Two Face- the Man Underneath Christopher Watts

by Nick van der Leek

  CHRIS: Sh-she came home from the airport 2am and I left around 5:15. She was still here.

  Notice how quickly he links her arrival with his exit. There’s zero description here of the last time he saw her alive, or the last thing he said to her. We know after his arrest he admitted to having an emotional conversation with her, but in this first iteration of events it’d left out.

  She came home and I left around 5:15…

  That part isn’t true either, strictly speaking. He pulled his car into the driveway at around 05:15 according to Bette Marcoux, the Watts’ neighbor. Bette was up like clockwork to go to gym that Monday morning, just as she did at the same time each morning, five days a week. But this time Bette noticed “his truck was on” when she left for the gym early Monday morning. Bette also pointed out she hadn’t noticed him heading out somewhere at that time previously. Is she right?

  As it happens, we get confirmation of this from Shan’ann herself, in a Facebook post from May 8th, shortly after discovering she was pregnant. In fact, judging from his clothing that day [jeans, grey long sleeve shirt, dark glasses, May 8th was the day she recorded the video telling Chris she was pregnant [that video was only posted more than a month later, on June 11th]. On May 8th Shan’ann described Chris going to work at 04:00. The surveillance footage from another camera showed Chris leaving at 05:37, 22 minutes later than he said he left. 22 minutes is a whole lotta time to have his vehicle backed up loading tools.

  CHRIS: If she doesn’t get back to me that’s fine [slight cocky tilt of the head], like she gets busy during the day, but if she doesn’t get back to her people, which was very concerning…

  This is the first clear sign not only that Chris doesn’t care about Shan’ann, but that he knows something is wrong with her. Under the circumstances, with the police inside his home and his family missing, it simply makes no sense to say this:

  If she doesn’t get back to me that’s fine…

  When he describes Shan’ann returning home he’s all shrugs. Not concerned. Shrugging.

  CHRIS: Walked in the house and [smug blink, smug look] nothing. [Slight curl of the upper lip]. Just vanished. Nothing was here. I mean she-she wasn’t here; the kids weren’t here. No-nobody was here.

  It’s a very odd way of putting it.

  Nothing was here.

  He corrects himself to say she wasn’t here and the kids weren’t here. He seems to be saying no evidence was here, but that’s a slip. That’s the sort of thing a criminal would think about first, and care about first.

  When the reporter asks him if he thinks Shan’ann “just took off”, Chris opens his mouth wide in a big smile. He says he doesn’t want to throw anything out there, and then he sort of does. Again, this language is revealing. Throwing something out there – isn’t that what he’s just done with their bodies. They’re out there; three bodies were thrown out there. And maybe he didn’t want to do that part, but he had to.

  He follows this with another colorful epithet. He talks about the lights going on and the kids running him over, barrel-rushing him. Think about the violence in that visual. Lights on and kids running him over…or him running them over. Him being barrel-rushed, or him barrel-rushing Shan’ann. The idea of barrels of oil, and dumped into a giant barrel of oil. Oil running over faces and bodies.

  “It was such a traumatic night,” he says, with a slight smile, “trying to…be here.”

  Why is being at home traumatic? Hopefully this question has been addressed by now. Being home was traumatic. He was having his life stolen from him, by Shan’ann, by the kids, by the kid on the way, by the constant money malaise. Not being stuck in her house was what he wanted. He wanted his own life, and a fresh start.

  At the moment he’s trying to convey his trauma all he manages to convey is his own narcissism. And he’s still smiling. He’s delighted, relieved by what he’s done. This relief suggests it’s been a long time coming. He’s agonised over it and he’s thrilled it’s done. He’s even happy talking about it, like taking a load off.

  When the reporter asks him about his relationship with his kids, essentially what the family dynamics were like, Chris stutters and sounds out of breath as begins to answer.

  He laughs and shakes his head as he says “those kids are my life.” Knowing what he’s done to them, he’s amused. He shows the most emotion right here, talking about them, but it’s not grief or sadness, it’s joy.

