.

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Shan’ann Watts was deliberately hiding the fact that her marriage was in trouble

June 7, 2019 / / 26 Comments

According to Watts’ confessions, he told Shan’ann on the morning of the murders that he wanted a divorce separation. This was supposed to trigger the annihilation that followed. But this wasn’t the trigger, it couldn’t be, because Shan’ann already knew about the divorce, and had known for a long time.

Before drilling further into this question, we need to be clear about the difference between divorce and separation. The word divorce comes up 35 times in the Discovery Documents and just once in the CBI Report. Separation comes up 38 times in the discovery, and 8 times [“separate or separating”] in the CBI Report.

It’s clear from a thorough analysis of all the discovery and both “confessions” that Watts was trying to separate from his wife in the weeks and months before the murders, going back as far as a year [close to when Kessinger allegedly made that first Google search for “Shanann Watts”. And this seems to be the word he prefers to use.

However, at the same time he was telling Kessinger a slightly different story. To her he was in the midst of a divorce, and by the time of the murders the divorce was being finalized, and so was the sale of the house. In fact neither was true, divorce proceedings hadn’t even started as far as we know.

So we have two narratives:

  1. A milder separation narrative [to Shan’ann]
  2. A more assertive divorce narrative [to Kessinger].

And we know when Shan’ann returned from Phoenix that night she was still hoping to woo Watts back into the marriage, hence the planned trip to Aspen the following weekend, the love letter, the self-help book and the imminent gender reveal. Shan’ann thought – or hoped – the marriage was stuttering slightly. Meanwhile Kessinger thought the marriage was over.

 

It’s no mystery, the Watts marriage was in trouble long before Shan’ann received that critical credit card alert on Saturday night, proving Watts wasn’t at the Rockies Games, and suggesting he wasn’t eating alone.

As early as August 8th, Shan’ann confided in Cassie Rosenberg and Nickole Atkinson that her husband wanted a divorce [she didn’t], but not right away.

Kessinger says something to same effect, that Watts wanted to sell his home, but not right away. There is this notion of delay, postpone, string things out…

But besides the reference above, from page 2106 of the Discovery Discovery documents, we also know that Shan’ann herself was openly discussing the prospect of divorce as early as March or April 2018, at least a month before she fell pregnant.

 

Watts told Ann Meadows, the realtor, on the morning the disappearance that him and Shan’ann hadn’t gotten on “for over a year”.

This is not necessarily true, but it could be true.

The fact that Shan’ann was talking to a divorce lawyer about custody in April, three-and-a-half months before the murders, suggests there was a protracted period of unhappiness, and acknowledgement from both sides that things were falling apart. 

The fact that the self-help book was put in the trash and the wedding ring left on the bedside table aren’t incidental. They were Watts’ way of communicating to Kessinger what he just couldn’t do with Shan’ann.

So why didn’t Watts just get a divorce, like the district attorney said? Well, it may be because Shan’ann didn’t want to, and thought she could sort of control Watts into not going through with it. This narrative isn’t very nice, and not very popular. It paints Watts less a coward than as someone who was bullied into towing a line, until things got desperate.

There is content out there that confirms not only did Shan’ann know a split was on the cards, but her own family did too. When Watts visited the Hair Jazz salon in Aberdeen  where Sandi Rzucek worked, it was clear to the hairdressers [Sandi’s co-workers] that Watts wasn’t happy, and Sandi actually told them then [in early August 2018] that the marriage wasn’t working, and that the couple were separating.

The final minute of the video posted at this link [an extended version of the clip above] is very insightful in this regard.

We also know there was a lot of anger and bitterness, especially from Shan’ann’s side, over Nut Gate.

And yet we know while this was happening Shan’ann still wanted to do a gender reveal. We also know that in the weeks prior Shan’ann was setting her husband up in her Thrive spiels as a great father and perfect husband and “the best thing that has ever happened to her“. She was making it very difficult for him to go through with a divorce.

She was making it very difficult to admit to an affair. And by recording him, for example, reacting to news of the third pregnancy and posting it on Facebook, it was becoming almost impossible to get out of it. But what made it so difficult to interrupt the happy family fairy tale? Was it weakness on his part or hers? Shan’ann’s job and income depended on selling the idea of Thriving. They were facing financial ruin and so, to admit they weren’t thriving meant a further lose of income. That’s what was so difficult to get out of.

