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Sneak Peek: In TWO FACE III the dynamics of the Watts children is dealt with in High Resolution. Here’s a sample of what the 3rd K9 narrative will be analyzing

The last two months of Shan’ann’s Facebook is no longer visible to the public. Could there be anything there in the final six weeks of her life that drove the events leading to her death, and the death of the Watts children?

The posts below were sourced by  John Westrum and shared on the True Crime Rocket Science Facebook page. Thanks John!

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Since I deal in detail with these posts in the third narrative, I won’t be doing any analysis of them here. These posts are of course extremely insightful, and come at a critical time before catastrophe overtook the Watts family.

TWO FACE TWO POLLYANNAS, the third book in the series interrogating the Chris Watts case, will be available early November 2018

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41 Comments

  1. Meagan

    Geez, can you imagine having someone give you a list of “pre-approved foods” before they come to visit?
    Shanann was pumping herself with those amped up stickers (and feeding the snack bar version to the kids) all the whole griping about what’s healthy for the kids.

    I know a mom like that. Thinks everything makes their child scared and sick. Created such anxiety in the poor kid.

    • Maria Carolina Pace Rivas

      Yes, I DO imagine giving a list of pre-approved foods to someone who is supposed to take care of my child. It is a mother’s right to establish what and when kids will eat, I do not see what the problem is. I do not think she was making up the story of the allergy and the grandmother should have known, instead of putting the life of a little girl in high risk..

      • Ralph Oscar

        You apparently missed THIS information, MCPR:

        “On one of her videos, she feeds Ceecee part of a Thrive Lemon Meringue bar – with no ill effects. The ingredients list includes tree nuts.” https://crimerocket.com/2019/01/17/guest-post-revisiting-ceecees-allergies/

        Lemon Meringue bars ingredients

        https://cdn.le-vel.com/en/Documents/THRV025.pdf
        Ingredients: Thrive Pro Sequential Protein Blend (Whey Protein Isolate, Milk Protein Isolate), Prebiotic Dietary Tapioca Fiber, Maltitol, Vegetable Glycerine, Palm Kernel Oil, Natural Flavors, Whey Protein Concentrate, Palm Fruit Oil, Sunflower Seed Butter, Nonfat Dry Milk, Tapioca Starch, Whole Milk Solids, Soy Lecithin, Sea Salt, Citric Acid, Calcium Carbonate, Sunflower Lecithin, Sucralose, Yogurt Cultures. Allergens: Contains Milk, Soy, **Tree Nuts (Coconut)**.

        “Shan’ann herself fed CeCe Thrive bars with nuts in them, but it was coconut which isnt considered a true tree nut. But she told Bella that CeCe would die if she ate coconut!! This really upset Bella and she went crying to the v reliable and intelligent babysitter about it. We know because the babysitter told the police all this during her interview with them.” https://crimerocket.com/2018/11/15/the-enmity-against-the-rzuceks-runs-deep-shananns-mother-in-law-didnt-attend-their-wedding/comment-page-1/

        You can hear the interview with the babysitter where she recounts how Bella was very concerned because she’d been told that, if CeCe eats *coconut*, she’ll die: https://youtu.be/VT_jQYyo11s?t=767

        So NOW what? Hmmm….?

        • Esther

          According to the medical records history in the autopsy report Celeste did have a nut (and kiwi) allergy that got worse every time she was exposed to (certain) nuts.

  2. piktor

    Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that SHanann was suffocating the life of her family with paranoid and imaginary apprehensions. Let’s say she was a ‘crazy’ control freak. That she was squeezing the life out of two little girls plus hubby with inordinate demands. That Shanann had crossed the line into total crazy mode.

    What’s Mr. Watts gonna do about THAT- commit triple murder?

    Murder one and all to end all manner of crazy at Saratoga Trails abode?

    BLAME THE V I C T I M S ! ! ! ! ? ?

    Jury’s gonna love solving the Mr. Watts Paradox.

    Defense advocating self-defense… or something?

