Found Deceased CO - Shanann Watts (34), Celeste"Cece" (3) and Bella (4), Frederick, 13 Aug 2018 *Arrest* #19

[The Saint]

What I could find in your link says,

"Company vehicles are equipped with tracking devices in order to quickly deploy resources "

To me, I'm not reading that 100% of their company vehicles are equipped with GPS in the statement ( If 100%, does that mean their sales people and their CEO and their upper management have GPS also? I'm reading it as a statement as to deploying resources for some of the vehicles, but not 100%, including the field folks.

To me, I'm not reading that trucks that are field service organizations are equipped with GPS in the statement.

To me, it's like chemical companies and other companies. Perhaps this is stating that the trucks who move the oil, are available with GPS to move the resources for when the oil needs to be moved.

Everyone reads things differently, so at this time, I'm not taking it as a fact that his truck had GPS. Just my background I guess and why I don't read it the same as you do.

The Anadarko truck and car fleet had ROVR. Someone posted on the previous thread.
ROVR & ROVR SL: Decrease Fleet Management Costs | Cartasite

 

[margarita25]

I'll check it out. Thanks!

It’s actually called: The Christopher Watts Case: Finding the Oil Well

 

[gitana1]

Gitana, you lost your avatar right when Tricia got one. lol.
In trying to read as much info about the case, I've forgotten what the Nov 18th hearing is all about. Will the witnesses be called? Is it a pre-lim meant to give the judge just enough information that the evidence warrants a trial?
Then, the judge sets the trial schedule w/ the attys?

Maybe it's an arraignment?

I don't know. The stages may be different from CA. There's an advisement. Which he had. An arraignment. Which he has not (it appears it starts the clock for various motions). A preliminary hearing at which time they decide whether there is probable cause to go forward. I believe he waived this or waived the right to have one at that early stage.
Then there is a pretrial at which motions occur and often plea discussions.

I'm not sure when discovery is supposed to be exchanged. On one law firm website in CO they discussed the pretrial as a way to force the prosecution to hand over evidence they haven't already.

I know my law partner complains about this a lot. He often has a hard time getting all the evidence in a timely manner.

 

[The Saint]

Excerpt:
Integrated Operations Center Provides 24/7 Operations Monitoring


Anadarko’s state-of-the-art Integrated Operations Center (IOC) is staffed 24/7 by personnel who have been trained in the Anadarko response practices and procedures, including Incident Command System (ICS) and National Incident Management System (NIMS) protocols. Located in Platteville, Colo., the IOC serves as a centralized dispatch center to route communications between the field and an Incident Management Team.

More snippets:

• More than 6,800 wells and 3,800 oil production tanks are monitored around the clock with an alarm system tied directly to the IOC
• Pipeline flow and rates are monitored 24 hours a day

• Company vehicles are equipped with tracking devices in order to quickly deploy resources

For full description go to:
Operations

So it says that the tanks have alarms but doesn't say that there are security cameras.

 

[ray9898]

If he had been able to put his wife in a tank too, they could "know" where he had been and in his mind at least, never suspect or find the bodies in there. Especially if the oil is dark. They could look in see nothing.

People keep saying there are cameras. But LE found the bedsheet apparently with drones. Not by asking Anadarko to view their cameras and not via warrant. So were there cameras? Do we know that for sure?

Regardless, it doesn't seem logical that he would know that and then lie for three days about their whereabouts. He would know he's on video throwing the bodies in oil and burying his wife (depending on camera angles).

It could've been a great plan. The alternative would be GPS would track his truck to some remote location that would lead LE directly to a burial site.

I don't agree with the view that LE would never suspect they need to look in the tanks. People have been disposing of bodies but dumping them in things for centuries by using anything from dumpsters, to lakes to wells. It doesn't take much imagination to conclude the tanks need checking once he would need to be checked once the circumstances are clear.

I never said there were cameras there. I agree if they existed the drone search seems unnecessary unless he parked or accessed the site in such a way he was somehow out of camera view. I think it is obvious his truck or cell phone was used to track him to that location.

