CO - Shanann Watts (34), Celeste"Cece" (3) and Bella (4), Frederick, 13 Aug 2018 *Arrest* #16

[Stunned]

BBM

I like your analysis. I agree that it is almost as though he wanted to be caught. Yes he lied, but it wasn't a whopper. And so many things he didn't do---didn't clean up the crime scene when he drove away with the bodies, didn't erase his text messages, it really looks to me like he expected that he was going to get caught.

MOO

Right? It’s like he crossed a line and didn’t bother erasing it. It’s like he didn’t even try. Just made it more evil with oil tanks? Why bother?

 

[RickshawFan]

YES.

It is hard to link Antidepressants as the 'cause' of suicides/violence because it may just be linked because of depression in the subjects who are taking the drugs.

You take the drug in the 1st place because you feel depressed, upset, unable to cope. So those same feelings can cause one to commit suicide or homicide, in spite of the drugs being taken.

Actually, I have the experience of having that happen with a medication that was not an antidepressant. It's a very common non-opioid, non-addictive, pain medication. Happy thoughts of causing a very dangerous and violent accident suddenly entered my head out of the blue. Luckily, I snapped to and looked at the situation objectively. It was, like, "what the heck? Where did that come from?" And within a minute, "oh, the meds..." Immediate call to the doctor....
This would be "medicine as a cause for violent behavior". Ya never know what's lurking in a pill that will react to your biochemistry.

 

[dixiegirl1035]

Um....I'm going to guess that the media interviews might be introduced during the punishment phase of the trial. I can't think of why they might be relevant to the guilt or innocence phase.....well, unless CW testifies, in which case it could be used to show he had a different story before, i.e., goes to his credibility and truthfulness.

Sort of like this....

ETA: From what I have heard about the punishment for the charges, if convicted CW will receive an automatic sentence of life without parole. In that case, there would be no punishment phase of the trial. If the state does decide to seek the death penalty, then the jury (or judge) would have to decide between death and life without parole. I think he will plead and get life w/o parole.

Disappointing as I would have thought that would have been part of their prosecution case in chief to show how he was acting afterwards and trying to cover up. I know that it made a lot of us doubt his story from the beginning! Too bad that the jury would not hear it. I believe it made Jodi Arias case in the case in Chief all of her media interviews.

 

[Tigerlily75]

I also believe he was intending to start a fire and then large explosion . Possibly he was waiting until he got the remainder of "evidence " from home? Sheets, bedding, medications, etc.

Wasn't there mention early on of a gas can being found?

 

[Bill Carson]

So the question is, can CW use his current defense---SW KILLED THEM---even if he doesn't testify? Can he just have the show his confession tapes, describing the killings?

SBM

I would be shocked if he maintains that theory. That version was concocted when he hadn't slept in 72 hours and hadn't thought clearly in many more.

If he does maintain that theory, the defense can't offer the confession tapes without him testifying because it would be hearsay.

The only way to maintain that theory without him testifying is if they can find an expert who is willing to testify that the evidence and autopsies indicate SW killed them, and I find that highly (!!!) improbable.

 

[kay74]

No. No. Antidepressants can in some cases cause a paradoxical reaction and increase depression and suicidal thoughts but they do not cause homicidal violence. Antidepressants save a lot more lives than they take. The FDA reports ANY adverse reaction, no matter how rare/common. And just because someone committed a violOne example, I had a relative who was depressed. His doctor put him on Prozac. While on this he tried committing suicide three times twice slitting his wrists and once driving his car into a lake. He survived, went off the Prozac and it's been over 26 years and has never tried antidepressants again or suicide!!ent act while on antidepressants does NOT mean they caused it. Please don’t demonize antidepressants. As I said, they save a lot of lives and even if CW happened to be on them, it would not in any way excuse what he did.

One example, I had a relative who was depressed. His doctor put him on Prozac. While on this he tried committing suicide three times twice slitting his wrists and once driving his car into a lake. He survived, went off the Prozac and it's been over 26 years and has never tried antidepressants again or suicide!!

 

[Layla123]

Well the shirt is not stupid, but CW certainly is! A complete disgrace to all Tarheel fans!

Whoops! Didn’t mean to offend, but unfortunately, I have to say, if I see another man wearing that shirt I will not be thinking good thoughts!

 

[Shahana]

Reminds me SO much of an ex of mine who was a textbook sociopath and narcissist. He had a way of putting on this soft, gentle-looking smile and tilting his head just so. I thought, in the beginning, that he was just a sad old soul who'd suffered a lot of wrongs in his life but who was trying to smile through the pain and make the best of it.

It took me a year and a half plus a truckload of heartache and chaos to see through his crap. The image he projected worked so well, and you cared a lot by the time the truth of who he was started to show through.

IMO, the way CW looks and acts, from his "I'm a nice guy" smile to his fake-vulnerability head tilt to his silly childlike response to the question about his shirt, is EXACTLY the way my ex presented himself -- for the sole premeditated purpose of making himself seem likable, wounded, and utterly incapable of anything nefarious. It's the devil's angel costume and it works very well - most of the time.

MOO, as always.

In the good old days, we simply called that guise, the wolf in sheeps clothing.Nothing has changed, mankind will always have those type It's identifying that wolf as he enters the room that's the ticket.

 

[MyBelle]

SBM

I would be shocked if he maintains that theory. That version was concocted when he hadn't slept in 72 hours and hadn't thought clearly in many more.

If he does maintain that theory, the defense can't offer the confession tapes without him testifying because it would be hearsay.

