Killer Family Man : The True Story of Chris Watts

KILLER FAMILY MAN

THE TRUE STORY OF CHRIS WATTS

A COLLECTION OF TRUE CRIME

PETER DOVET

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHRIS WATTS

DENA THOMPSON

VIRGINIA LARZELERE

BETTY LOU BEETS

JANIE LOU GIBBS

JUDY BUENOANO

KRISTIN ROSSUM

LYDA TRUEBLOOD

MARGARET RUDIN

MICHELLE REYNOLDS

MICHELLE HALL

What is a perfect marriage? 

Here is an interesting occupation – start typing ‘What makes a perfect...?’ and the predictive elements of the search engine you are using will rarely complete the question with the word ‘marriage’. ‘Day’, ‘teacher’, ‘occasion’ and even ‘tense’ appear higher in the list. Is that a comment on how we live today, when a perfect marriage is seen as unobtainable to most couples?

Elements of the gutter press like to have their input into this problem. From time to time they will offer the latest crank study which will explain how to turn a marriage from a battleground into a palace of mutual adoration, pink heart shaped cushions and with the occasional dove fluttering by: such tips as saying ‘I love you’ ten times a week; going out on a date three times a month – quite how to find that number of baby sitters raises a question or two – is the sort of advice they typically offer.  On a somewhat more serious scale, Global market researchers OnePoll.com recently asked a thousand Americans what, for them, constituted a perfect marriage. 

The answers were not surprising; spontaneity, sharing interests, trust, talking honestly about deep and meaningful topics.  But, Chris and Shanann Watts would seem to have had no need for either type of assistance in their marriage.  They would not need to call upon the conclusions of others, or the psychoanalysis of those who claim to be experts in their field.

‘Chris, we are so incredibly blessed to have you!  You do so much every day for us and take such great care of us.  You are the reason I was brave enough to agree to number 3.  From Laundry to kids showers.  You are incredible, and we are so lucky to have you in our life.’

Those were the words that Shanann wrote on her Facebook page, about her husband, for Fathers’ Day.  This was not an isolated incident, a one off attempt to be overtly public in a wife’s display of love for her husband.  Cynics might suggest that this, and other, messages could be seen as an unsubtle attempt to portray a marriage filled with happiness, when in fact it was littered with despair.  But, no, Shanann’s sentiments were genuine.

Because her husband Chris Watts was, to all intents and purposes, a terrific guy. 

‘He would reach out and help anybody,’ said close family friend, Jeremy Lindstrom.  ‘He was a good mechanic, if you needed help with your car he would help you; if you needed help moving the furniture he’d be over in a heartbeat to help you out.’

Other friends described them as a perfect couple as well.  And it was that kind of judgement which led Lindstrom to state, after news of the events of August 13th, that ‘You know the worst thing of all when you are close to the family, the lie, the lie gets bigger.’

In fact, some six years previously Chris had made a well-received presentation to his college where he outlined the importance of sustaining relationships, and of getting through tough times.  That too had been the cause of much admiration from Shanann.

Even more, the picture presented to friends and family, mostly from Shanann, was that a perfect relationship was soon to get even better.  They had already been blessed with two gorgeous daughters, Bella (who was four) and her three-year-old sister Celeste. Next, in a few days, Shanann was hosting a special party. 

She had already proudly posted an ultrasound image of their new child, with whom she was just over three months pregnant, on Facebook.  At the party, she would announce the gender of the latest member of the Watts family. It was a boy, and they would call him Nico.  The thirty-four-year-old wife, with the good job, the nice home, the terrific kids and the perfect, loving husband really did seem to have it all.

But, she didn’t.  It certainly seems to be the case that Shanann’s publicly offered feelings were true to her heart, but her husband’s were not.  He was a man with many secrets; we are only just beginning to learn the extent of these, and time will help to identify those that are true, and those that have emerged, on shaky ground, from the gossip surrounding the tragic and horrific story which is about to unfold.

Because Chris Watts is currently in prison, awaiting trial on a number of charges. Among them, are the first-degree murders of Shanann, Celeste and Bella, along with causing the premature termination of his son’s life.

The town of Frederick, Colorado, lies to the West of Rocky Mountains, thirty kilometers or so from the National Park which features the best of this beautiful Colorado landscape.  The town is growing fast, with major building development programs seeing the population grow by 50% over the last eight years. Its current size means it is home to nearly 14000 inhabitants.

Chris and Shanann Watts were one of the newcomers to this town.  Formerly a mining community, it carries the first name of its founders’ father. Frederick has always attracted outsiders; when it first came into existence, at the turn of the twentieth century, immigrants from Europe and Latin America arrived, seeking their fortunes underground.  The mine closed in the late twenties, and today the town serves as a dormitory for Denver, fifty kilometers to the South.  It offers a gateway to the mountains, and its wide streets are frequently dressed in snow.

It is a lovely place to bring up a family.  Perhaps it was that which attracted the young married Watts couple.  They became wed in 2010.  Originally, they hailed from North Carolina, but moved east to take up home in the small town which would witness the recent atrocities.

Shanann had a good job working for the nutritional company, Le-Vel.  The global organization is a modern business; cloud based and claiming to be the fastest growing health and wellness organization in the world.  It likes to be known as a movement, rather than a business.  Shanann’s employment there required her to travel from time to time. Chris too had a good job.  He worked as an operator at the Anadarko Petroleum Corp based across the state.