Shanann Watts Chris Watts family
https://www.facebook.com/ShanannWatts/photos
Credit: Shanann Watts/Facebook

Why the Second Confession Scenario as Dramatized in FAMILY MAN, FAMILY MURDERER is full of crap

June 6, 2019 / / 7 Comments

There’s zero analysis, zero interpretation, zero insight in FAMILY MAN, FAMILY MURDERER’s version of the Watts Family Murders. They simply repeat Watts’ dodgy second version – verbatim – and dramatize it as if his words are gospel. They use the Second Confession as-is as their script.

This is very useful for us because we get to see an illustrated version for why it’s full of crap.

This won’t be a thorough analysis, and I won’t even do a decent statement analysis here; this will be a very light skip-through of the obvious details. Once we’re done, we’ll do something similar with the version of the murders at CERVI 319.

Worth playing for?

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So it starts off with Watts basically admitting that he’s not a confrontational guy. This is accurate. He’s an introvert and he likes to stay under the radar and “go with the flow”. Of course the way he murders Shan’ann in his version isn’t go-with-the-flow, is it? Go-with-the-flow would be her arriving home late, sleeping, and him going-with-the-flow of letting her sleep and dealing with issues in the morning or after work.

We know from Watts’ first interviews with the Feds that he doesn’t just tell the truth. He fudges, he minimizes, he misdirects. When interrogated, he also goes-with-the-flow. That’s one reason he did the polygraph, he was just going-with-the-flow. He doesn’t volunteer anything if he doesn’t have to…

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What’s wrong with this scenario? Well, it’s silent. Watts’ feels something, and it seems to be dark, and nothing is actually said. They have wordless sex. Really? Do you think Shan’ann would return from her trip and not say anything, not even greet him, and just have sex? She’s been distraught and felt ill the whole weekend, but that’s all behind her. And afterwards, do they both just fall asleep?

Maybe.

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Maybe not.

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For Watts to wake up later in the morning it means he has sex at around 02:00 and then, despite the huge shadow hanging over the bedroom, they both sleep soundly for two hours. Neither of them struggles to sleep or confronts the other or talks to the other. Shan’ann doesn’t even consult the baby monitors. She comes back from her trip, has sex and falls asleep.

In this version, they’ve been together for some hours now, in the same bed, and haven’t apparently spoken about anything. In this version all Shan’ann is is a dark shadowy sensation that still hasn’t washed either after her arrival from the airport, or after sex. For Shan’ann all this is very unlikely.

What’s also missing, and it’s an oversight from the interrogators, is how Shan’ann ended up in her shirt [not the one she was wearing when she returned from the airport]. So when did that happen?

In the Second Confession there are 4 references to shirts. Here they are:

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Also, in the dramatization, the bedside light on the right is on. Was a light on? Did neighbors see a light on? Does Watts mention anything about a light being on?

After having sex, Watts doesn’t go with the flow, he breaks the flow and fesses up. He doesn’t want to, but he does. He’s just that kind of honest, straight-up guy. Really?Fullscreen capture 20190604 020755Fullscreen capture 20190604 020757Fullscreen capture 20190604 020759Fullscreen capture 20190604 020802Fullscreen capture 20190604 020804Fullscreen capture 20190604 020806

Mm-hmm?

This version makes it sound like they spoke quietly about whether he was having an affair. They’d had flat-our screaming matches, but now they’re going to talk quietly about the end of their worlds?

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There’s still no screaming, it’s all still very-measured. And Shan’ann doesn’t fight back. She sees him coming, sees him getting onto her, faces him, sees his intent and just LETS him strangle her.Fullscreen capture 20190604 020828Fullscreen capture 20190604 020849Fullscreen capture 20190604 020851Fullscreen capture 20190604 020856

There’s no premeditation, and no trigger.

There was something on my mind…but I had no control. And it takes about 5 minutes to strangle someone to death. That’s a long time to have no control. You can have no control for 5 seconds, or 10, but try not having control for an entire minute, then another minute, then another…

He “just snapped”?

While this is happening she makes it worse, and she’s still talking. No shouting. No fighting. No struggling. He’s facing her and she’s facing him and she just lies there. And he’s allowed to continue. And no blood is found in the sheets, no semen – is any DNA found?*

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The trigger for Watts is Shan’nn saying these terrifying words:

You’re never gonna see your kids again.

