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Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host Nick and
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with me as always is a man that when asked why we feature a beer each week, he simply responded because we're
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thirsty, dummy. He is our captain. Ahoy, me mateys. It's good to be seen and it's good to see you. Thanks for
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listening and thanks for telling a friend. This week's beer of the week is Haze by
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the geniuses over at Tree House Brewing. Garage grade A, strong, five out of five
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for a beer. So when we do, that means you stop what you're doing, locate one of these beers and drink it immediately.
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Haze by Tree House was brought to us by First Up. A big thank you to Kenny, who is my friend Ken on Untappd for sending
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us some delicious Tree House beer. Big thanks to Ken. Please don't listen to the Colonel. You might lose your job.
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And a big we like your jib to Saran up in Arlington. Here's a long distance cheers to Mark in
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Sonora, California. And a big cheers to Gavin in Bay City, Michigan. Next, and I
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love this one, Captain, we have Shelley in Gun Barrel City, Texas. And last but certainly not least, we have Shannon
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from Westminster, British Columbia. So thanks to everyone for helping out this wonderful garage show. And if you would
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on the mailing list or you can purchase a fabulous shirt so you can make your awesomeness a little more awesome. And
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that's enough of the business. All right, thank you, Captain. Everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a
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beer. Let's talk some true crime. My daddy is a hero. He helps me grow up strong.
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He helps me on the slide go too. He reads me books. He ties my shoes. You're a hero,
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blue and blue. My daddy, daddy, I love you. Your first name is Watts? I'm Chris Watts. W A T T S.
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Okay. What what's going on right now around your house? Well, right now it's got canine units,
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the sheriff's department. Everybody's like they're they're doing their best right now to figure out like if they can
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get a scent see where they went. If they went on foot, they went in a car, they went
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somewhere. And right now it's just like they've they've been on point. They're going
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through the house trying to get a scent and hopefully they can pick something up
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to where it's it's going to lead to something. What happened? Your wife came home and told you didn't
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know what's up. I see. Like she came home from the airport 2:00 a.m. and I left around 5:15. She was still here.
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And like about 12:10 in that afternoon, her friend Nicole showed up at the door.
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Like I had texted Shannan a few times that day, called her, said, you know. But she never got back to me, but she
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wasn't getting back to any of her people as well. And that's what really concerned a lot of people. It's like
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she's not getting back to her like she isn't getting back to me, that's fine. Like she gets busy during the day. But
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she didn't get back to her people, which was very concerning. And Nicole called me when she was at the door and that's
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when I came home. And then walked in the house and nothing. It's vanished. Nothing was
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here. I mean, she wasn't she wasn't here. The kids weren't here. No nobody was here.
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What's your wife's name? Shannan. S H A N N A N. What's your what's your kids' names? Bella and Celeste.
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Bella and Celeste. Uh C E L E S T E. How old are your how old are your daughters? Four. Bella's four, Celeste
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is three. And so how many times did you try calling her? I called her three times, texted her
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about three times just to say, you know. What's going on? Like I didn't I could not after after after I called her and
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texted her once it was like, all right. Maybe she was just busy. Like she just gotten back, you know, like everybody's
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probably calling her from her trip. She just got back from Arizona. And I figured just she was just busy. But
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when her friend showed up, that's when it was like it it registered. Like, all right, this isn't right.
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Do you think she just took off? Do you think I I mean, right now I don't even want to just like throw anything out
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there. Like I hope that she's somewhere safe right now and with the kids. But I mean, could she have been could
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she have just taken off? I don't know. But if somebody has her and they're not safe, like I want them back now.
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Like that's that's that's what's in my head. Like if they're safe right now, they're going to come back.
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But if they're not safe right now, that's what that's the not knowing part. Like if they're not safe
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last night, I was I had every light in the house on. I was hoping that I would just get just
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ran over by the kids running in the door and just like barrel rushing me, but it
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didn't happen. And it was just a traumatic night trying to be here. Can I ask some kind of tough questions
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about relationship with your kids? Yeah, I mean, yeah, my my kids are my life. I
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mean, those those smiles light up my life. And there's like I mean, last night like
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during like at you know, when they usually eat dinner, it was just like I miss them. Like I mean, I miss telling
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them, "Hey, you got to eat that or you're going to not going to get your dessert, you know?" Just like you're not
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going to get your snack after. I miss that. Like I I miss them, you know, cuddle up on their couches. They have
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like a Minnie Mouse couch and a Sophia couch that they cuddle up on and watch, you know, Bubble Guppies or something.
