When I wrote the first book in the TWO FACE series, I was convinced that the cadaver dog evidence would be instrumental in solving this case. I was also certain Chris Watts made a fatal error in allowing the canine units into his home. This suspicion seemed to be confirmed by the loud barking of these dogs while he was giving his Sermon on Porch. I assumed those barks were the dogs alerting to cadaver traces. I was right. And wrong.
It’s true that Jayne Zmijewski’s K9 alerted in several places. But Jeff Hiebert’s K9 did not. For there to be “reasonable cause” to suspect a crime, an alert requires corroboration. This may be physical evidence, or a second dog showing a strong alert separately but in the same area. If this happens it’s considered “confirmed”. But this didn’t happen in the Watts case.
In fairness to the dogs we have to acknowledge that in this instance the dogs weren’t just scenting for one cadaver but three, and making it even more complicated was the fact that all three cadavers occupied the search area in life, which had been extensively cleaned prior to the search. Adding to this was the possibility that scented items were contaminated by Watts himself.
Although the shoes of the children were used to scent off, it appears these had been washed and touched by Watts.
Normally the brief for a cadaver dog is simple: find evidence of a dead person. In the Watts case the dogs had to identify the dead, and there were three identities to juggle in their noses.
When the discovery was made available, I made a beeline for the cadaver evidence but was sorely disappointed at how iffy it all was. Watts obviously had reason to be confident in letting the dogs in. He’d prepared and processed the house from top to toe. It’s not that he completely boggled the animals, just that he compromised the crime scene enough to produce a confusing and contradictory result. The dogs were interested in something, but they couldn’t agree on where. Nevertheless it’s a mistake to assume there were no alerts. The word “alert” appears 102 times in the Discovery Documents. Let’s examine a few of them: 1. Cadaver Alerts
What both dogs have in common is that they both alerted to the basement stairs. According to the discovery, one dog alerted at the bottom, the other at the top, or both at the bottom. The Discovery Documents are somewhat inconsistent and unclear on this information.
It was HLN who made an open records request to Weld County for the doorbell camera footage of Shan’ann arriving home at 01:48.
Around the same time HLN contacted Weld County Courts, so did I. On February 20th I received a response to a request for Return Date of Summons [for the August 24th court appearance]. This was the email response I received:
There’s a fair bit of information I’m looking for since I have three more books to complete in this series. In no particular order:
Full autopsy findings
Autopsy photos
Police + CBI Crime Scene photos [Saratoga Trail – besides and excluding the bodycam video footgae]
Police + CBI Crime Scene photos [CERVI 319 – besides and excluding the drone footage]
Shan’ann Watts: Financial records
Shan’ann Watts: Criminal Records [North Carolina]
Police report re: forensic evidence and testing [sheets, carpet, blue glove, dustbin detritus etc]
Vivint records for July 4th and July 14th [dates Nichol Kessinger visited Watts home]
Police report re: cadaver dog examination of the interior of work truck
Police report re: internal examination of Lexus.
Transcripts of the interrogation subsequent to the “confession” leading to the plea deal.
Transcripts of meetings in November between Watts, his counsel and his parents.
Nichol Kessinger cell phone review and images.
Browser histories of home computer
Audio Interview Transcriptions
Anything you would like to add to this list?
For those who would like to submit their own records requests, please download and print this form, or leave your address and I will email you the attachment:
A lot of true crime, and especially true crime commentary, is about playing Monday Morning Quarterback. It’s easy. It’s comfortable. We can sit here and pontificate and prognosticate from our thrones or avatars on what Shan’ann thought or felt, and we may think that means something.
But it’s very easy to go through life picking on and preying on the wisdom of the fallen. Some may argue that it’s a futile exercise to begin with: to try to find meaning in a fallen world.I would argue that that is true unless we aim to rebuild ourselves and this world with this knowledge.
