True Crime Analysis, Breakthroughs, Insights & Discussions Hosted by Bestselling Author Nick van der Leek
In POST TRUTH, the 100th True Crime Rocket Science [TCRS] title, the world’s most prolific true crime author Nick van der Leek demonstrates how much we still don’t know in the Watts case. In the final chapter of the SILVER FOX trilogy the author provides a sly twist in a tale that has spanned 12 TCRS books to date. The result may shock or leave you with even more questions.
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Book 4 in the TWO FACE series, one of the best reviewed, is available now in paperback!
“Book 4 in the K9 series is a must read for those who enjoy well researched and detailed crime narratives. The author does a remarkable job of bringing to life the cold dark horror that is Chris Watts throughout the narrative but especially on the morning in the aftermath of the murders. Chris’s actions are connected by Nick van der Leek’s eloquent use of a timeline to reveal a motive.”
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Is there a correlation between his physical change to his feelings for his family? What caused him to become so lean and buff? Did Shanann encourage him to lose weight as a way to market her product? It seems like he took it to extreme, and it had an impact on his thought process. Who knows, one can only look at pictures and make an assumption.
By the way, why mow the yard in flip flops with a baby strapped to your back?? very unsafe.
Tbp, the stimulants in the Thrive patches may have helped him lose the weight, but I believe the majority of his transformation was diet and exercise. There is evidence that he was into “clean eating” and low-carb diet. And of course he worked out. I can see his physical transformation changing his view about his marriage (“women think I’m hot?!”), but I don’t think it would change his relationship to the kids. But who knows.
Shanann seemed to use him as a marketing tool. And seeing his physical changes probably did help her sales. He didn’t seem particularly interested in promoting Thrive, but of course he did it because she said to. And he didn’t seem to mind the vacations.
Per Shan’ann’s texts: “he likes when I get paid every Tuesday”. He probably started off being a marketing tool for Shan’ann (and he liked the extra income), but then when he began to see changes he revved things up with exercise and changing his eating habits. Then he began to get attention from women. And from this point on it’s like a child seeing a toy store for the first time ever……..he just had this child like mindset I think. He had never had attention from many women it seems and so when he did it just blew his mind.
Garcinia cambogia is an ingredient in Thrive. It’s suppose to suppress appetite.
He sold thrive too
He went from 245 lbs to 180 in a relatively short period of time. He was wearing two patches, sometimes three a day, plus the shakes. I’m sure at first he didn’t see much change but then when he did he changed his eating habits, lifted weights and did some cardio (either in the basement or running with Nick Thayer) and his whole appearance began to change. It might have all happened just in 2018. I would be interested to know if she was wearing the patches after finding out she was pregnant. Because one of the ingredients – Forslean, has side effects that would not be good for a pregnant woman. And if she was going to breast feed – all the worse. Mostly I think the patches are wishful thinking, but use with caution.
In the discovery she posted on fb that difference between this pregnancy and the others was this one was going to be a “thrive pregnancy” so Yes, she was still wearing the patches.i thought that was so bizarre.
Google Garcinia cambogia which is one of the thrive ingredients. It states not to be taken by pregnant women because it can cause manic behaviour and some days she was wearing two !! Very irresponsible. I have seen people saying the new burn ones give you the feeling of being on speed. Damn patches need banning. Not just the patches but they were also taking the tablets as well.
But look at all of the expenditures. Not just the house – but appliances – not just any old refrigerator but one with several water options. Has to be a $2 grand refrigerator right there (previous video). Then there are trips to the salon to have your nails done, children’s clothing at “Guess”, expensive leather reclining furniture, toys. I think the Thrive business was a perfect fit for her because of the compulsive need to spend, have top of the line items, promote and organize but she put it first, above everything else, with the justification that she only wanted the best of everything for her children. It’s for her – and the ever-present compulsion to look good.
And the overpriced Thirty One bags you see in pics. The lularoe clothing (overpriced junk). The maintenance on the fake nails. The ten thousand pairs of shoes she owned, apple watches, victoria’s secret clothing (overpriced junk), etc. etc. Gotta give it to her though…..she did dye her own hair at home and not pay a salon to do it.
It stresses me out thinking about the nightmare they were living in. I would have gladly taken divorce and giving half my pay to her over living in that suburban nightmare.
The shoes! Wasn’t it ironic that friends said she always wore her favorite flip flops? The ones left by her front door. How often did she use the others when not traveling? Sad that they had to have so many things like a 4100 square foot house, shoes, TVs and trips that only worsened their debt.