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And it was just like, you know, I mean I I was it was tearing tearing me apart last
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night and I needed that. I needed that last night. And for that for nobody to be here last night and to go into their
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rooms and not and know that I wasn't going to turn the rain machines on. And know that I wasn't going to turn
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their monitor on. And know I wasn't going to kiss them to bed tonight. It was it was I I
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That's why last night was just horrible. I couldn't do it. I just I just want I want everybody to come
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home. Like wherever they're at, come home. That's what I want. So she's where where was she gone for?
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Um I she was she she was on um She came back Sunday. You said that to you at night. Yeah, cuz her her flight
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got delayed from Arizona cuz of like other storms around the the nation. So she's supposed to get home like
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11:00. She got home at like 1:48. Got in bed about 2:00. What was she what was she gone for? Like a family trip It was
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a Thrive direct sales uh it was a local event that was down there with seeing a bunch of leaders in in the company.
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And that night the day she was back, I mean I left I left work for work early that
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morning like 5:15, 5:30. So like she barely let me she barely got barely gotten in the bed pretty much.
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Now, this might be a tough question, but did you guys get into an argument before
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she left? It wasn't it wasn't like an argument. We had an emotional conversation, but I'll leave it at that.
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But it's I just want them back. I just I just want them to come back. And if if they're not safe right now, that's
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what's that's what's tearing me apart cuz if they are safe, they're coming back.
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But if they're not, this this this has got to stop. Like somebody has to come forward.
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You spoke to her family like what are they saying? Yeah, they've been in constant contact like every hour. I
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mean, it's I mean, everybody back in North Carolina and the East Coast. I mean, from Maine to Florida.
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What is her parents saying to you like They're just like like if they need to get on a flight, just let them know cuz
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I mean, they don't they they feel helpless right now cuz they they're on the opposite side of the country.
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I mean, this Colorado is I mean can't just drive around and look. I mean, it's just like you wouldn't really
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know what you're looking for. That's what the cops pretty much told me. That first day I was like, I want to get out
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and drive around. They said, "You wouldn't know what to look for." Um last couple questions. Uh what is what
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is law enforcement what are what are the police or the sheriffs or your neighbors, is anybody what is
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what's what's police saying to you? Right now, this is what they're doing right now is with the K9s in the sense.
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I think this is the biggest thing This is the biggest thing they've done so far because yesterday they all Frederick
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Police Department did all the searching of the house and try to gather whatever information they could.
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And with the detectives, officers, and sergeants, and today it's I mean obviously with all the activity
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that's around, it's it's it's it's There's a lot going on around here, and I really hope that all
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this can lead to something positive. What did um your neighbors, did they see anything?
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Did your neighbors say anything? No, like we've we've uh the police department went door-to-door asking like
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cameras and everything, just like nothing. And my last question, if you have any
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feel free to stop me. My last question is if your wife can see this if she if she can watch this, what would
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you What would you like to tell your wife and kids? Shannan, Bella, Bella. Celeste, Celeste. if you're out there,
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just just come back. Like if somebody has her, just please bring her back. I need to see
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everybody. On Monday, August 13th, 2018, the Frederick, Colorado, 911 received a call
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from Nicole Atkinson around 1:30 p.m. Nicole reported that she dropped her friend Shannan Watts off at her home at
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1:48 a.m. that morning after a business trip to Arizona. Nicole was very concerned because she had not heard or
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been able to reach Shannan. Now, Shannan is diabetic and 15 weeks pregnant, so this is just adding to her friend's
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concerns. Shannan missed a doctor's appointment that morning and was not responding to
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calls or texts, and this was very much out of character. Nicole and her teenage son Nicholas went
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over to Shannan's home to look for her. Nicholas on occasion dog sat for the Watts, so he was very familiar with
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their home. Through the garage windows, apparently Captain, the teenage boy had to stand on
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top of his mother's car to look into these windows. It sounds like they're quite high. They could see Shannan's
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white Lexus SUV parked inside. Nicole knew the code to the front door, but upon attempting to open it, she
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found that inside the latch was engaged on the door. This prohibiting it from being opened more than just a couple of
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inches. Nicole could see the flip-flops Shannan was wearing on the plane right inside the front door. Now, she always
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wore these flip-flops. Nicole contacted Shannan's husband, Christopher Watts, on
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his cell phone. He was at work. She asked him to come home to check to see if Shannan was okay. Chris didn't
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seem overly concerned and told her Shannan went on a playdate with a friend. Nicole felt that he wasn't being
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appropriately responsive to this situation. Well, also she was fearing because her friend is in constant
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contact with her. So, if she was on a playdate, wouldn't she reply to the text messages or the phone calls? Yes. So,
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she had Nicholas try to force open the garage door. She knew that this would trigger the house alarm. And hopefully,
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if Shannan was inside, you know, she's kind of assuming at this point that she might be incapacitated inside the home.