We gain nothing when we look at these crimes and criminals and use distancing language and psychologies to separate ourselves from it. We’re all familiar with it. It’s the default setting for 99% of the commentary that is out there: He’s a narcissist! He’s a covert somatic narcissist! He’s a sociopath! He’s a psychopath! He’s a monster! He has no feelings whatsoever! He’s evil!
This speaks volumes not about the Watts case, and not of Watts as a man, but the shallow perceptions of those wallowing in the victim mentality of the case. The mob would have us believe that the monster is Watts. But until the moment he committed these crimes, everybody loved him. What does that say about everybody? What does it reveal to us about society?
At TCRS we don’t want to form tribes of allegiance, or to take anyone’s side. While we try to be sensitive and compassionate to the victims, our real loyalty is to the truth [whatever that may be]. And the truth that connects us to true crime is that all of us, in some shape or form, are living a lie. We’re all Pinocchios wherever we are in our lives, trying to get by without our noses giving us away.
All of us, in some way, are criminals in our lives. Some are simply bigger liars, more made of wood, than others. It’s when we – like them – acknowledge our crimes, our traitorous hearts, our criminal minds, that we redeeem ourselves. It’s when we show contrition and remorse for who we are, what we are and what we’ve done, that we can begin to build ourselves into better people. That’s how we build a better world, from the inside out, not the outside in.
We ought to approach true crime with the same work ethic, discipline and humility. Instead of wagging our fingers casting our judgments, we ought to reflect on our own private connections to these people, not so much how we differ from one another, but what is far more troubling – what we have in common. For example, Shan’ann’s use of Facebook. What does that say about us, and our use [or possible overuse] of Facebook]?
To really get something out of true crime, and there are vast treasures of meaning if we care to look, but to get there we have to get over ourselves and into a place where we can see the crime as it is, and criminals [and their victims] for who they are.
Getting over ourselves starts by doing something no one wants to do. Admit that we make mistakes. Face the abyss in ourselves.
Like this: I’ve been feeling much more kindly towards Shan’ann recently, too. Although she didn’t do things the way I would, she comes across as sweet, genuine, and very earnest in her Facebook Live videos, (which I have begun watching for some reason. ) A beautiful young woman, in between the ages of my own daughter and my older son, and so full of enthusiasm and life. (Literally, with Niko.) I’m about 80% through Drilling Through Discovery, and I love a certain quote of Nick’s, something to the effect of “murder is a natural artifact of lying.” That quote took me back to a very dark time in my marriage and family life, wherein all I did was lie. I lied to everybody; I put false names with fake numbers into my phone, blatantly lied about my reasons for traveling to another state, and felt total contempt and disregard for my husband. (I still loved my kids, and they are a huge part of the reason I pulled out of that free fall. ) I never considered murder, not at all, but I had horrible thoughts about how “easy” my life would be if my husband were just to disappear. No custody fight over our young son, no more of him blowing my cover to my family and telling them what was *really* going on, no more of his nasty drunken mouth. Like Chris, I had almost an entire summer to myself, as my husband moved south to our new home before I did, and our son joined him there on the fourth of July, courtesy of my parents. So, for about five weeks, until the middle of August when I relocated to our new home, I had a lot of freedom, and I liked it. Yes, there was an affair partner, and I’d met him at work. The parallels are just too crazy. I made other choices. By the grace of God, I did the relocation, and was miserable at first, but then something miraculous happened. I started to build a life there, and rebuild my family. That was the choice I made. Like myself, like Shan’ann, my husband is a good but flawed human being, and a decade plus later, we are still working things out. We have money issues, relationship struggles, and we sometimes forget to be kind to one another. But, it is with a whole new attitude. We thank one another for things, and we are about to embark on our first road trip together since our son was born almost 22 years ago. Divorce would have been another legitimate choice, but financial problems mainly kept me from pursuing that avenue, and I’m grateful I stayed. My husband isn’t perfect, but I made other choices. Shan’ann wasn’t perfect, but Chris, too, had other choices. And for the love of everything holy, what in fact did those children ever do to deserve their fate? I’m sorry for Chris that he felt so trapped, but I’m way sorrier for his wife and children that their choices were taken away needlessly.
