First, I apologize if these questions have already been answered. So much reading and I had to take a break to fix some plumbing issues!
1. Since a cadaver dog picked up a scent, does a certain time have to pass for a cadaver dog to pick up a dead scent?
2. Can any sort of test determine how old the scent is?
3. Could the pillow covers have been used to strangle the girls? Would police test all objects for DNA?
4. Since all of the decedents are related, can the DNA be distinguished between daughters and mom?
5. Would fitted bed sheet (found in the oil field) be tested for DNA?
6. Would all of CW’s clothes be tested for DNA or death scent?
7. Cariis posted “...and now we know why he killed his wife and etc. etc.”. How do we know that; did I miss something?
8. Is SW thought to be having an affair or is this wild conjecture?
Thank you for your tolerances and anticipated responses.
Reposting your questions in bold and my response in plain text
1. Since a cadaver dog picked up a scent, does a certain time have to pass for a cadaver dog to pick up a dead scent?
We don't know for a fact that cadaver dogs did pick up a scent. We can reasonably conjecture that cadaver dogs were used in the house as CW did mention dogs in the house, and cadaver or blood dogs would be the only logical type of sniffer dog to take into the house.
Tests have shown cadaver dogs are able to pick up the scent of a dead body with a good level of accuracy for bodies that are in place for less than ten minutes.
2. Can any sort of test determine how old the scent is?
I don't believe they can.
3. Could the pillow covers have been used to strangle the girls? Would police test all objects for DNA?
Anything that can be made into a long thin shape could be used. In a family home in a situation like this it wouldn't imo be worth checking for DNA on objects in the house. That's really only useful when there's an outside suspect to check for their DNA on a murder weapon, for example.
They could do other forensic tests, but I think it would take an expert to determine what specific tests might be useful in this case.
4. Since all of the decedents are related, can the DNA be distinguished between daughters and mom?
With a high quality dna sample, yes they can distinguish between mom and daughters. Shanann doesn't carry any of CW's DNA, both girls do carry his DNA, so there's quite a large difference between the DNA of Shanann and her daughters.
5. Would fitted bed sheet (found in the oil field) be tested for DNA?
It could be if there was a need to, but I don't see any reason to do DNA testing on it. They could do that to provide stronger evidence that the sheet came from the Watts home and it isn't a pure coincidence that a sheet matching a set in their home was found near the bodies. I'm not sure it's necessary though.
6. Would all of CW’s clothes be tested for DNA or death scent?
I believe what they do is take the dog through each room and allow the dog to move around the room in its own way (it's been well trained, the dog knows what to do and what he/she is looking for) and then dog will either alert in a place or it won't alert. So if CW's clothing is laying on the floor or something then perhaps the dog might alert to it if CW was in close contact with a body for ... probably at least two minutes touch contact? Roughly.
It wouldn't be a particularly helpful report from the dog. There's no evidence an outsider was in the home, there's no reason that CW, who is the only one who could have transported the bodies, would not have cadaver scent on his clothing from that night.
8. Is SW thought to be having an affair or is this wild conjecture?
Nothing has been stated in any source which is allowed in this forum. That would be Shanann's own words on her FB or other social media site; Law enforcement; a mainstream media article.
As it hasn't been reported in any of those sources, it's conjecture.