Shan’ann was a sickly woman, add to it two sickly children, another one on the way, mounting debts and unrestrained spending, it can only lead to a disaster. My husband and I we were really very well off but I’ve never had a wardrobe like she had. I am not trying to excuse the murderer but this crime was not on a spur of a moment, the problem were accumulating and Chris in a flash of a new romance lost his head. He was in a daze; terrible tragedy to which they contributed both. Both of them were like a kids in a candy store; they needed bottomless pockets of money. My husband was a great business but he always said: “one need to produce to be able to spend”. There is plenty to be learnt from this family tragedy.
Well said.
I see Shanann as the “golden child” from her family, and I see Chris as the “scapegoat” from his family. Putting these two together was bound to have terrible consequences. When I watch their videos, I can see myself and my older sister acting this way. I guess that is why I am stuck on this case. It reminds me of a familiar family dynamic where one literally sucks the air out of the room, and the other person has to leave in order to catch their breath.
As I commented previously, when the hunt was on for the kids stuffed animals and “blankets”, it was not blankets that were missing, it was the girls “blankies” which are very small! The blankies are shown in the photos above – Bella in a chair and in the hospital emergency room. CeCe is shown with hers in her crib. They used them to suck their thumbs. Many people couldn’t understand why the police couldn’t find the blankies or how the wind could’ve blown them away. But it’s understandable when you see how small they were, they weren’t full size blankets. On another note – I’ve never seen a child seemingly so happy and smiling as much as CeCe. I’ve even seen photos of her always smiling before she could walk! As for Bella, I think she was a more pensive child. I think she was weary of her mom always filming her and talking to her phone. Maybe with time CeCe would’ve projected a bit of sadness and/or withdrawal as Bella did.
Now whenever I see your name I think “blankies…blankies…blankies…”
maybe he used them as cleaning rags
Was there a reason Bella had her hair cropped that short?
Shannan’s mom said her daughter wanted Chris to lose weight and get healthy because diabetes ran in his family and she said wanted him to live a long time. It’s ironic that SW started Chris on the path to get healthy and once he did he no longer wanted her, his kids or his old life.
I wonder if Thrive acted as a placebo for him. He believed it helped him get fit but radically changed his diet and ramped up his exercise which could have worked by itself. If he was twice his age don’t know that the results would be the same.
It’s a shame that they didn’t make the same radical changes in their lifestyle after their bankruptcy. They could have downsized to a townhouse half that size that was more affordable. They were living close to neighbors just as they would in a town home. The MLM wants their sellers to promote a “premium lifestyle” which few could afford by only selling their products.
If they weren’t in such a financial mess and didn’t try to have another child when they had so many bills maybe he would have had the guts to simply leave her.
Nick shared a video a while back that had that numnuts Chris blathering about how adding a child to a struggling relationship could totally fix everything. I just can’t even with that. I wonder if he originally wanted a child in hopes that it’d cement him and his wife together again, and then reality came crashing in on him when he realized what the costs would be for an already-very-stressed family.
That McMansion of theirs looked so bleak to me. Yes, it’s huge, but it was just soulless (except for the kids’ rooms, which were quite charming–and I’m not just being kind there; I’d have loved rooms like that as a child myself). I guess that monstrosity of a house fit pretty well for occupants who were like human Potemkin villages themselves.
It’s just haunting to see pictures of those little girls and know those adorable, sweet personalities are just gone.
Re: beetus: It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Chris’ parents are either near diabetes or suffering from it right now. I lived in Myrtle Beach with my mom and biological father right after I was born; the estranged family members invited my little family there under guise of “let’s get to know each other and we’ll help care for Baby Cas while you work!” OMG WORST DECISION EVER. Everyone my mom knew there, she told me later, ate their feelings and the Deep South is a really unhealthy food culture to begin with–everything’s fried, over-salted, sweetened, fatty, and comes in ALL the food colors: brown, beige, yellow, or orange. My mom didn’t stay there long. That was of course nearly 50 years ago now, but I doubt much has changed. Those control freaks called me when I was in my 20s and even though Mom hadn’t yet told me about them, I figured out immediately what they were like and cut ties on my own just as one of the male relatives was gearing up to ask me for money. The female relative involved acted 100% exactly like Cindy Watts, to the letter. Wouldn’t shock me at all if the two of them were friends, or frenemies attending the same church!
Placebo! Great word Maura. Better word than wishful thinking. Too bad those products haven’t been actually tested to see if they really do work. Take a random sampling of the population, put them on a trial schedule, one with Thrive patches and the other with a placebo patch and see after a few months, which group loses weight. And to make it interesting make it a double blind test where the lab technician dispensing the patches doesn’t know which group has which (so he/she doesn’t influence the results). I think you would find that the group that believes they have the actual Thrive patch (but have the placebo, especially if the technician is told to tell them that they have it) will lose the weight faster than the group who thinks they don’t have it (and actually do).