The date of Baumhover’s legal warrant to look into the doorbell footage is worth noting. November 14 was just 5 days prior to the sentencing hearing, and after the plea deal had been signed. This suggests the detective gave some credence to the possibility that Shan’ann’s BAC may have indicated she’d arrived home inebriated.
This is a screengrab from the Ring doorbell camera at 2825 Saratoga Trail. In her left hand, Shan’ann is holding her phone. Over her shoulder Nickole Atkinson is backing down the drive. Once inside the door, Shan’ann waved and Atkinson drove off. What happened next remains unknown.
Cindy McLeod Watts’s mother was Gertrud Schoettner McLeod, born in 1925 in Radisfort, Czechoslovakia. Gertrud died in 2015 in a nursing home in Fayetteville, NC. Her obituary is very short; this is unusual in that it doesn’t list any family except Cindy Watts and Cindy’s sister, Linda and that there are four grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren, all unidentified. Obits like this sometimes indicate some degree of family estrangement, but not necessarily so. It contrasts with obituaries from the Rzucek family which are much more loving toward the deceased and contain more extended family names and relationships. (Overall, the Rzucek and Watts families seem contrasted in that the Watts family seems impoverished somehow whereas the Rzuceks appear more connected and loving, but that’s just what is seen from here.) Gertrud’s documents say that she was stateless. This could be from any number of reasons. I won’t speculate about that here, but her status could have been a decided disadvantage to her in Czechoslovakia. and later, in Germany. Radisfort is near Trebic where there was a Jewish community of about 300 in the 1930s. (formerly 1500 people lived there in 1890s) The Jewish people living there in the ’30s were taken to the German concentration camps and killed. Only 10 came back to the area after WWII. Gertrud’s papers show that she and Herman Dalton McLeod married in Landshut, Germany in 1951. Gertrud’s and Herman’s first daughter, Doris L(inda) McLeod was born in Germany; Cindy was born at Fort Bragg, NC. Herman’s online documents show that he served in the US Army 1943-1963. The U.S. Army maintained facilities in Landshut until 1968. Herman died in 1991, having served 20 years in the US Army. Gertrud’s physical description on her naturalization application is age 30; weight 136; 5 feet 3 inches tall; hair blonde; eyes blue. (I thought of Cece.) The family was living in Hodgenville, Kentucky when the naturalization petition was filed. Hodgenville is 25 miles from Fort Knox, the US gold repository. They moved to North Carolina at some point, likely to the Fort Bragg area where Herman McLeod could have been stationed. That area is where Cindy grew up. Landshut, Germany is the location for the Dachau Concentration Camp, opened in 1933 to hold political prisoners. We don’t know at what point Gertrud moved to Landshut. Possibly she was there during the time Dachau operated. She would most certainly have heard the stories of what happened there. Since Herman was in the military by age 22 in 1943, he likely was sent to the European theater of war and could have been part of the US forces that liberated Dachau in 1945, but this is just speculation. This Wikipedia link about Dachau goes into detail about what happened there Since Gertrud lived to 2015, and lived near Chris and his family in North Carolina, he could have had regular contact with her. Did she talk about her experiences in World War II era Czechoslovakia and Germany? Did she tell stories about Dachau? Could she have sparked an interest in Chris in the concentration camps? I thought of the Stephen King book, Apt Pupil, where a young boy becomes friends with an old man living in America who was once a concentration camp prison guard. The man gradually begins to tell the boy of the atrocities in the camp, and the boy becomes obsessed – asking the man to tell him about the “gooshy stuff”, details of the horrible things that went on in the camp. Eventually, the boy turns to murder as a way to keep his own demons at bay. Chris’s grandmother may have lived in a town where some of worst crimes against humanity in history occurred and it is possible that she lived there when the camp was operating. There is no way of knowing if Gertrud talked to Chris about this unless someone in the family says she did.