The only way to maintain that theory without him testifying is if they can find an expert who is willing to testify that the evidence and autopsies indicate SW killed them, and I find that highly (!!!) improbable.

Didn't the defense already embrace that theory by trying to get their own expert witness to observe the autopsies and collection of DNA?

 

[NanZDrew]

After reading some of these latest articles, I think CW has been miserable and living in the closet for a very long time.

Totally agree. After reading the article about how he was not ready to come out and didn't know what his sexual orientation was, I think that might be why he couldn't function in a family. He decided to try the gay lifestyle, then flipped back to a female coworker. He sounds like a very conflicted person. I don't think finances or SW or anything else was a factor except that CW was a messed up, confused, selfish individual who live a lie everywhere he went.

Also a girl named Brandi was in the article talking about how he was handsome in high school and the girls liked him but he didn't pay much attention to them. She was an outcast so he was nice to her.

 

[ZsaZsa]

It’s public record.

Their tax records are public?

 

[NanZDrew]

My mom was bossy and "aggressive" and my dad wasn't. She died from ovarian cancer 2 years ago, a couple of weeks past their 40th wedding anniversary. My dad is legitimately lost without her.

I wear the proverbial pants in my relationship. My husband is not a go-getter. He literally has to be told what to do. If I didn't remind him of things, he'd forget to pay bills, forget birthdays, anniversaries, appointments. Love him to death but he has to be taken care of and directed. He'll even say that he's glad I'm "bossy" and "aggressive" and "pushy" because he's anything but and it balances out the household well.

If you don't wanna be told what to do, don't marry someone who is a Type-A personality. It's really that simple.

ETA: You'll never hear a Type-A male described as "bossy", "pushy", "nagging", etc... you'll hear him described as driven, passionate, and hard-working.

Unless you are the wife...then you might call him overbearing. But I do agree, that some behaviors are acceptable in men that are unacceptable, or at least negatively perceived, in a woman.

 

[Layla123]

What else could he say? Maybe someone killed them and carried them out the garage door?

There was nothing he could say, he was busted. By blaming SW he could save face, but his confession was an oxymoron, no one would believe it because he said nothing at all about checking for signs of life in the children, and there is a possibility they were still alive. That shows their lives were unimportant to him and not a priority.

 

[katydid23]

Wasn't there mention early on of a gas can being found?

Right, But it was his work truck and he did a lot of driving, some on remote roads. So he might have just always had a small gas can for emergencies. I'd like to know if that was a new addition or it was in there for months already.

 

[PommyMommy]

I have reviewed their 2015 filing. I agree that most debts would have been wiped out, with the exception of student loan debt.
I am not convinced that they reaffirmed their debt (which is required to keep the house), seeing as they had a $3,000/mo mortgage and less than $900 total in checking/savings accounts.
CW owned a Ford Mustang with almost 100,000 miles on it. At the time SW was leasing a car.
We do not know what happened between the time their debt was discharged in 2015 and 2018 except for in those 3 years, SW quit her job at the call center & began MLM & CW began at Anadarko. He had a company car & she leased a Lexus through Thrive.
It is realistic to think that they were able to rack up more CC debt during these 3 years. I do not know that this happened, but I do know they would’ve been able to get cards after BK (although with staggeringly high interest rates) and they seemed to be having financial difficulties per family sources.
We also know that they had a court date on Aug 24th because they were being sued by their HOA for unpaid dues.

Question for you. I have not delved much into their financial situation, but didn't Shanann also work at the hospital during part of those 3 years (2015-2018) or is that the same as the call center?

 

[Shahana]

Narcissists are rarely diagnosed as they typically don't seek help. Effectively they are diagnosed from the outside, such as my ex by our daughters psychologist. The thing with true Narcs is that once you've had dealings with one, you recognize it in others. But you're right, it's not fact. It's also irrelevant in a court of law anyway as he'll be tried on his actions and not on a disorder

In Europe, if you have a disorder, you can't be tried.

 

[NanZDrew]

Please stop blaming VITAMINS for a man murdering his family. These are the ingredients for Chris's daily VITAMIN regiment. At least research them if you want to blame them. As far as steroids, I don't know if he was or not.

I'm thinking his new, buff body was boosting his self-esteem and getting him attention that he hadn't had before.

 

[MerryB]

Question for you. I have not delved much into their financial situation, but didn't Shanann also work at the hospital during part of those 3 years (2015-2018) or is that the same as the call center?

It was a call center at a hospital.

 

[SuziQ]

I find this kind of odd. You'd have an affair not because you were interested in having an affair, but to provoke your spouse into filing for divorce?

Surely, you choose to have an affair, because you choose to have an affair. You could just as easily ruin the family financially (which he did; I suppose that's one way of getting around child/spousal support). OR you could merely pretend you had a new girl friend. Yeppers, just pretending would do the trick if the only goal was to provoke your wife into divorce.

So, I don't buy the "behaving badly" theory.

Which reminds me. Nothing here is real, folks. Even CW's "confession" that he had a girlfriend at work could be self-aggrandizing BS. He could have manufactured the "boyfriend". As I demonstrated above, "pretend" would have the same effect as "for real." All of this stuff could be malarkey. All of it could be made up for some ulterior motive.

BBM. It's in the arrest warrant that LE found out about the affair before CW fessed up to it. So I'm pretty sure it's not BS.

 

[MerryB]

Their tax records are public?

Property taxes? Yes, as are the 2015 bankruptcy filing & 2018 court docket for the HOA suit.