I live in Colorado, and this was all over the local news when it happened, as you can imagine. I was immediately taken in, those little girls were just so precious. It was also immediately evident to me that Chris Watts was not being truthful, his demeanor was littered with red flags. For whatever reason, I recently wanted to find if there were any updates on this case, despite Chris Watts having confessed and being sentenced. I have been curious to know if LE pursued investigating anything further, as I do think there are a few unanswered questions, in particular with regard to the woman he was having an affair with, Nichol Kessinger.
So with regard to the finances, it is clear that they were living above their means. At the time of the murders, it is my understanding that they had amassed around $8,000 in credit card debt. They also had fairly substantial student loan dept. Their financial situation was apparently something that they had frequent arguments about. But Chris had a good job with Anadarko Petroleum, and Shanann's job with Thrive was really taking off. It sounds to me like they were in a position to improve their financial situation had they taken the steps necessary to do so.
One thing that has also become clear, is that Chris Watts was most likely a narcissist and a psychopath. He admitted that he let Shanann take the lead, but at times felt that she took advantage of his generally quiet and submissive behavior. And that at those times, he had a lot of inner thoughts about killing her while he let her express herself and he remained quiet. He had also gone through some changes, losing a lot of weight, working out, etc. and had bragged to co-workers about getting more attention from women.......chicks "wanting to bang" him. And then Shanann announces that she's pregnant again. I do think that this triggered some feelings in him, it probably increased the anxiety over financial issues, however in my opinion that was not his main motive for murder.
The neighbor who's security camera(s) caught Chris backing his truck into the driveway and loading it with what he said were tools that morning, spoke about how the Watts had a lot of arguments recently, and that Chris would get very angry. He speculated that this was a main reason why Shanann and the girls went to North Carolina for 6 weeks. During this time, the relationship between Chris and Nichol really went into overdrive. Shanann was noticing differences in how often (not often) he was communicating with her and the girls. It feels like Chris had become obsessed with Nichol. What bothers me about her, is how quickly she was given immunity and protection by LE. Yes she came forward very quickly, however she also hid things. She said he told her that he had two kids, but that the marriage was over, they were separated and nearing the end of a divorce settlement and that he was living in the basement. Yet computer and phone searches show she had visited Shanann's FB page frequently, where there were many posts about the pregnancy and showing a "happy family" that was still very much together, at least in appearance. She had also googled things about being in a relationship with a married man, wedding dresses and perhaps the most interesting, Amber Frey. She was also have shown to have searched both Shanann and Chris in 2017. Nichol's own background shows she was arrested more than once for underage drinking. And that she got off pretty leniently (minimal fines only) and the court records were sealed. Now this isn't out of the ordinary for a first offense, but it does raise questions about the subsequent offenses and why there was not more substantial punishment as a repeat offender. I just feel that there is something off with her and it weighs on me with regard to her true involvement in this case.
Chris has now admitted further details about the murders. This was pre-meditated. He obtained oxycontin and gave it to Shanann unbeknownst to her in an effort to end the pregnancy. He has said that he will take to his grave who got the oxycontin for him. Of course this is speculation, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was Nichol. It has been said by some followers of the case that there was a phone call between Chris and Nichol at one point, and that shortly afterward there is a record of her calling a pharmacy. I do not know if this is true. In any case, It does help to possibly explain why Shanann did not fight back when he strangled her......she was most likely asleep and sedated by the oxycontin. Chris claims two things that seem to be in conflict with one another. That they had this emotional conversation between 4 and 5 that morning, where he told her that he did not love her and that he wanted a divorce. He also claimed that she said he would never see the kids again and that's what set him off. He also claimed though that after she came home and climbed in bed, they had sex. So he has sex with her, they fall asleep and then he wakes her up to tell her he doesn't love her and wants a divorce? And since he has now admitted that this was premeditated, that scenario just does not ring true.
One of the traits of a narcissist is that everything has to revolve around them. They believe that everything they do is above questioning, to the point where they often are not nearly as smart as they think they are. Having dealt with a narcissist myself in a horrific situation that involved my father-in-law, I can attest to this. There were things that the narcissist did that were very clever, but also things that were obviously meant to display superiority but that also exhibited a lack of thinking it through. It exposed that she wasn't as smart as she thought she was, but also that se had a whole lot of people fooled as to who she really was and what she was doing.
I think Chris falls into this category. He became obsessed with the girlfriend, wanted a new life with her. He came up with a plan to get rid of his family in order to do so, and thought he could get away with it. This serves both the narcissistic and psychopathic behavior. But at the end of the day, it all fell apart because he just wasn't nearly as smart as he thought he was. And I also think a big part of this was the immediate actions of Shanann's friend Nicole Atkinson, who raised the alarm very quickly that very morning in concern. I think Chris probably had other plans for Shanann's car, keys, phone, etc. But that was all interrupted by LE being called out to the house and their presence as there was no time for Chris to hide anything. Between that and the neighbor's security camera footage, he was pretty much immediately caught and his hands were tied with any coverup that he may have had planned. And he has not come clean about that.
