Saturday, August 11th: Jeremy Lindstrom’s daughter McKenna babysat the Watts children. It’s unclear where Chris Watts was during that time, during the day, but we know he liked a tweet about a “big time win” for the Rockies.
Was there also a concert after the football game in Denver that Watts [and someone perhaps] attended? Irrespective, Chris Watts may have watched the game at a friend’s house or a bar and celebrated afterwards.
Note, both tweets below have since been removed, which means the timestamps can’t be verified.
13:59: Shan’ann posts a message against a background of hearts saying she’s ready to get home to Chris and her girls.
14:25: About 26 minutes later, Watts and the girls are photographed at Jeremy Lindstrom’s house. They’re celebrating his son’s five birthday.
17:20: Shan’ann posts a message about the baby moving twice over the weekend. Were Bella and Celeste still alive when this message was posted from Arizona?
PGA winds up during the late afternoon: Chris Watts also liked a post about Tiger Woods performance on Sunday. It’s unclear when exactly Woods played what, but what it certain he was playing until late on Sunday afternoon.
17:22: A photo of Shan’ann is posted indicating that her flight has been delayed. Shan’ann and her friends settle down to eat dinner at the Thirsty Lion Gastropub & Grill.
Were the Watts girls still alive at this stage? Did they live long enough to eat dinner, or was birthday cake the last thing left in their stomachs? Shan’ann’s last meal was also likely whatever she at at the Thirsty Lion Pub, and anything she ate on the flight to Denver.
19:22: Chris Watts is observed barbecuing on his outside balcony. The Watts children, as far as we know, were not.
It’s unclear when exactly the PGA finished that Sunday, but it’s likely Watts watched at least some of it, perhaps in-between barbecuing.
23:09: Sha’ann’s final post repeated what she’s said earlier in the day:
Ready to be home with Chris and the girls.
The fact that Shan’ann expresses the same sentiment twice suggests she felt uneasy, awkward or even guilty about being away all weekend, and the flight delay had compounded her absence. We also know from Nickole Atkinson that Shan’ann hadn’t been feeling well during the trip, though it’s unclear whether this was related to the pregnancy, to her being ill-at-ease, to lupus symptoms, or to some combination of these.
Within six hours of posting “Ready to be home” Shan’ann was dead.
The legal game around the autopsy reports was a warm-up to the hand-wring that’s this plea deal.I’ve maintained from the start that the autopsy reports are so shocking, they’re being suppressed precisely to avoid stoking public outrage. If people knew what was in them, and what happened to Shan’ann’s, Bella’s and Celeste’s bodies, they’d DEMAND a full-blown trial, is what I’m saying.
But it goes further than that.
@NancyGrace@medcolegaldeath Now, with #chriswatts guilty plea, will we ever hear any specific details of these horrific murders like in what order they were killed and how ? And Shanann’s phone upstairs, did it capture anything ? Also his actions in the days prior to the crime.
If you were Shan’ann Watts, if you’d been murdered, wouldn’t you want your murderer put on trial to account for what he did, and how and why he did it? Even more so, if your murderer murdered your chidren, your unborn child, wouldn’t you feel the crime absolutely deserved to be heard as a criminal trial?
So why not the Watts case? What’s so special about this case that it need to be shut down, and as high-profile true crime goes, this case has been shut down in record time.
#BreakingNews Chris Watts pleads guilty to total of 9 counts for the Murders of his wife, 2 daughters and unborn son #kdvr All of this less than 3 months after the crime. Incredibly fast by most legal standards. I’ve never seen such a high profile case conclude so fast. #kdvrpic.twitter.com/CiDJ1zsSam
It’s good to see a working defense attorney coming to the same conclusions as TCRS on the dodginess of this deal. Whoever is giving Chris Watts advice isn’t looking after Watts’ legal interests, and because of that, Watts could later claim his rights to proper counsel were [and are being] violated.
One may argue, boohoo, who cares about a murderer’s rights? Well, if due process isn’t followed, you can end up with a Making a Murderer type situation, where the suspect has been so badly “victimized”, that apologetic documentaries series come along years after the fact, made in his name crying foul, making the case that he’s a victim of the justice system. That scenario can end up turning your monster criminal into a cause célèbre that ultimtely gets him acquitted.
Now is probably a good time to deal with the small issues of nomenclature dogging the Watts case. Why is it that some people refer to her as Shanann, others [including this site] as Shan’ann, and some uninformed former drama teachers as Shanna Ann? What’s the correct spelling?