Watts had been away from his own children for 5 weeks and this suited him just fine while he was embroiled in his affair, having hot sex several times a day. We don’t get a sense that he missed them, or that they missed him much. Even when he arrived at the airport Bella apparently ran away from him, screaming.

But now he’s gutted that he’ll never see his children again? [He’s so gutted about this that he later kills them too!]

But one of the biggest clues to why this scenario doesn’t work is also one of the most subtle.

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After killing her, Shan’ann’s suddenly facing the other way in bed. Now she’s face down. How did she get face down? Why’s she face down? In an authentic scenario it makes sense that he’d strangle her with her facing the other way. It also makes sense why neither of them have defensive wounds.

*Shan’ann did inflict a wound – to Watts’ neck.

A Red-Brown Stain on the Central Porch Cushion – and why we need to take a closer look at those Weatherproof Outdoor Cushions

June 6, 2019 / / 9 Comments

We’ve discussed the porch cushions before, and the pendulum has swung from a supposedly suspicious pattern-interrupting-arrangement on the porch to the realization that the cushions were arranged like that anyway when Shan’ann arrived home.

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But we’re still left with what appeared – and sounded like – interest from the cadaver dog when the dog ventured into that area. The interest was such the handler lifted the central cushion.

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You can watch that moment here.

Or listen here.

Now, in fairness, nothing is mentioned in the discovery about alerts on the porch. What is mentioned is the odor of cleaning chemicals, and the fact that Watts had placed his daughters’ shoes on the back porch. These were subsequently used to scent off, weren’t they?

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It struck me as odd that the shoes were wet and that Watts said he had put them outside to dry.  At the same time Watts had done the laundry and seemed to have vacuumed his home overnight too. Although the report claims shoes were used to scent off, it’s not specified which shoes. Were the shoes outside used or shoes from their wardrobe?

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Now, we know for a fact that there was at least one cadaver in the truck, and from an investigative perspective, it’s reassuring that the dogs showed interest in this area. This confirms where there is interest [where there’s smoke] there was something suspicious, and probably a cadaver [there’s fire].

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It’s for this reason that Rocket Science finds the interest on the porch significant. Just because the arrangement isn’t different doesn’t suddenly make the interest on the porch go away.

In a video posted recently, the cushion scenario was dismissed within a perspective where Shan’ann was killed first, and thus, if the cushions were already outside then, and the pattern unchanged, then why would they be relevant?

But in a scenario where the children were killed first in the home, we can see how and why the cushions might be used. They’re in the basement as it is, they’re weatherproof and waterproof, and easy to clean and wipe down. And we know Watts was cleaning. Since he put wet shoes on the back porch to dry, why wouldn’t he do the same with wet, newly washed cushions on the front porch?

The cadaver traces or bodily fluids in this scenario come from the children.

Something else I noticed simply by paying more attention to the Sermon on the Porch, was what appeared to be a slight, translucent red-brown stain on the middle cushion. When I zoomed in it didn’t appear to be an Armchair Detective-ism.

Do you see it?

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Look closer.

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Were the cushions ever tested for blood or DNA? Perhaps they should have been.

Chris Watts: What’s YOUR theory?

June 5, 2019 / / 31 Comments

Is there a place for amateur sleuths in true crime? Absolutely there is. In fact, the Watts case is a prime example of ordinary citizens – like Nickole and Nicolas Atkinson – going the extra mile, using their gut and making breakthroughs. Nickole’s quick assessment that something was wrong and calling 911 in this case was a game-changing moment.

Her son Nicolas entering the crime scene and finding Shan’ann’s phone and iWatch buried in the couch was too, even though technically it was contaminating the scene.  But they were both watching Watts like a hawk, and because of that, he got caught. Simple observation is crucial, as long as we’re seeing things as they are and not as we want them to be.

After the hurl-worthy documentary this Sunday, I think it’s time that we be clear on our theories on what happened. Since Family Man, Family Murderer provided a version – do you agree with it? Why not? I’ll do a separate post on the version [Shan’ann’s murder] in Family Man, Family Murderer, which is essential an uncritical repetition of Watts’ version, but in the meantime, have a look at this one.

A few interesting observations from this YouTuber – Jayde – are the observations about the cushions, and the messiness of the office and shoe closet behind it.

