GUILTY CO - Shanann Watts (34), Celeste"Cece" (3) and Bella (4), Frederick, 13 Aug 2018 *CW LWOP* #64

[Mo Thuairim]

Makes me not want to ever be involved with any men named Chris.

Not a family annihilator but here's another Chris who made his wife 'disappear' because he wanted to be with another woman. He got away with it for more than 35 years but he's just been arrested for her murder.

The podcast about this case ended around the time SW and the kids went 'missing' and the parallels between the two cases were striking to me. Chris Dawson was fit and athletic, seemingly a great husband and dad; he was obsessed with his new teenage girlfriend. He said his wife Lyn had run off because she was unstable, that she spent too much money, that she wasn't sufficiently invested in looking after her kids. Her family strenuously denied this and said she was a devoted, loving mother who would never leave her girls. She had had problems conceiving and waited years to have her daughters, whom she adored. She was 33.

Like the Watts, they had a beautiful, big house, which he moved his young girlfriend into within days of Lyn 'disappearing'. Just like CW he eliminated his old life to make room for a new one. The two young daughters, four and two at the time, grew up unable to even remember their mother who 'vanished' and the teenage girlfriend (his student and a victim herself) was installed as the kids' new mother.

And just like CW he is now, finally, sitting behind bars.

Chris Dawson arrested over wife’s murder

How Chris Dawson’s arrest went down

 

[Tortoise]

I want to ask about an important post by Thinker Belle in Thread#63 pg 36, post #718 .

She notes on NK’s Verizon Phone Bill in Discovery #1 that

NK made a phone call FROM Frederick at 6:16 am the morning of the murders, August 13.

That’s right. NK was in Frederick not long after
CW left his home in Frederick at 5:37 am with the bodies in his truck.

It was a one minute call to Mystery Couch Surfer Jim’s out of state phone number. Which means she was not with Jim in her rental home in Thornton.

What the heck was she doing in Frederick at 6:16 am the morning of the murders?
Anadarko is not in Frederick.
NK does not live in Frederick.
Mystery Couch Surfer Jim’s mobile number has an area code from Millwaukee, Wisconsin area. He is not local. He most likely does not live in Frederick.

PommyMommy can you verify this was not mentioned anywhere else in Discovery nor in NK’s interviews? I don’t remember seeing it or hearing it anywhere.

Tortoise, how does this fit the event timeline?

Um, guys, this is bizarre.


ETA: I don’t know how to link to Thinker Belle, PommyMommy And Tortoise.

I'm still on catch up on this thread and saw this. Apologies if it's been answered.

I have a long way to go still with the timeline, but I can let you know the following -

He left the house at 5:45am (per GPS)

He arrived at Cervi 3-19 at 6:53am (per GPS)

*BUT he texted co-workers somewhere close to 6:30am to say he was already at Cervi 3-19

*That last one I haven't reached the texts yet to update the timeline because those are near the end of the discovery, but I have a rough memory of that from my first reading.

I have wondered if the GPS times are out by about 20 minutes, but I don't know if that's possible. Is it tracked centrally or on the truck? Could he have fiddled with the tracker?

 

[Trudie]

CW plead guilty to first degree murder..which is the same as confessing to murdering his beautiful pregnant wife and two adorable little girls.
Catching up and reading through the last several pages of this thread, there seems to be a strong undertone of attempts to throw suspicion onto NK as the person or mastermind behind these murders. CW plead guilty to all charges, he has been sentenced to 5 life sentences and LE cleared NK ! SW did NOT hurt her daughters ! SW did not do anything to provoke CW to commit these murders. NK did not hurt SW, Bella or CeCe. The person responsible for taking the lives of 4 INNOCENT people and disposing of their bodies like garbage is CW ! The not so innocent attempts to blame SW or cast suspicion onto NK in this thread is really getting old. MOO

We will never know the extent of NK involvement. Of course people will remain suspicious of her.
CW pled, IMO, to avoid a trial, not the DP!
As in every case, there’s much we will never know.

 

[Ultra Violet]

There may have been road construction too. Maybe one of the locals would know.

This was my thought as well as soon as @IAMWAN mentioned hopping back and forth between 85 and 52 I immediately thought aobut that, too. I am on the opposite side of Denver from Frederick and Erie, but very familiar with doing the side road shuffle and hopping onto frontage roads to avoid 25 during rush hour.

