A few things that have stood out reading through the release are Nichol Kessinger being bi-pilor [according to Watts] and her “getting pissed” when he left her to go home. Watts also acknowledges it was possible Kessinger knew Shan’ann was pregnant [via Facebook], but says if she knew she didn’t say.
According to Watts his relationship with Kessinger “contributed” to the murders, but she never asked him to do anything.
Also:
-Watts denies knowing Trent Bolte
-Watts indirectly denies knowing Amanda McMahon
-Watts doesn’t want either of them charged for making false claims against him
-According to Watts he met Nichol Kessinger on June 1st 2018
-Kessinger saw a picture of his family on his computer at work [according to Watts] and so she knew he was married…
-Kessinger talked about meeting after his trip with Shan’ann to San Diego [in late June]
-He wished he’d worked more in the field so he’d never gotten close to Kessinger
-He felt like Kessinger pursued him, which was unusual…
-Watts seems to regret his relationship with Kessinger, and now has pictures of his wife and daughters in his cell [and talks to them every day]
-He stayed at Kessinger’s home almost every night while Shan’ann and the kids were in North Carolina
– He slept over at Kessinger’s house almost the entire month of July
-Being away from home made him entertain the notion of not being a father and husband
-He never had a girlfriend during high-school
-The longest relationship he had before Shan’ann was about 6 months
REGARDING SHAN’ANN’S MURDER
-Shan’ann lay face down. She turned onto her back. He straddled her [sitting on top of her] and spoke to her for 20 minutes. She initially thought he wanted to have sex with her.
-She said he was hurting the baby
-He asked if they could cancel their trip to Aspen
-He asked if they could move to Brighton
-He told Shan’ann he didn’t think their marriage was going to work
-He also felt like when he used their credit card with Kessinger on Saturday night, this was “the last straw”
-Shan’ann hadn’t taken off her bra and had mascara running down her face. She asked him “what about last night?”…
-He still couldn’t bring himself to tell her about Kessinger
-He told Shan’ann he didn’t love her
-Shan’ann told him:
“You’re never going to see the kids again…get off me…don’t hurt the baby…”
-He immediately put both hands around Shan’ann’s neck and strangled her.
Doesn’t exactly resonate with truth, does it?
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As I read the reports re NK and his “talking her down from a ledge” and her bipolar syndrome, I received a very different impression of her.
When you listen to the audiotape his voice is so strong and in command. I think he regrets Nichol and wishes his family were back. He more or less says this openly.
I think so too. He fell out of love pretty quick.
Do we really have the truth now?
One wonders…..
I don’t think so. I think Chris has been reading all the negative comments from people about this being a premeditated crime, and he used this interview to FIX that.
I think he will continue to read what people are saying about him and will seek an opportunity to tell another version of how all this happened. He desperately wants people to like him.
Either he doesn’t possess the ability to understand how his lies are torturing the family of his murdered wife and children, or he just doesn’t care about that. It’s all about Chris. Fake as ever.
He wants to distance himself from the Chris who just didn’t know what he was doing. He felt like he didn’t deserve to live (reminds me of O.J. and the high speed Bronco chase with a gun to his head). That he might have brought the gas can with him to “take care of himself” (because Lee threw him a bone there) but he didn’t want to endanger any other workers.
“He didn’t know what to do.” To me Sha’nann must have said something alot more damaging to him than she would take the kids. If he’s trying to negotiate at 4 in the morning – cancel the trip to Aspen, move to Brighton – “get away from the house” this doesn’t sound realistic to me at all. He says “it felt like an anger thing that morning” that’s more realistic. Why asks Lee, “nothing that makes anyone want to do this.” So he’s depersonalized the whole experience. Still processing. But snapped isn’t an option for me. He also had time to think for that 40 minute drive (40?). Yet he’s shaking and doesn’t know what to do.
So many defense scenarios are “he/I just snapped”. That’s why it’s so annoying when folks believe in the guilt of these people, and yet they unthinkingly recycle this myth, thus reinforcing it. The media do too.
He just “snapped” three times in a brief period of time here, didn’t he? Good grief.
Within this scenario, it’s preposterous that he murdered his 2 innocent daughters. He could have hid Shannan and tried to get away with it as a single father. Really far more upsetting now re Bella, and CeCe. WTF?
That’s why I think imprisonment does not serve him right. In a sense he is like a “monk”, he can go into a self-detachment mode easily. And you can send him to prison or South Pole, it won’t matter much.
Didn’t you say yesterday you were done with this case and never coming here again?
Just came to check if revisions to the books have been published. 🙂 There’s no shame in humility.
