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

Tag: Family Home

Shan’ann’s Home Away From Home

If Shan’ann Watts had separated, it’s likely she would have moved here: to the tranquil, small-town home at 135 Forest Drive, Aberdeen. When Shan’ann and the girls disappeared, her younger brother Frankie came here, to this house, to await news in the company of his father Frank [also a carpenter] and mother Sandi [a hairdresser].

Fullscreen capture 20181103 151411

Fullscreen capture 20181103 154815Fullscreen capture 20181103 154810

On July 5th, a Thursday, Shan’ann posted her final Live video. Well, it was on the porch of this little house in Aberdeen during a rain storm. Shan’ann also took the opportunity to let her fellow Thrivers know [in North Carolina that is] that she had products in her bedroom if anyone wanted any.

Fullscreen capture 20180911 094648

Shan’ann’s final profile picture was posted on July 4th, and remains her profile picture today.

36582392_10155534876961935_7379565009296162816_n

The video below, also her last, was posted the following day.

Incredibly, for the next five weeks until her death, Shan’ann didn’t post another Live video after this one.

Fullscreen capture 20181102 081022Fullscreen capture 20181102 081036Fullscreen capture 20181102 081114

Fullscreen capture 20181103 152702

Below is a map showing the distance between Sandi Rzucek’s home and Hair Jazz, where Sandi worked. All of this is a giant leap from the lavish house on Saratoga Trail, isn’t it?

Fullscreen capture 20181102 081124shanann-watts-kids

BREAKING: First Look at the House where Chris Watts grew up as a boy and young man

It was Chris Watt’s high school teacher, Joe Duty, who first revealed on August 16th where his former pupil grew up – Vass Road on the outskirts of a small town called Spring Lake, in North Carolina. The question until now has been exactly where – which house – on Vass Road?

Thanks to a tip left overnight on a post dedicated to where Watts grew up on Vass Road, that mystery has been solved. The tip turns out to be correct. Although it was obvious that the houses up and down Vass Road are modest, especially compared to the mint-new two story mansion + basement the Watts family were living in on Saratoga Trail, it was important to establish the specific house.

And now we have.

Before I take you through the corroboration process, let’s zoom in on the house in question.

Fullscreen capture 20181010 100045

Fullscreen capture 20181010 100132Fullscreen capture 20181010 100026Fullscreen capture 20181010 100035Fullscreen capture 20181010 083321Fullscreen capture 20181010 083411Fullscreen capture 20181010 083450Fullscreen capture 20181010 083502

Now the street view. Below, that’s the view from 1107 Vass Road across the street. One of the neighbors appears to be fairly well off; they even have a boat, and a decent-sized home. The house next door with the collapsed boundary fence is in less great shape.

Also, notice the 45 mph sign beside the road.

Fullscreen capture 20181010 083059

This is the Watts home seen from Vass Road

Fullscreen capture 20181010 093332

It appears to be single story, and it’s so small it’s barely visible behind a single large tree. Notice the drainage ditch in the foreground, on either side of the driveway.

Below is the same image zoomed in slightly.

Fullscreen capture 20181010 083222

Is that a temporary pool peeking out of the back garden? Are those pink and green shapes kids’ cars?

Now the confirmation. The mail box has the word WATTS printed in white letters on it right outside the house. Again, notice the drainage ditch behind the mailbox.

Fullscreen capture 20181010 083207-001

Below is a photo taken by Shan’ann of Ronnie Watts, Chris Watts’ father shoveling silt and dirt from the drainage channel in front of the Watts family home on Vass Road.

Notice the 45 mph sign behind him, the redbrick house with white pillars, and the collapsed boundary fence in the right corner.

36783674_10155544221391935_2770918066777751552_nFullscreen capture 20181010 090400Fullscreen capture 20181010 090535

Shan’ann posted a picture of Ronnie inside the house on Saratoga Trail on Father’s Day June 27th, 2018.

Both Shan’ann’s dad Frank and his son Frankie commented on the post, wishing their brother and father-in-law respectively a Happy Father’s Day. It’s not clear whether Chris Watts or Ronnie responded. If they did their responses have been removed.

Fullscreen capture 20181010 09483335489451_10155500359641935_8823844283376205824_n

36783674_10155544221391935_2770918066777751552_n

Why does the house on Vass Road matter? In TWO FACE I fielded a theory that Chris Watts [and Shan’ann to some extent] had come from very humble beginnings. Nothing wrong with that. But when contrasting those humble beginnings with the picture-postcard fairy tale house they were living in in Frederick, then those humble beginnings do matter.

They matter because they ask a few ordinary and obvious questions:

  1. Were the Watts family living beyond their means?
  2. How far beyond their means were they living?

We didn’t really need to see this house to know the answer. The bankruptcy filing in 2015 and the Watts’ colossal debt answers these questions definitively. But seeing the house raises the spectre that regardless whether Chris Watts could afford the house or not, whether he deserved it or not, one can see how much he was likely to want to hold onto the new house, no matter what.

What do you think? Did the big fairy tale house in the prairie play into the motive to murder?

Fullscreen capture 20181009 113842

More on this subject: Getting to know Hair Jazz, Shan’ann’s mother’s work place in Aberdeen, and the surrounding neighborhood