True Crime Analysis, Breakthroughs, Insights & Discussions Hosted by Bestselling Author Nick van der Leek
It’s not often that writing style is complimented in reviews. There’s usually a focus on the quality of the research or the shock-value of the revelations. I do try hard to find a balance between writing in accessible language, and maintaining a sophisticated, compelling and entertaining narrative. Not everyone gets it, but those who do – I’m happy to see – are riveted by it.
This is a great review because it explains why there are three books, and why they should be read “sequentially”. How Rocket Science differs from all the other true crime out there is touched on here too. It’s true crime as an “intellectual journey”.
Thanks Terri. Keep the reviews [good and bad] coming.
The TWO FACE [K9] series is available at this link.
More: “Why are your books only available on Kindle – and how do I get one?”
Coming soon…
All it would have taken was for Nichol Kessinger to do a single, simple Facebook search for Chris Watts’ wife, and all would be revealed: the pregnancy videos posted in mid-June, the ongoing declarations of love, the photos of the couple embracing in San Diego in late June. Shan’ann’s Facebook was [and still is] set to public, so Kessinger – had she been curious about her new boyfriends family circumstances – only had to look. So…didn’t she?
And if Shan’ann was thinking about divorce, why would she be posting pictures of her wedding on June 17th?
Notice these couple selfies on June 25th, and June 26th.
And Chris Watts probably didn’t want to appear in this video Shan’ann took of the couple’s hotel room on June 22nd. The video cuts off a few seconds after Shan’ann shows her husband unpacking his suitcase. A message to the mistress?
Now, what’s useful about Kessinger’s statement is the timeline it provides. It’s vague, but thanks to Shan’ann’s still publicly accessible profile, vague is fine, because we have time and date stamped images to cross reference from.
So let’s do that.
According to the Denver Post exposé: Chris Watts and Nichol Kessinger met “one day in the middle of June”. Strictly speaking that’s not true, because as work colleagues they would have encountered [met] one another anyway, but let’s assume that’s when they formally [or informally] engaged with one another for the first time.
Shan’ann posted two eparate pregnancy reveal videos on June 11th, and also changed her profile picture to one of herself wearing the “Oops, we did it again” shirt.
Watts and Kessinger, meanwhile, met for the first time “outside of work” in “late June”. Well, late June is when the San Diego trip happened, or directly after.
Directly after the San Diego trip is also when Shan’ann flew to North Carolina. That happened on June 26th. She told her Facebook flock where she was going, so if Nichol Kessinger had been curious, she’d be able to keep track of Shan’ann’s blow-by-blow accounts of her movements, and be sure the coast was clear [assuming she did check].
After meeting outside of work in late June, Watts and Kessinger began a physical relationship in “early July”. According to the article, Kessinger wanted to take it slow and kept asking Watts how the divorce was going. But if the timeline is right, the advance from colleagues to lovers took place in a few days [whatever the length of time it is separating “late June” from “early July”.
From the screengrab below [dated July 1st] it looks like Watts may have used his wife’s car to chauffeur Kessinger around instead of his beat-up work truck. It also appears Watts took time off from work around the same time.
According to her exclusive with the Post:
Watts told her that he had two daughters and, after Kessinger asked, Watts said he was separated and at the end of divorce proceedings, she said. “I believed him,” she said.
Now, although the relationship appeared to kick off close to the time Shan’ann was away, if Watts had told her he had kids, didn’t Kessinger wonder about the longer-term living arrangements? Didn’t she wonder where Shan’ann was day to day, week by week? According to the Post:
[They] began a physical relationship in early July and saw each other four to five times a week, Kessinger said. She told him she wanted to take it slow…
Since Shan’ann was gone for several weeks at a time, didn’t Kessinger wonder what was going on with the kids? This “disappearance” of not only his wife, but the children too, probably set in motion a psychology of dread for Watts. As soon as Shan’ann and the kids came home, his game would be up. And so, when she returned from her final trip – from Arizona – that was the end of the honeymoon phase. He waited until the very last moment to do what he’d probably been imagining in the back of his mind for weeks.
To keep his wife and family missing…
According to the Post:
Kessinger was worried about his missing family, but she didn’t want to make a big deal out of a situation that Watts seemed calm about. Then, news reporters showed up at the Watts’ family home.
But 30-year-old Kessinger didn’t make a big deal out of the situation that Tuesday either. She only contacted the cops on Wednesday morning, and the media three months later, in spite of rumors flying for several weeks about her involvement.
