Because Chris was so emotionally stunted and immature, any type of positive attention that made him feel exceptional would hook him. Nikki’s interest surprised him because he hadn’t received that kind of attention before from women. He thrived on praise, attention, and feeling special, so when Nikki wanted sex from him all the time and seemed interested in what he had to say, he thought that whatever was stirred up inside him could be love for the first time.
Shanann adored Chris, but they had been together a long time and weren’t in the honeymoon phase where everything is new and exciting. This is common in almost all long-term relationships after the honeymoon phase wears off. Couples may eventually begin to bicker, annoy each other, and unfortunately, sometimes that turns to bitter resentment. Nikki and Chris were in the peak of the honeymoon phase. In that phase, the person you are with can do no wrong, so it was completely unwarranted of Chris to compare the two relationships.
* * *
37. Beyla, Chaya, Wisner, Wendy Wisner, byReina Gattuso, Reina Gattuso, Christina Vanvuren, Joseph Rauch, Samantha Rodman, Samantha Rodman, and Athena Walker. “I Am A Psychopath.” Talkspace, May 1, 2019. https://www.talkspace.com/blog/i-am-a-psychopath/.
38. Goodman, Brenda. “Asperger’s and Violence: Experts Weigh In.” WebMD. WebMD, December 19, 2012. https://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/news/20121218/aspergers-violence.
39. “Asperger’s Disorder vs. Psychopathy.” Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers. Accessed October 26, 2019. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shadow-boxing/201402/aspergers-disorder-vs-psychopathy.
40. Neuroscience News. “The Scientific Signs You Are in a Relationship with a Psychopath.” Neuroscience News, December 2, 2018. https://neurosciencenews.com/psychopath-npd-abuse-relationship-120187/.
41. “Parsing Fear: A Reassessment of the Evidence for Fear ...” Accessed October 25, 2019. https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/features/bul-bul0000040.pdf.
42. Augenstein, Seth. “Psychopaths Feel Fear, But Not Danger.” Forensic Magazine, September 1, 2016. https://www.forensicmag.com/article/2016/09/psychopaths-feel-fear-not-danger.
43. Shelton, Jacob. “Serial Killers Describe What It Feels Like to Kill.” Ranker. Accessed October 26, 2019. https://www.ranker.com/list/serial-killers-describe-killing/jacob-shelton.
44. Naderi, Iman. “Communal Narcissists ‘Go Green’ to Enhance Their Social Status: An Abstract.” SpringerLink. Springer, Cham, June 27, 2018. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-02568-7_160.
45. Nolasco, Stephanie. “Chris Watts’ Horrific Killings of Wife, Daughters Still Haunt Investigators, New Doc Reveals.” Fox News. FOX News Network, June 1, 2019. https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/chris-watts-murders-documentary-tell-all.
46. Schmelzer, Elise. “‘This Changed All of Us’: A Year after Watts Murders Shook Colorado, Investigators on the Case Continue Grappling with Trauma.” Lamar Ledger, August 13, 2019. https://www.lamarledger.com/2019/08/11/christopher-shanann-watts-murders-colorado-ptsd-trauma/.
47. “Can Narcissists Change?” Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers. Accessed October 26, 2019. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/romance-redux/201309/can-narcissists-change.
Chapter 21
Protect and prevent
The Evidence of Premeditation
For a long time, the question of whether this was premeditated or if Chris just snapped in a fit of rage lingered. It makes sense to want to believe he snapped because the idea of premeditation is so creepy and frightening. To think that a person that you trust, love, and share a bed and a life with could be plotting your murder is unsettling to say the least.
We now know after his letters to Cadle that he was scheming and plotting. His texts to Kodi Roberts making sure he would be at Cervi 319 alone that morning seem like too much of a coincidence to be one. Now it’s safe to say that, after his own admission of premeditation, this was part of his plan, and his intention was to dispose of the bodies there.
Observers reported that Chris was not just cold and distant with Shanann, but also irritable and angry with the girls in the week leading up to the murders. Sandi Rzucek noticed Chris driving fast and erratically in North Carolina, exhibiting reckless behavior. She and her husband Frank also noticed Chris having little patience with the girls on the trip. At a trampoline park in North Carolina, a witness noticed him completely disinterested and aloof with his family.48
And what about the photo of the life-size doll covered in a sheet that Chris sent to Shanann, and which she posted on Facebook soon after? Some people speculate that Chris may have done that on purpose as a way of taunting or toying with Shanann, already knowing what was going to happen to her.
Now that we know this crime was planned, and Chris sent that photo to Shanann days before he killed her, we can see there was likely major significance to that photo. It’s deeply sad to look back and see how Shanann responded to the doll photo with such humor. The picture was a real threat, and she had no clue. This is again why understanding the profile or someone like Chris is so important. He is the most dangerous kind of person because he came across to everyone as one of the least threatening people, when he was the opposite.
