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Tag: work truck

Breaking: Interior photos of Chris Watts’ Ford Lariat Work Truck

January 12, 2019 / / 27 Comments

Chris Watts’ work truck has appeared on the online vehicle auction site SalvageNow.com.

Besides the exterior and interior photos, the VIN number 1FT7X2B67FEC57658 corresponds to that in the Discovery Documents page 614.

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SalvageNow.com provides some interesting miscellaneous detail on the truck:

– It has 74,472 Miles on the clock

– It’s exterior is described as “Caribou Metallic”

– It’s categorized as a fleet/lease vehicle

Watts’ Ford Lariat happens to be one of the enduring mysteries of the Watts case. The truck was used as an impromptu hearse to transport the bodies of his wife and two dead children. According to Watts, he placed all three bodies in the cabin portion of the truck, behind the front passenger seat. The Trinatich surveillance video appears to corroborate this element of his story – that all three bodies were loaded into the cabin for transport to the tanks near Roggen.

Yet despite the truck playing an integral role in connecting the one crime scene to the other, it appears not to have been made available to the K9 units [in terms of the interior], or if it was, that part of the investigation is off the record.

Far more evidence [or potential evidence] has been recovered from the truck than the SUV. According to the Discovery Documents, 13 separate items in the truck caught the interest of law enforcement.

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A few additional points that are worth noting:

  1. The truck was an “alternative fuel truck”, meaning it was powered by compressed natural gas [Discovery Documents page 814]. This raises questions around the red gasoline tank Watts was seen loading, and possibly pouring into the bed of the truck early Monday morning.
  2. Located in the front passenger compartment was a roll of black plastic bags.
  3. The front driver’s seat and front passenger seat were covered with canvas seat covers [These canvas covers appear to be missing from the SalvageNow photos].
  4. A potential DNA swab was taken from the steering wheel.
  5. In the rear seat were two large plastic bins containing various items including maps, paper work, safety equipment and work tools.
  6. Black rubber boots were found in the floor behind the front passenger seat.
  7. The front passenger seat is aligned differently, and with the backrest slightly more downward compared to the driver’s seat [in some images].
  8. The interior cabin and console is covered in a fine yellow dust.
  9. The dashboard console is fitted with an apparatus to hold/stow a work computer/laptop. Watts used [or referred to] this computer at CERVI 319 after digging Shan’ann’s grave.fullscreen capture 20190112 145551
  10. A disposable green cigarette lighter was seized from the door compartment on the passenger side of the truck. It’s not clear who this belonged to, as neither Watts nor his wife smoked. [Could it be Kessinger’s, Trent Bolte’s, Amanda McMahon’s or a co-worker’s?]

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The fuel gauge below appears to be around a quarter to half full. 49763002_10215224012408546_7046610090719182848_n49806311_10215224008888458_9012334175906168832_n49812730_10215224010368495_8165357807567110144_n49829585_10215224008648452_4147264908288851968_n49857681_10215224011608526_1791100297003663360_n49948336_10215224009608476_7792360208809852928_n50053184_10215224009848482_6415820222619451392_n50061169_10215224010088488_7534977808196435968_n50088516_10215224011248517_1082221223313670144_n50099182_10156036115938297_8983637467882061824_n50326156_10215224010568500_4031959287092740096_n

A Quick Word on Chris Watts’ Work Truck

October 22, 2018 / / 15 Comments

How many vehicles did the Watts family own? We know Shan’ann had a new white Lexus. Chris Watts had a “work truck”. Wasn’t there a third vehicle? Well, there should have been, since Shan’ann bragged early on about both of them earning their Thrive auto bonuses straight out the gate.

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When the police impounded Chris Watts’ the work truck [as described in the first TWO FACE book] it was this vehicle.

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It doesn’t look particularly new or particularly spiffy, does it? This truck A Ford is also referred to in the 2015 bankruptcy filing, which means it may be at least three years old, but more likely even older, probably a 2012 – 2014 model.

[Update: The Ford work truck is a 2015 model, so it may not be referenced in this filing.]

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We know that when the Watts’ moved to Frederick from North Carolina in 2012, it was part of a work transfer for Chris. He worked as a mechanic at a Ford Dealership, and Shan’ann worked in internet sales for the same company. Hence the Daily Beast quoting Greg Alore about the dynamic he observed between his married employees at the Ford dealership.

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It’s likely Chris Watts got his “work truck” from the Ford Dealership, and perhaps Anadarko assisted with the payments when it became “their” work truck, when Chris Watts started working for them as an operator in early 2015. That was the year they filed for bankruptcy [06/05/2015], and the year their second child Celeste was born [in July 2015, about a month after the filing].

The truck appears to be a 2012 Ford Super Duty F-250 SRW Lariat. It has a retail value of about $33 000.

 

 

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It’s also possible Chris Watts used his auto bonus to help pay for this vehicle, and it’s entirely probable he was still paying the vehicle off six years after buying it, perhaps on a hire-purchase type deal.
No other vehicles besides this vehicle and Shan’ann’s vehicle appear in their social media. What this shows, possibly, is a clear difference between the approaches of the husband and the wife to spending, and to financing – including big acquisitions.