  When he tries to come up with an example of how he loves his children, he imagines them eating their vegetables and watching them watching television. This reveals what a shallow dude he really is. His sin isn’t just how superficial he is, but how his emptiness translates to a cheap and trite attitude to others. He’s the suave hero, except he has no real game and has no idea that he lacks one.

  Just over three minutes into the clip, the 33-year-old cracks a bad joke about the kids not getting their dessert. Then he mentions knowing he wasn’t going to have to look after them on Monday night, he seems to almost quiver with excitement at the prospect. He talks about how horrible it is but glee is written all over his face. He’s delighted that they’re dead and has the whole house to himself again. Their demise is his just desserts.

  At last he’s here, and he’s done it. He’s won back his idea of happily ever after, and standing here, being listened to, being the center of the stage, being the star of the porch with no one else around, it’s a dream come true. He’s finally the hero of his own story again!

  A Married Man’s Best Friend

  “I texted her a few times, called her, but I didn’t get a response. That was a little off.” ― Chris Watts, August 14th 2008

  Only one member of the Watts family survived the catastrophe that played out over the weekend and early Monday morning, August 13th at #2825 Saratoga Trail. Deeter.

  In a similar crime in England, Ian Stewart drugged and suffocated his 51-year-old fiancé Helen Bailey, before dumping her body into a sewage tank. Stewart also dumped Bailey’s dog Boris into the tank. Her pet ironically was also a beloved dachshund. The motive for that crime according to The Sun:

  Stewart was found guilty of killing Ms Bailey and her pet dog in a bid to get his hands on her £3.3million fortune. The pair had met on a Facebook group for the bereaved, starting a relationship within a year of Ms Bailey’s first husband drowning while on holiday. But as the relationship progressed, Stewart’s plan unfolded as he slowly drugged the children’s author over several months before suffocating her and throwing her body, and that of her beloved pet dog Boris, into a cesspit full of human excrement. Stewart [was] named as a…beneficiary to Bailey’s will 21 months before her death, [and] stood to gain £1.8m from her investment portfolio, plus her properties in Royston, Hamps, and Kent.

  Like Chris Watts, Ian Stewart initially claimed that Bailey was missing, but that she had told him she wanted time alone. Stewart also used his vehicle – indirectly – to hide Bailey’s body, by parking over the cesspit. When asked why the dog was killed, Stewart said that she wherever Bailey went the dog also went, and so if the dog was home, this would cast doubt on the impression of her being elsewhere for an extended period.

  In the Scott Peterson case, the golden retriever McKenzie became a center point – the whole case eventually revolved around whether or not Laci walked her golden retriever, and if she did, at what time.

  In this case, we have to ask: How come Deeter survived? It’s not as silly a question as it seems. The killing and dumping of Bailey’s dog Boris in the same place, at the same time as her murder, suggests a man who not only wanted to be rid of his partner, but a reminder of her too.

  According to 68-year-old neighbor Cheryle Hallowell, who lived two houses from #2825, Chris loved the dog more than he loved his wife and children. She told Radar on August 17th she heard Deeter howling on the day of the murders:

  “When I’m out on my deck, I hear him barking, and I knew it came from them. I don’t know if at the time of the murders, if the dog was in
the house, he may have put him outside at the time or something. It seemed to me like he cared more about the dog. And on this one particular day, that the family went missing, I could hear him. It was like he was being punished, or hurt or something. He was just howling. Because we had a dog, I said ‘What the hell is that all about?’ [And he] was barking up until the cops took him away.”

  Probably what it was about was that Deeter had been sequestrated from the scene, either during the clean-up/cover-up phase, or after, or both. In other words, Deeter had been locked outside or in a particular room, perhaps the garage, perhaps a bathroom, and as a result he became more and more agitated. Chris was away and the dog was stuck in a room. If Hallowell could hear the whining and howling from across the road, Nickole probably did too when she approached the house.

