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 worldâs most prolific true crime author Nick van der Leek demonstrates how much we still donât 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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I don’t believe his story about using condoms with his wife. I think the old box of condoms that was opened could have been used with Amanda McMahon or Trent Bolte or someone else. And of course there was no separation where he’s still living in the house. Nichole is a good little sleuth , she’s got it semi-figured out by Aug. 14 when she describes him as a “hot mess” on Tuesday. The thing with Watts is though he never feels he can go the route of the truth. I’ve known people like that. They lie about the most absurd obvious things where a white lie or any other kind of lie isn’t needed or wanted. Half the time they don’t know they are doing it. It’s just that their life seems more colorful and believable if they punctuate it with lies because the truth could either hurt them or cause the whole house of cards to fall down, or so they think. The liar I lived with for a time was a roommate. Very colorful extroverted charismatic person, but so many lies. I met her family once, which was just her brother and mother. And her mother was exactly like her. Or rather she was exactly like her mother. So she came by it naturally. And when she moved out half of my music collection was gone.
What annoys me about Nichol’s statement is that she says that she thought Chris and Shannan had “built a beautiful life together” when Chris had already told her in no uncertain terms that this “beautiful life ” was a farce: Based on pretentions, over-spending, debt, S ignoring his preferences, S being bossy and vindictive, speaking in a derogatory manner to him to such an extent that the children had lost respect for him, etc. Nichol was clearly not listening.
Nichol meant it broadly. Wife, kids, house. From a distance it did look pretty good.
True as far as it goes. I know you’re capable of a deeper perspective, because I’ve read so many of your books.
Chris needed a woman who could see close up; see the glitz, the lies, the absolute absence of beauty there. The utter pretentious tackiness. Someone who could envision a modest but authentic life with him, with the kids visiting, and some professional and legal help to keep Shannan at bay.
I feel Nichol was profoundly wrong for Chris, and together with Shannan made his despair escalate. How often do we go from the frying pan into the fire. I’ve always been irked by her, “Is your lifestyle sustainable?” He should’ve responded, “No; and had you been listening you would know that I don’t want it to be. I just said I’d always wanted a small ranch house. “
that should have been a clue that she’s just as shallow as shan’ann was. She was referring to material things as “a beautiful life” when he was clearly telling her things aren’t what they seem. How else could she confuse the two??? She was looking to have the same type life (she said so herself).
So wanting a partner, kids and a house with someone is shallow? And…not wanting to take away someone’s wife and kids to get it but to start it yourself with someone who hasn’t…that’s shallow?
Don’t be absurd. Not what either of us meant to assert.
Thank you for this. You’ve spoken my thoughts exactly.
Or she was bedazzled by the size of the house, it’s furnishings, the Lexus, the pictures in the frames.
I don’t see her like that at all. If she was “bedazzled” wouldn’t she have urged him to keep the house [for her]. Instead she was urging him towards modesty, for example supporting him in moving out and getting smaller, more modest apartment. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was earning more than he was as well.
If her first impressions upon seeing how he lived was that he had it all and why wouldn’t he want to hold on to it she wouldn’t understand his family dynamics and only formed her impressions on what she saw – living large in a nice house. It was only after he told her life was not all as it seemed that she came to learn he was house poor. Then she made more inquiries as to how he was saving and what he preferred to have. Initially she wasn’t thinking about his house as something she would want for herself, she was only trying to get to know him. And based on what she saw, assumed he had it all. Certainly she was in charge of her own finances, something he wasn’t.
“bedazzled” was a poor choice of words.
No, it wasn’t. She was in fact bedazzled. Nick sometimes seems contrary to the man who writes so profoundly.
I don’t think Nichol was what I would call a high quality woman. She worked in an environment that was male-dominated – maybe she was hoping a man would come along, and one did. He was easy to hook because he wasn’t happy with his family life, and wanted something new. For having a college degree she’s a bit coarse. Chris thought she took his breath away and that he never could find someone like her but was she all that great of a find? Water seeks it’s level. When she saw the big house, the furnishings, etc. to her that looked like success, and what she wanted. And she was sending mixed messages. Fix your marriage, and here’s another nude shot of me.
