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Chris Watts told the Thayers on Monday – the morning of the murders – of “financial trouble”

At 11:06 in the clip below, the reporter asks about financial problems. Did Shan’ann or Chris Watts ever talk to them about their finances? The reporter mentions the Wattses filing for bankruptcy protection in 2015. Did they knowing anything about that?

Nick Thayer furrows his brow, purses his lips, pulls a face and shakes his head slightly in response.

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But the reporter pushes back on the same point.

REPORTER: Did you guys ever talk about financial stuff?

NICK: I mean, I was never a part of anything. Um-

AMANDA [Interrupting]: Shan’ann and I…Shan’ann and I had discussed it but [shakes head] it was so long ago…that…it was like, you know she would…like bring it up that, you know, ‘We had to file bankruptceeee’, and all of that other stuff, but it was…it kinda ended there.

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How likely is it, if Amanda and Shan’ann were business partners, that Amanda wouldn’t bring up Shana’nn’s seriously compromised finances with her husband?

I mean, I was never a part of anything. Um-

In another, harder to come by interview, the story shifts slightly.

AMANDA: We had no idea they were financialleee….until we spoke with Chris on Monday. Um…

NICK [Nods while looking at the ground]: He mentioned putting the house up for sale. [Wipes his nose]. 

REPORTER [Narrating]: And then…last week [the week prior to the murders], Amanda says Shan’ann confided suspicions of infidelity.

AMANDA: She…said that…it came to her mind…that possibly…he…could be cheating…but at the same time,  she was like [laughs], ‘He has no game.’

Interestingly, the Thayers noticed on Tuesday afternoon that Chris Watts wasn’t doing the easy things to find out where Shan’ann was.

NICK: He didn’t seem all that eager to…look into it.

REPORTER: They called detectives that night to report it [Chris Watts’ suspicious behavior].  

6 Comments

  1. Karen

    After reading Beneath the Oil and having a better understanding of Chris ‘having no game’ Now the Thayers are saying that Shanann told them Chris has no game. I’m sure Chris didn’t know she told her that. Not only did Amanda say it she laughed when she said it. Think about that playing on Chris’s psyche

    • nickvdl

      Imagine if he did find out. Or if he overheard her saying something like that to her mother or someone else? Or if she said it to him.

      • Karen

        Exactly, Nick, and that’s something that would be there in the back of his mind all the time. Especially when he sees Amanda he’ll think of her being told that. Last night I listened to the interview. No video, only the audio and I didn’t really catch it before so it kind of threw me for a loop when Amanda said that Chris and Shanann were always holding hands or kissing, and always had their hands on each other. I hadn’t really pictured that before so it made me think that Chris probably had a push, pull thought process going on.

  2. Monica Silber

    If they were having financial issues—why did they keep having children?
    What—3 children were going to make them more solvent?
    Crazy!

    • thetinytech2018

      She actually thought that. She was quoted somewhere saying that she believed a child could repair a bad marriage. That’s the effin nutiest thing I’ve heard, but I believe it gives us yet another clue into her psyche. I’ve said before that her and Chris seem to have a basic rudimentary grasp on adult concepts, from finances to relationships and all that’s in between.

      Any counselor, therapist, psychologist or person with applicable live experience will tell you that a baby will stress even the most solid of marriages. Another mouth to feed, large expenses like supplies, the nursery, the birth, prenatal and all other medical bills are nothing to laugh at. Add to that the lack of sleep, high emotions, lack of intimacy, decision making and everything else a new parent will experience and it can kill a marriage that was 1000 times better off than Shanann and Chris’s was.

      The fact that she thought a kid was a bandaid for a relationship when it was the exact opposite is on par with her thinking that she could spend like she did after bankruptcy. I almost wonder if she thought that the bankruptcy was no big deal and should they get in over their head again, they could just file bankruptcy again. After all, she didn’t see major repercussions after the first one, they still got the house they wanted, the car she wanted, they sacrificed nothing after the bankruptcy so what’s another one? I don’t think either of them had any real understanding on how the real world works, someone out something was always ready to bail them out our excuse it as not their fault. Their thinking was extremely childish for people their age, bizarre honestly.

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