Maura, I believe if someone would have given him the money to get them out of debt he still would have killed his family. I also believe if Shan’ann would have left him he would have killed her. I wish I didn’t feel that way about CW but I do. Geez, if he felt Shan’ann wouldn’t let him do anything unless she told him to or say anything in the marriage, then speak up. If he fell out of love with his wife, as he said, and wanted out of their marriage because he finally found the love of his life who took his breath away and he has never felt that way about anyone but NK and wanted to be with her, then get your things and go and be with her. But he didn’t did he. He is a murderer and a coward and he is to blame for what he did. As I looked at these pictures of his precious children, they should have been the love of his life, how could he have done what he did if he truly feels love? Having a hard time understanding that.
The last chapter in your book TWO FACE: RAPE OF CASSANDRA just reading those words were so emotional and heartfelt for me. Thank You, Nick.
Lisa Simmons, YES X10000
He is a sociopath. He loves NO ONE. He NEVER loved Shan’ann , the girls , his parents AND CERTAINLY NOT SKANK NK. HE was loving the strange ***** and THAT is what love is too a narcissistic sociopath. PHYSICAL gratification is love to them. She would have ended up discarded too when he got bored of her. He is incapable of love or empathy. Missing the things that make a person human. IMO.
Absolutely. The fact that he had to Google “how does it feel to say I love you” or whatever it was, well, that show you this guy was definitely missing the “human” chip. Not sure how to diagnose what is wrong with him (Asperger’s, personality disorders, or something else) , nor do i really care. Once he did what he did to those beautiful girls and Shan’ann, he should have been exterminated.
There is a contradiction in what the girls were wearing as “night attire” when McKenna went over to babysit versus what the girls were wearing as night attire when they were pulled from the tanks.
McKenna said Chris had the girls already dressed for bed – Bella in a gown with blue stars, hearts and sparkles; Celeste in a peach-colored top with stars and hearts and that Chris took a picture, sent it to Sha’nann who posted it on facebook at 10:30 that night (was when Sha’nann posted it on facebook). This is likely the same picture he sent Sha’nann the next day when she requested another picture. Or he re-sent her a birthday party snapshot. In any event, McKenna said Chris picked up Papa Johns pizza for them in in those last two pictures and there is a plate in front of the girls and they are supposedly eating pizza. Those two pictures do appear to be taken with Chris’s phone as the quality isn’t great – as great as Sha’nann’s pictures would be.
But when the girls are pulled from the tanks Bella is in a pink pajama-type top with images of hearts and butterflies; Celeste is in a pink and black t-shirt, diaper, underwear.
Don’t kids usually have the same sleep attire they wear or could Watts have 1) never put them to bed but dressed them as if they had gone to bed; or 2) they were dressed in what they usually wear to bed and he changed their clothing (on the 12th).
One last thing. McKenna said Bella had trouble staying asleep and came out to talk to McKenna and told her she was concerned if CeCe ate coconut she would never see her again. It was enough to have her wake up and be frightened and sad and tell McKenna. Sounds like a recent worry – not a carryover from North Carolina. Might Watts have told her something like that more recently- similar to staging a covered doll on the couch?
What beautiful pictures: I wish there was a way the monster had these pictures and more given to him in his jail cell:
No, Lynn, he should have autopsy pictures only.
Why??? Monsters don’t feel any remorse or regret. He would not give one rats A$$ about pictures except to play the victim. Dude is ABSOLUTELY NOT HUMAN. IMO
Just a note to other commenters on this site: this is exactly the sort of commentary we don’t want to see at this site. Social media is chock full of these vacuous indictments. They tell us absolutely nothing about this case, except perhaps how little we understand about it and how little effort goes into understanding what happened by most folks.
Hi, Everyone. Sorry for barging in, but I would like to say that this site’s articles in re Watts Family are the best commentary online. Add the insightful comments/discussions following each post, and “I am hooked.” From now on, I am coming straight here for everything/anything Watts-related. Thanks for being “super awesome!”
It’s incomprehensible to me still that the guy singing in this video and the guy with the coal-black eyes in the police photos are the same person. They really look so different from each other.
https://youtu.be/WmBiZzB8e_M
Kaye, I was just watching his relationship presentation from years ago and it’s almost incomprehensible to me that’s the same person from his porch interviews. He looks, acts, AND talks differently. Not a single “umh, like…”
Hence “two face”…
…that has been clearly understood. Seeing it so graphically, in such obvious contrast, was/is astounding.
Ça vous interpelle pas qu’il est les cheveux gris à 33 ans