In addition to being prime construction season, even the smallest accident can turn 25 into a parking lot. NK seems like the type that would obsess on the best and fastest way to get to work without being inconvenienced by traffic delays.

moo.

 

[curiouschat]

And as others said, I feel like the obviousness of the crime points away from co-conspirators. I don't see how he or anyone would have thought he wouldn't get caught. But it's easier for me to imagine he's just that socially inept or desperate that he didn't think he would be a suspect, than it is for me to imagine there were other people in on the plan that also thought he could get away with it.

 

[sun16]

This no time to be hiding stuff. No time to be evasive, no time to get snotty with the investigators.

I totally agree, which is why NK makes me so angry.

 

[Deleted member 182072]

We really don't know that his lying behavior came out of nowhere. We don't know for sure he wasn't a serial cheater. I doubt he was, but who knows.

Personally, I think he was a serial cheater but NK was the only one he became infatuated with.
Their next door neighbor mentioned hearing CW yelling at SW often.
My cheating ex bf would often pick fights with me so he would have an excuse to leave.
I think CW wanted to spend money on things they couldn't afford, so maybe they also fought about that.
We know from his search history that he was researching Audi Q7 prices which start at $54K.
I believe he had plans to abandon SW's Lexus (paid for by Thrive) and use the proceeds from the house to buy an expensive car for himself.

 

[Layla123]

I don't think the "why" will ever make sense to us. It's a good thing to not be able to relate to someone like CW!

I don't know if he fits a "simple" diagnosis of a sociopath - I think there is more going on than that - but if you read even a few chapters from the Sociopath Next Door, it maps it out pretty well. "Normal" people can even get so upset with themselves for not being able to identify or predict behavior like this. Because most of us don't think that way. We are guided by a sense of morals, knowing right from wrong, having a conscience, feeling guilt and remorse if we were to harm. It's hard to understand the mind of someone who is missing that moral compass, an emotional chip. And a lot of times what fuels them is a deep-seated insecurity.

There is also a good book, "Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare. He writes that the term psychopath is too loosely used, that it conjures up images of crazed killers in horror movies. But Hare writes, "Their acts result not from a deranged mind, but from a cold, calculating rationality combined with a chilling inability to treat others as thinking, feeling human beings." He writes that some are shaped by their environment. Others are simply wired wrong.

"They selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret. Their bewildered victims desperately ask, 'Who are these people?""

This makes about as much sense as we’re going to make out of it, doesn’t it? Thanks for posting. So, the solution for helping this type of person before they create havoc would be to treat their underlying insecurities, but the problem is, they can’t recognize that anything is wrong with them, so they won’t seek help.

 

[curiouschat]

We will never know the extent of NK involvement. Of course people will remain suspicious of her.
CW pled, IMO, to avoid a trial, not the DP!
As in every case, there’s much we will never know.

I think it's possible he just found the idea of a trial mortifying, since he seemed to react more strongly to the idea of people thinking badly of him than he did to his whole family being dead. Also, I don't know if he just kind of passively went along with whatever his lawyers suggested at that point?

 

[kkdj]

And as others said, I feel like the obviousness of the crime points away from co-conspirators. I don't see how he or anyone would have thought he wouldn't get caught. But it's easier for me to imagine he's just that socially inept or desperate that he didn't think he would be a suspect, than it is for me to imagine there were other people in on the plan that also thought he could get away with it.

BBM
He believed and was told what a great father and husband he was. SW had it all over SM. He probably thought, "with my stellar reputation no one will ever suspect me. I came across as the best dad and husband, helping with everything, completely engaged in our family's life."
That's not how it works buddy....the mate is usually the first suspect.

 

[Ultra Violet]

I'm still on catch up on this thread and saw this. Apologies if it's been answered.

I have a long way to go still with the timeline, but I can let you know the following -

He left the house at 5:45am (per GPS)

He arrived at Cervi 3-19 at 6:53am (per GPS)

*BUT he texted co-workers somewhere close to 6:30am to say he was already at Cervi 3-19

*That last one I haven't reached the texts yet to update the timeline because those are near the end of the discovery, but I have a rough memory of that from my first reading.