Bingo, all the way. Poor Chris didn’t know what type he needed. “A bit coarse” is an understatement. đ
How can you say “in fact”?
Due to the fact that she describes that tacky, cheesy, schmaltzy, poorly decorated and pretentious house as “beautiful and full of super expensive things”. To my thinking, that is empirically bedazzled.
I guess it depends what you’re used to. She went into the house twice, and from the outside, it does look expensive.
Let me explain for a moment what I mean by what is a fact. A fact is something like time, place, the dimensions of something. It’s demonstrable or provable. What you’re talking about is your subjective opinion of someone else’s subjective opinion, and you’re arguing your subjective opinion is factual, that someone else’s attitude to something is fact.
I’ll tell you why the argument you’re making doesn’t make a whole lotta sense. By the end, Chris was repelled by Shan’ann’s materialism. The nails, the neon colors, the gloss, the showy expensiveness. He wasn’t a big player in her showy promotional videos either.
You may or may not be aware that I’ve spent many hours researching Nichol Kessinger. Maybe you feel you have. Not systematically, just sort of randomly reading something here and there. So this is actually a big deal. Is Kessinger with Watts because she’s attracted to his house and car and bank account?
Or is she bedazzled by his body and the sex?
In true crime you have to be so, so careful making absolute statements about anything, because they usually come back to haunt you.
âThe cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.â â Joseph Campbell
Thank you for your remarks. I understand. You have more information about her than I’ve gleaned. I would hope she loved him for who he was, but this is now sadly water under the bridge.
One of the biggest differences between SW and NK was in their attitudes toward their appearance. Shan’Ann clearly spent a lot of time caking makeup on every single day, never being seen without it, never being seen when she wasn’t posing, and those eyebrows that look like they’re trying to flee behind her ears. At bedtime, she had an entire ritual that likely involved smelly creams to get all that gunk off her face before she could even get into bed – how much of her day was consumed by all that “beauty”?
NK, on the other hand, appeared far more genuine – she would go out without any makeup at all and still be fully present, feel fully confident. She’d wear normal clothes that she could get dirty in; she liked simple, earthy pleasures like hiking and camping; and what little makeup she wore was natural-looking. Plus, she was bright and accomplished – she had a degree in geology, no mean feat, and she had a real job where she did real work and was respected and capable in her field. CW knew what NK was doing all day. And NK was fit and healthy.
Shan’Ann, on the other hand, was chasing the MLM dragon toward certain doom, and she was too dim to learn from her previous 6 failed MLM attempts that there was no other possible outcome. Think about it – if any of the 6 other MLMs Shan’Ann signed on with (Amway, Origami Owl, Thirty One, It Works!, LulaRoe, Younique) had panned out for her, would she have quit those?
If she was already wildly successful at MLM shilling, why would she have ever jumped on board with Thrive?
Yes, all very good observations. I possibly took some of her remarks the wrong way.
“She was in fact bedazzled” . . . and possibly a bit superficial.
Who in this story is superficial?
Response was towards Nikki and her bedazzled impression of the Watts “stuff”. Similiar to the phrase “you can’t tell a book by its cover.”
So you think Kessinger is superficial?
I was reacting to “bedazzled”. I recall she was made a comment about their house and all the nice things in it. I don’t know if she is superficial, but to me, being impressed by other peoples things, seem superficial. Maybe wrong word, shallow. Then again, maybe I misinterpreted the intent for the use of bedazzled.
. . . maybe immature? Hmmmm . . . You’ve got me thinking
That’s how it struck me, yes.
So was Nichol Kessinger “superficial”?
I don’t believe so. She was comfortable being photographed wearing ratty clothes and wearing no makeup, with her hair unbrushed. Contrast with Shan’Ann’s carefully-made-up, perfectly coiffed, obviously posed pictures everywhere, with that bright red fakey lipstick as if she’s a major movie star on the red carpet even though she’s a housewife in suburbia – that’s superficial. When you’re out at the grocery store, someone walking around with all that makeup on and bright red lipstick really sticks out – most people don’t live like that.