I took my cue from the funeral leaflet. It seems unlikely that Shan’ann’s nearest and dearest would get her name wrong.
So, from September 1 onwards I used this spelling as the convention. I believe the way Shan’ann spelled her name on Facebook was because Facebook often doesn’t recognize unusual names, hyphenated names or names with apostrophes.
The name on her grave also appears to follow the same convention.
Thus the TCRS convention is to use:
Shan’ann
To use the conventional spelling [which, incidentally, the lawyers “representing” the Rzucek family have just done, suggests pronouncing her name Shannon. I.e. Shanann = shannon.
The apostrophe breaks the name into two syllables, with slightly added emphasis on the second instead of the first:
sha -nann sha’nann
As recently as November 14th, media outlets like KDVRwere still spelling Shan’ann’s name Shanann and Shannan in the same article!
C'mon guys, let's make an effort to get the spelling of Shan'ann's name right. It's been three months since her murder. #ChrisWattspic.twitter.com/hagvtCk71N
Is the unborn baby spelled Nico or Niko? If we use the same reasoning as the funeral nomenclature then we ought to go with the former, and yet, I haven’t. So why haven’t I?
I believe the Rzuceks purposefully altered the spelling from Niko to Nico because of the association with Nichol Kessinger. This may be the reason, or it was a spelling error. Either way, the initial spelling for Niko in the media, when the press were referring to Niko’s Law, was Niko with a K.
It’s not clear where Brittney Basher’s petition on Change.org to charge Watts with a 4th count of murder [by recognizing the unborn fetus as person in its own right] was a misspelling, and that all the media then cottoned on to the misspelling. It seems unlikely that someone would misspell Nico with a K when it’s conventionally spelled without one.
It also seems unlikely that if the name was misspelled, it would have been corrected immediately. On the other hand, the Rzuceks don’t seem to be avid readers. In any event, the “Niko’s Law” spelling seemed to indicate the spelling at the funeral was to score a point against the killer by misspelling his son’s name, or was a misspelling.
I elected to follow the Niko’s law spelling for reasons that were grounded in reality, but were also in a sense more intuitive than anything else.
Ceecee
Shan’ann spelled Ceecee’s name Cece, so why not spell it the way she wanted it? The reason is because when “e” follows “c” the “e” [when there’s just one] is usually silent. One way to illustrate this convention is with the letter “v”. When “v” is followed by a single “e” it has a “buzz” sound to it, as in the case of “have” and starve”. So no one intending to say “Vee for victory” would spell it “Ve for victory”.
I’ve used the same logic with a word that when spelled out in “practice”, ”
nice” or “rice” doesn’t translate to the “ee” sound.
So in the instance of Celeste’s name, I’ve overridden Shan’ann’s spelling because it seems to be a misspelling. Facebook is full of misspellings, and that doesn’t mean these misspellings should be carried over into journalism and reporting as well.
Deeter
I’ve taken quite a lot of flack for spelling Deeter with two “e’s” instead of “ie” – that was how both Shan’ann and Frankie spelled it. If the word is written in small caps, we have “dieter”, from someone going on a diet. Removing the “t” it still has the wrong sound. “Die” and “Dee” are completely different. So why not “Deter”, from “Peter”? Because, again, in small caps it’s “deter”, as in a deterrence. English is a funny language isn’t it?
There are a few names based on double “e’s” including “Fleet” and words like “creeper”.
In the same way that I thought Nico might be a type, and Ceecee clearly is, Deeter is also a misspelling. While I would like to be as conscientious in honoring the spelling as it’s supposed to be, and as it was intended, I draw the line at misspelling, and then making a misspelling a convention.
I hope this clears any confusion going forward, but with that said, in a case where there’s so much uncertainty about how names are spelled, don’t the public deserve a court case to get certainty about everything else?
Cindy Watts set up a GoFundMe account on October 5th, 2018, almost a month to the day before his plea agreement. She claimed she needed $50 000 for “medical help” for her son, because of a laceration on his neck [which happened on August 13], a fractured wrist and an Anterior Cruciate Ligament [ACL] tear on his knee.
While none of this is likely true, what is true is Cindy was trying to raise cash in hurry on behalf of her son. One day prior to posting the GoFundMe appeal, Cindy wanted Facebook to find her the best Defense Lawyer for her boy.
At the same time she declared in all caps:
WE LOVE CHRIS AND WANT TO DO EVERYTHING WE CAN FOR HIM!