    Because this defense will be prolonging a quandary of stoopid:

    – Stupid reason for strangling anyone, (psychotherapy was a no no?)
    – stupid dumping of his dead family, (quickly located by cops).
    – Stupid story CW tells cops. (makes zero sense)
    – Stupid admission of murder by strangulation, (no one told him to just shut the fug up?)
    – stupid telling cops exactly where to find his dead girls. (duh)

  3. Pauline

    In defense of Sha’nann though a doctor must have diagnosed CeCe with nut allergies and anaphylactic shock is nothing to play around with. But it does show the relationship with mother and daughter in law – not particularly one of respect. It also shows a bit of what the mother in law might think of her grandchild, that she needs discipline, even though we are talking about something unrelated, a health issue. A better way to have handled the visit would be to get a hotel. The point would have been made. I’m sure Sha’nann thought the best way to keep the nuts out of her mother in law’s house would be to send her a list of what not to get or what to get and try to control her shopping, which wouldn’t have been looked favorably on by her. She may have formed an opinion too that Sha’nann was bossy and this would be one way she could dominate her daughter in law (and avoid being dominated by her) by having a lackadaisical attitude around the nut allergy. It just shows more dysfunction in the extended family, doesn’t it.

    • Carol

      She said her mother in law asked for a list of what they could have but purchased none of it. Why ask if you aren’t interested in following it. Severe nut allergies are life threatening, I know a couple who lost their child after he was exposed to nuts before they knew he even had a nut allergy. It’s nothing to play around with and I don’t blame her for not trusting them to have the kids there. That was basically taunting the little one. I would never give my grandchildren anything that not all of them could have. It would break my heart to see one left out, I simply couldn’t do it and I wouldn’t blame my children for being angry about it if I did do that to them, especially in this case where it’s a severe allergy. I’d be so nervous about it I’d be researching and researching what I may have in house that would possibly make one ill or God forbid could result in a death

      • Ralph Oscar

        “She said her mother in law asked for a list of what they could have but purchased none of it. Why ask if you aren’t interested in following it.”

        Is that what the mother-in-law said, though? Or are we supposed to accept Shan’Ann’s side of the story as Gospel truth? Because I don’t find Shan’Ann to be the most *reliable* narrator.

  4. Spock

    One of the most telling lines of that thread is “I need to vent to people who understand”. The whole gang of Thrivers are right there, just a couple of keystrokes away to artificially support and cheer her on in her distress. Many of this gang of Thrivers have never even met her and without question jump right in the pity party with encouragement and advice. She has no idea that “the people who understand” don’t have a clue. And many are not sincere.
    I’m disgusted by people on social media who are willing to air their dirty laundry to the world to seek condolences and confirmation. And by the clueless morons who respond.
    Sadly there are many parents who create drama around their children to seek attention for themselves. The more dramatic the condition the more attention it can bring. The brass ring is a life threatening condition. Not surprising from a woman who shoves a camera in her kids faces and uses them as props to sell her product. Very, very sad for the children.
    It appears that CW’s mother doesn’t play into Shanann’s drama and histrionics. After several years of it she may have just grown weary.
    Very telling that not everyone in the family is “orbiting” Shanann. Also very telling that if you don’t orbit there will be a price to pay.

    • Meagan

      I have a sister n law who says her son is ALWAYS sick.
      At the age of 9, she would have him walk around with a vomit bag tucked in his pocket because “he might throw up”. He came to visit me and never ONCE got sick. She’s a hypochondriac herself and was definitely pushing her son to have it.

      I wouldn’t be surprised if Shanann’s diagnosis of these girls was purely done on her own part.

      • Spock

        Meagan – I’ve seen it a couple of times too. The one case the diagnosis was real but the mother’s reaction was way over the top. It brought her so much attention she just kept it up until it really could be considered child abuse.
        I don’t know what Shanann’s case is but she seems to crave attention in her videos by using her children. Oh poor put upon mother of two. “This is what my life is like, Cece gives me mini heart attacks all day, a day in the life of Cece, they’ve already been trying my patience today, Cece is a monster, etc. etc”. And she repeats these lines over and over and over ad nauseam. This is what my life is like – good thing I have my Thrive or I wouldn’t survive.
        I wouldn’t be surprised is the children’s health problems were exaggerated for her benefit.