GREELEY CO – NOVEMBER 19: Cindy Watts gets emotional after addressing the court during her son’s sentencing at the Weld County Courthouse on November 19, 2018 in Greeley, Colorado. Christopher Watts was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his pregnant wife, daughters. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
One final thought: Cindy’s background had this connection to mass violence and murder. Ronnie Watts’s family was wounded by violence as well. Ronnie’s direct ancestor was a soldier in America’s greatest killing spree – the Civil War, Confederate side. There are other Civil War soldiers in those family lines. The official numbers for the Civil War dead are in the range of 700,000 total for both sides. Living people today revere their Civil War soldier ancestors and many Southerners are still angry about the outcome of the war. I see this in my own family. The current rise is neofascism in this country has appropriated symbols of that war and in some cases, they blend the Nazi swastika with the Confederate flag image. North Carolina was torn apart more than some areas by the war, with the brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor killing amounting to a war within a war. The movie and book, Cold Mountain, is a good depiction of this. All that said, the Watts family is a closed system. Endless speculation as I have done really doesn’t add much because a direct connection to Chris’s deeds in 2018 is just not there and unlikely to be proven. Sources: Kentucky, Naturalization Records, 1906-1991 The National Archives at Atlanta; Atlanta, Georgia; Petitions for Naturalization, compiled 1906 – 1978; NAI: 1275754; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States; Record Group Number: 21 Wikipedia articles about Dachau, Landshut, and Trebic
On August 9, 2018, a few days prior to the murders in Frederick, and a week prior to Watts interrogation and confession, Vanessa Bennett, the victim of a family murder in Aurora in 1984, broke her silence.
From 9News.com:
Vanessa Bennett sat under a picnic shelter on a muggy Arizona morning and talked for the first time about the physical and emotional toll she bears as the only surviving victim of one of Colorado’s most brutal crimes. Bennett is 38 now, and the scars of the 1984 hammer attack that left her clinging to life are visible. Vanessa’s life changed on Jan. 16, 1984. Her grandmother, Constance Bennett, went to the family’s home that morning after her son and daughter-in-law didn’t show up for work at the family’s furniture business. She walked into a scene of absolute horror: Bruce Bennett crumpled near the bottom of the stairs, Debra Bennett and Melissa dead in their bedrooms, Vanessa barely breathing. “I was in a coma,” Vanessa Bennett said Thursday. “My jaw was wired shut. I had tubes in my nose to eat. I went through physical therapy. I had braces on my legs.” The physical injuries were difficult to overcome. “I had paralysis on my left-hand side,” she said. “So, like, I felt handicapped, you know. I had a lot of anger issues growing up. My family really couldn’t handle me – I just wore everybody out with my problems.” Some of those problems were fueled by the things other kids said to her. “I was made fun of in school because my parents were killed,” she said. “I was made fun of because the hammer man or whatever you want to call it was going to come to my house and hurt everybody when I had slumber parties and stuff. I was made fun of for a long time.” She was frank as she discussed her life. She has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. She also struggled for a decade with substance abuse problems and got into multiple scrapes with the law.
During her interrogation of Watts, Agent Lee cited Bennett’s “survivor’s guilt”, saying:
She said I wish I could’ve died with them.
At this point Lee was fielding a scenario where one of the children died by accident [say, Ceecee from an extreme allergic reaction], and Shan’ann freaked out and then killed the other child and perhaps herself.