53 people liked/responded to her post.
Meanwhile, the terms of the plea agreement itself seem to make provision for a change of heart.
Chris Watts has the right to appeal both his conviction and sentence within 49 days of the sentence, or seven weeks after the hearing on November 19. Assuming it concludes the same day, January 7th, 2019 is the cut-off date.
True Crime Rocket Science is about thinking a lot deeper and further than everyone else. Those visiting this page are encouraged to think further than the low-hanging fruit. This is an example.
What did the mid-term elections have to do with the Watts case?
No, the mid-term elections aren’t relevant simply [and only] because they fell on the same as the plea deal hearing.
Shan’ann Watts, the company she promoted and the mid-term elections all have one central idea in common, and, believe it or not, most Americans feel very strong about this issue right now. That issue is health care.
Let’s start addressing the three levels of this question at the far end, at the level of the elections and voters as a national community, and work our way back to Shan’ann and you, the reader.
1. What does it mean that Healthcare is such a big issue right now?
Health care is a huge issue, not only to Americans, but to many people around the world. Health care costs are rising. Obesity, diabetes and cancer rates are rising, and with it, health care [which ought really to be called disease care].
To appreciate the magnitude of the problem, one only has to look at how healthcare costs have increased in America over the past 20 years.
While housing costs have gone up 57%, healthcare rates have increased by a factor of five. Over the same period, average incomes have increased only 2%. So it’s no wonder the biggest expense [the fastest growing expense] is the biggest issue right now among American voters.
What does it mean that healthcare is such a big issue? Well, it means families with constrained incomes [like the Watts family], where unexpected medical issues and chronic disease care [for example a pregnancy, and an autoimmune disease like lupus] will almost inevitably face bankruptcy.
2. What does Le-Vel and Thrive have to do with Healthcare, or the fact that it’s such a big deal to the average American?
Does Le-Vel have anything to with healthcare, healthcare costs, or the struggle for some families – like the Watts family – living paycheck to paycheck to pay for their healthcare?
What does Le-Vel and Thrive have to do with healthcare? How about everything?
Le-Vel markets itself as a health and wellness company, a panacea to America’s wellness dilemma. Put a patch on your arm and your healthcare and money problems are solved.
Thrive is the missing piece in the health and wealth puzzle. Stick on a patch and your life changes – instantly! Not only do you feel better [instantly] you can also make money helping millions of others to feel better too, and make so much money while you’re at it, you can have the luxury car of your dreams, you can even elevate your lifestyle from whatever it is to a PREMIUM lifestyle.
If you’re not convinced by dry analysis, try Le-Vel’s own promotion spiel for size, and see if you pick up the twin solution for a health and income fix in their promo video about a revolutionary new, innovative, magical formula of powders, shakes and patches.
The part at the end, in black and white, is easy to miss.
Zooming in the fineprint acknowledges that actually, Le-Vel products aren’t intended to replace healthcare, and becoming a promoter comes with no financial guarantees, in fact you “could also earn no income at all”. So…don’t give up your day job or your current healthcare provider?
So does Thrive even work? As a wellness product and a source of household income?
One online review site cites “limited earning potential” as one of the downsides of Le-Vel. Just how limited are we talking about? According to the review, promoters can expect a paycheck of $30-$50 per month, which will require hard work, 3-5 hours daily to achieve. Imagine working 3 hours daily for a month and coming out with $30? How many waiters would want a gig like that, even if it came with a nice healthy salad bonus at the end of the month?
3. What does Healthcare have to do with Shan’ann Watts, or why she was murdered?
Does Shan’ann’s health have to do with anything here? When I searched for MLM under the #ChrisWatts hashtag on twitter, I found just two posts. A paltry pool of just 29 voted on my poll about the impact MLM [Le-Vel/Thrive] had on the murders.
It’s unclear whether Gerard Courcy is correct that Watts’ defense team intended to blame the murders on Thrive, but it would make a damned lot of sense if that was their strategy, wouldn’t it? They could lay both the financial burden at Le-Vel’s door, as well as the not entirely health affirming side-effects of their product, especially if used to excess.
The short version is that unlike most Le-Vel promoters, Shan’ann had serious health challenges, and so did her youngest daughter Ceecee. Those health challenges and associates expenses don’t resonate with us because they’re not ours to deal with, or ours to pay. Adding a pregnancy to the equation, meant the medical expenses were about to be leveraged even higher.