It does make sense that the bedding was removed in a quick, single movement – in a rush. This was done after Watts arrived home and wanted to show that Shan’ann had made it to bed when she hadn’t. Even so, Family Man, Family Murderer’s version is that Shan’ann was murdered in her bed. Do you think that’s true?

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Was the plea deal coerced? The biggest revelation from FAMILY MAN, FAMILY MURDERER

June 4, 2019 / / 5 Comments

The kindgarten-level of true crime reporting and true crime analysis in Family Man, Family Murder – which aired on Investigation Discovery on Sunday night [June 2nd, 2019]  – was shocking.

This is a channel that specializes in true crime, so they do know how to do better.  It’s not a case of laziness or recklessness. The episode is meant to be exactly as it is.

Jenn H. left an excellent comment on the review post comparing the speed at which the prosecution put everything in a box and tied it with a neat bow to the documentary doing the same thing.

The documentary is narrated entirely from a prosecutorial perspective. We literally see two prosecutors doing all the heavy lifting and not really anyone else. There are zero witnesses, and virtually nothing new in the episode. No parents are interviewed, nor any of the public defenders. Virtually no new faces, besides those of a few reporters, appear. No prison guards, no friends of Watts or Shan’ann, no co-workers. From beginning to end the word ANADARKO is left out, though Thrive and Le-Vel are mentioned once or twice. It’s really an incredible achievement.

But before we throw the baby out with the bathwater, let’s have a look at something that may – may – be revelatory. It’s this:

It appears to be an email written to Steve Wrenn regarding the most crucial aspect of this case – the plea deal. That the prosecutors would simply hand this snippet of information over is interesting. Perhaps they don’t want to be caught with their pants down, and perhaps like the episode itself [coming out in early June] it’s another attempt to pop the balloon that is the Watts case, and control – that is, suppress – the narrative.

This case had all the ingredients to become the most high-profile trial in America’s true crime history [and still does]. While that’s unlikely now, if this email is genuine and not simply staged along with the other dramatizations [and it might be] then we can see just how quickly the screws were tightened on the Watts case.

The email is dated August 26th, 2018 at 11:58. The email reads:

To: Steve Wrenn

Subject: Chris Watts

Dear Detective Wrenn

The defendant, Christopher Watts, is willing to agree to waive his right to be indicted and to plead guilty to all charges of first degree murder charges if our office is willing to remove the possibility of the death penalty.

Best

John Walsch

To be honest I thought the “our” in “our office” was a typo. Shouldn’t it have been “your” office. Of course the public defender and the public prosecutor’s office is theoretically the same legal apparatus. It’s just a little strange, isn’t it?. Imagine Jodi Arias’ lawyer or Casey Anthony’s lawyer contacting the prosecutor and making suggestions for what “our office” might be willing to do?

Since the interview with Wrenn [detective Wrenn?] is held within his office, and the email seems to be pointed out on a laptop or iPad, it’s implied that Wrenn is simply pointing it out.

Well, why not be more explicit about it?

Many pundits, TCRS included, felt the Watts case was rushed even when the case was basically over by November 19th, barely three months after the incident. But according to this email, the case was over within two weeks.

Had the news of the plea deal been released then, there would have been overwhelming outrage. Justifiably. Wasn’t that why it’s been staged the way it has, to allow the public to calm down and the outrage over the crime to blow over? A year later, has it blown over?

Even the discovery documents were handed over very quickly after the sentencing, and the folks associated with Watts washed their hands off the case. They weren’t going to talk about it again, it was over and done with.  But then a few niggly bits emerged in that massive tranche of mostly meaningless discovery. Like this:

When the media wanted to verify the date of Kessinger’s search – was it really September 2017 – the district attorney didn’t really want to talk about it. He’d moved on. The case was over as far as he was concerned.

NOVEMBER 28, 2018:

CrimeOnline reached records supervisor Amanda Purcell on Thursday after repeated inquiries made to multiple Colorado law enforcement agencies to confirm the accuracy of an entry in the Phone Data Review included in the discovery documents connected to the Chris Watts murder case, released by the Weld County District Attorney’s office late last month.