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And she's hoping that the alarm will, you know, bring her back to you know, reality and answer the door or
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check in with her friend. But Chris Watts disarmed this alarm from his phone earlier. This was at 12:41
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p.m. So, concerned that Shannan and the girls did not appear to be at the house and
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they're not reachable, Nicole and her son left and actually went to the OBGYN's office where Nicole knew Shannan
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had an appointment at 10:00 a.m. that morning. She wanted to see if they had shown up to this appointment and found
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out that she did not. Again, this was completely out of character. Nicole and Nicholas returned to the
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Watts home and called Chris Watts again. They then told him that they were calling the police. Chris told Nicole
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not to do so and that he was on his way home, but she had already called 911 by this time. In response to Nicole's call,
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Officer Scott Coonrod was dispatched to the Watts home on Saratoga Trail. This is in a subdivision of new homes about
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10 minutes away from Frederick. Yeah, they're roughly $350,000 Nice neighborhood. Yeah. Nicole and
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Nicholas were waiting for him outside of the house. The officer opened the front
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door just a couple of inches cuz remember we got the latch inside. Mhm. He called out to see if anyone was
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inside the home, but saw no one and heard no one. Who we are looking for is Shannan and her two daughters, Bella and
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Celeste, ages 4 and 3. All of the windows on the ground floor were locked as was the sliding glass
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door at the back of the house. Nicole told the officer that Chris Watts, Shannan's husband, was somewhat unclear
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as to what time he would be arriving at the house. Although Shannan was not known to pass
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out or have seizures due to her diabetes, Nicole was concerned that she may be ill or have had an accident
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upstairs and needed help. Shannan had a low blood sugar incident in Arizona just
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a few days prior. Right, but even so, I mean you're calling out to people even though you can't get the door open, you
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have a 4-year-old and a 3-year-old. You would think at some point you'd hear some kind of noise inside the house.
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Yes, unless it was like nap time or the children were frightened for some reason, you would think you would hear
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something going on inside the home. So, Nicole, Nicholas, and the officer are standing outside of the Watts' home.
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Nicole is calling all of Shannan's friends and her parents to see if they have heard from her.
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Nobody's heard anything. And meanwhile, after obtaining Chris Watts' cell number
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from Nicole, the officer called Chris and asked for the code to enter the home through the garage using the exterior
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keypad. Chris said the code didn't work from the outside and he would be home in
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5 minutes. When Chris showed up, he accessed the home using his car garage clicker, then entered the home.
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All of them entered the home together, to be clear. Yeah. Chris gave consent to check the entire house for any sign of
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Shannan and the girls. So, they find no one in the home. They didn't find a note
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or really any indication of where this young mother and the two little girls could be. But here is what they did
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find. They found Shannan's small black suitcase still sitting at the bottom of the stairs. Chris found Shannan's
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wedding ring on a nightstand. Chris and Nicholas went upstairs and Nicholas found Shannan's cell phone on the couch
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in the loft area. Yeah, it was actually kind of stuffed in the cushions. Chris did not know the password to his wife's
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phone, but apparently Nicole did. It was the due date for the baby that was on the way. Mhm. Chris authorized the
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officer to look through her phone. He observed no calls were made that morning and there were a lot of missed
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calls and unresponded to messages. The officer called in a detective to investigate further. So, they thoroughly
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searched the house with Chris' permission. Now, while they're searching, Chris said that he was going
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to go for a walk around the neighborhood to clear his head, but he ended up staying just outside of the home on the
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deck to the backyard after taking the family dog outside. The police documented what they found. This
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included Shannan's purse sitting on the kitchen counter containing her wallet, cash, ID, credit cards, a second cell
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phone, and medication. We already know that they found her vehicle. This was with the keys on the
00:18:10
center console and the remote garage door opener on the visor. Well, and at this point it's like, where would she
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go? I mean, she doesn't have a car. She's pregnant. So, we wouldn't think that she'd walk too far. She has two
00:18:25
girls with her. Maybe somebody came and picked her up. The tricky thing, too, Captain, it sounds like there's ways to
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access this home without a key. You know, we referenced the keypad to the garage, which Chris says is not working.