Kessinger says: “I don’t think there is a logical explanation for what he did. It’s a senseless act, and it’s horrific.” She’s wrong. There is a logical explanation. She says she thought he was attractive and a good listener, and by August, Watts was fitter and better-looking than ever. But had he really lost all that weight coincidentally, and then met Kessinger, or had she been on his heart, on his mind, for a lot longer?
If so, Watts’ heart and mind was clouded with emotion. It wasn’t just the positive emotion of a new romance that was driving him, it was the tsunami of conflicting negative emotions to deal with, not just the pregnancy, but Shan’ann. What he did was senseless and horrific outside of the emotional dynamic he found himself in. Within it, well, it’s starting to make sense, isn’t it?
1313 words. That’s how long the Denver Post scoop on Nichol Kessinger is. Perfectly timed, perfectly held back until the moment it would do the most damage – the weekend before her lover’s life sentencing. And oh boy, it is damaging.
What we learn from the Post – and it reads like an affidavit more than an interview – is that:
1. Kessinger says she barely knew Watts, and was only in a relationship with him for two months [meaning it started in mid-June, roughly the same time Shan’ann announced her third pregnancy on Facebook].
2. Kessinger seems aware Watts was married at the time, but was under the impression – she says – he’d already started divorce proceedings. Wasn’t Kessinger active on Facebook?
3. Kessinger says she never doubted her lover’s guilt, and co-operated with the cops even prior to his arrest. The Post describes “multiple police interviews” and her telling them what he told her privately about his “missing family”.
The italicized text below is quoted directly from the Denver Post:
4. “Kessinger was working in the environmental department with an Anadarko Petroleum contractor when the two met, she said during a Thursday morning interview in the office of her lawyer, Ed Hopkins.”
5. “Every morning, Watts and the other operators would gather in the office break room while they waited to be dispatched to a field site. Kessinger would walk through the group to place her lunch in the fridge, but she never spoke to Watts.”
6. “One day in the middle of June, he walked into her office to introduce himself. They continued casual conversations. She noticed that Watts did not wear a wedding ring, and Kessinger, who was single, thought he was attractive.”
7. “’When he spoke to me, he was very soft-spoken. He appeared to be a good listener,’ she said.”
8. “Watts told her that he had two daughters and, after Kessinger asked, Watts said he was separated and at the end of divorce proceedings, she said. ‘I believed him,’ she said.”
9. “When they first met outside of work in late June, Kessinger asked Watts more questions about his divorce. He told her the mutual divorce was almost final, and they were working out financial details, she said.”
10. The two began a physical relationship in early July and saw each other four to five times a week, Kessinger said. She told him she wanted to take it slow and he should focus on helping his daughters adjust to the divorce. [Early July is around the time Shan’ann was away on her extended 6-week vacation to North Carolina. It ended in the first week of August].
11. When Watts was in North Carolina with Shan’ann, he called Kessinger to tell her the divorce was final. It seems around the same time he told Shan’ann and her family he intended to separate and were having problems. This is why the Live videos on Facebook dried up in July and August.
12. “Later that month [July], he asked Kessinger to help him find an apartment that would be good for him and his daughters. They never spoke about long-term plans for their relationship.”
13. Watts was clearly a keen manipulator: “‘He made me believe that he was doing all of the things that a rational man and good father would do,’ [Kessinger] said. Kessinger never met any of Watts’ family or friends.”
13. “On Aug. 13, the Monday that Shanann and the girls disappeared, Watts texted Kessinger to say that he had been busy. The two chatted like normal throughout the workday.”
14. “[At] about 3:45 p.m., Watts texted [Kessinger] that his family was ‘gone,’ she said. He told Kessinger that Shanann had taken the girls to a play date and had not returned. He seemed casual and didn’t show any emotion, she said.”
15. “Kessinger was worried about his missing family, but she didn’t want to make a big deal out of a situation that Watts seemed calm about. Then, news reporters showed up at the Watts’ family home. ‘I was very confused why the media was at his house,’ she said.”
16. And now we know exactly what Watts did on the night of the 13th. ‘When I read the news, I found out he was still married and his wife was 15 weeks pregnant,’ Kessinger said. She was shocked at his lies and scared for the missing woman and children, she said. ‘If he was able to lie to me and hide something that big, what else was he lying about?’ she said. In a flurry of long calls and texts that night, Watts changed his story about his split with his wife. Kessinger interrogated Watts with a barrage of questions. His answers seemed ‘off’ to her.”
17. While Kessinger was at work on August 14, Kessinger texted Watts. By now she was accusing him of the crimes, and pressuring him to tell her what happened. But he wouldn’t. He told her he’d never hurt his family.
18. “’It got to a point that he was telling me so many lies that I eventually told him that I did not want to speak to him again until his family was found,’ she said.”