    • AC

      I agree– this woman needed so much sympathy, attention, and control. The obsessive social media component reminds me of Lacey Spears (although I doubt Shanann had MSBP– I think that’s a stretch.) It’s telling that her own diagnoses were the ones that have strange, unexplained symptoms– lupus and fibromyalgia (the latter being a bunch of psychosomatic bullshit, imho.) I think Shanann exhibited far more mental symptoms than physical. And her kids were never happy on camera– you could count down until one of them had a meltdown from lack of meaningful attention. Shanann seemed like a high-strung, high-maintenance nightmare– the nut allergies, the Thrive peddling, the thinly-veiled contempt for anyone who couldn’t instantly assume the position for her picture-perfect magazine feature life. But she’s dead, so you know, how dare anybody have an opinion about a deceased person.

      • Genevieve

        Why bring nut allergies into your comments? Her youngest had anaphylactic issues which were life threatening. She had every reason to be upset with her mother in law who, in my opinion, set her up.

        • Ralph Oscar

          Shan’Ann told Bella that CeCe “would DIE if she ate coconut”. Yet Shan’Ann FED CeCe a Thrive Lemon Meringue bar, which clearly lists in the ingredients “Tree Nuts (Coconut)”.

          So who’s setting up WHOM here??

  5. Pauline

    And we’ve learned something new – Chris has a sister. Chris’s parents in all of this have seemed like the silent unknown. Chris appears to have a good relationship with his dad, there are pictures of him working on the new house with his father, his father has visited, Sha’nann has taken pictures of him but what of his mother? Could there be some friction there? Perhaps they are both domineering women in their own right. Maybe Chris married his mother, a dynamic he was familiar with. I’ll take away my word “dysfunction” above and substitute familiar dynamic. It was well known that Jackie Peterson didn’t get along well with Laci. And both Lee and Jackie were down right defiant in their support of Scott in court and made no attempt to sympathize with Sharon Rocha and what her family must be going through. The Peterson’s even fought with Sharon over the contents of the house.

    • piktor

      One has to wonder how and why Chris grew into the adult he is today.

      Obviously it has to do with parenting, as is with all adults. But this adult in particular is in jail, accused of three murders. What was it that got him there.

      People that come out as gay say it’s like being born, finally. They say they felt dead, repressed, living a terribly burdensome lie, having to bear a secret the size of a mountain that was crushing them.

      But if Watts isn’t gay, bisexual, whatever- what other motivation made him choose to kill?

      His TV soliloquies show a person without a care in the world. People that can’t find their missing pet display more emotion. Why did he have to kill to feel relieved and smug, with no care or emotion for the three persons he dumped 40 miles away. Were they poison in his life, poison he got rid of. In his mind, was it a way to level things. Tit for tat.

  6. piktor

    Nick,
    Found photos of a similar home, must see:
    https://tours.rstimmelphoto.com/public/vtour/display/1079606?a=1#!/

  7. Pauline

    One gets the feeling looking at Chris Watts is he’s a bit player in his own life. He hits all of the marks, as instructed, acts whatever part he’s directed to act, and then goes back to some private life he’s not fully committed to either. A pretender, but not a particularly great pretender.

    • piktor

      And his bodybuilding, his playing around cheating on his wife- it was his way of helping himself to a life of His own. He was in the process of owning up to his Self, reinventing his Self to his liking and no one else’s. Sky’s the limit. Plop!

      • Spock

        “He was in the process of owning up to his Self, reinventing his Self to his liking and no one else’s.”
        Well stated piktor. I totally agree.

  8. Pauline

    Funny, Piktor! Wonder what his life alone was like before he met Sha’nann? A bland, overweight fellow with few friends I would suspect. He’s right back where he started – in a small cell, with awful food and no friends.

  9. BAMS13

    Warning: LONG response:

    In my opinion, Shan’Ann was just way too intense and over the top with absolutely everything. I can imagine living with her would have been exhausting. I say this because I know women just like her in real life, one is actually a carbon copy. Everything about her is fake and staged. She doesn’t have one authentic relationship and she lies to and manipulates people all the time to suit whatever situation she’s in. She even manipulates her children and their emotions. No matter what she does, she’s never at fault and is always the victim. The trouble with these puppet masters is they change their circle frequently and only family and old ties previously burned know what they’re really like. Surface level she comes off as sweet but it’s disingenuous and she’s a chameleon that changes and adapts to each situation. I’m not saying SW is a bad person but you would have to be blind or ignorant to not see that she has issues with materialism and a craving for attention and approval seeking. This would make it difficult for her maintain healthy relationships over the long term, especially with simple, down to earth people like CW family.