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Then the keypad to the front door, which you can't use because it's latched from
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inside. Right. So, I'm having trouble here because we we have her keys. It says her car keys on
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the center console in her vehicle. Most people, myself, I carry my house keys on my car key ring. Yeah, key fob.
00:19:01
Yeah. So, I'm kind of wondering here, the only really thing I could think of that could happen here is that somebody
00:19:08
would have picked them up, they went somewhere, or that they went for some kind of walk and maybe something
00:19:13
happened that delayed their return, but how were they going to access the home? You know, did she have or could she have
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had any type of keys with her to get into the home? It sounds like no. Also doesn't seem like they're questioning
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Chris much about this so-called playdate. Yeah, and a special note here, this was
00:19:32
interesting. Officers determined that someone would have had enough time to press the button from inside the parked
00:19:40
vehicle and run out the closing garage door. Right. And but but again, the garage was the only way someone could
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have exited the home since the other doors were all locked. Now, finding the two cell phones was
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very disturbing because Nicole told the police that Shannan worked from home and
00:20:01
she would never leave without her cell phone. Yeah, I believe they call it like direct
00:20:05
sales where you're you sell to your friends and family and and potentially other people and she worked for a
00:20:13
company I believe it was called Level. I have Thrive nutritional supplements but I mean it could be Level could be
00:20:20
the parenting company. Right. Um often there's different names associated with these direct sales businesses but I
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think the key thing here and what her friend is going to point out to the officer is and keep in mind her friend
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worked with her or did had the same similar line of work, right? The key thing here is being available to her
00:20:42
customers via phone 24/7. Right, or texts. Yes. And this with both these phones being at the home, Shannan not
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there, that's impossible. So regarding the little girls, this is disturbing too because what police found was they found
00:20:59
asthma medication for one of the girls as well as an EpiPen for one of the other girls. You know, this girl, she
00:21:06
needed to have this with her at all times in case of an allergic reaction. The police report states, quote, "We
00:21:13
observed nothing suspicious inside the residence, vehicles, or garage that gave the appearance of an altercation." And
00:21:20
what's so interesting about this case is you can actually watch all of this footage. Yeah, this comes from the
00:21:26
police body cams. But the cops did note that the master bed was stripped bare down to the
00:21:33
mattress. The comforter, fitting fitted bottom sheet, and pillows were on the floor. Right.
00:21:39
There was no sign of the top sheet. The girls' beds in their bedrooms were unmade. In the unfinished basement, they
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found an unmade bed with sheets and a blanket. Chris told them that he slept in the basement on occasion but when
00:21:53
Shannan got home last night, he was in the master bedroom. Officers noted a Ring doorbell camera.
00:22:01
Chris told them the only persons visible on it were Shannan arriving home from her trip and Nicole and Nicholas when
00:22:08
they showed up that day looking for her. Right. The authorities canvassed the neighborhood to see if anyone saw
00:22:14
anything. One neighbor in particular is named in the police report, Nathaniel Trinastich, lived next door and he has a
00:22:21
home video surveillance system. This shows Nicole's car leaving at 1:48 a.m. as she told police. Then at 5:27
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a.m. on August 13th, the video shows Chris Watts in a black shirt walking out the open garage door and then shows his
00:22:41
brown extended cab Ford F-250 pickup truck backing into the driveway up to the garage with the rear of the truck in
00:22:49
the garage. The view of the rear of the truck was obscured from the camera. So Chris was
00:22:56
parked at the street but backed up to the garage and is seen on the video loading a red gas can into the truck
00:23:03
bed. Yeah, he claims he's loading tools for work. Yes. The video showed no other
00:23:08
vehicles coming or going. In the bed of the truck, police found a fire extinguisher, a large hose, a shovel, a
00:23:16
gas can, and multiple toolboxes. This pickup truck was issued to Chris by his employer. Well, and because it was
00:23:24
issued by his employer, the truck has GPS on it as well. So the police are going to eventually be able to track his
00:23:31
whereabouts using the GPS monitoring on the truck. Well, let's talk about Chris Watts's story because it's it's pretty
00:23:38
clear from the police report that the cops were suspicious of Chris from the get-go. Yeah. In fact, the officer's
00:23:45
report says this. Here is what Chris told the detectives on that day. He said that the family had
00:23:52
just returned from a vacation in North Carolina where they both had family. They flew home on August 7th. On the
00:23:59
10th, Shannan had a work trip to Arizona. Chris said Shannan got home from this trip that Sunday night which
00:24:05
was really early Monday morning, August 13th at around 2:00 a.m. We now know this was because her flight
00:24:13
was delayed so she arrived home later than planned. Nicole drove her home arriving at 1:48 a.m. Chris was asleep
00:24:22
in the master bedroom. He woke up at 4:00 a.m. and started getting ready for work and woke Shannan up.