The second scenario Lee cited was the Castle Rock case, where a mother was found guilty of smothering her two children to death. Denver Post [November 27, 2012]: Prosecutors said Kelli Murphy smothered and killed her two young children in May 2011 because she was not going to share custody of themwith anyone else. On Tuesday, a jury agreed. “This is a woman bent on control,” prosecutor Chris Gallo said during closing arguments. “Controlling her kids, her husband and her divorce … It was Kelli’s way or no way.” Douglas County District Judge Vincent White immediately sentenced her to two terms of life without parole after the nine men and three women on the jury found her guilty of two counts of first-degree murder after deliberation and two counts of first-degree murder of a victim under 12 years old. When her sentence was read, Murphy, 43, remained silent and looked forward until she was led from the courtroom. Throughout the case, prosecutors claimed that Murphy killed her 6-year-old daughter, Madigan, and 9-year-old son, Liam, when she became distraught over her impending divorce from her husband, Robert Eric Murphy. Gallo said Murphy was a controlling, angry, calculating woman who did not want to share the children with her ex-husband. “I want 100 percent custody of the kids and 100 percent of your salary,” Gallo told the jury that Kelli Murphy had told Robert Murphy. “I’m going to make your life hell.”
Bill Finley, who runs the 411 YouTube channel, is one of the better, more informed commentators on the Chris Watts case. Finley apparently sent in a public records request shortly before sentencing in November 2018, and received the autopsy reports via FedEx which included several photos. It also appears the report he received had slightly more information than the one in the discovery file.
The relevant excerpt is provided below:
At 15:47 in Finley’s YouTube spiel, he brings up an element that isn’t in the autopsy report as we see it in the Discovery Documents. It has to do with Bella’s so-called “defensive wounds”:
[Reading from the report] “There is exterior evidence of injuries [to Bella]. There is a 13×3 cm area of vertical lacerations on her buttocks…and she had several defensive wounds on her hands [back sides] and forearms [outer edges] and the backs of her heels…also discoloration [bruising] of upper left shoulder…as well as a cut on the head. The autopsy report speculates that the cut on the head and missing hair is when Watts tried to shove [Bella] into the tank.”
Finley reckons the opening of the thief hatch was 15 inches. But this seems to be an error on his part.
I did contact Finley directly [see below tweetgrab] in an effort to get more information on the autopsy reports. While I don’t wish to leak photos, I would like to see them so that I can describe them, or get a description directly from Finley. Finley, as far as I can tell, doesn’t describe the images beyond saying “they ain’t pretty”.
Perhaps some of you might have have better luck getting a response than I did.
It’s been 74 days since we last saw Jason Rohde, the millionaire convicted of murdering his wife Susan. Almost three months have past since the first phase of the sentencing trial [which usually lasts half a day to a day] was heard on December 5th, 2018. It was speculated that Rohde’s eldest daughter Kathryn would testify, but ultimately she did not. His younger daughters were writing final matric exams at the time. This was brought up in December as well.
Curiously during the trial none of the daughters names were to be uttered in court. This was strictly enforced by Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe. Post conviction, it appears, that’s changed.
Loadshedding affected some of the coverage but it seems the media have dodged a bullet today, with no loadshedding scheduled after it returned with a vengeance last week.
In three months, amnesia can set in. The sentencing court may “forget” the merits of the case, and become foggy about evidence. The defense can then pull out a new canvas and sketch their client to their heart’s content. To a point.
Today they’ve elected to try to do that using three character witnesses: two friends of the convicted murderer Jason Rohde will testify, and finally his mother, Brenda, will testify on behalf of her son in mitigation of sentence.
In hindsight, just like the entire trial, it seems much ado about nothing. Because Judge Salie-Hlophe made a passing remark right at the end of the court day that she didn’t really need the heads of argument from both counsels. This makes sense. Like the Oscar Pistorius case, and Henri van Breda, this one was pretty obvious from the get go. And like the Judge in the Van Breda case, Salie-Hlophe is pretty clear on what needs to happen to Rohde. He didn’t just commit a crime, he – like Pistorius and Van Breda – went out of his way to obstruct justice.