Chris started to act is if he were coming around right before he murdered his family. Shanann seemed hopeful in her last few days on this earth. Why would Chris pretend he was open to working out their issues when it was clear he had no intention of doing so? Perhaps Chris was telling her what she wanted to hear to keep her off his back, knowing that she wouldn’t be around much longer to deal with.
It’s also curious as to why Chris charged the credit card at The Lazy Dog restaurant the night before he murdered his family, knowing that Shanann would get the alert with the $62 charge. If he knew Shanann would be gone, it didn’t matter what he did, so he had no fear of being caught at this point.
His behavior after the crime also has people convinced that these crimes were completely premeditated. His unaffected demeanor after he disposed of the bodies, searching the Metallica lyrics to “Battery,” calling the real estate agent about selling the house, responding to an email about fantasy football, talking to Nikki, and calling the girls’ school to say they would no longer be attending do not seem to reflect the actions of someone temporarily psychotic or traumatized from what he had just done. If it had all been a shock to him that he was capable of doing this and he was caught off guard, how could he be so calm and “normal?” He was so overjoyed his family was gone that he made some major mistakes by jumping the gun on starting his “new life” and taking the steps to unenroll his daughters from school and sell his house.
One of the biggest clues to premeditation was something very subtle. Shanann and Chris found out they were having a boy only a few days before the murders. Shanann wanted to announce it on Facebook right away, but Chris told her to hold off until Monday until after she was back from her Arizona trip. Why would he have her wait until Monday? What would happen in those few days between Friday and Monday that would change anything about the announcement? He knew Shanann would be dead by Monday and he wouldn’t have to deal with another announcement about the pregnancy. The pregnancy was a thorn in his side from the moment Shanann announced it, and he would disregard any normal human decency to make sure the pregnancy wouldn’t interfere with the new life he was looking forward to starting.
Kim Gorgens, the psychologist I interviewed for this book, who believes Chris could be a “failed psychopath,” told Fox News that “the murders committed by psychopaths are quite well thought-out in nature, and the deliberate crime is more often than not, committed by someone who wouldn’t be ideally suspected.”49
If Chris is a psychopath, this all makes sense. He was the last person anyone would have suspected until he started acting completely unaffected when his family disappeared. While the crime wasn’t very intelligent, h
e had thought it out and planned it, to at least some extent.
But if he did thoughtfully plan this crime in advance, why would he have made so many stupid mistakes? If he had had a well-thought-out plan, wouldn’t he have done a better job of covering his tracks? If he does have narcissistic and psychopathic traits, his belief in his ability to be cunning would cause him to be over-confident and make mistakes. Many narcissistic people think they are smarter than everyone else, and that is their downfall. They can’t see reality. Chris was very sloppy in the trail he left, but there are several things that could have messed up his pre-meditated plan:
1. Shanann’s flight delay: If her flight was several hours behind schedule, and he was determined to go through with his plan, he would have less time to get everything done before his co-workers showed up at Cervi 319.
2. Nicki Atkinson’s quick thinking: Atkinson really was a hero in this story because of how quickly she acted. Right away, she picked up on the fact that something was wrong with Shanann and had the police come immediately for a wellness check. Her quick thinking got the ball rolling and ultimately stopped Chris from covering up his tracks because he didn’t have time to.
Chris wasn’t betting on the police showing up so soon. He wanted people to believe that Shanann had taken the girls and run off to spite him. If he could convince others that story was true, and if he was severely narcissistic, he would think that story would seem plausible to others. As a bonus, he could gain narcissistic supply by playing the victim. He wanted the sympathy of those who would view him as a victim of a spiteful woman who took his children and left him. This would benefit him in multiple ways. He could get rid of his family and start a new life with no baggage, and he could also be perceived as the victim.
Why did Chris Watts kill his family?
The question of “why” is the million-dollar question to which no one will ever know the real answers. As prosecutor Michael Rourke said in The Coloradoan, “How can we expect Watts to tell the entire truth about what happened?” His confession may have many truths in it, but Chris is clearly not a reliable source, considering how many lies he has already told. For what it’s worth, Rourke and the investigators all believe that Chris’s confession is mostly honest. Rourke stated, “I’m assuming what he is telling is truthful. I don’t think that everything that came out of his mouth during those interviews was the truth because I honestly don’t believe that this monster has the ability to have remorse at all.”50
In the same interview, Rourke also mentioned that certain evidence from the investigation matched up with Chris’ account. The most compelling piece of evidence that matched up with Chris’ story is the video footage that Nate Trinastich had of Chris loading the truck the morning of the killings. When looking at the footage very closely, there is a small shadow beside Chris that is obviously one of his daughters. In the video, Chris bends down and scoops up the small body, putting her in the truck after loading Shanann’s body. Rourke also said that video footage “would be consistent with his statements that the girls were alive when they left the house and walked out to the truck.”
The walls were closing in on Chris, and the charade of his double life was coming to an end. For him, the ultimate annihilation of himself would be the discovery that this carefully constructed identity and mask he had made for himself over his lifetime was about to crumble. Not only would he lose the new life he was hoping for, but if it got out that he was an adulterer, he would be the villain, and he wouldn’t be able to handle that.