00:24:28
Yeah, he claims because they were having some marital problems that he claims that they had an emotional conversation
00:24:34
about their relationship and talked about selling their house and moving towards a divorce before he left for
00:24:41
work. Yeah, he says this conversation lasted about 30 to 40 minutes and as you stated it was emotional but he was clear
00:24:49
that they were not arguing. He said they were discussing a separation for a few weeks. Then at 5:27 a.m., Chris backed
00:24:56
his truck up to the garage to load up some tools and left for work. When he left around 5:45 a.m., Shannan was in
00:25:05
bed. He went to work at a job site, an oil well location, to check on it. He was alone there for a few hours.
00:25:15
Chris was an operator for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Colorado's largest oil and gas producer. He worked
00:25:23
on oil wells and equipment. Chris told police that Shannan intended to spend the day with the kids at the house of a
00:25:30
friend but he didn't know who this friend was. He didn't know the name of the friend.
00:25:34
Right. He told police they were married for 6 years and that this disappearance was very unusual behavior.
00:25:42
He said that he blamed himself for her leaving because it clearly was the result of their conversation.
00:26:07
All right, we're back. Cheers, mates. Cheers to you, Captain. A big garage cheers to everybody out there. All
00:26:13
right, some alarm bells are going off here, right? Wait, and out there. And out there. And over there. And in the
00:26:22
back seat. And over there. All around the world. So let's talk about some of the alarm bells
00:26:28
here, right? We have a missing woman, two missing children, and we have the husband that seems to have a no care in
00:26:36
the world. Yes. Yes, thank you. And the officer notes that Chris's demeanor was, quote,
00:26:41
"nonchalant." It's very strange. I mean again, I I will try to get like clear footage of this and post it on our
00:26:50
website at True Crime Garage. So if you haven't seen it that you don't have to scroll through YouTube and try to
00:26:57
there's a ton of them out there. And the I believe the exact wording that the officer gave was that he didn't seem
00:27:04
that Chris did not seem overly concerned about the fact that his wife and little
00:27:08
girls were missing. Yeah, now I understand that you're having marital problems so maybe you're not so worried
00:27:14
about your wife but she's also carrying your unborn child, your unborn son. And then you have your two lovely daughters.
00:27:24
You'd think you'd be concerned about their whereabouts. The other thing too is like and I can't
00:27:28
really emphasize this enough. The little girls are nowhere to be found. Their medication that is very
00:27:36
much needed medication. We mentioned the EpiPen. Right. That would terrify me. That's what would terrify me if I were
00:27:43
Chris in this situation. Well, and when you look at behavior science and just his demeanor, constantly he is
00:27:51
crossing his arms almost like in a like he's defensive. Mhm. Without even talking, he's defensive. The other thing
00:27:58
too is Chris told the officer three times that he left the garage door open and received the alarm on his phone
00:28:07
notifying him of this around 12:40. Now, the officer thought that Chris's emphasis of this was unusual. And when
00:28:16
Nicole got there, we know that the garage door was closed. Right. So it seems to me like I mean he really keeps
00:28:23
going back to this, the no, the garage door was open and my phone tells me this.