Asked if the entry in the Phone Data Review showing that Kessinger, who was involved in an affair with Chris Watts when he murdered his wife Shanann Watts and two young daughters, showing that Kessinger performed an internet search for “Shanann Watts” on her cell phone on September 1, 2017, was typographically correct, Purcell said it was a typo in the report.

Purcell was not able to provide additional clarification about another section of the phone data review that indicates Kessinger searched for Chris and/or Shanann Watts prior to beginning her relationship with Chris Watts in the spring of 2018, and referred our inquiry to the Weld County District Attorney’s office. CrimeOnline will provide further updates when more information is available.

DECEMBER 10, 2018

As the discovery documents and audio of a police interview with Kessinger show, the 30-year-old woman who reportedly met Watts at Anadarko Petroluem, where they both worked at the time, was aware Watts was married but believed he and his wife were headed for certain divorce. She told investigators she was unaware Shanann Watts was pregnant before the missing persons case made the news, and that she didn’t know Shanann’s name until a while after she became involved with Chris Watts.

The discovery documents released by the Weld County District Attorney’s office in late November include reports that indicate Kessinger may have been aware of Chris and/or Shanann Watts prior to when she is believed to have met Chris Watts at work.

CrimeOnline made repeated inquiries with the Weld County District Attorney’s office, the Greeley Police Department, and the Frederick Police Department for clarification about multiple entries in the “Phone Data Review,” included in the discovery documents, which show that Kessinger searched for Shanann Watts and Christopher Watts in 2017.

Following a series of email exchanges and phone calls with the Weld County District Attorney’s office regarding the reports, CrimeOnline spoke by phone to Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke on Monday. Rourke said that the reports reflect what was shown in the forensic analysis of Nichol Kessinger’s phone.

“The dates to which you are referring — in 2017 where it appears she Googled or otherwise searched Shannan — was data that came off her phone,” Rourke said.

“It’s not a typographical error in the report. [The detectives] are reporting what was contained in the data from her phone. I don’t know the answer to the question of why or how those dates ended up in her phone.”

Asked if the District Attorney’s office questioned or planned to question Kessinger about data suggesting she was aware of Chris and Shanann Watts for up to a year before the murders, Rourke said that Chris Watts’ guilty plea precluded any need to further probe the results of the forensic analysis of Kessinger’s phone.

Why is Kessinger’s first Google Search for “Shanann Watts” becoming a Shifting Goalpost? [UPDATED]

But now they’re back. And what they’re talking about is everything we already know, back to front.

The other aspect to note is if the date is right, and the plea deal was offered on August 26th, consider how long the media and public were strung along. The plea deal was only acknowledged in a surprise announcement on November 6th.

And Watts’ parents at the time complained that the deal was coerced, and that they didn’t have access to their son to talk him out of it.

Now, of course, several months later when it’s all done and dusted, Watts has communicated his intention to appeal his conviction. TCRS predicted this outcome way back in November, less than a week after the “shock announcement” of the plea deal.

Chris Watts Plea Deal – things aren’t what they seem!

Chris Watts Will Change his Mind about Pleading Guilty

So what are we really talking about? For starters, an argument could be made that the First Confession was coerced, in the sense that Watts was tricked [and to some extent placed under duress] into making admissions. Personally I have no problem with that, prosecutors have to play certain cards, and use card tricks, with slippery, tricksy criminals.

But a defense lawyer would have a lot to work with here. Others with less to work with – like Amanda Knox – have had a lot of success arguing coercion. Bear in mind at the time this email was apparently written, Watts had only admitted on tape to murdering his wife. So where did the enthusiasm arise to admit guilt on all charges?

What changed in 12 days?

Who was really pushing for a plea deal?

Who was really pulling the strings?

A Critical Review of FAMILY MAN, FAMILY MURDERER

June 3, 2019 / / 9 Comments

The 42 minute documentary starts off with a very dark, poignant scene. We see a man with his truck [headlights on] shoveling sand. The voice-over is Shan’ann’s, saying how the man digging her grave is “the best thing that’s ever happened to me…”

It’s powerful. It’s not a bad start, but from a technical perspective, it’s not a great start either.

In the opening montage, a man is digging in a nondescript landfill-type setting. It’s not the well site; it looks nothing like it, and there appears to be a big tree somewhere in the picture. Going into the documentary I was wondering whether Anadarko would be mentioned, and if so, how? This very first scene seems to answer that question. The Anadarko stuff will be blacked out and pushed out of the frame.