Once they determined the last person to see them alive drove to that site at an usual hour those tanks would've been checked no matter what had to be done.

 

[margarita25]

Sorry if repost:

Shan'ann Watts' Brother Speaks About 'Horrific' Murders: 'We Lost So Much in a Blink of an Eye'

““I wanted to take a minute and thank everyone who has helped us in every way possible,” Frankie Rzucek wrote on Facebook early Friday. “From best friends and family to people from all over THE WORLD.”

“Its truly an honor and a blessing to be a part of this family,” he continued. “Its an [indescribable] feeling when people all over the globe reach out just to send their condolences or be a listening ear.””

 

[The Saint]

You would think that Anadarko or any oil company would have security cameras. They don't want someone stealing the oil or protestors sabotaging
the tanks.

 

[MerryB]

Because CW had killed his family and loaded them into his truck. He was covering for the fact that he had taken trash bags out and may have been seen.
There was a big deal about his tool box (I believe that was attached to the truck's bed). It's big enough to fit the girls' bodies crammed in there.

Per the neighbor, he had backed the truck into the garage. We now know he was loading bodies into the backseat. Investigators are testing hairs found in the backseat to see if they are postmortem, and if so, if they show any differences in decomposition (which would indicate they were killed at different times). CW probably knew the neighbor had seen him back his truck in and load some things up in the garage. Tools made sense because he is a mechanic, was heading to work, and he has toolchests in the bed of his truck.

 

[gitana1]

It seems like the trial is more like playing a strategic game than an honest effort put forth by both sides to deliver justice in a fair manner. Supposing the camera across the street captured a video of SW actually strangling the girls. Then what? Would a defense attorney ever advise their client to give it up and plead guilty?

Yes. But not just to plead guilty. It's always as part of a plea deal. Basically advising them that the evidence is powerful. They have no chance of winning. Or the risk is too great. So they try to convince them to take a deal.

In this case it would be a deal of life instead of death, if he was on video strangling the girls.

But if the DA had that much evidence they'd likely offer no deal. And then the defense would try some diminished capacity defense.

 

[dixiegirl1035]

But we do know CW had his cell phone because NU called him at work, and he answered, so with or without truck gps, CW was trackable.

I was wondering if any of his route was outside of cell phone coverage and cell towers, as I was looking at that on the YouTube that somebody posted earlier. So I went online and found this at Google maps for cell towers

 

[The Saint]

Sorry if repost:

Shan'ann Watts' Brother Speaks About 'Horrific' Murders: 'We Lost So Much in a Blink of an Eye'

It is just so sad and senseless.

In my mind, I feel like SW took the long summer trip to NC, at first to see
if it was plausible for the whole family to move back to NC. She might have been testing to see if she could still have a robust Thrive business there.

But as the summer went on and then CW came for the last week, maybe she started thinking about a separation where CW didn't join them or wouldn't live in the same house.

It didn't have to come to murder. They could have sold the house, split
the profit (if any) and moved on with their lives. CW would have child support for 3 kids but he could have done what he wanted when he wanted. The kids would remain on his company's health insurance, right? I think SW would have had to pay for hers through Cobra for 8 months to remain on his policy but I could be wrong. Because of her pregnancy, she might be covered for longer. I think SW could have gotten ACA in NC despite her lupus.

I finally watched the funeral. I bet 90% of those crying people who attended, would have pitched in and helped SW and the kids if she had divorced
CW.

But... in the video where SW is in the purple shirt and talking outside her
house about how "Chris was the one for me," she says that she loves CO and is at peace there. So maybe she wouldn't have moved back to NC.

 

[gitana1]

Status Conference November 19.
Video shows man charged in family's slayings giving a presentation on relationships
Watts waived his right to have a preliminary hearing within 35 days. A judge set a status hearing for November 19.