19. “The next morning [August 15, the same day as his arrest], [Kessinger] called the Weld County Sheriff’s Office to tell them about her relationship with Watts and his lies, she said. [Kessinger] met with FBI investigators that day.
20. “‘I just wanted to help….I was going to do anything that I could.'”
21. And here’s the part that feels just a little too much like made-for-TV PR: “Since his arrest, she has never doubted that he killed them. The story that Watts told police — that he killed Shanann after he saw her strangling one of the girls — is a lie, Kessinger said.”
For the Post Kessinger also sat for a suitably somber studio photo. It’s a far cry from the party pictures that have emerged thus far on social media.
Image courtesy RJ Sangosti, the Denver Post.
Kessinger’s exclusive comes at the end of a week-long media blitz during which Watts’ parents have put their weight behind their son. The PR war for control of the narrative suggests forces are stirring in the Watts case that go beyond the veneer. Monday’s hearing is likely to be very high-profile, with the whole of America watching, and holding its collective breath to see what happens. With the odds stacked against him, including his own mistress, will Watts go through with the plea deal or will he recant?
Read more: Chris Watts: Inside the Mind of His Mistress
At 1:27 in this video link, Cindy Watts says it so quickly it’s easy to miss it completely. “We didn’t attend because Shan’ann and I just couldn’t get along.” Hold on. Didn’t attend what?
Play it back and the reporter has just mentioned the couple married in 2012. So Cindy Watts didn’t attend her son’s wedding. Does the “we” refer to Ronnie and Jamie Williams [Chris Watts’ sister] as well?
That has got to hurt, though, if Chris Watts and Shan’ann’s big day was all about Shan’ann, and Chris’ family weren’t even there. Every time he sees a wedding photo, he remembers it wasn’t quite the perfect day the photos suggested it was.
The WCNC reporter says a word in response to the no-show by the Watts family at their sons wedding.
Tension.
Yes, there had to have been.
We know in the months leading up to the murders, for Father’s Day [June 17th, 2018] Shan’ann posted pictures of her father on her wedding day. What memories [and resentments] might this have triggered in Chris Watts two months before the murders?
Shan’ann also posted a picture of Ronnie Watts on Father’s Day and paid tribute to her husband for being a great dad. She even printed a special t-shirt for him to wear on Father’s Day, and took a picture of him wearing it.
Mother’s Day fell on May 12th. On that day Shan’ann posted a picture of her own mother for Mother’s Day, gave credit to her husband for getting her the perfect Mother’s Day gift, and also posted a cartoon dedicated to all the important women in her life but nothing on Cindy Watts. Now we know why.
Cindy Watts interview with WCNC.com feels genuine, especially this part of the transcript. Let’s listen:
CINDY: I don’t…see…why he’s pleading guilty. I wouldn’t. I’d fight. I’d fight…but then you ask yourself, ‘Would a normal person put…dispose of the bodies the way that he did?’ It scares me to death [speaking softly, nodding] that he could have done all of this.
That also echoes what Chris Watts said on the porch when a reporter mentioned a search dog going into the house, and the sidewalk crawling with cops and police cruisers.
WATTS [Licks lips]: I’m so happy that they’re here. Right now doing everything they can, it-it just scares the living crap out of me knowing it’s come to this.
For me, this revelation – enmity between Shan’ann and Cindy Watts – reminds me of two aspects in two other cases.
Firstly, in the Casey Anthony case, Caylee died the day after Father’s Day. That day had to be hugely significant in her life because the father of her own child wasn’t around, and because her own father – then and there – wasn’t exactly father of the year, in fact for the previous months he’d been threatening to divorce Cindy Anthony and that meant they all might lose the house. [Ten years later the Anthony’s are still fighting to keep their home]. This suggests Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in 2018, in the Watts home, were hugely significant milestones, particularly with a third baby on the way. We also know on June 9th, Shan’ann had a massive meltdown at Cindy Watts home, an event that occurred plumb in the middle between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
If Chris Watts had simmering resentments, then the enmity between his wife and his mother could only have turned on the heat even further.
Secondly, my impression while researching the Scott Peterson case was that the Peterson’s didn’t think that much of Laci, or Laci’s family. The Peterson’s were fairly wealthy when Scott Peterson was born, and he was spoiled and treated like a Golden Child. A similar dynamic seems to have played out in the Watts family, minus the privileged status. Chris Watts was clearly seen by his folks to be a perfect member of society, loved and liked by all [just like Scott Peterson].