    I do have to say in her defence that her MIL was way out of line with the tree nut thing. It was disrespectful and pretty obvious she must have held some disdain for SW. It could be that she genuinely did not think she would put CeCe at harm but was sending some sort of “message” to SW nonetheless. Remember they had allegedly told their families of plans to separate so maybe his Mom was just not interested in putting on airs anymore. I get the sense that there’s more to it. The anger SW so inappropriately displayed on FB was rude and disrespectful to not only her MIL but Chris also. The “f… you” etc is very contradictory to the angelic image and voice she normally uses in live videos. Oh you can bet there was an angry, reactive side to SW and points to her not being able to hold her emotions well.

    To me SW seemed like she had a substance abuse issue, in her videos she was either super animated and “up” or she was melancholy and flat. There was one popular video – one of the top three I found disturbing – where she says she’s a “hot-mess” repeatedly and has just received her order of cake and Cinnabon flavored thrive bars. SW is super excited, to quote her, and poor Bella is grumpy, tired and very hungry. She is so focused on her video and trying the bars herself that she ignores Bella’s repeated cries for food and even asks her to hold the phone up and record her! Look at her eyes, her mannerisms and listen to her speech pattern. In my opinion she looked high or drunk and it didn’t go unnoticed by others. At one point Bella says “I want to bite it” to which SW says “you want an iPad???!! You need to put it on your vision board don’t you?” and pans the camera across to a clearly frustrated and unhappy Bella. She taunts and mocks the child with the bars called birthday cake and cinnamon buns that sound more appealing to children than adults. She either doesn’t care enough to stop the camera and get her child some proper food or she’s so whacked out that she’s oblivious to it. “

    “She wants to eat the bars. These are MOMMIES BARS, she EARNED them.”, says a hyper Shan’Ann. What on earth? The level of discomfort I felt was greater than with most other videos. They had literally just walked inside and SW looked red and flustered and Bella tired. She must have seen her Thrive delivery and had absolutely no self control to tend to her child’s needs FIRST and do the damn video later.

    This is another reason why I’ve always thought it was spontaneous rather than premeditated. SW pregnancy, the fight with her MIL and other things might have irritated Chris who was used to being a simmering pot on the stove. Maybe he was starting to reach boiling point. Perhaps being a timid, laid back kind of guy by nature and nurture, he’d never experienced such stress and it all came to a head at some point?

    With SW, I suspected some possible substance abuse but she was pregnant and no longer able to indulge like before. Did this and pregnancy hormones lead to depression or at worst a psychosis that didn’t give her the buzz and energy to keep up with the housework, the selling, the videos etc? The videos were dropping off after she found out she was pregnant. The house was probably getting messy, bills mounting and increasing pressure and fights within the family.

    Did they both reach boiling point? It would go part way in explaining the fight he said they had that morning. SW showed us that she was a pressure cooker who couldn’t control emotions well. Nichole was with her in Arizona and knew she was angry or upset. Did an overly tired, angry and hormonal SW explode on CW that morning? He’d been alone with the girls and was likely tired and emotional himself.

  10. Diana

    My understanding is that Shan’ann was in a support group for lupus sufferers as well as other groups. FWIW, in one Facebook group I was in, it was repeatedly discussed that those posts shown with Shan’ann talking about CeCe’s tree nut allergies, and the run in she had with Chris’s mom, were actually posted in a support group for parents with children who have allergies, not to her Thrive gang.

  11. Genevieve

    Wow – so much Shanann bashing. Thank you Diana for inserting perspective. I think Cindy Watts set Shanann up over this incident. Any parent of a child with anaphylactic allergies would be shaking and emotional over this! It’s a life threatening allergy and a grandparent should not try to use this scenario to teach a toddler how to behave. Cindy Watts is at fault here, yet Shanann gets criticised. Unbelievable.

    • Nick

      Do you think Shan’ann was justified in expressing herself on this matter on Facebook?

