In the early hours of August 13, a Ring doorbell camera records 34-year-old Shan’ann Watts arriving home in Frederick, Colorado from a business trip at 01:48. The pregnant mother enters her home on Saratoga Trail and is never seen alive again.
Where is this this footage of Shan’ann’s arrival, and why hasn’t it been released?
Also, did the cadaver dogs search the inside of Watts’ vehicle [where he said the bodies were stowed en route to CERVI 319]?
Why is there no footage of the interior of Chris Watts’ truck?
Shan’ann’s 33-year-old husband Chris Watts is seen on his neighbor’s doorbell camera from 05:27 onward. The camera records Watts backing his truck into the driveway, then heading back into the house and out to the truck several times. Although no bodies can be seen on the camera, during one of the trips to his truck he appears to be walking backwards, dragging something.
Exactly what happened in the 3 hours 39 minutes between the two camera recordings remains unclear and uncertain.
During the sentencing hearing on November 19, 2018, Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke said investigators don’t know the exact sequence of events. Because of the gruesome manner the bodies of his two children, Bella [4] and Celeste [3] were disposed of, investigators haven’t been able to establish time of death either. Were the children killed before or after their mother?
The Discovery Documents reveal how Watts’ story of the crime comes about. Eventually Watts is prompted: “Did Shan’ann do something?” But even Watts’ confession isn’t reliable.
In the moment that Chris Watts steps forward out of his quiet, introverted self and rises as the hero in his “confession”, Shan’ann falls as the villain, a convenient, symbolic and of course cowardly distortion of the truth.
So what is the truth?
TWO FACE RAPE OF CASSANDRA, published on December 17, 2018, investigates the exact sequence of events, from the time of the first death in the Watts home, to the disposal at the Cervi site, to how and why a “normal” family man wreaked a holocaust against his own family, and ultimately, himself.
Watts was undoubtedly devoted but weak during his marriage, inspired but duplicitous during his affair, and the murders themselves were the ultimate manifestation of his quintessential cowardice. But his resolve to murder didn’t arise in a vacuum. It germinated in a troubled paradise; that aspect has to be acknowledged as well. That aspect is RAPE OF CASSANDRA’s terrifying terra firma.
That makes sense Watts disabled his Ring camera after he first set it to see her arrival. Since Nate’s camera only captures “half” of what he was doing in his driveway the other half or side may have been picked up by the Ring camera – so it had to be disabled. He may have gone out the front door with the bodies. Why was the trauma dog #1 so interested in that front porch couch. He’s straining at the leash to get to the front porch step and noses into the couch cushion. Granted going through the garage would be logical, but with no camera showing the front door area, and he knew that (he had already asked Nate prior what his camera picks up or doesn’t around the time of the auto thefts) he could have loaded from the right front side of house facing house, left side door of truck. Backing his truck up in his driveway provides a barrier between his house and Nate’s camera.
I’ve often wondered why the dogs went crazy on that front porch too. Perhaps he did carry them out the front door to load them up in his truck and maybe he placed one of the kids down underneath the porch seat at one point? I personally have never seen the “body dragging” that people have mentioned? Where is the full footage of him dragging bodies and why would police have cut and edited it? I can only see him walking back and forth from the garage. That might explain bodies coming in from the front door theory? Unless he slid them into the body of his truck out of view as some have suggested? But then it’s alleged they were loaded on the back seat??
I have seen a slowed down version of the neighbor’s security camera video of Chris backing the truck into the garage and loading it. It is an hour in length. In it, you can see Chris walking back and forth from the driver’s side of his truck to the garage and back se real times. You can actually only see his feet, and in one instance he is walking backwards, which has led to the opinion that he was dragging Shannon’s body. I read a post on one of the many Watts murders discussion groups stating that the videos had been edited at the request of Shannon’s family as being “too gruesome.” It seems like risky behavior as he would be fully visible to anyone driving down the street and houses across the street and next to his and Shannon’s. There are delays in between each trip to the truck (with purportedly a body). He could be going up and down the stairs with each body rather than piling them up at the door leading from the house into the garage. I believe this is the area which showed it had been cleaned. Shannon was wrapped in a sheet, according to Chris, and there was that sheet found at the battery site and then brought in to the Police station as evidence; I assume the girls wee wrapped in their “blanks” which were missing. Chris said he had taken the kids blankets with him (and that they must have blown away at the battery station, though a drone search did not find them). Obviously he would need to cover the bodies in the back of his truck while driving them for their ultimate disposal. Chris is also seen in the video putting a gas can into the truck. The ease with which he lifts is up to that height suggests it was empty. I don’t know if it was his usual practice to carry a gas can in his truck. I have considered that he ultimate plan was to dispose of SHanann in a different manner and place, perhaps by burning her, but he was initially prevented from doing so because she got home from her trip late, and then he had to return to the house, which was not part of the plan, because NIkkol was concerned about Shannon. He had in my opinion intended to finalize the disposal of Shannon’s body after work. The police presence at his house foiled that plan. I also have considered that he planned to dispose of her purse and other items she “left behind” when he returned to the house, but that too was foiled. At the same time, I felt he could have and should have disposed of those items when he disposed of SHanann initially, as leaving them at the house proved to be very suspicious.
I too have searched for evidence of a search, by dogs, or testing of the back seat of Chris’ truck and found none. There were swabs taken of the front seat (driver and passenger side) but not the back seat, which I don’t understand.
Not sure but I think you can put black tape on the front side of camera, to block activity.
Or he dismantle it. Not sure if any search for that, but it would come with instructions.