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Now, I like true crime dramatizations. They remind us to think practically about a particular crime scene, and they force us to consider what’s plausible and what isn’t. In the above image the shirt might be close to the right color [pink…orange], and the jeans and boots are right, but it’s doubtful Watts would have dug a grave with the car lights shining on him. There was enough ambient light right then, just after dawn, to know what he was doing without artificial light.

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The Trinastich video footage also confirms just how light it was out when Watts pulled out of his driveway, and remember, it was going to be almost another hour after he left before the head of the shovel in the truck nosed into the sand at CERVI 319.

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We see a montage of images from Shan’ann’s social media, and a clip from the Sermon on the Porch where Watts speaks into the camera asking Shan’ann, Bella and Ceecee to “just come home…” An image of Watts with Kessinger appears onscreen within the first minute,  then some strange dude appears, and then District Attorney Michael Rourke is the first heavy-hitter to make  an appearance. Rourke says Watts was saying all the right things, he just wasn’t saying them right. He was just too cold.

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Next the program promises to “explore the transformation” Watts made from family man to monster for the next hour [well, 40 minutes and change].

I like the way Diane Dimond refers to Watts early on as “a dichotomy of personalities”. Another way of saying that is a TWO FACE, right? Next large red text appears above another montage.

DOUBLE LIFE REVEALED

After showing the title [at the 2 minute mark], the scene opens with a pump jack and a well site. It’s August 13th, 2018 according to white text superimposed over a local traffic scene.

And then Dimond begins taking the viewer through the spiel – from Nickole Atkinson’s point of view.  We see another strange and rather unattractive interloper [playing the role of Nickole] and then we see Steve Wrenn, fingers folded, baseball on his desk, apparently in his office.

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Wrenn provides a scintillating insight. “Things weren’t right.” Think about this for a moment. You have the District Attorney appearing in the first minute to say Watts wasn’t acting right, and that everyone could see that [well yes, they could]. Not his deputy is confirming that things weren’t right [yup, that’s what Nickole thought, and…?]

Next the narrative reverts to Rourke. Rourke provides a little insight now. Nickole worked with Shan’ann, for the same company, and they sold the same product. Which company was that? Which products were those? Rourke doesn’t say. This documentary has promised to show how Watts has transformed into monster, right?

A voiceover [flashing to an aerial shot of Phoenix] mentions a business trip and Le-Vel, but that’s it. Nothing about the kind of company, or that it’s a MLM.
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Next the narrative deals with the pregnancy and health issues. Now we have another reporter, this time from the Denver Post, providing more overview. Then it’s back to Rourke. Rourke explains what Nickole was doing. Checking her phone, wasn’t Shan’ann supposed to be at a doctor’s appointment, this and that. There’s a lot more to it than that, but this is just lightly ticking the narrative boxes – and 4 minutes have already blown by.

Where’s Nickole though? Is she not giving interviews?

Then there’s a dramatization of Nickole arriving at the Watts home. The Watts home isn’t used, and Nickole’s son and daughter aren’t in the frame. The make of the car [Hyundai Elantra instead of a Mazda GT] looks wrong, where its parked is wrong, but the color is right.

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The clothing the Nickole stand-in is wearing is similar to the camouflage shirt Nickole wore, the white glasses propped on her forehead are a match, and the busy-on-the-phone vibe, but where’s her son Nicolas?

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Just before 5 minutes, Wrenn is back to tell us Chris Watts worked in the “oil field industry”. Wow. Nice and vanilla.

“He was a supervisor and typically visited various well sites…throughout the day.” Cue a nondescript pump jack.

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So far no mention of Anadarko, or the fact that Watts work involved the maintenance of fracking batteries. So far, we’re still getting the vanilla version, an ultra superficial version simply recapping the basic case, with prosecutors interspersed with reporters doing the job of a narrative run-through. Some of the reporters are not terribly affiliated with this case.

Next Nickole’s actual 911 call is played. It’s not the first time it’s even been on television but kudos for at least having something authentic and not necessarily easy to get hold of onscreen.

Then we dive into bodycam footage, with Nicolas appearing but his face smudged out. At 6 minutes, Rourke is back to provide some insight. Coonrod can’t just kick down the door and walk in, and so on and so forth. So far there has been zero reference to any actual text messages or the times they were sent. That’s 6 minutes, that’s enough. Let’s hear some of your thoughts and observations, and if need be I’ll post a follow-up on the rest of the documentary.