#Rohde Jason, who sports a new haircut, greeted his mom Brenda as he was led to the dock. She is sitting near him. Jason keeps his head down in court. (@JennaEtheridge) pic.twitter.com/oXFqTBWoVF
#Rohde: Jason Rohde sports a new shorter haircut having spent 74 nights in Pollsmoor prison. His eldest daughter, Kathryn, didn’t testify last year after judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe refused her to testify in camera. @eNCApic.twitter.com/fnTySAAv1m
#Rohde Livingstone: I am aware of Jason's conviction but the purpose today is to testify about his character. I met Jason at our daughters' school in 2015. We have become very close friends. (@JennaEtheridge)
#Rohde: Livingstone met Jason on the gholf course and says he was also good friends with Susan. He knew the couple in Joburg and Plettenberg Bay. He says he got very close to Jason during the “dark days” after Susan’s death. “He’s been incredibly supportive of my business”@eNCA
#Rohde Livingstone says Jason has been his daughters' sole provider. He describes him as a kind, caring and supportive friend who cared not only about himself but others too. He said he paid for a two-week holiday for a disadvantaged orphan girl to Plett. (@JennaEtheridge)
#Rohde Under cross-exam, prosecutor Louis van Niekerk highlights that Livingstone never knew about Jason's affair. He also said Susan instigated charitable holiday for orphan girl. He says Livingstone didn't actually know Jason well. Witness disagrees. He is excused. @TeamNews24
#Rohde: Craig Fleischer says Jason was his best friend. He is testifying for mitigation of sentence. He got to know both Susan and Jason in Plettenberg Bay. Says he was also good friends with Susan.@eNCApic.twitter.com/KhRUr1TYmp
#Rohde All of this is intended to humanise him. Go through his entire life story. I'm surprised they're not showing him as a toddler. The idea is that it will be more difficult to sentence someone who's fleshed out than a cardboard cutout. Has amnesia set in after he long delay?
#Rohde Defence lawyer Graham van der Spuy (VDS) says that at last appearance, he had wanted to call Jason's daughter but she was reluctant. He then said she should stand down "and re-assess in the cold light of day". @TeamNews24
#Rohde Brenda: I put an ad in the newspaper and that is how we got divorced. I heard rumours that his father had gone to Australia and then the UK. I was 21 and Jason was about 2. Met current husband, who I have been married to for 46 years, when Jason was about 3.
#Rohde Brenda says no one has complained to her about Jason being violent. "If it has happened, I am totally unaware of it and I don’t think it has, as he doesn’t like aggression at such. He hates the display of violence. He is a gentle person." (@JennaEtheridge)
#Rohde Brenda: My husband was a cruise operator and I helped him. I later became an estate agent and started a business with Jason and my business partner. (@JennaEtheridge)
#Rohde Brenda says Jason's eldest Kathryn had to give up her studies last year because of the pressures of the trial. She and Jason "possibly have a better relationship than they ever did before and it’s such a lovely thing to see." @TeamNews24
#Rohde Brenda now going to discuss her son's personality and integrity. 'You've got to know Jason to love him. He appears to be aloof and standoffish. But as you get to know him, that's just his manner. As a business partner he's been very good. He's totally honest."
#Rohde: Brenda says she doesn’t have enough funds to support the three girls. The twins started studying this year. She is not sure how Susan’s family are gonna contribute to their upbringing but they are raising funds.@eNCA
#Rohde Now prosecutor Louis van Niekerk to cross-examine the murderer's mother. Cuts to the chase, talking to her about money. "They are very well cared for, at university, the twins." "I have no idea, I told you." "It's been financed by this trust he set up."
Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe cuts in early on to rap the prosecutor's knuckles. "The witness has answered the question." She seems to be on his case lately. #Rohde.
"Support of my son…to tell the truth." Prosecutor asks if there's an element of bias. "I wouldn't say I was biased. I just stated what I believe and what is fact." Brenda is excused. That concludes the mitigation phase. #Rohde
Prosecutor refers to a letter indicating R735 000 has been transferred into a Liberty Life trust for the twins' studies in early 2019. Behind him Jason sticks his tongue into his cheek. Puts into perspective Brenda's recent testimony about no money for studies. #Rohde
It's interesting that Susan Rohde appeared to have a life insurance policy with Discovery that included a suicide clause, meaning, unusually, there would be a payment in the event of suicide, presumably after a discretionary period [3 years]. #Rohdehttps://t.co/vc8ntLpn4N
Van der Spuy wants to submit closing heads of argument. Cites loadshedding for him losing an entire day of work. Wants postponement until Wednesday. #Rohde
The irony is that had Rohde been found innocent, and his wife “guilty” of committing suicide, a life insurance payment would nevertheless have kicked in. Having been found guilty, another insurance policy kicked in – from Liberty Life. Effectively then the mother’s death by her father has paid for her children’s studies.