But why did he have to kill his family? Why couldn’t he just get a divorce? Most people would not resort to murder in this case, but if Chris had narcissistic and psychopathic traits, as I suspect he did and does, his family was an obstacle, and he had no empathy for them. If he wanted a clean start with Nikki and didn’t want responsibilities as a father of three, financially or otherwise, then in his twisted mind, the only possible way to get exactly what he wanted was to get rid of his family entirely.
Did Chris have a break from reality?
Because Chris had no history of violence or anything in his past that would predict that he could be capable of any kind of violence, many who followed this case have thought he must have “snapped.” By “snapped,” it seems they think he had a break in reality, or something sinister took over him. Thus, they believe his actions—murder of a pregnant wife and two young daughters—are not representative of who he really is.
Some look at the happy photos and videos of Chris with his family and believe he loved them and had a momentary lapse in sanity. It’s too incomprehensible to think that someone so seemingly normal and nice could do something so awful. We have to rationalize it. We don’t want to believe that type of evil exists with no explanation for it. Furthermore, we want to believe that we would at least be able to spot evil if it was lurking in our lives.
Chris initially said that he snapped in a moment of rage. In his confession from prison, he said that Shanann allegedly saying he “would never see the kids again” made him snap. This is an ironic excuse considering that he ensured he would never see his children again by killing them. He has now confessed that he premeditated this and that he wasn’t in a rage when he murdered his family. He also says that an evil, dark force had come over him at that time but is no longer present and says he has remorse now.
To help me understand more about the neuroscience of crime, I spoke with Dr. Douglas Fields, a neuroscientist and author of Why We Snap: Understanding the Rage Circuit in Your Brain.51 He has researched this topic extensively and is a wealth of important information on understanding the root causes of violence.
Dr. Fields makes a distinction between “snapping” and insanity. “Snapping” is something that happens to people without mental illness or psychosis. In other words, they are considered to be mentally healthy people with little to no warning signs for violence. Fields believes that snapping is something that can happen to anyone, provided the right circumstances.
“When somebody snaps, it becomes overwhelming,” he told me. “It excludes all other deliberation and consequences and engages in violence.”
Fields also explained to me that, “understanding the neuroscience and how the brain operates can be helpful, in addition to knowing the triggers that unleash violence. Life stressors also lower the threshold and almost always contribute to acts of violence. We all have the capacity for violence because, as a species, we need to protect ourselves, our young, and our family. The capacity for this behavior doesn’t have to be learned.”
It’s interesting that in Chris’s case, he killed his family instead of protecting them, as most people are hardwired to protect their young and their family.
It is important to understand what happens to the brain when a rage response is triggered, and that a rage response doesn’t necessarily happen in an instant. Fields explained to me that recent research in neuroscience points to the hypothalamus—there are distinct neural circuits that are associated with things like hunger and sex, and they respond in a matter of seconds to threats or perceived threats. The brain’s threat detection is stored in the hypothalamus. In research experiments with animals, when this part of the hypothalamus is stimulated by electrodes, the animal will immediately become violent and attack and kill another animal in its cage.
The reason we all have aggression wired in our brains, and why we are all capable of violence, as Fields mentioned, is because it’s necessary for our survival. When the “fight or flight” response kicks in when we feel a threat, we must make a choice on whether to act. Choosing violence is risky because we could get hurt or killed by making the violent choice, but in certain circumstances, most of us will engage in violence acts if necessary. In Field’s article, “Neuroscience, Blind Rage, and the Killing at Carderock,” he says, “only a few specific triggers will activate the brain’s rage circuits for sudden aggression; but once tripped, the reaction can be overwhelmingly
strong.”52
Once the region in the hypothalamus has been inactivated, the aggressive response fades away. Fields gave me the example of when someone bumps into you in a crowd. Your immediate response is to tense up and feel a twinge of anger or annoyance. However, if the person says, “Oh, I’m sorry,” that anger and annoyance melts away almost immediately. This is because you realize that your rage was a misfire. A misfire is when we realize that the perceived threat isn’t really a threat, and that the knee-jerk response was our primitive survival mechanisms kicking in. Fields believes that understanding your misfires and your triggers are helpful ways for people to deal with rage and could potentially stop violence from occurring.
His book goes into detail about the specific triggers that trip the rage response in humans. He created the mnemonic LIFEMORTS, which includes the nine major triggers of violence. The nine triggers are the following:
Life-or-limb: This is when you feel that your life is threatened, or that you may be at risk to suffer a serious injury.
Insult: It is important to note that it is the perception of insult that trigger rage. What was said that was perceived as an insult may not be intended to be one.
Family: If you feel your family is threatened, especially offspring, siblings, and parents, your rage response can be triggered. This is a basic instinct in both animals and people. Family is what carries the genes, and we have an instinct to pass on those genes.
Environment: This is the instinct to protect your home or your property. People and animals are territorial. We need our home or territory for our survival.
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