If Watts started to develop first enmity, then a murderous resentment towards his wife [no one is saying he was justified, just that those feelings had to have been there], then if his own parents disliked Shan’ann [as Scott Peterson’s disliked or felt superior to Laci’s] he may have felt he could get away with it. Maybe that’s putting it too strongly: that if he did what he did they wouldn’t blame him. No, that’s not quite right either. At the very least, he may have felt they’d be inclined to forgive him given their own difficulties with Shan’ann, and certainly, Ronnie Watts has already told the media, “If he’s guilty, I can live with that.”
At 58 seconds in the clip below Cindy Watts seems to have made peace with the fact that her son killed Shan’ann:
CINDY: He did kill her uh…[chews gum]…but for the kids, no.
Two camps appear to be forming, those who support Chris Watts [in some way], and those who side with Shan’ann [as the innocent victim]. As soon as we intuit a reason, that is a motive, the Shan’ann camp get very angry. This is because Chris Watts is a psychopath, a monster and a narcissist – nothing more. There can’t be a reason or any underlying dynamic leading to murder, nor can there be any premeditation. It’s simply an act of madness.
They’re right of course, the murder of three members of one’s nearest and dearest is an act of madness, but that’s not the whole story. There can also be a rhyme and reason to insanity, and it’s true crime’s mission to find those rhymes and reasons.
The first review has been posted for TWO POLLYANNAS and – oh dear – it’s a 1 star review. But does the reviewer have a point?
This book reads like a nit picky little old lady with a grudge. It’s hastily scraped together with bits and pieces of perceived reality that calls itself rocket science. My grandmother used to say if you’ve got nothing nice to say don’t say anything at all. Not only has the author nothing nice to say about a murdered woman and her children, what he says is simply not true. This isn’t true crime writing: it’s true fiction masquerading as true crime.
And these are other reviews by “Don Pierson”:
I regularly check my reviews and “Don Pierson” is definitely a new name on the review list. Since there were only three reviews of The Murder of Vincent van Gogh and SLAUGHTER I remember clearly who all three were. Ergo “Don Pierson” is Pauline, a former reader who has left 160 comments on CrimeRocket, more by far than any other reader.
And then yesterday, this one:
Strange how we can discuss dishonesty, deceit and manipulation as an out-there-in-the- world-of-true-crime concept, but in reality, it’s right here with us. If I don’t like you, I do what I feel like to malign you, and my malice is completely forgivable – because it’s mine.
My response?
“I’ve seen DUI cases take longer to resolve than this case…[and] frankly, if you can’t convict the Aurora Theater shooter in Arapahoe County, which is a very conservative jurisdiction, you may not be able to do it in Weld County either…”
Chris Watts will change his mind about pleading guilty. He’ll either do it over the weekend, or at the sentencing hearing on Monday, or he’ll lodge an appeal shortly after. How do we know he will? Because he’s changed his mind before.
He changed the time of the crime from waking up at 05:00 to waking up at 04:00, he changed the emotional conversation to one in which there were tears and rage, and he’s gone from shrugging off the murders initially as a missing person’s case, then accusing Shan’ann of killing the children and finally to confessing that it was him.
One could take it further, and show Watts’ ambivalence to his work as a mechanic, prompting him to ditch that line of work for the oil industry in January 2015. Probably he was ambivalent about Le-Vel and Thrive as well, just as he was about his marriage and the pregnancy in the final weeks. He was actively engaged in an affair [or affairs] while married, which provides the psychological DNA for a man capable of tolerating a contradiction and conflictedness in his life for an extended period, before taking decisive action. It’s also possible he is “ambivalent” sexually.
Chris Watts’ mother Cindy has just compared Bella Watts to her father, calling her [him] conservative, cautious and shy. This plea deal, this early, echoes all those traits.
Chris Watts is capable of dedicated resilience and resolve. He can put his head down, do what he’s told and do the right thing. He can be dutiful and diligent, but he’s also capable of throwing in the towel [and picking it up again] on his story. Whatever happens on Monday, this case is far from over.
Does who he was figure into who he became? Did who you were figure into who you are today?
There’s an interesting parallel here to both Scott Peterson and Casey Anthony, who were both achievers [of a sort] at school, Petterson in golf and Anthony on the athletics track.
Chris Watts was a fairly big deal at school, by some accounts. Was he a big deal behind closed doors at #2825 Saratoga Trail?
The gist of the letter seems to be that Chris Watts’ mother Cindy is appealing to the judge to be able to talk to her son before the sentencing trial on Monday, November 19. It’s significant that they’re placing on record here the fact that the entire family have not been able to make any contact with Watts whatsoever after his arrest. This also puts into perspective the sealed visitation logs. Are they sealed because of the visitors Watts’ getting, or to hide that he’s been getting no visitors?
© 2026 TRUE CRIME ROCKET SCIENCE
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
Recent Comments