#Rohde High Court will hear closing arguments today. Jason waves at friends in the gallery and chats with his mom Brenda. She asked the court earlier this week to be lenient with his sentence. Follow live feed here: https://t.co/IEeIctAkfL@TeamNews24pic.twitter.com/PgroTqANbi
"Had Mr. #Rohde taken the court into his confidence, that would have counted as a mitigating factor. But the converse cannot count as an aggravating factor." Interesting.
#Rohde: Should the court decide on the minimum of 15 years, I don't think a three or four year sentence for the severe state of defeating the ends of justice, warrants such a sentence. I think a sentence of 18-20 years is more appropriate.@eNCA
Behind the prosecutor, #Rohde scratches his temple, looks at the roof, glances into the back of Van Niekerk's head. Quite a contrast to #VanBreda who couldn't stay awake at this stage of the trial.
#Rohde Van der Spuy arguing there was no premeditation. Tough one. Fighting, strangling [which takes several minutes], staging. I'm not sure premeditation can be excluded. Judge Salie-Hlophe: "Are we not talking about premeditated murder?"
#Rohde VDS: The murder was committed in a moment of passion, absolute weakness and madness, and loss of control in the context of the accused simply having snapped. @TeamNews24
#Rohde: Van der Spuy: Jason was too embroiled in an adulterous relationship. He wanted to maintain his family relationships while enjoying the benefits of the affair. "Adultery ceased to be a crime many years ago. Such infidelity are nowadays quite a common occurrence"@eNCA
#Rohde We are back. VDS returns to murder. "I can only describe this as a moment of weakness or madness, in which he simply snapped. Court found he punched her on her eyebrow, he exerted force on her to immobilise, he throttled and smothered her." @TeamNews24
#Rohde Van der Spuy grandly claims how his client protected his daughters from the legal process during their matric exams. To be fair, when the exams were over [now] none of his daughters came forward to testify on his behalf. Clearly his defence sought their endorsement.
#Rohde VDS: "I can't come and argue that my client is remorseful for killing his wife [because he maintains his innocence]. It is clear that Mr Rohde has huge remorse involved in the death of his wife". Jason testified his misconduct led to her death. @TeamNews24
#Rohde Van der Spuy argues for every year the accused is absent, the children suffer. Judge breaks in to point out, "Ironically, the same applies to the deceased."
#Rohde LVN: A lot was made about his deep, good, warm relationships but one has to mirror that against how he reacted to his wife confronting him. He shied away from it. Judge says: "It's his personality. Let's not punish him for that." @TeamNews24
As Van Niekerk describes all the injuries suffered during "the beginning of the wrestling match", #Rohde can be seen on camera blinking behind the prosecutor's head. pic.twitter.com/33khwS0KU5
#Rohde The lighter blue block represents the rate in the rest of the world compared to South Africa. South Africa needs to get serious about #femicide real fast!
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.
SILVER FOX III available now in paperback!
“If you are at all curious about what really happened in the Watts case, then buy this book, buy every one he has written and you will get as close as humanly possible to understanding the killer and his victims.”- Kathleen Hewtson. Purchase the very highly rated and reviewed SILVER TRILOGY – POST TRUTH COMING SOON.
TCRS MERCH available now – just in time for Christmas!
Book 5 – ALL NEW! “I have thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook…” – Connie Lukens. Drilling Through Discovery Complete Audiobook
Read the entire 9-Part TWO FACE series, the most definitive book series covering the Chris Watts Case
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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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