He does seem to have really conflicting feelings about Shan’nan even now – there is obviously still quite a bit of resentment there, ie her overbearing nature, her separating him from his family, the submissive role he was forced to play in the household, yet he refers to her as his beautiful wife and does seem to feel remorse for killing her. I think if someone is being strangled, it’s natural for the survival instinct to take over, and the fact that she didn’t fight back is very eerie and sad.
The idea of Kessinger pursuing him fits the details (the deleted/recovered text in June where he responded “if you want me I’ll be there”). This is so fascinating and so sad.
Do you think Shanann ever had Nickole Atkinson drive by her house at night to see if Chris was there while she was in NC? It almost sounds like she did on July 4 because he wasnt taking her calls and she said she “didnt know where he was the next morning”.
Possibly, but it would have been hard to tell if he was home or not, considering he drove the Lexus, which was kept parked in the garage. With garage doors closed, one would be unable to tell if the car was there. (Remember, Nickole’s son had to stand on the roof of the car The Day Of to see if the Lexus was there through the small, high windows. ) Aside from the car, I’m not sure there was a way to “spy” on him, unless she went up to the door and actually rang/knocked, in which case he would have seen her via the doorbell camera on his phone, and he never mentions this in a text prior to August 13th.
That’s a good thought. She seems to have known he wasn’t at home, and was naturally upset about it. Sounds quite possible.
Chris wasn’t “forced” into a “submissive role”! You teach people how to treat you and apparently he was content with that role until it interfered with sneaking around on his wife. Seems kind of unfair to Shan’ann to suddenly cry foul after 8 years together. It’s no wonder Shan’ann said she felt blind-sided and had no clue what the problem was with her marriage!
Chris didn’t do any favors for NK in that interview. I do believe everything he said about NK. The part about NK getting pissed about him going home to his wife rings true. What I wonder is – does he realize that if things had played out where he left Shan’ann for NK, he would’ve been trading in Mrs. Bossy for Miss Bossy. I have a feeling NK would’ve resented him taking time away from her to play daddy too. Still not sure what he said in this newest confession is true and what isn’t, and although I’ve always defended NK, I see her very differently now – and not in a very favorable way. I’m not absolving Chris of blame, but Chris made it sound like NK was hell-bent on breaking up his marriage.
Watts blamed Shan’ann for the murders first, now he blames some
force that he couldn’t control ( I call BS) when committing the murders.
Notice it’s everyone or everything else other than him!
There is no remorse whatsoever, no accountability.
He lies. ( I know that I’m stating the obvious here.)
Who knows if what he says now is true?
Too many inconsistencies…
The media and the world in general are too focused on Bella because her last words evoke emotion and sensation. But in my view, Bella’s murder was the least difficult because by that time the momentum was the highest from the acceleration down the slippery slope.
I am not sure if he is telling the truth about Shanann’s murder. Let’s assume that whatever be the scenario, shit happened. From that point onwards, it was just a slippery slope. All the possible interventions (such as 911 call) that could have taken place from Shanann’s death to his arrest applies to a more mature and bolder man, not him. He was not a grown up, he was not even remotely ready to deal with it. In some ways, his mind tacitly did a “risk vs reward” calculation under the circumstances. If he killed everyone, he risked longer imprisonment but had the odds of coming out clean.
I always wondered the reason behind keeping the front door latched at the top. He must have done that morning to prevent any of the girls running out and announcing to the world.
Lastly, sleeping 3 hours and feeling hyper is not healthy. Maybe thrive didn’t let them thrive after all.
Watts says that he “only slept 3 hours a night”. He also wore THREE patches at a time, though I’m unsure if all three were the “burn” variety.
When Chris says “something in my mind was implanted that I was gonna do it and when I woke up that morning… it was going to happen and I had no control over it” he seems completely detached from his own feelings and motivations. Any time he talks, it sounds bizarrely disconnected, he describes the way things occur, as if nothing affects him and he has no say in the outcome. He even googles, “what do you feel when someone tells you they love you” (regarding Kessinger) as if he doesn’t know what love feels like.
Janelleybean, in reference to your post about Chris’s detachment,
I noticed this characteristic throughout this case.
I have thought, sadly, he may have not felt like he owned his feelings
or that he could express his feelings openly, within the marriage.
It seems as though he didn’t have or at some point lost his sense
of self identity.
JH, I agree that a lot of his inability to express feelings was caused by his marriage to Shanann, and likely throughout his life by what sounds like an overbearing mother. It seems like a lifelong affliction, which could explain his lack of dating relationships before Shanann despite being an attractive man. Even now, he is sorry for what he did because it took away his kids and beautiful wife. He doesn’t seem to have empathy though for how it affects THEM, just how it affects himself. Maybe these inabilities are what attract him to controlling women like Shanann and Kessinger, who don’t expect him to express emotions or be in charge.