I believe NK was wowed by the Watts’ house with all its accoutrements, but she mentioned she felt “uncomfortable…that she didn’t belong there”. Of course she complimented him on their house, expressing that it was “beautiful” – it was. But it represented something NK was uncomfortable with – I think that is the obvious amount of money it would take to buy a place like that, kit it out like that, and maintain it.
Notice that CW discloses that the house is part of an expensive *image* that Shan’Ann wants to project and an expensive lifestyle Shan’Ann wants. He discloses how much the mortgage payment is per month. NK immediately starts asking CW about his/their financial situation, is it “sustainable”, and starts exploring options with him for how to take more control over the finances (setting up separate bank accounts to funnel part of his salary into). It’s possible that the reason NK was “uncomfortable” there was that she was thinking, “There’s no way he can afford all this on just his salary.” And it very quickly came out that he didn’t even want that lifestyle, that it was Shan’Ann who was set on living that way (“expensive parties”). NK thus was helping him explore options for having the surroundings and lifestyle he had indicated he wanted instead – looking into a 2-bdrm apartment, for starters. CW still hoped he could get out of there with a nice ride, but even that was an SUV – a family car, not some mid-life-crisis-y convertible sports car with room for just himself and NK. CW was consistent that he saw his girls in his future at this point.
Ok, I took her words as indicating some other perspective, but you’ve clarified here. It’s incredibly sad that Chris really did want his daughters in his life.
“most people donât live like that”
I was talking about being pretentious – pretending you’re something other than what you really are. Making an effort to appear different, better than others. I saw a lot of this on display in Shan’Ann’s videos.
My older sister had a roommate right out of high school – this is back in the late 1970s. Back then, A/C in cars was an expensive add-on option, just like power windows were. These features had not yet become standard equipment. The cheaper cars had crank windows and vent only (no A/C). The roommate insisted that people would drive around on 95-degree summer days with their windows rolled up to make others *think* they had air conditioning in their cars when they didn’t.
O_o
Really pathetic that people would do that to project an image, but actually logical within a competitive and materialistic culture.
Without being obscene or graphic, Iâd just like to say that chrisâ condom story is totally plausible. Especially considering shannan liked a super clean and super organized house (she actually made everyoneâs bed in the morning), it is not a far stretch that she would prefer certain bodily fluids to not get on her sheets or all over herself when she stood up after sex. My husband and I have stretches of time (like a year or two) where that is our primary method of birth control. Yes, a married couple using condoms and we donât cheat or have an open relationship, etc. We joke around about the condom usage having a side benefit of âno spillingâ. Clean sheets and a relatively clean me. It works for us. So I can get behind chrisâ story here.
“”I asked why it was so expensive
CW said that about $500 of the $2,800 was home owners insurance”
Also, since CW did not put at least 20% down, that amount likely included around $300 of mortgage insurance, which is separate from homeowners insurance. It’s a travesty – mortgages are one of the safest investments around, but this is one way they get the first-time buyers and those who don’t have much money, to squeeze more out of them. One does not have a choice in the matter; I’m not sure if you can get out of the mortgage insurance via the property increasing in value. Once you’ve paid down 20% of the mortgage balance, then you can get the mortgage insurance stripped off – I’ve heard that one must *ask* to get it off the mortgage, though. They’ll happily continue collecting their $300/month of your money for the life of the mortgage…
I’ve found NK to be an independent woman that enjoys nature, simplicity in her appearance and her life style. That she doesn’t wear the mask of makeup speaks about her self esteem and confidence. I wonder if Chris was her first affair with a married man? I can see how she got involved with him because he lied to her from the very beginning. Most of us enter a new relationship with trust and later may have that broken. Few if any of us enter a relationship with distrust especially a sexual relationship. I’ve never viewed NK as having a desire to be cash poor to pay for a façade. That isn’t her walk in life. She enjoys hiking and camping out and wasn’t asking for a 5 star room at the Hyatt. I think she is smart and saw discrepancies in CW’s story very quickly last summer. I think that because NK slept with a married man, many place perceptions on her that are not accurate and are harsh. She fell for a man and his words and will be paying dearly for this for a very long time.