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Tag: Timeline (Page 4 of 6)

More Proof Chris Watts was a Lovesick Fool [Updated]

January 3, 2019 / / 21 Comments

When we first examined Trinastich’s surveillance video, most of us focused on the television. There wasn’t much to see, was there? Even the original video is fuzzy in depicting the goings-on in that all-important top left corner.

It didn’t take long though for folks to pick up on something else in the bodycam footage: Watts’ oddball behavior beside the flat screen.  He seems at turns nervous, restless, distracted and even seems to be daydreaming at times.

On a few occasions he reaches for his phone and seems to be simply checking messages. Now we know he was responding to messages, including one – it looks like – to his mistress.

Although a reader brought this information to my attention, it’s been surprisingly difficult to confirm, and to be honest, it still may not be. This is because Detective Dave Baumhover and the other cops are somewhat vague in describing 1) at what time Officer Scott Coonrod entered the neighbor’s house to view the surveillance footage and 2) detective Baumhover’s exact time of arrival at the scene.

What we do know is that Coonrod was dispatched at 13:40 to 2825 Saratoga Trail on a check well-being call. Coonrod arrived roughly ten minutes later at 13:49.

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According to the Discovery Documents, Coonrod entered the Watts residence at 14:19:49, but that can’t be right because if Watts arrived at 14:07, everyone entered the residence no more than two minutes later. So the correct entry time must be closer to 14:09.

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And a check of bodycam footage at the moment Coonrod enters the house for the first time confirms this.

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In any event, Coonrod was on the scene for approximately twenty minutes before Watts showed up.

Detective Baumhover arrived on the scene sixteen minutes later [subsequent to Coonrod entering the home] at “approximately” 14:35 according to the arrest affidavit.

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So we see, Coonrod was inside the scene with Watts for just a few minutes when he reckoned uh-oh, something is badly out of whack here. And then he summoned resources.

Coonrod and Watts were heading over to Trinastich’s house when detective Baumhover arrived at about exactly 14:35.

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We know Watts remained at the neighbor’s house for seven more minutes after Coonrod made Watts aware of the detective’s arrival at the scene. That pushes the clock close to 14:42.

Now let me show you how and why we make these inferences.

At 02:04 in the video clip above, while Watts is doing his lip-curl thing, has both hands cupped against the back of his head, and sways from side to side [henceforth known as the Watts Bullshit Dance] Coonrod says: “My detective just showed up.” The bodycam records the time as 20:40:42Z.

If we assume the 14:35 arrival time is fairly accurate [but it may not be], and we advance 9 minutes forward  through the timeline of the bodycam video [to the time of the text message to Kessinger] we get this at approximately 14:44 [20:49:35Z on the bodycam clock].

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At this point in the bodycam footage, Watts has just exited Trisnatich’s home and returned to his own home to be questioned by Baumhover. It’s possible during this interlude, Watts sent this text to Kessinger:

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As mentioned above, the bodycam clock shows the time when Watts exits as 20:49:35Z. I’ll explain the “Z” in a moment. For the time being, bear with me.

If the detective’s arrival time has a five-minute margin of error, and if we add a minute or two for the detective to arrive on scene and for dispatch to convey that to Coonrod, then it’s possible Watts sent the message to Kessinger while standing beside the cops. And we know that he was texting because on at least two occasions we can see he is texting beside the television.

His last text is at 20:42:53Z.

What does the “Z” mean?

The bodycam seems to be configured to Zulu time, which is a military metric based on Greenwich Mean Time [GMT]. 20:42 Zulu converts to 15:42 Mountain Standard Time [MTS]. So it appears Officer Coonrod’s bodycam clock is fast by one hour or the arrest affidavit is inaccurate by an hour. It seems unlikely detective Baumhover would mistake his ETA by more than a few minutes.

The Discovery Documents do show Watts texted Cristima Meacham at 14:26, which is nine minutes prior to Baumhover’s estimated arrival. Watts’ text to Cristina read:

Police are here, call you when I know.

Unfortunately the Discovery Documents are silent on further activity from Watts, or the cops – there is nothing between 14:26 and 15:46.

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It’s frustrating that on so simple an issue as when the cops arrived there’s so little clarity or consistency.

Incredibly, in the Amanda Knox case, there’s also confusion around a critical part of the timeline; when the cops arrived at the Villa crime scene in Perugia.

In that case CCTV footage from across the road partially but indistinctly recorded vehicles passing in the road, but that CCTV footage was also said to be inaccurate. Knox’s defenders claim the CCTV footage from the garage was ten minutes behind real time. Meanwhile other grainy CCTV footage appeared to contradict Knox’s alibi.

In future one hopes the timekeeping of the cops and the settings of CCTV cameras [and bodycams] will make timelines easier to decipher, not harder.