      • Genevieve

        Hi Nick. Yes – justified if she was venting to a support group for anaphylaxis. Those support groups are a place where people can vent and seek advice from others who have knowledge and perspective.

      • Pasha

        Hi Nick,
        I know you weren’t asking me and I”m completely new here, but I personally feel that she was justified. What CW’s mother did was negligent toward her grandchild and disrespectful toward Shan’ann due to how she acted and what she said. I see no respect or empathy from the grandmother in the situation,

    • AC

      I believe Shanann was exaggerating. Also *both* of her kids had acid reflux? Give me a break. I could understand if one did and even so, it’s rare for children that age. That suggests it was something in their diet, (maybe Thrive?) or she was full of shit. “Here let me give you this list of crap that my children can and cannot do/have, because they are not like other children– they are special and have unique dietary needs. Also, don’t do this and don’t do that. CeCe needs this, this, and this, but not that. Don’t do this or that with Bella.” *rollseyes* Her mother-in-law saw through it and was probably so sick of her bullshit at that point, she decided to make a statement. (I don’t necessarily agree with the statement– at least give the kid some ice cream she can supposedly eat if other kids are having ice cream too.) Perhaps Cindy was also making a statement about the kids being spoiled. Maybe she had it with their whiny meltdowns at the drop of a hat (which can be seen in almost every damn video Shanann made with them.)

      • Pasha

        The grandmother was negligent – not sure if it was on purpose or purely accidental – either way it was negligent and if she could not admit to this and agree to be more careful in the future then she wasn’t fit to be around her grandchildren alone. No way in hell would I allow someone to put my child’s life in danger. Behavior, being spoiled, not liking Shan’ann are all irrelevant and do not justify what she did.

        • Genevieve

          Completely agree that the grandmother was negligent. I also believe the grandmother set Shanann up. Appalling behaviour on the part of Cindy Watts who then played the role of victim. Hope Cindy Watts loses sleep over this.

  12. nickvdl

    But she wasn’t venting to a support group. She was swearing at her mother in law on Facebook, which she used as a business platform. They saw these posts and blocked her, which precipitated a family crisis that lasted right until Shan’ann’s murder. So let me ask you again in those terms. Do you think Shan’ann was justified in expressing herself on this matter on Facebook? It’s a yes or no answer.

  13. Genevieve

    That changes things if her posts were not part of a support page which only could be accessible by other members. Then no. Not ok at all and very inflammatory.

  14. Nick

    But it doesn’t matter what we think about this. It matters what he thought. It’s easy to be objective when it’s not your mother – and father – your wife is going after on social media.

    • Genevieve

      Do you think CW was objective? That was his daughter who was at risk. Then again, CW showed us all what he thought of his family. Maybe he wanted to be free of all of them, including his parents. He hasn’t called them in prison.

  15. Genevieve

    True. But his parents were very hostile to Shanann and were very inappropriate in their last encounter.

    • nickvdl

      Fuck you, on social media, is also hostile. Vowing to sequestrate your children permanently from your in laws in the name of what’s good for your children is also excessive.

      • Genevieve

        Agree with you on both counts. It did seem initially as though Shanann’s comments were on a support group page (not Thrive) as the responses seemed to imply others had experience with anaphylactic allergies. However, after you confirmed her comments were on her Facebook page for all to see, then it was an aggressive and hostile thing for SW to do.
        Awful behaviour instigated by Cindy Watts, inflamed and aggressive response by Shanann. Horrible, dysfunctional family dynamics.

  16. Jennifer Williams

    Ugh. Shannan Watts in NO way deserved anything that happen to her that fateful morning, but still…every time I learn more details about her, my reaction is just: ugh! She is the kind of person that I really really dislike.

    And again, though she in no way did anything to deserve what happened to her, her actions did start these crazy wheels spinning in Chris’s head. He said as much during his Feb. interview in the jail. Those crazy thoughts started way back before/during the wedding, when Shannan got in an argument with Chris’s mom and sister and didn’t care enough to resolve it so that Chris would have his sister and mom at his wedding, and continued until the week before her murder, when she alienated Chris from his family again over this nuts incident. I don’t think Chris ever voiced how much these things bothered him though. So his anger just grew and grew until it became a murderous rage, and Shannan would have had no idea what was coming.

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