Tag: watching sport

In a previous post I’ve addressed the issue that Chris Watts’ head space – based on his social media – shows he was interested in sports on the weekend before the murders. This aspect forms part of research I’ve been digging into for the third TWO FACE book.

Now as a matter of fact, there’s another clue to Chris Watts’ habits when he was home without Shan’ann, and it comes from Shan’ann herself. It’s not easy to find but it is out there:

The t-bones for dinner three nights in a row suggest he was fond of barbecuing, and the sleeping in and working out also suggests – when given the choice, when given the freedom – how he preferred to hang out.

Remember June 30th Shan’ann and the kids were in Aberdeen visiting her folks in North Carolina as part of her six-week trip. Chris Watts was alone at home enjoying the run of the house.

Incidentally, the above post is now no longer available on Shan’ann’s Facebook feed. Her posts stop at around the June 28 mark. I was fortunate to take a screengrab early on before Shan’ann’s most recent Facebook posts became inaccessible, otherwise this crucial insight wouldn’t be available.

I will deal with the dinner, what it was on August 12th and its importance to this case in a separate post. For now we want to look at what Chris Watts was doing besides eating dinner.

If he was watching sport he was likely on the couch, and if he was on the couch with his kids, or monitoring them after they went to bed but before he went to bed, or if he wanted to be close to them while they slept while watching sport [perhaps with the sound down], then he was probably in this room:

In his August 14 Sermon on the Porch Chris Watts mentions briefly how he spent the night of August 13th alone without any of the kids in the house. The clip below opens at the relevant moment.

WATTS: Last night I had every light in the house on…I was hoping that I would just get- just ran-over by the kids just runnin’ in the door. Just-like barrel-rushin’ me. But it didn’t happen [holds back a smile]. 

We’re not going to spend much time analysing this, except to note:

1. Why is it necessary to say he had every light on in the house? Was that because he was conscious of having all the lights off [or on] on the night of the murders?
2. Whether or not he really wanted to be “barrel-rushed”, what’s interesting here is his default impression of his own children. That they sort of physically collide into him and push him around inside the home.

Now we jump to Shan’ann on the loft couch, in the loft lounge, with the kids doing what they do on the couch.

https://youtu.be/jtS1zuJoeCs?t=7

SHAN’ANN: Look at this monster. This is what I deal with. She’s a monster. Don’t you jump off the couch. [Groans as Ceecee falls against her hip]. [Whispers]: She’s a monster. Like…she doesn’t stop. Like seriously…this kid…[grunts again as Ceecee falls on her chest]…hasn’t napped today…

Notice in the background to the above the screengrabs is the television. The kids are basically between the viewer and the screen.

So what I want to illustrate here, and I guess juxtapose, is the situation that was probably going down that weekend. Some have speculated that Chris Watts “just snapped”.

I think that’s simplistic, but it’s not to say the kids being rambunctious while he was trying to watch sport, and Shan’ann was AWOL in Arizona, didn’t trigger some sort of reaction. It may have, especially when we look at what Chris Watts may have wanted to watch on that final weekend before the family murders.

Although I’m presenting a scenario here, I nevertheless want to be clear that I don’t believe this was a case of a sudden fit of pique. The psychology doesn’t match, and neither does the cool calculation of the disposal. Even so, the situation in the home and circumstances over the weekend and leading up to the night of the murders are of VITAL importance.

And it all started with this…

FOOTBALL

We know for a fact that the Watts parents were ardent Steelers fans. Guess what happened on Friday August 10th, the day Shan’ann flew out to Arizona?

Since this was the first Steelers’ game of the season, it was likely to be a big deal, something Chris Watts [and any Steelers fan] would have looked forward to. Now imagine trying to watch the game on Friday with the two kids wanting to do their thing on the couch, and Shan’ann not being around to do her share of the parenting.

Besides football on Friday, there was also another big game involving a big local team.

BASEBALL

Chris Watts liked this tweet [see below] by NFL Receiver, 2 time super bowl champion, and co-host of 104.3 in Denver Brandon Stokley. Notice the date. It suggests 1) Chris Watts is a supporter of the Colorado Rockies, and 2) that he watched the game.

In the same way the Steelers game was a big deal, so was this game. We don’ know whether Chris Watts went to the concert, or wanted to go [with someone], but we do know Shan’ann mentioned the social calendar in Colorado and how often they could go to concerts, and THRIVE gave them the energy to do so with their kids.

Besides football and baseball there was also a third big sporting event playing out on that fateful weekend.

GOLF

It’s not 100% certain that Chris Watts was interested in golf, but we know he also liked Stokley’s tweet posted on August 12th about Tiger Woods. Well, Woods was playing in a three-day tournament that lasted the entire weekend. If Stokley was saying Woods was fun to watch, and Chris Watts was agreeing, then doesn’t that suggest Chris Watts was watching the PGA – and Tiger – the entire weekend?

If the sport was compelling, exciting and ongoing, then we can imagine what “two monsters” may have been like to deal with not just on one day and night, but three in a row, when Watts wanted to get his football, baseball and golf fixes.

The fact that Shan’ann’s flight was also delayed by several hours may have meant Watts eventually did snap. Maybe one of the kids barrel-rushed him one-time too many and he COMPLETELY lost it.