Shan’ann Watts was murdered eight hours [arguably five] before a doctor’s appointment. Did that appointment matter to her murderer, do you think? Who do you think would be paying for it if Shan’ann was making $50 a month, or if she was doing really well, perhaps $250 a month?
Now let’s get back to the original question:
What did the mid-term elections have to do with the Watts case?
Healthcare. In summary then, healthcare matters in the Watts case more than most have acknowledged thus far. A criminal trial would have exposed the minutiae of the healthcare debacle the Watts family found themselves in, and also the driving forces behind them. It would have presented millions of Americans, including the over three million who watched the video above, a swath of compromised individuals in effect, with a cautionary parable regarding one particular multi-level marketing company. A criminal trial could have saved tens of thousands of damaged and dysfunctional marriages and maladapative belief systems.
Because Chris Watts signed a plea agreement, not of this will come to light through the evidentiary process of expert witnesses, and the lazer focus of a high-profile trial covered by the media.
By his taking it all on himself, all the blame, Le-Vel has dodged a bullet.
New Orleans was where Shan’ann was celebrated for her “time for a reset” article, published in Thrive’s Strive magazine. Nick Thayer had taken the photos for the article.
This is them on the way to or back from that shoot:
The first few seconds of the video below, Shan’ann repeatedly pronounces her name to the guy holding the microphone.
Below: Nickole Atkinson test-drives a Tesla Model-X worth about $80 000.
Is this real life? It’s going to be so much fun….so…um…everybody…this like, this is what I do for a living. See, I’m working right now, showing you how amazing this stuff is. I love this mobile office. Hey Heather! It’s humid. We come from Colorado where it’s extremely dry. Or at least it is for me. My [skin] is absorbing all this moisture right now. It doesn’t even know how to handle it. It’s um…it’s crazy…um…sorry. Um…so…super excited to see everybody this week. Hey Mandy! Um…hey Dad! Hey Ashley! So…um…so my sun um…my sun! My skin is really enjoying this moisture. My hair is not, cos in a about five minutes it’s gonna be a big frizz-ball. Oh my God, look at this over here. Hold on.
Chris and I are starving, like seriously legit, starving. Say ‘hi’. Look how much weight he’s lost, dude. Skinny mini other there. So um…when I started with Le-Vel, I mean his shirts were 2X. He’s wearing a medium now. Seriously. You froze on me. I’ll see you soon. We’re gonna get some steak and lobster and some food – drinks are on me. Um, just saying. It’s all inclusive. [Laughs]. Did you hear me? Alright, love I’m gonna call you.
“I’m gonna hop off here guys…um y’all guys, I’m so sorry in advance, but I will be flooding your news feed with this amazingness over here, all weekend long, till Monday. So beware. if you don’t wanna see it, I’m sorry. It’s gorgeous. Alright bye guys.
At about 1 minute into the video above, Shan’ann tells her audience the floor of the Hyatt hotel they’re staying in has been newly renovated, and you can still smell the paint. She’s standing in a tiled bathroom as she says this.
The U-turn is a recurring theme in the schema surrounding the Watts family murders. On the night/morning of the crime, Shan’ann was returning home from a trip to Arizona. She went, she returned. Chris Watts backs his truck into the driveway [a kind of U-turn in itself], before he heads out.
When Nickole Utoft Atkinson called the cops, Chris Watts had to return from the work site, but Nickole herself was also returning to the house after dropping Shan’ann off only hours later.
The whole Thrive business is based around the idea of making a u-turn in your life, or put otherwise, turning [or re-turning] your life around.
In his affidavit he says he spoke to Shan’ann not once, but twice. He talks to her, goes downstairs then returns [up the stairs] to talk to her again. But it’s important to note this is the version he gives during his “partial” confession.
His first version is that he woke up at 05:00, had a conversation about marital separation. He wanted to initiate it. It was a civil conversation and they weren’t arguing.
But Officer Coonrod isn’t convinced by Watts story. In the affidavit, Officer Coonrod calls for assistance, and Detective Baumhover responds. Baumhover begins by conducting a thorough search of the house. It’s during this search that he finds Shan’ann’s cell phone, not out in the open, but hidden between two cushions on a sofa in the loft area. The fact that it was hidden indicates he wasn’t supposed to find it right then, but he did.
So the cops look at Shan’ann’s phone, still on the scene, and something on the phone [or not on the phone] convinces them that Chris Watts’ story – the timing of it – isn’t right. And so they return to the question about when he was awake. Let’s face it, WhatsApp and other social media log online activity. So it may have been possible for the police to quickly establish that Shan’ann’s phone either showed activity after 02:00 or even shortly before 05:00.