But maybe there were hints that things were not as happy in the Watts household as the picture Shanann created.  Family and friends are now racking their brains for clues, and slowly some are beginning to emerge.  None are conclusive evidence in themselves of an unhappy marriage, but they offer just a little insight into what may have been happening at home.  The murders are still painfully fresh for all, and in time no doubt more details will enter the public domain, but for now we take such clues as we have.

In the weeks before her murder, Shanann had posted a different kind of Facebook comment compared to her usual loving words.  She had discovered one of her daughters’ dolls sleeping on their sofa.  The doll was propped up on two orange cushions, apparently at rest.  What was disturbing was that the doll’s face was covered by a toy sheet or handkerchief.  It was as though she had died and been covered in the same way that a corpse’s face is hidden.

‘I do not know what to think of this,’ she posted.  Perhaps the covering of the face was purely coincidental, perhaps she had come across a game one of her girls was playing, possibly influenced by what she had seen on TV, and Shanann was simply putting an adult’s perspective onto a child’s game. 

Some friends have suggested that the doll’s presentation could have been a kind of macabre hint from Chris of what was going to happen.  We do not know, although the doll’s ‘death’ was an unusual discovery to make, and one which clearly caused some concern to Shanann, but not enough to raise any alarms.

Of more concrete concern is a fact that Shanann may, or may not, have been aware.  Her husband was in debt, serious debt; in fact, debt to the tune of $70000.  Could this have been a motivating force behind his crimes?  Despite the insurance policies in place, the lives of four people, including his unborn son, at under $20000 each is hard to believe.  Especially when these victims are his wife and children.  He clearly loves his daughters.  Numerous videos are online of him playing with the girls, like any other loving father.  In one, his young daughter is captured singing about her father:

‘My daddy is a hero, he helps me grow up strong,’ she warbles in that slightly tuneless way of a young child.  In another clip, Shanann cannot keep back her love for her husband: he is the ‘best dad’ anybody could wish for, she says.

However, some other evidence has come to light suggesting that Shanann may have become more uncertain about her future with Chris.  Certain friends have claimed that Shanann expressed her concerns to them that Chris was having an affair.

‘It came to her mind that possibly he could be cheating,’ a friend, Amanda Thayer, reported to CBS News.

However, there are few relationships where some doubts do not, from time to time, arise, even if they do not relate to the fidelity of one of the partners.  And her best friend and co worker at Le Vel (Shanann had also been a housing realtor) Nickole Atkinson feels differently.

‘No, she did not talk about leaving him or separating.  She very much loved her family and wanted to be called a family.  I didn’t find out they were going to separate or anything until I called Chris that morning,’ she said, reflecting after her friend’s death speaking to interviewers on Good Morning America.  She did not, though, express surprise that Chris had been arrested.  Wisdom after the event, or was she aware that there was something more to Shanann and Chris’ relationship than met the eye?

On August 13th Shanann returned late from a business trip.  She was collected by Nickole and driven home.  Although she had no suspicions as to why, Nickole did notice that her friend was not her usual self.  She seemed quiet and withdrawn.  Nickole put it down to tiredness, which may well have been all that was troubling Shanann.  After all, by now she was fifteen weeks pregnant, and that places inevitable strains upon a mother’s body. 

Further, the unborn boy had developed a small problem.  Doctors had detected an irregular heartbeat, and in fact Shanann had an appointment to have her baby checked the next day. 

When she failed to make that appointment, alarm bells began to ring.  Such behavior was completely out of character for the committed and doting mother, and Nickole began to worry that her friend had been taken ill.  She decided to go to the Watts’ house and check that all was well.  When she arrived there, those alarm bells began to ring even more loudly.  Shanann’s car was still sitting on her drive just as it had been when she had set off for her work meeting some days before. 

Nickole knocked on the door, but there was no reply.  She did not even hear the girls playing.  Clearly, it seemed, Shanann had been taken ill.  That would explain her distracted and unusual manner the night before.  She considered her options, and in the end decided to call the police.  Again, to undertake such a move before trying to contact Chris might be seen as surprising.  No doubt, that is another fact which will come out at trial.

The police also showed concern, but they contacted Chris at work, and asked him to return home to let them in.  He agreed, as would be expected from any normal, loving father and husband.  The reason for any failure to answer the door, or for the girls to be playing, soon became apparent.  The house was empty.  There was no sign of any unrest or struggle.  It was as though Shanann had simply left with the girls.  The police began to talk with Chris about what could have happened, and from those discussions emerged the first concrete evidence that conditions in that relationship were nothing like as idyllic as they seemed from the outside. 

That morning, said Chris, he had dropped a bombshell on his wife.  As they lay in bed he announced that he wanted a separation.  Whatever she might have feared in the back of her mind, it seems as though (according to Chris) she took the news as badly as could be expected.  An ‘emotional conversation’ followed, then Shanann announced that she could not stay at their home.  She needed time to think, and to get that time, she was going to a friend’s house.  Further, she would take Bella and Celeste with her.

The police asked for details of the friend, but here Chris’ story begins to show cracks.  He cannot remember the name of the friend, in fact he is not sure that his wife even offered that detail.  This has to be seen as unusual; even in an emotionally charged situation such as they were facing, a person will normally identify where they plan to go, especially if children are involved.  But Chris claimed he had no idea where his wife and children had gone.

Initial searches revealed nothing and within a short time the police announced Shanann and the children as officially missing.  At that point they sought help from the public to trace them.  The next day, Chris Watts appeared on Denver Channel 9 News, and there he pleaded for Shanann to come home, and to bring his daughters with her.

It is a strange appeal.  Chris seems remarkably calm throughout; on the couple