In keeping with his personality, Chris Watts seemed more conservative in his spending. And in keeping with Shan’ann’s mushrooming extroversion, she seems to be less conservative in her spending and saving choices.

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Chris Watts: 7 Easter Eggs on Tornado Day

October 22, 2018 / / 34 Comments

During the ongoing process of researching the third TWO FACE narrative, I reviewed some of the photos and videos on Shan’ann’s Facebook timeline. It’s all still public. It’s amazing how much we miss even though we have the information. It takes several flybys to see what we’re not seeing, to see the world but through different eyes.

In the seven-minute video, nothing much seems to be going on. It’s just a hailstorm in a Colorado neighborhood, right? In fact it was the second hail storm two-days in a row, and the import of these storms was actually quite significant [I’ll share that with you in a separate post].

I want to encourage you to watch the full seven minutes on your own, make your own observations and take your own notes. That way you might see even more of what we’re not seeing.

In Shan’ann’s seven-minute recording  from June 19th [a Tuesday, two hours before a doctor’s appointment] she talks at some length about her third pregnancy, and her concerns that she might have twins. The storm is part of a tornado that struck Frederick, and later the same day, Shan’ann said Chris Watts was hiding in a field and so wouldn’t be attending the ultrasound. So she took Bella instead.

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There’s also an ironic moment where Shan’ann acknowledges Deeter, the Watts’ little dachshund, who is clearly fearful because of the storm. She doesn’t comfort the dog, and a few minutes later when she opens the front door she tells him to stay back. He was obviously never allowed to run around on the front lawn.

In the video Shan’ann mentions how seldom it rains in Colorado. She says she wished it rained more, but preferably at night when they were sleeping so it wouldn’t disrupt them. She wills the storm to stop so she can make it to her doctor’s appointment.

Most of the real Easter eggs have nothing to do with what Shan’ann says in the clip:

  1. Chris Watts work truck parked in the road in the front and left side of the house. Now, to be fair, this screengrab is actually from the storm the day before, Monday June 18th, so if you missed it in the clip, that’s why.  The hailstorm of June 18th was worse than June 19th, and had meaningful consequences going forward. As mentioned, I’ll deal with those in a separate post. What’s important to note here is where Chris Watts normally parked his car. Not in the driveway, but in the road. What this suggests is on the night of the murders he would have gone outside and reversed the truck from the road to the garage door. The position of the truck also suggests that Chris Watts usually left the house through the front door and not the garage. This means the latching of the door and the exit through the garage on Monday August 13th was unusual. A further question to consider, just as far as it extends to the personality of Watts, is would he walk directly from the front door to the car door, or would he stay off the carefully manicured lawn, and sort of walk in a U-shape along the walkway. Note the car is parked right where the triangular strip of lawn ends, and the car doors open. Fullscreen capture 20181022 161459.jpg
  2. Shan’ann usually left her shoes at the front door. In the arrest affidavit Detective Baumhover notes that he saw a pair of women’s shoes near the front door. If the crime scene was staged, altered or covered up, then the way the scene was found isn’t necessarily the way it was when Shan’ann died. The shoes are important, because it paints a picture of Shan’ann arriving home late, and having the time and inclination to casually kick off her shoes once inside the front door. It also suggests she was relaxed. Although it’s possible the shoes had been left there since before she left for her trip, this feels unlikely. It would be useful to get confirmation from Nickole Atkinson what shoes Shan’ann wore when she flew with her from Arizona back to Colorado.
  3. The front door appears to be unlatched.  This appears to confirm Nickole’s comment that the front door wasn’t usually latched in her experience, and so when she arrived at the house on that fateful Monday she was surprised that it was. It will be interesting to see if Chris Watts’ fingerprints are found on the front door latch. Fullscreen capture 20181022 164650
  4. “Deeter stay in the house.” In the final minute of the clip, when Shan’ann opens the front door a second time, she tells the dog almost automatically to stay back.One of the questions people are asking is where was Deeter when the crimes were committed? We can probably exclude the front garden.
  5. The clip provides one of the best bird’s-eye-views of the front door’s side windows. This is important because it establishes line-of-sight into the Watts home. Those tall vertical rectangular windows don’t have blinds, which means they’re permanently providing a view inside the house, especially when the lights are on at night. While this tends to suggest the attack on Shan’ann didn’t happen downstairs, there are virtually no houses looking in directly across the road because the Watts home is positioned opposite a t-junction. The houses opposite are oriented sideways to the Watts house. In other words, unless a car is coming down the road, it’s unlikely residents on the road would be able to see inside those vertical windows unless they were standing on the sidewalk at 2 in the morning.
  6. Chris Watts did not attend the ultrasound on June 19th.
  7. Shan’ann joking on Facebook about having 2 or 5 babies in her belly may have been alarming for Chris Watts to hear, whether at the time or subsequently.

Is there anything else?

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