In any event, after finding her phone, Chris Watts is asked to return to his story [still on the scene], and this time he moves his timeline back by an hour. From waking up at 05:00 to informing her 04:00 [which implies that’s when he woke up]..
REPORTER: And then, the day she was back, I mean…?
He starts answering with a stutter.
WATTS [Shaking his head, a slight flash of teeth as he smiles]: I lef-I left wor-for work [glances left] early that morning like 05:15, 05:30 so like [holds out his hand]…she [shrugs]… barely let me in [glances up], she barely got… barely gotten [blinks] into bed pretty much.
No wonder he was so nervous on Tuesday morning, the cops had returned, this time with dogs, and he already had to get his story straight with the media, based on fine-tuning it with the cops the day before.
Hudson is also referred to twice in the affidavit, that he “drove off to a work site near Hudson” and that he went to “a job site near Hudson to check it.”
Hudson isn’t really giving the cops anything to work with. It’s 20 miles from CERVI 319, whereas Roggen is less than 3.
The checking of the job site sounds like he had to go there because of an anomaly. He’s checking. So the dumping of the bodies could both be explained 1) by the anomaly he went to check on, and b) the dumping of the bodies causing the anomaly. One body in each tank would suggest [and could possibly be explained] by some coincidental change in product coming out of the ground.
As the operator tasked with maintaining the remote site, he could – essentially – come up with any story he wished. Maybe the thief hatch had come loose, maybe the product had gotten super-heated over the weekend, baking in the summer sun and causing a gas discharge.
And then, of course, there is the plea deal, which is a U-turn on the confession. All of it reinforces the U-turn that Chris Watts was trying to effect in his life. He was trying to get out the marriage. He’d changed jobs after a lifetime of being a mechanic [just like his dad], he’d turned around his weight, and he’d already found someone else. Niko, though, was threatening to ruin the U-turn, the return to the man Chris Watts wanted to be. So Niko figured he’d U-turn Niko, which meant U-turning Shan’ann, and his daughters had no place in the aftermath, so they had to be U-turned as well.
A U-turn is by definition a course correction, so that one is going back to where you originally started from. That’s what he wanted. Ironically, the plea deal did just that. Chris Watts swapped the jail he was in [for the rest of his life] at #2825 Saratoga Trail, for prison, for the rest of his natural life.
Vegas here we come! Our 5th earned Le-Vel Lifestyle Getaway!!! So excited for this 4 day vacay! Much needed! Thank you so much to my awesome parents who help us when we travel! Nonna came to take care of girls while PopPop holds down the house in NC! We are blessed! #WattsVegas#ThriveVegas
In POST TRUTH, the 100th True Crime Rocket Science [TCRS] title, the world’s most prolific true crime author Nick van der Leek demonstrates how much we still don’t know in the Watts case. In the final chapter of the SILVER FOX trilogy the author provides a sly twist in a tale that has spanned 12 TCRS books to date. The result may shock or leave you with even more questions.
SILVER FOX III available now in paperback!
“If you are at all curious about what really happened in the Watts case, then buy this book, buy every one he has written and you will get as close as humanly possible to understanding the killer and his victims.”- Kathleen Hewtson. Purchase the very highly rated and reviewed SILVER TRILOGY – POST TRUTH COMING SOON.
TCRS MERCH available now – just in time for Christmas!
Book 5 – ALL NEW! “I have thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook…” – Connie Lukens. Drilling Through Discovery Complete Audiobook
Read the entire 9-Part TWO FACE series, the most definitive book series covering the Chris Watts Case
Visit the TCRS Archive of 100 Books dealing with all the world’s most high-profile true crime cases.
Join the TCRS Community on Patreon for as little as $1 per month. Multiple daily posts, interesting discussions, amazing audiobooks narrated by the author, ongoing series and powerful, informative weekly podcasts.
Subscribe to the Growing TCRS YouTube Channel
Book 4 in the TWO FACE series, one of the best reviewed, is available now in paperback!
“Book 4 in the K9 series is a must read for those who enjoy well researched and detailed crime narratives. The author does a remarkable job of bringing to life the cold dark horror that is Chris Watts throughout the narrative but especially on the morning in the aftermath of the murders. Chris’s actions are connected by Nick van der Leek’s eloquent use of a timeline to reveal a motive.”
Recent Comments