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Gates, Conoco Gas Stations and the Mystery of the Man in the Orange Shirt

December 29, 2018 / / 38 Comments

When British tabloids reported that Watts – or someone that looked like him – was seen wearing an orange shirt and buying a breakfast roll at 08:00 on Monday morning in a convenience store, legions rose to debunk the footage. IT’S NOT HIM! they screamed.

I suspected it could be.

The fact that Weld County released the footage to begin with suggested the District Attorney thought so too.

Intuitively, in terms of the timeline,  I knew it was possible because there’s a gas station and convenience store right there in Roggen. The first time I came across it was while researching the drive to CERVI 319.

As part of that research I found this video; the visit to the gas station is documented at around the 13 minute mark.

When the videographer turns off the road to visit a Conoco gas station which is right in the area of CERVI 319, he mentions the station is right beside a Guttersen CERVI ranch gate.

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That gate is only just visible to the right of the grey pole in the screengrab below. It has small, white signboards attached to it. Fullscreen capture 20181229 174859

Below is the same scene zoomed in. The videographer assumed the area behind the gate is also part of the large Guttersen ranch, but it’s not. The large Cervi ranch borders the even more massive Guttersen ranch. Both ranches have hundreds of fracking pads scattered across the landscape.

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In order to get to the gas station and the Cervi gate, one has to exit the highway and take the overpass to the other side.

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Conoco’s Facebook page provides a handy map with directions to the gas station.

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While there are hundreds of Conoco gas stations in and around Denver, there’s only one in Roggen.

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The gas station is situated on Frontage Road, about 10-15 minutes drive to or from CERVI 319.

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The gas station is also clearly en route to CERVI 319 from Saratoga Trail, or conversely, heading back.Fullscreen capture 20181229 165858

The other aspect to consider: if it was Watts,  should he have been hungry by 08:00 on August 13th? If he’d last eaten at around 19:00 [during his chicken barbecue on the porch], and particularly if he’d been up all night committing and covering up three murders, then after the dumping, digging and disposal, he was likely to have developed quite an appetite when it was all over.

All over was likely to be close to 07:30-07:40, which gave him around half an hour to get back to the store for breakfast. That fits the timeline perfectly.4221396001_5974669446001_5974665781001-vs

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It’s important to note that the layout of this store is different to the one where he is wearing a white shirt. It’s not the same convenience store.

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The other aspect that stands out in terms of the orange shirt, was Officer Coonrod’s bodycam footage. When Watts is standing with his back to his wardrobe, the color coded shirts behind him show a hanger with nothing on it right by the orange shirts.

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At the same time, there also appears to be a gray or black shirt missing from the wardrobe. There’s another hanger missing there too.

This line of inquiry is interesting because it suggests Watts may have changed his clothing three or four times that morning. It made sense to change out of the black shirt and jeans, because these were likely to be dirtied by sweat, dirt and possibly other body fluids and fibers.

He may also have dumped clothing and/or materials on his way home at the dumpster at 6507 Black Mesa.

Watts making multiple changes to his clothes also implies he’d do the same to Shan’ann after her murder. The change of clothes is intended to get rid of evidence transferred to the clothing during the crime and/or dumping of the bodies.

In a way the many changes of clothing make sense. It’s like the leopard trying to change his spots, and that’s exactly what lay behind this crime. Watts was trying to craft a new life for himself. Putting on a new shirt was almost like becoming someone else. If anyone spotted a guy in a dark shirt running around CERVI 319, or standing atop the tall tanks, well, they wouldn’t think to link him to the guy in the orange shirt…

Far from not thinking his crime through, Watts was trying to think of everything. He arguably got many of the technical aspects right, but failed dismally at the social game. Not only could he not explain where Shan’ann had gone in a convincing way, he failed to predict  human behaviors, including how Shan’ann’s best friend and her son would respond to her disappearance.

He also seemed to overestimate his own social game, or as it turned out, lack of.

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Further reading: The Story Behind the T-Shirt Chris Watts was wearing during his Sermon on the Porch

Chris Watts: “Most Likely to Spend Daddy’s Money” and other T-Shirts

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Above image courtesy Jamie Kripke.

Chris Watts caught on CCTV camera on the night of his last date, moments after his final tryst with Nichol Kessinger [Updated]

December 29, 2018 / / 19 Comments

After their meal at the Lazy Dog on Saturday night [August 11th], Watts and Nichol Kessinger had their final intimate encounter.

From her home Watts drove to his home, but stopped at a gas station on the way to draw babysitting cash for McKenna Lindstrom.

Below is a map showing the route from Watts’ home to Kessinger’s place on Claude Court.

The closest gas station on that route is at 3768 State Highway 52.