You can just block it from your Wi-Fi by logging into your router (usually typing 192.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.2 into your computer or phone browser) or simply you can just pull the plug on your router. Once your home’s Wi-Fi goes offline, the camera will as well. So even if it’s still recording, it won’t record to anything. If he did this it would probably be the smartest move. He can just say the Wi-Fi went out for a bit, he didn’t know, I mean who monitors their Wi-Fi at 3,4,5 am? It wouldn’t show him dismantling the camera or obstructing the cameras view either.
Yes good idea. If he knew this. But he knew about secret app on phone….so he might know this. Techy people know how to do this. All this stuff plus much more about commiting a crime on internet. But then cops can check to see what you look at.. But none of this any good now, he didn’t do a trial, get a lawyer. Not sure if he will change his mind about deal….timeframe left.
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If he set it for her arrival, he can then shut it off – all from his phone. Also the cadaver dog – Dog #2, did not pick up on any sniffs from the inside garage door to Garage door #2, which may indicate he did not carry out the bodies from the side door through garage to the truck. Why not carry them from the front door – there are no cameras pointed at him from the right of the house, his only fear would be that someone was looking out of their upstairs windows at 5:27 a.m. When the officers did the neighborhood canvass none of the neighbors heard, saw or noticed anything.
Just as an example my next door neighbor leaves for work every day at 3 a.m. I can hear through my walls at 2:30 a.m. him running down his stairs getting ready to leave. Then right at 3 his door opens, then shuts. He used to have an OCD habit of repeating the door slam 2 times, maybe to check and see if he forgot something. He quit that about two years ago when I asked him to not slam his door so loudly at 3 a.m. – twice. The doors here are heavy, and have electric door locks. We’re neighbor-friends so he knew I was half joking, half serious. So he quit. I know his routine. Never do I get out of bed to see him actually go down to his car, which is just under my window at the carport. I’m usually praying for him to get it started as he has ignition problems. I know he’s off to work, why verify it. So the likelihood that Watt’s neighbor to the right would get up and look are slim to none, if they hadn’t done so previously. And we all know he wasn’t “loading tools” into his truck, although he may have grabbed his gas can, or shuffled things around to make it look like to Nate’s camera that he had reason to back his car up the driveway and half into the garage. He did the decoy thing with the Lexus car door as well. So that’s my case for an out the front door body load –
Carrying out the front door would make sense seeing as the cushions on the seat were not in line. Lots of OCD going in that house. There were also identical cushions in a corner of the basement.
Did anyone else notice that the home has virtually zero window treatments? It had the stock cheap plastic blinds in every room, the ones you can get anywhere for like $15 that homes come standard with. Rentals usually have them too. Aside from being cheaply decorated and sparsely furnished, they had no window treatments or curtains on any windows, just the blinds. The only area without them was the well windows in the basement that were covered by garbage bags or towels. Very odd, in my opinion.
Oh cool – you spotted couch cushions in the basement? I guess she might want duplicates since they were outdoor cushions. All of that spending money, it’s really staggering the amount of stuff.
I have a question – what is a phone clutch? I see purse clutches online that you can slip your phone into but when I look at Sha’nann’s phone Nicholas found and it’s on the stair landing it’s aqua in color. Is that the clutch part of it?
A phone clutch is a small combo wallet case that holds your phone. I’m looking at the aqua wallet on the counter next to SW’s purse. There could be a pocket in the far left side where her iPhone slipped in. If CW took her phone out of the clutch with him on 8/13 maybe he left the wallet in her bag. Later, just the phone was found in the loft.
I’m thinking that’s possibly what he tucked under his arm when arriving home to meet officer Coonrod as it looks too small to be just a phone. It would make sense for her to own one since she had her phone ready to go at all times. A phone clutch usually has a front flap, a space for credit cards and a strap for your arm. Sometimes they’re a little larger. I’m sure there must be a photo somewhere if she did own one.
Thank you Maura.
You’re welcome. Do you think he knew her password? My guess would be yes, he did figure it out as the baby’s due date but lied when the Nicholas found the phone during the police search.
When it’s found he touches it so gingerly. It’s hard to tell when he’s acting versus lying. Or how much he’s making up on the fly. If we go with a theory he searched her phone before putting it in the couch then he knew, but I don’t think he had time to do that so he just hid it.
Not sure if anyone here watched Ashleigh Banfield’s coverage of the case (before she was cancelled!), but… there was an episode in which she talked about the unusual amount of hair found in his truck.
There was much discussion of the black bands that indicate death/decomp, and she had an expert on the show to talk about it. It was never disclosed WHOSE hair it was, whether it was blonde or black or whather it was cut or pulled or “shed”, and it was never ever mentioned anywhere again.
Please, someone else must remember this. I was particularly interested in the hair found in his truck, but hot damn, no one ever spoke about it again.
Aha. Here’s a bit of the transcript: “Welcome back, everyone. I want to bring in Pat Lalama, a crime journalist who has been following this case. Pat, the material that People Magazine
is reporting is astounding. Hundreds of hairs found in that truck. Take it from there.
PAT LALAMA, CRIME JOURNALIST: Well, you`re absolutely right. It is stunning to me as well. So in that truck, where it`s presumed that he
transported his pregnant wife`s body, the two children`s bodies, police sources tell People Magazine that they have recovered hundreds, Ashleigh,
not a handful, not one or two, but hundreds of strands of hair. And as you can very well guess, this will be very significant in terms of the
analysts, forensic analysts trying to determine if that will lead them to when exactly these poor people passed away. “
The entire thing is here: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1809/11/ptab.01.html