  In the Scott Peterson case, just as Scott’s “walking the dog” version could have saved his hide, and almost did, the time the dog was spotted and retrieved by his neighbor ultimately poured cold water on his version of events. The dog running around the neighborhood actually made at least one neighbor pay attention to the animal and head to the Peterson’s home, effectively making her into a witness. Something similar occurred here, except that Deeter could simply be heard at the same. Nevertheless, this attracted attention and led to Chris being arrested sooner rather than later.

  In the Van Breda axe murder case, a small dog called Sasha was also sequestrated from the crime scene. We know this because the staircase was a “waterfall of blood”, and yet there were no paw prints anywhere in the house. Henri, the middle son, was later found guilty of murdering his parents and older brother, and attempted murder on his sister. Despite this ill-will towards his family, he harboured no such feelings towards Sasha. Prior to his arrest and conviction for triple murder of his family with an axe, Henri was photographed taking Sasha for a walk on the beach.

  What does this saving of an animal at the expense of an entire family communicate? In Shan’ann’s May 5th video post she provides a clue.

  “Life happens [Deeter barks, Shan’ann snaps her finger]. So write down all the things you think are bad in your life. All the negative in your life. Write it down. [Sniffs]. But then I want you to…on the other side of the paper, write down what has happened in your life that you’re grateful for. The third step is…connect the two things that happened.”

  True crime unfortunately works the same way. For Chris Watts, just as it was for Scott Peterson and Henri van Breda, his family – the people side of it, at any rate – were killing his vibe. But the dog was not.

  When were Bella and Celeste Murdered?

  “We just had a feeling about him. There was just a gut feeling there.” ― Colleen Hendrickson, neighbor

  In Chris Watts’ own version of events, the girls were killed first and then Shan’ann. The order of deaths is thus not a matter of dispute. What is a matter of dispute is how long before Shan’ann’s death were Bella and Celeste killed?

  The affidavit stipulates that the two little girls were murdered by their father on or between 12-13 August which opens up the possibility that they may have been killed several hours before Shan’ann returned home from Arizona.

  In Watts’ version everyone died virtually simultaneously, but did they?

  According to the Daily Mail the charging document contradicts Watts’ original statement:

  The charging documents [say] he went into a fit of rage and strangled Shanann to death [immediately] after he saw on the baby monitor [Shan’ann] ‘actively strangling’ Celeste. Bella, Watts told authorities, was already dead and had started turning blue. He claimed Shanann killed the kids as revenge after he told her he wanted a separation.

  The two little girls were killed long before their mother, in my opinion. In analysing Watts’ tailoring of events here, he uses the baby monitor spiel to place him outside of the crime scene. He does this, in my view, because he knows that’s where he was and where the children died.

  If Watts’ harboured ill-will or even hatred towards his wife, it’s doubtful that he felt similar ire towards his own children. What this means is – if he did kill his own daughters – he didn’t wish to make it more unpleasant for them [or for himself] than it needed to be.

  Casey Anthony I believe sat with the same dilemma. If she wanted to kill Caylee, how to do it without hurting her, without her suffering needlessly. That’s why she went to the trouble of Googling “Foolproof Suffocation” and concocting chloroform. To make it as painless but quick and effective as possible. It may seem a contradiction in terms, to kill someone and not want them to suffer, but people do it all the time when they put down their pets. They mean to kill them, but they mean to do so without adding to their suffering.

  Some ridicule this notion that “colorful language” reveals psychological leaks – pictures and images that only the killer knows, and wants to share, but for reasons of self-preservation cannot. Like handwriting analysis, polygraph tests and body language analysis, it’s not an exact science. It may or it may not point to something. Since it may point to something it’s worth being open to the possibility of what that might be.