McKenna described Watts that night wearing a white-t-shirt and black jeans.

The screengrabs below are from 22:19 to 22:22. McKenna and her mother Jennifer said Watts arrived home late that night, at around 22:30. He’d agreed to be home by 22:00.

At first glance the brunette on the right in the screengrab below appears to be Nichol Kessinger. But the label on her shirt and the fact that she appears later with her back to the camera, counting notes for him from behind the counter, suggests she was a convenience store worker.

Many thanks to a follower of CrimeRocket who brought this info to my attention, but asked to remain anonymous.

“Excuse me for caring!” – Mythbusting the Contentious 663rd Page of the Discovery Documents

December 28, 2018 / / 13 Comments

Somewhere, somehow, someone has put out the myth that a mysterious person called Primrose school on the morning of the murders, and told the school “not to worry” about the disappearance. This mysterious figure could not have known the status of the children, unless she was an accessory. When a staff member challenged the caller, she remarked with indignation: “Excuse me for caring!”

Who is this mysterious caller? Is this the clue that will blow this case wide open? Did Chris Watts have a woman secretly helping him commit or cover up the murders?

All of these questions are breathtaking – breathtakingly silly.

On page 663 of the Discovery Documents it’s clear who made the call, and when.What’s more, and this takes just a few minutes to read to comprehend the context, it shouldn’t be that hard to figure out that there’s no conspiracy.

  1. The caller is Shan’ann’s mother, Sandi Rzucek.
  2. She called Primrose at 11:00-11:30.
  3. Contextually it’s obvious she called the school after Chris Watts did [he called at 08:26].

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When we follow the continuity of the timeline in the Discovery Documents, it makes perfect sense that Shan’ann’s mother called Primrose when she did.  After Sandi [that’s how she spells her name of Facebook] spoke to Watts briefly three times between 10:28 and 10:44, Sandi called the school to begin her own investigation.

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When Sandi called, she found out the girls weren’t in school, and clearly, the school informed her that the girls weren’t coming back either. This prompted Sandi to intervene, telling them:

“Everything is fine.”

What she meant, and what she assumed, was that the children weren’t dead, and would be coming back to school. In other words, she was asking Primrose to discard Watts’ instruction to them to unenroll the children. Furthermore, given the brouhaha between the various in-laws over recent weeks, Sandi asked the school not to tell anyone she’d called [and interfered].

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At around 15:00 Sandi called the school again, following up, trying to find out if the girls were ever dropped off, or if anyone had seen Shan’ann. Clearly the staff wondered what this was all about, and this prompted Sandi to exclaim with justifiable indignation, “Excuse me for caring!”

The sections highlighted in blue and green above, reflect how poorly this aspect of the narrative is expressed. It appears as if certain aspects are repeated, when in reality, the writing is clumsily executed.

In sum, there is no conspiracy. Sandi calling Primrose when she did is exactly what you’d expect in the middle of the morning, when she realized Shan’ann was missing, and her son-in-law wasn’t being of much help to solve the problem. It’s also likely when Shan’ann missed her doctor’s appointment at 10:00, the ball started rolling in Nickole Atkinson’s mind, and she may have called Sandi to find out if she’d heard from Shan’ann. When she hadn’t, Sandi took over the baton and started to make calls. One of them was to the Primrose school. Make sense?

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On his way back to the crime scene, Chris Watts first went to look at a house recommended by his realtor… [Updated]

December 16, 2018 / / 73 Comments

Shortly after burying and dumping the bodies of his family, Watts called his realtor, Anne Meadows, and told him he wanted to sell #2825 Saratoga Trail. He wanted somewhere smaller, he told her, but still wanted three garages.

Meadows called back and suggested a slightly more modest home just around the corner: #6508 Saratoga Trail.

Above: Footage from 6432 Saratoga Trail of Chris Watts heading North on Saratoga Trail at 14:01:31,  seconds after the call with Coonrod. Here Watts is heading towards 6508 Saratoga Trail.

On Tuesday morning after the murders, Watts told news crews on his porch:

“I was trying to get home as fast as I can, I was blowing through stop lights. I was blowing through everything just trying to get home as fast as I can because none of this made sense. I don’t feel like this is even real right now. It’s like a nightmare I can’t wake up from.”

But we know Watts first went to look at #6508 because when he arrived on the scene, Officer Coonrod’s bodycam just managed to capture him coming along Saratoga Trail, rather than down Steeple Rock Drive and into the T-Junction.

Trisnatich’s surveillance video also shows Watts’ truck departing for CERVI 319 at 1:00:17 going up Steeple Rock Drive.