GURU BADGE: When did Ronnie Watts find out his son was having an affair?

June 3, 2019 / / 0 Comments

The good news is there’s 100 minutes of audio with Chris Watts’ father. Unfortunately Ronnie Watts’ interview with the cops is mostly garbled.

We do know that according to Ronnie, Watts let them know he intended to separate from Shan’ann while he was in North Carolina [during the first week of August, two weeks before the murders].

What’s less clear is whether Watts told his parents about Kessinger. It stands to reason that he did, but is it confirmed anywhere? When Watts told his father during the interrogation in mid-August about the affair, his father didn’t seem surprised. The discovery [page 1076] notes:

Watts told him [Ronnie] he failed the polygraph test and that he admitted [to the cops] to having an affair…

Moments before the murder, was there an emotional conversation or wasn’t there?

June 3, 2019 / / 22 Comments

A major area of disagreement between TCRS and the mainstream media version of events [and Chris Watts’ 1st and 2nd version of events] is this idea that there was an argument, or an emotional conversation, that either played out just before or led directly to the murders.

The idea of an argument makes sense. God knows there was a lot to argue about. She was pregnant, he was having an affair, they were losing the house, his parents had been booted out of the family circle and there was that $68 charge he still had to explain…

It also makes sense that something very real had to trigger a triple murder. It seems less likely on the face of it that Watts would out of a silent scenario simply decide to kill his family.

At 4:49 in the clip below Watts is confronted with the idea of an argument. This happens roughly 24 hours after the incident, on the morning of August 14th, a Tuesday.

It’s worth hovering the cursor over 4:49 and playing it back a few times to catch the subtlety in the answer, and all the micro-expressions.

You’ll notice Watts looks up at the ceiling and also sways and smiles while saying they had didn’t argue, they had an emotional conversation “but”, then he smiles openly when he says, “I’ll leave it at that…and I just want them back.”

You either believe him on this score or you don’t. If you believe him, then you’re part of the crowd who believe the crime was a sort of a rage murder, an impulsive crime of passion. Something crazy happened in his head and he just snapped.

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If you don’t believe him, then you’re figuring Watts as a coward who didn’t have the balls to confront his wife. Not about an affair, nor about a divorce. He just couldn’t do it.

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And if that’s the case, the murder was premeditated. If Shan’ann’s murder was premeditated, so were the children. On this hinge, everything changes.

“I’m sick to my stomach” – who said it, why, and about what?

June 3, 2019 / / 3 Comments

It’s not science, it’s semantics, and it’s what Rocket Science refers to as “colorful language”. Colorful language is intuitive, so to one person it kicks up a red a flag, to another its meaningless. In OBLIVION I discuss the significance of “walking on eggshells”. But here’s another.

The term “sick to my stomach” occurs four times in the Discovery Documents, and I seem to remember Watts saying something similar during his flaky Sermon on the Porch. It’s a telling aphorism because pregnancy would make a woman sick to her stomach, and so would drowning in oil. If Watts felt sick to his stomach he didn’t look it. So where did the expression come from?

On August 8th, the same day Watts told Shan’ann he didn’t want the baby, Shan’ann tearfully offloaded to Sara Nudd how [understandably] sick she felt. She desperately tried to have sex with Watts in a bid to smooth things over and sort things out. His rejection confirmed her worst fears, hence the sickening feeling [which proved totally justified] in the pit of her stomach.

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On the afternoon of August 13th, Watts used the exact same expression to describe how he felt about his missing family.

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Even then Watts claimed to be “praying”. It does make one wonder whether Watts picked up the phrase from Shan’ann’s iCloud and adopted it as the “right-sounding” way to express concern, or alarm. We know throughout the aftermath Watts not only failed to shed a single tear, but seemed unable to muster the appropriate emotion. When reminded of this after his failed polygraph, Watts melodramatically sniffed [just once] – his version of showing grief.

Watts also used the term [twice in rapid succession] when FBI agent Coder reminded Watts that what they were doing was looking for his family. In the context of Watts worrying about how things looked, and how he looked, he fielded the terms – as if using the right words was like waving a magic wand [like the Thrive promoters did], and that was enough.

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