So hopefully that means they defense is getting the discovery and at the status conference they will determine if there will be a prelim. Which is the little mini trial before trial.

 

[Kensie]

Great post The Saint.

 

[ray9898]

Does evidence sharing conclude before the arraignment? Except for what else is discovered as time goes on?

.

It could take investigators months to wrap up the case so it is impossible for discovery to finish before arraignment. He is held based on probable cause only; the evidence collection, processing and interpretation for what will be presented at trial will continue for some time after arrest in a case this complex.

 

[gitana1]

You would think that Anadarko or any oil company would have security cameras. They don't want someone stealing the oil or protestors sabotaging
the tanks.

The site seems to discuss monitors. Like data monitors? I saw no evidence of cameras.

 

[Deleted member 182072]

The overall consensus here seems to be that CW is not particularly intelligent but the one thing we do know he is good at is being an auto mechanic. I'm thinking it would have been impossible for him not to be cognizant (even in a panicked state) of the GPS tracking on his company vehicle. He previously worked at an auto dealership, so he could have even installed those things himself many times.

My theory is that he planned for his company truck GPS tracking system to be his "alibi." He could have previously detached the GPS tracker and attached it to a portable battery so he could remove it at will. So he could have temporarily left the tracker (along with his cellphone) at the Hudson site while he disposed of the bodies.

Alternatively, he could have used some unregistered beater truck he already had, transferred the bodies into it and left his work truck and phone behind temporarily. Considering many of his hookups probably happened during work hours, a beater truck could have come in really handy because he would have been able to leave his company truck at his job sites so it wouldn't look like he was slacking off.

If there were cameras at the sites, maybe they weren't actively monitored and the footage was only reviewed if there was a problem. But CW was sloppy leaving that sheet behind which the drones detected and didn't realize how thorough the investigation would be.

It kind of reminds me of how Ross Harris lied by omission about that lunchtime car visit. RH knew the parking lot was monitored by cameras but didn't think they would check the footage. Just like RH lied that he didn't normally drop his son off at daycare when he in fact did so at least 80% of the time. Like CW, RH just wasn't smart and didn't realize LE would verify everything.

 

[gitana1]

Why tell them I loaded tools and then left for the Hudson site? Why not just say I left for work at 5:30 am?

Maybe they asked?

 

[Kensie]

I have not read all the threads but CW and of course Ross Harris are both jerks that deserve to be in prison for life. The death penalty should be used on these two; especially, CW.

 

[DexterMorgan]

It could take investigators months to wrap up the case so it is impossible for discovery to finish before arraignment. He is held based on probable cause only, the evidence collection, processing and interpretation for what will be presented at trial will continue for some time after arrest in a case this complex.

Plus he has already confessed to atleast 5 crimes.

3 body concealments
1 murder
1 fetal murder via the murder of SW.

 

[Layla123]

It is just so sad and senseless.

In my mind, I feel like SW took the long summer trip to NC, at first to see
if it was plausible for the whole family to move back to NC. She might have been testing to see if she could still have a robust Thrive business there.

But as the summer went on and then CW came for the last week, maybe she started thinking about a separation where CW didn't join them or wouldn't live in the same house.

It didn't have to come to murder. They could have sold the house, split
the profit (if any) and moved on with their lives. CW would have child support for 3 kids but he could have done what he wanted when he wanted. The kids would remain on his company's health insurance, right? I think SW would have had to pay for hers through Cobra for 8 months to remain on his policy but I could be wrong. Because of her pregnancy, she might be covered for longer. I think SW could have gotten ACA in NC despite her lupus.

I finally watched the funeral. I bet 90% of those crying people who attended, would have pitched in and helped SW and the kids if she had divorced
CW.

But... in the video where SW is in the purple shirt and talking outside her
house about how "Chris was the one for me," she says that she loves CO and is at peace there. So maybe she wouldn't have moved back to NC.

But SW was 14 weeks pregnant, and not in the greatest health. She wouldn’t have been able to get a steady job for quite awhile. CW really is a .