His usual commute was from Saratoga Trail onto Steeple Rock Drive, then right into Wyndham Hill Parkway, then around the roundabout into Aggregate Boulevard and onto the highway either to Platteville or on to the fields beyond Hudson and Roggen.

#6508 is just further up the road from the blue swimming pool above left, or in the image below, just off center to the right. Note the already completed fracking battery opposite the house.

This is #6508 while it was still under construction. Images via Google Earth. It would be great to have an updated photo of #6508 and the new fracking battery under construction near #2825 from any locals in the area.

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Postscript:

Via MattyB:

The GPS released (discovery page 555) does not show this stop. Does show that he stopped for 4 minutes at another house in the neighborhood (6507 Black Mesa) right before arriving back home. There was another page in discovery where they followed up and 6507 Black Mesa was a house under construction with trash dumpsters (blankies and stuffed animal disposal?), however the dumpsters had been landfilled prior to the follow up.

There is a single reference to 6507 Black Mesa. On page 555 the GPS data is illegible.

Although it’s conceivable Watts may have visited 6507 to dispose of evidence, it’s also not inconceivable that he drove via the address reference by his realtor, and took it in without stopping. In any event, he did not visit 6507 to evaluate the property as a home. This is the dynamic that’s being constructed here, which goes to motive.

Below are screengrabs of the Black Mesa site. The street view images show no houses constructed at the time, but a lone pumping jack already exists in the area.

If the GPS data is reliable and complete, it’s possible on his way home Watts slowed at the intersection, looked down and saw Officer Coonrod’s vehicle [which street view clearly shows would be visible from the Wynddam Parkway side of Steeple Rock Road], and then drove a loop to get rid of incriminating evidence.

Four minutes is a long time to be running around someone else’s property.

The route to dump the evidence takes Watts via the address mentioned in the text timeline messages by the realtor on the morning and afternoon of Monday. August 13.

The 111 Minute Call on Nichol Kessinger’s Phone on the night of the murders

December 15, 2018 / / 47 Comments

The Discovery Documents are numbered from page 46 to page 2155. There are a total of 1960 pages in the tranche, meaning almost 200 pages have been redacted or held back.

The crucial Phone Data Review timeline data from Watts’ phone, as well as Kessinger’s, Shan’ann’s and a few others, is one of the final entries in the tranche, all the way at the end of the document. The Phone Dada Review starts on page 2081 and ends at page 2130.

In the 49 pages of data extracted from various handsets, what you won’t find is this:

 

On Sunday night, August 12th, at 21:28, Kessinger received an incoming call from Chris Watts [910 309 1702]. The conversation lasted 111 minutes, or 1 hour 51 minutes. The conversation ended at 23:19, around the time Shan’ann was originally supposed to have arrived home had her flight from Phoenix not been delayed.

Yet this crucial call, at a crucial time, to a crucial person in the schema of this crime, doesn’t appear in the Discovery Documents timeline.

Confusingly the timeline shows Kessinger called Watts on August 13th, and that they held a 51 minute conversation [easy to confuse with the 1 hour 51 minute conversation the night before that’s not recorded in the timeline].

 

 

Kessinger’s call logs show two consecutive outgoing calls on August 13th at 17:01 and 17:02. Both are to 910 numbers [North Carolina].

At 21:12 on Monday night, Officer James calls asking Watts to give him names and numbers, and also asking him to talk about whether he was in an affair, or whether Shan’ann was.

Then, the 14th, a busy day that includes the Sermon on the Porch, multiple canine dog searches and Watts’ first brush with FBI Agent Grahm Coder at the department which lasted around 4 hours, from 19:00 to close to approximately 23:00.

 

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More: Officer Matthew James’ Call to Chris Watts on the night of August 13th at 21:12 + Handwritten Notes on Yellow Pad Up Close

At 17:00 on Tuesday Kessinger Googles “can cops trace text messages” and “how long do cell phone companies keep text messages.”

At 21:48 Kessinger gets called back, apparently from one of the numbers she’d called earlier in the afternoon, and she speaks for 50 minutes to the caller. At 23:09, presumably a few minutes after his first interrogation ended, Kessinger makes a final call that night to Fayetteville, North Carolina. She speaks for 52 minutes, likely with Watts’ parents.

 

Although Watts can be seen fidgeting and texting on his phone during the first four hour interview with Coder on Tuesday [starting at 19:00], he never seems to actually take or make any calls. The timeline also doesn’t seem to show any calls or texts during this period. So who called his father and summoned Ronnie Watts, at a moment’s notice, to fly in first thing the next morning? Wasn’t it Kessinger?

We also want to know who Kessinger called in Milwaukee at 06:16 on the morning the bodies were buried and dumped at CERVI 319.

More: A Closer Look at the Other Man in Nichol Kessinger’s Life – Jim the Geologist

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