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

[Chelly]

I’m behind and so maybe this has been said but:

No way those girls wrapped that doll that way. The doll is posed to look bigger than it is with its head on a pillow. Really it’s head is on the sofa between the pillows and it seems like something is under the cover. On the photo on DailyMail, it looks IMO like there is a sad face outlined on it under the cover. Maybe DM edited it? Or I need new glasses.

Agree. When I first saw the doll/sheet scene, I thought it appeared too sophisticated and neatly arranged for a three or four year old child to create.

 

[HoldySi]

So if she was gone for 6 weeks and he had the kids - who was taking care of them while he was working, or even at the gym, the grocery store, etc?

The children were with Shanann during the six weeks. They came home for a few days and then Shanann left again for AZ. The kids stayed with CW at that time.

 

[Tippy Lynn]

So it’s up to the MLM distributor to pay the federal and state income taxes, perhaps quarterly, including Social Security and Medicare? Sounds confusing, almost like one has to have a CPA. Another expense.

I believe SW would receive a 10-99,. Just like being self employed.

 

[flourish]

My guess is it was too physically difficult to also get her into the tank?

What do you guys anticipate will be COD? Hopefully gun and not stabbing. (Awful that a gunshot is even hoped for here). I’m scared he might have stabbed them to death

I'm not sure why, but I think he smothered the girls and strangled Shanann. The way he was holding his right arm in the interview, I kept imagining him using it from behind to put his wife in a kind of choke hold then strangle her. Or maybe to subdue her then strangle or smother her. I just keep getting a feeling that he interrupted their breathing. I just really hope the girls didn't know what was happening, it was fast, they didn't see him, etc. Just please let them have just gone to sleep and not woken up, please, I don't want to hear they suffered from fear or pain
And I really hope Shanann didn't know her babies were dead. I hope he just did her in really fast.

This is awful. I have been struggling with the recurring images of oil-covered babies since last night

I can't imagine how painful this is for their families. How awful. I can't imagine being the parent of someone who did something like this. Ugh. I don't know that I could ever look at my child the same way at all.

 

[enelram]

So if she was gone for 6 weeks and he had the kids - who was taking care of them while he was working, or even at the gym, the grocery store, etc?

She was gone for 6 weeks visiting her family in NC and she took the girls with her. He was home alone.

 

[margarita25]

I wonder if he had a deep seeded hate and/or resentment towards women. I wonder if his kids were boys, if he still would have killed them. Is resentment towards a women a general characteristic in “family annhilators”?

 

[margarita25]

She was gone for 6 weeks visiting her family in NC and she took the girls with her. He was home alone.

Hmmmmmm....what was he doing during this time?

 

[gitana1]

Could be. I think the company or LE pulled the security videos prior to his arrest and he came clean on killing them during interrogations. He was advised by his attorney to lead them to the bodies in hopes of the DP being taken off the table. MOO

That would never happen unless part of an actual deal.

 

[CARIIS]

That's hilarious. I did post a photo of me in a weird green facial mask once.

and...........................we all saw it

and just thought you were looking for a role in Wicked!

And really did he not assume he would be arrested once they found the bodies AT HIS WORK??? It sounds like Shanann wasn’t even hidden. What was his plan here?

in a way i don't think he had one

i think this was more about impulse control and things got out of hand jmo

am having some problem here tho if the kids were murdered first

 

[cattlekate]

I'm feeling like CW felt as though he had no way out. Mounting financial debt, Wife was trying to help out by getting involved in thrive(which is a pyramid scheme) and very few actually make much money off of it. They try to make it seem like they do in order to fill out the bottom of their own pyramid, but in reality the bills just keep piling up. It is very sad that he felt that there was no way out and that he decided to snuff out his innocent children and his wife. What puzzles me is that it wan't a murder suicide situation. Just very sad that i think at one time there was probably a family filled with love and it all had to turn out the way that it did. Mental health is a real problem in this country! With all that said, I still will never understand how somebody can kill their own innocent children! It just makes me sick and its all very sad! There is always a way out people ALWAYS! and a real man would swallow his pride and admit their failures and find a way out for the good of their family! CW is nothing but a Coward! And a cold blooded Murderer! MOO

This is exactly where I am at too. I don’t think CW is a cold-blooded genetic sociopath. I think he “snapped” due to debt. I am prejudiced since I’ve witnessed first hand what a MLM and debt can do.

Someone upthread posted about how back in the day, pre-marriage counseling included the topic of money. It was through the Catholic Church when I was young. I am so for it, as well as a Dave Ramsey and Reddit personal finance fan.

We will find out soon enough about this family’s debt, but I’m thinking it was in a spiral, yet they did not have the wherewithal to sell that darn ridiculous 484k house and adopt a more humble lifestyle. MOO.

 

[Stunned]

$$$$$$$

he is being interviewed before the poor kids are gotten out of gas

THEY ARE STILL IN THE TANKS? OMG!

 

[BUF]

Is there a link to him commenting after being arraigned - saying he did what was best, or something to that effect?

There was only a bond hearing yesterday. Charges will coming by Monday 3:30 then back in court Tuesday to be formally charged. IIRC

 

[SoccerMotha]

Just as I suspected and mentioned earlier. The income they made when they bought the house drastically reduced. Unless he had a different job now then he did then, Shannan's sales plummeted. This confirms it with a combined income of 147k down to 90k. Losing 57k in a situation where one was living above their means to begin with puts you in dire financial straits very quickly.

I am totally sickened not only the fact he killed his wife and children, but how he disposed of them is so horrific and also telling. My first thought was so he was ok with going to work every day knowing his baby girls were close by and a constant reminder of what he had done. Then I realized one, he doesn't care about them and two, he had no intentions of sticking around anyway. He was already talking about selling the house. He was going to be out of there as soon as possible.

