Nathaniel Trinastich is mentioned twice in Chris Watts’ arrest affidavit; once in the actual narrative and once as a witness. It was Trinastich who provided investigators with the gamechanging video surveillance that showed not only Chris Watts backing up his truck and leaving on the morning of the murders, but also that no one else left the Watts home that morning.
The semantics of the affidavit are worth noting: Nicole’s vehicle is shown leaving and Chris Watts’ truck is observed hours later backing into the driveway and leaving. But the Trinastich home isn’t opposite the Watts home, it’s adjacent on the right.
So how the heck did the surveillance camera see anything?
Google Maps is hinky when it comes to newly rising subdivisions. The satellite images above do show the Trinastich home at 2905 Saratoga Trail. Despite the odd numbering, 2905 is indeed next to 2825. But Street View doesn’t show either house at ground level. We’ll get to that it a moment.
Notice how the house on the left of the Watts home blocks out a view of #2825 because of the way the building extends forward onto the front lawn. So from the garage and front door on that neighbor’s side, there’s no direct line-of-sight to the Watts garage and front door.
The other house – Trinastich, on the right – has no such problem. In fact the garage is almost level, just slightly back from the Watts garage, which means a camera is set slightly behind the Watts driveway – an ideal position to spy on late night fumblings in and out of the garage.
In front of the Watts home and slightly to the left is a T-junction, which also means both houses opposite have limited line-of-sight of the front of the Watts home.
Those houses opposite on Steeple Rock Drive are oriented towards each other but away from the Watts house.
The foliage beside the Watts’ garage on the boundary with the Trinastich property also interrupts line-of-sight, but at night, a camera wouldn’t need to pick up anything more than the illumination of headlights as they move onto and off the driveway, and that’s what Trinastich’s did.
A 39-year-old Nathaniel Trinastich is listed on Fastpeoplesearch.com.
This is him:
This image and the two below were posted onto Nathan Trinastich’s Facebook page.
Now let’s orient ourselves on what Trinastich’s house looks like, as well as the neighboring houses on the ground.
The two houses on opposite shoulders of Steeple Rock Drive are familiar from the two hailstorm videos Shan’ann recorded on June 18 and 19.
Street View, as mentioned, got to Saratoga Trail before the Trinastich home went up and before the Watts home was built as well.
Fortunately there are a few images of the outside of the Trinastich home courtesy of Nathan Trinastich himself.
Below is a nocturnal view of the blue-walled house in front of the Watts and Trinastich homes taken during the candlelight vigil.
The Trinastich home was kitted out with the same garage door design as the Watts house, including the small square windows along the top of the doors. From the zoomed in image below, there doesn’t appear to be any doorbell camera fitted to the front door, at least not when this photo was taken.
If the Watts family were Steelers fans, the Trinastich’s were big Denver Broncos supporters.
I was able to trace the anonymous image of a couple paying their respects at front lawn of the Watts home to an orange Bronco’s cap in Trinastich’s home, posted on social media. More than likely the couple are the Trinastichs who’ve walked over from next door to inspect the toy memorial.
These neighbors [below] on the other hand are clearly not the Trinastichs.
One of the best views of the Trinastich’s home – which is dwarfed by the Watts mansion – is from this unusual view.
It’s still not evident where the surveillance camera was situated at the front of the Tristnatich home. It may be, like the Watts come, through the front door if the camera was installed later, perhaps even at the same time the Watts family installed theirs.
Read more about the front door latch and camera here.
Perhaps Chris Watts didn’t see Trinastich’s camera or consider it because of the large leafy tree plumb in front of the house on the front lawn. That tree was obviously in full flourish in mid-summer when Shan’ann and the children were killed.
It may also be that the camera was a dashcam, but then the arrest affidavit has made an error. There is a censored section in the affidavit that may or may not refer to a dashcam.
In my opinion, the censored text refers to the Trinastich street number. A dashcam with the car parked facing the garage would also be unlikely to provide a rear view.
It’s also possible, since Trinastich’s an outdoors-man, that he used a camouflaged camera.
Hmm, good question. I assumed it was a dashcam. Maybe not. He might have had a home surveillance camera positioned in front, back and the sides of his house so if Chris is parked at the curb he’d have to pull away and into the street (and past that tree) to back into his driveway and garage.
I also see that Nathan has dogs, so I suspect the neighbor’s report of hearing the plaintive wail of a dog and thinking it was Deeter will be discounted. I looked up the Weld County police call sheet for Aug. 13 and couldn’t find any record of an animal welfare check for Deeter. I think the press misstated.
A dachshund has a distinctive high-pitched whine. It’s almost like a whistle. The first few seconds of this recording sounds like a normal dog whimpering. But then it gets louder…
https://youtu.be/Pi1BUQ5Kip8
There was a welfare check on Deeter, reported as far as I can remember by Cheryle Hallowell, the neighbor from two doors down.
Yes, I see what you mean. It is like a whistle. Poor baby, doesn’t like being left alone. And I think someone was always in the house prior to early that morning. Even worse if he was shut up in a room.
I was trying to see from this address, the Weld CountySheriff’s Office Daily Call Report, if Cheryle Hallowell’s call and also Nickole UA’s call had shown up. The addresses given are approximate addresses for safety reasons the site says, but see if you can find either call. Just put in the date August 13 2018.
https://www.weldsheriff.com/apps1/dailyCalls/index.cfm
There are a couple of Check Well Being calls and a few Animal Violations. Since the location isn’t specific, it’s difficult to say with any certainty which is the real one. The Check Well Being at 10:51 looks about the right time, but the jurisdiction is Severance, which is weird. The affidavit lists the time officer Coonrod was dispatched as 13:40. But there’s no Check Well Being call logged then. There’s an Animal Violations call logged at 11:48am.
Those calls would not be on the Weld County Sheriff’s Office report. They would be Town of Frederick Police Department.
Would be good to get a hold of those.
I agree. I couldn’t be sure of any of it. Then if he was arrested “late Wednesday night” which would be 8/15 I saw something that was a 18W031193 but it doesn’t seem to line up either. Was Chris arrested at home? Other jurisdictions may have participated in picking him up of course.
Was not there a camera up to the right of the house when you’re looking at it? Because in the interview he says the cameras were checked and points that way and then at his doorbell I believe. I do know he states and points to where they are when telling the camerman/anchor where they are located. Great work!
I’m sorry. What I was trying to say that didn’t come out right because of the voice was.. If you are looking at the Watts House and to the right, I am guessing there was a camera on one of the neighbor’s house. Not sure which one. Because in the interview he did he state they checked the camera around and points that way and to his door. I’m going to go back and watch the video again. Check it out and see what you see.
Hey Rhonda, can you paste a link to the video you’re referring to in the domnents.
He uses Kuna porchlight hidden security camera. I have the same thing.
Hi Lindsey. How do you know it’s the same as yours?