I have wondered if the GPS times are out by about 20 minutes, but I don't know if that's possible. Is it tracked centrally or on the truck? Could he have fiddled with the tracker?

Could that text be a delaying tactic and he was letting others know he was on site and maybe implying that they could take their time. Even though he was still on his way and it was a total lie, maybe it was a strategic text to try to have more time alone at 319 before the others arrived?

 

[ElleJaycee]

I think it's weird that a lot of the things he said in reference to his kids were things that aren't necessarily positive. Calling one a "rampage", talking about them not finishing dinner, having nuggets thrown at him, etc. I've been in the situation where I've been super worried about my kids, or I've been talking about my dead child, and almost by instinct I go straight to the GOOD stuff: their laughs, the cute things they say, the way they snuggle when they sleep, etc. It was odd, to me, that he went straight into the disciplinary memories.

It is not that uncommon for a killer to insult the victim in their statements, according to one FBI profiler/statement analyst, Peter Hyatt.
Chris's insults are actually quite common amongst parent who murder their children and I'm sure CBI/FBI agents picked up on it right away. It's usually a subtle insult i.e. "He/She was a noisy child." You hear these same type of insults with the McCanns about Madeline. Again, it's usually subtle and veiled to appear as a compliment.

 

[Tortoise]

Could that text be a delaying tactic and he was letting others know he was on site and maybe implying that they could take their time. Even though he was still on his way and it was a total lie, maybe it was a strategic text to try to have more time alone at 319 before the others arrived?

I just got a feeling it might be out by 20 minutes because of that garage door alert at 5:27am too.

 

[Layla123]

Personally, I think he was a serial cheater but NK was the only one he became infatuated with.
Their next door neighbor mentioned hearing CW yelling at SW often.
My cheating ex bf would often pick fights with me so he would have an excuse to leave.
I think CW also wanted to spend money on things they couldn't afford, so maybe they also fought about that.
We know from his search history that he was researching Audi Q7 prices which start at $54K.
I believe he had plans to abandon SW's Lexus (paid for by Thrive) and use the proceeds from the house to buy an expensive car for himself.

NK is the first AP that we know of who was a part of his life. The rest were random, plucked off the Internet. His marriage was over for him when he made that decision. He didn’t care if he got caught.

 

[curiouschat]

Personally, I think he was a serial cheater but NK was the only one he became infatuated with.
Their next door neighbor mentioned hearing CW yelling at SW often.
My cheating ex bf would often pick fights with me so he would have an excuse to leave.
I think CW also wanted to spend money on things they couldn't afford, so maybe they also fought about that.
We know from his search history that he was researching Audi Q7 prices which start at $54K.
I believe he had plans to abandon SW's Lexus (paid for by Thrive) and use the proceeds from the house to buy an expensive car for himself.

I don't think they owned the Lexus in full though, she just got a monthly credit for car payments from her thrive sales. But he could have thought it could just be abandoned no problem because there were a lot of holes in his plan.

 

[TrifleMars]

She said a lot of things that have been proven to be lies.

Why wasn't a polygraph offered to NK?

I would assume it's because she wasn't a suspect of any crime

 

[kkdj]

I think it's possible he just found the idea of a trial mortifying, since he seemed to react more strongly to the idea of people thinking badly of him than he did to his whole family being dead. Also, I don't know if he just kind of passively went along with whatever his lawyers suggested at that point?

I do believe that he became depressed when reality struck that his big plan was foiled and now he would never be with NK again. I also think he didn't want his dirtly laundy to be aired publicly. I also think the evidence was so overwhelming he didn't stand a chance and he knew it.

 

[Tortoise]

I wish there was two of me. One to catch up here and watch all the videos, and the other to cook dinner, clean the house and organize Christmas.

 

[nanwv]

"We will never know the extent of NK involvement. Of course people will remain suspicious of her.
CW pled, IMO, to avoid a trial, not the DP!
As in every case, there’s much we will never know." Trudie

And this is why she will never have a moment of peace. People will always be wondering about her level of involvement because of her sketchy behavior, sketchy personality, and her destroying evidence while acting “helpful”. She is no Amber Fry.

 

[Nikynoo]

Where exactly was the office where they picked up their assignments every day?

I believe the office is located at Platville as mentioned in various interviews with both CW and NK