  In Watts’ version of events, the older child is “scheduled” to be killed first. Irrespective of who kills Bella, whether it is Chris or Shan’ann, the older child dies first, then the younger child, and then the youngest [when Shan’ann is killed]. Watts may have sedated the children, he may even have sedated Shan’ann before she left on her trip. Nickole Utoft Atkinson said Shan’ann didn’t feel well while she was away. Laci Peterson complained of extreme exhaustion just prior to her murder. While these symptoms could be explained by the ordinary experience of pregnancy, given what happened to these pregnant women, the notion shouldn’t be discounted.

  The pertinent colorful language here actually invokes a color: blue. We also know that Watts refers to his home being a ghost town, which suggests silver and blue, and corpses lying around for an extended period, becoming smellier and giving this sense of ghosts and haunted unease. Watts describes Bella’s death not only in terms of her pallor, which he observed when he transported her body irrespective of whether or not he killed her, but also of her being “sprawled” afterwards on her bed. The word can mean “face down”, or lying for an extended period with hands and legs not where they would normally be, and not moving.

  When HLN’s Ashleigh Banfield performed a practical test using a baby monitor, the absurdity of Watts’ story becomes manifest. Not only can the baby monitor not discern the various shades of skin pallor, but one would have to be right beside it to see anything, and it would be virtually impossible to see action taking place in the background.

  Watts knows the cause and manner of death of the children. Strangulation. The fact that Megan Ring, his court-appointed defense lawyer asked for DNA swabs to be taken from the girl’s necks may indicate Watts planted evidence and then preserved it within a plastic wrapping around the children’s necks or torso.

  The word “actively” also suggests Watts’ knowledge of the effort required to commit these murders. It was probably more than he’d anticipated – the fightback when a person is slowly dying and their excruciating efforts to fight for life while being strangled.

  Curiously, Watts’ provides a motive for the crime through the word revenge. While revenge isn’t his motive, the fact that he mentions it and imputes it to Shan’ann is interesting. If revenge under these circumstances – her spiting him for leaving him – seems a credible motive to him, then one wonders how spiteful they were to each other in general. And consider the mirror reflection of it.

  Revenge for his not being able to or allowed to leave her.

  Revenge for lost life.

  Revenge for his life being stolen from him.

  It’s revenge, but it’s also the wrong word for what we’re talking about.

  So what are we talking about?

  If the children were killed on schedule with several hours to spare before Shan’ann’s return, then the rag
e revenge motive falls away and we are left with a much deeper sense of plotting, and premeditation.

  We know that Cheryle Hallowell, besides hearing Deeter barking his head off throughout Monday morning, also saw Chris barbecuing by himself on Sunday evening. The barbecue may have been a ploy to destroy certain DNA evidence, from fibers to clothing and tissue. If the smell of dead bodies was a concern, and after twelve hours it may well have been, then the barbecue may have been intended to muddle the noses of nearby neighbors throughout that evening. It may also have been intended to demonstrate plausible deniability. How could he be committing murder if he was outside barbecuing?

  What has yet to be established is when the children were last seen alive. Shan’ann flew to Scottsdale Arizona on Friday evening August 10th. The day before she came across a 3 foot doll laid out on the couch, wrapped in a plastic twister mat. On August 9th, a busy day for Shan’ann, she nevertheless took a photo of the doll and posted it onto Instagram with the words:

  I don’t know what to think about this…

  Although it’s possible the girls were simply playing, it should be borne in mind that Celeste was only three years old [and had only just turned three], and Bella was four. Furthermore, the placement of the cushions under the doll suggest the doll wasn’t accidentally left there. The tucking of the mat behind the head area, also suggest that whoever set up the doll, did so purposefully.

  It may be that the doll under the plastic mat is simply a coincidence, but in true crime, things are rarely coincidental, and in this case the timing is the troubling factor. If Chris Watts set up this scene, he may have done so to measure the size of plastic he needed to contain their bodies. He may have considered the mat as either a template [the sort of size he’d need to wrap them from head to toe], or less likely, to use the mat itself on one of his children.