Gitana the video you posted of Bella was the saddest thing I've seen since reading about this case. It brought her to life and emphasied the cruelty and horrificness of this crime. Having 2 young granddaughters of similar age and knowing how much they adore my son and are totally daddy's girls makes it all so real to me. Such a sweet little girl and one that loved her daddy...UGH.. the betrayal here is disgusting.

The loss of income may be tied to how much work there is, it seems he was an operator and having a husband in construction I know all too well how drastically income can change from year to year depending on how much work there is. We've had times where our income was almost $50000 difference, I do work full time and have a decent paying career so it helps.

 

[Tippy Lynn]

I wouldn’t be able to and wouldn’t want to live if my kids were killed and especially so if they were killed by their father. I hope she didn’t know.

 

[RavenCC2020]

I want to agree because it makes so much sense. And it sort of neatly explains how a seemingly normal and loving husband and father can do something like this.

But I think it's more complex.

Not everyone who commits a hideous atrocity is a sociopath or psychopath. Maybe they have some tendencies or aspects of it but it's not always that clear cut.

His post-confession media interviews were off. He seemed very emotionless and flat when discussing his beloved family being possibly "not safe".

But there were tells that some of the best sociopaths would likely not display.

True psychopaths/sociopaths tend to have low fear or arousal levels. They can do the worst and don't tend to fear getting caught.

But this guy had some hard swallows during the interviews. He described a lot of feelings. "My heart is racing a mile a minute." That's fear of getting caught.

"Emotional argument". "Traumatic night." "Ghost town."

"Earth shattering"

When asked to spell his daughter's names he had a reaction. Small but there.

He was feeling a lot of things about what he had done. And I believe there was remorse.

So I predicted a quick confession as did many others.

The FBI using the baby's nickname. "Cece". And saying they would not rest. Both statements were meant to appeal to emotions on the part of this creep that pure sociopaths don't typically have.

I mean clearly he's on the spectrum. But I don't think it's that cut and dried. (Is that the right phrase?)

I concur, you relayed this much better then I. This is what I was referring to when I said he was a wimpy twirp. I see this guy as weakling with lots of fears. I definitely do not see a confident killer which most psycho's are. There is a soft side to him that I do believe he wishes to hide perhaps by previous experiences growing up. You know, what you were saying about Peterson, learning not to cry etc but for different reasons then Peterson. There has to be a human in there somewhere to allow him to confess to begin with. The harder guys rarely confess and if they do it is in a bragging way such as relaying other murders they are responsible for and didn't get caught.

I think it was this weakness in him that made him obvious to us all. He does not feel confident or comfortable lying and fears being caught. NOT something a real socio/psycho would even consider. I also agree with you that he could simply be someone with those tendancies but a mixture of more normal ones in there as well.

I do agree he exibited some emotion when asked to spell his daughter's name. This is what confuses me. If we assume SW was his primary target to pull off this crime and the evidence to show they were not all in the same spot indicates he killed his children first. This means premeditation at least where she is concerned. This makes me wonder if he did just lose it one one of the kids or both before she got home. Possible scenario the girls were arguing or fighting with each other which is common and he being "calm" hated confrontation and he lost it on one or both. Remember he said that Bella was "more like him, calm" and CeCe was basically a firebrand like her mom. If something like that did occur and he harmed one or both, he may have become scared and just finished them off. That "emotional conversation" he referred to which I DO believe is significant in this case, we were assuming was SW learning her kids were gone. What if that isn't the way it went down. What if SW came home and it was met with a very distraught and emotional CW who couldn't handle what he had done. He mentions the ghosts which would have been present as soon as the children were removed from the property.

Total speculation as it is with all theories until we actually learn what LE knows. Bottom line for me though is I see him as a weak person with fears and phobias.

 

[gitana1]

True, but Andarko will have a series of alarms and videos going off over those two tanks that night that cant be ignored.

So you think when he unloaded his truck with the bodies and climbed a ladder or whatever and opened it and put it in, alarms were going off?

And it was all on video? I mean they would've found the bodies on Monday if that was the case, I think?

 

[enelram]

I wonder if he had a deep seeded hate and/or resentment towards women. I wonder if his kids were boys, if he still would have killed them. Is resentment towards a women a general characteristic in “family annhilators”?

There are many men out there who hate women but 'need them'.
Deep down they have deep resentment towards them (and usually their mothers also) but the men 'need' women for sex, companionship, being taken care of etc.
There is a book from the 80's called something like "Abusive Men
and the Women Who Love Them". was written by a psychologist/
counselor and discusses this phenomenon. Usually caused by
a poor relationship with the men's mother while growing up.

 

[MountainLover]

This story reminds me in some ways of the Susan Powell tragedy. I cannot fathom a parent killing their children in such a brutal unfeeling way. The financial angle is equally baffling to me-I live in West Virginia and I guess have an innately Appalachian frugality that gives me an absolute abhorrence of overly extravagant living, so I can't see getting in such a financial bind. Still, the whole situation is inexplicable to me. RIP to Shannan and her babies.

 

[Herat]

The children were with Shanann during the six weeks. They came home for a few days and then Shanann left again for AZ. The kids stayed with CW at that time.

Thanks, I wanted to clear that up. So he had 6 weeks of bachelor life again.....

 

[RavenCC2020]

My guess is it was too physically difficult to also get her into the tank?

What do you guys anticipate will be COD? Hopefully gun and not stabbing. (Awful that a gunshot is even hoped for here). I’m scared he might have stabbed them to death

I think the girls were probably suffocated. I am not sure about SW. I don't think it would be a gun unless there was blood there that the police saw. I'm more apt to lean towards strangulation for SW.