00:28:28
Next, we also have Nicole and the neighbor who both told the officer that they, who knew Chris well, believed he
00:28:35
was acting extremely nervous and you referenced some of his mannerisms at that time. Yeah, cuz at some point
00:28:42
they're going to go next door to the neighbor's house. Mhm. I think to ask for the footage because they know that
00:28:48
they're viewing it together kind of, you know, with Chris there, the neighbor there, the officer. At some point, Chris
00:28:53
is like bending down and then leaning forward and crossing his arms and it's it's very strange because
00:29:01
I could understand movements like that if you're like, "Oh man, I just don't know where she's at. This is driving me
00:29:08
crazy." And you you start doing some erratic stuff but when you're your demeanor, it's it was almost like
00:29:15
he's having little freak out moments but he knows he has to try to keep it together. At some point, you can see
00:29:21
from the police body cam, Chris walk outside of the neighbor's house and the neighbor says something like, "He's he's
00:29:29
really acting strange, don't you think?" Yeah. I mean to me, that's like such a like the
00:29:36
neighbor is telling you like this is a guy that might like him. Mhm. And he's saying, "Dude, this dude's acting
00:29:43
weird." Yeah, and the feeling I got when I watched that video with the way that you talked about Chris moving about
00:29:52
Well, it's it looked to me like a guy that wanted to jump out of his own skin. And it wasn't it didn't appear to me to
00:29:59
be because he thought they should be out there looking around the neighborhood or
00:30:03
searching for his wife. It seemed like he wanted to jump out of his skin because he didn't want to be in that
00:30:07
room. He was very uncomfortable. You've seen this time and time again. You'll see where the husband will go like, "Why
00:30:14
are you talking to me? We should be out there looking for them." And he never does that. No. It's like
00:30:21
he's never seen the Hallmark Channel. Well, the neighbor told police that he had heard Chris yelling loudly at
00:30:30
Shannan numerous times in the past. And finally, the officer notes that while at
00:30:35
the Watts' home, he received a phone call from Shannan's mother, who he says, quote, "Was adamant that Christopher did
00:30:45
something and they should check the GPS on his truck." Now, I'm just going to stop you right
00:30:49
there because one, her friend has a gut feeling and does not stop. We need to get into the house.
00:30:57
Mhm. She does. Now, the mother has a gut feeling. Mhm. And and you'll you're going to see that
00:31:04
time and time again uh in this case where people follow their gut feelings. In fact, Shannan's mom, Sandra, she also
00:31:13
called another officer the next day and said that Chris was acting very odd and she and her husband suspected that he
00:31:21
had done something to the family. Officers asked Chris to check for any activity in their bank accounts, but
00:31:28
Chris said he could not log on to the accounts because Shannan handled the finances. Right. He agreed to call the
00:31:36
banks to find out. He couldn't verify if Shannan had any missing credit cards because the two used separate cards. So,
00:31:46
he says he wasn't certain which card she carried. He also did not know where she
00:31:51
kept her passport. The officer ordered a bolo, a be on the lookout for Shannan and the girls.
00:31:58
Right. So, we have a pregnant mother and her two small daughters have vanished leaving behind all of Shannan's personal
00:32:04
items, the girls' medication, and their car. Word of this spread among their family
00:32:11
and friends like wildfire. The police report says Shannan's phone was blowing up with text and calls from concerned
00:32:18
friends and family. Shannan had a very active social media life. Her role as a Thrive sales representative required her
00:32:27
to, quote, live the lifestyle. And she typically posted videos multiple times daily showing her and the kids and Chris
00:32:35
and their daily life. Yeah. Both she and Chris would be wearing their Thrive patches visibly in these videos. They
00:32:42
were, quote, selling the brand. Yeah, one of my favorite videos there's actually quite a bit of them
00:32:49
online, but one of them is Chris is almost like made to stand in the back. Mhm. Like, "Hey, honey, we're going to
00:32:57
make this video for not only the people that work cuz normally how it works is you get a team of people, so you're
00:33:03
selling to people, but your team is also selling to people. Mhm. It's very similar to a pyramid
00:33:10
marketing scheme. Yeah, they have nicer they have nicer words for it, but that's
00:33:14
essentially what it is. You're making money off of your sales as well as your team's sales.
00:33:18
Yeah, and so part of the thing though is that you get to work at home and then you get to spend time with your family,
00:33:23
so there are some perks there. But then you have to, you know, make these Facebook videos and she would have
00:33:29
Chris, you want, you know, smile on the video, Chris. And he's in the background
00:33:34
and there's one time where he just like turns the dog's head to like keep the dog looking more towards the camera.
00:33:40
Mhm. And she kind of snaps at him like, "Don't choke him." You know, and so if you watch those videos, I
00:33:48
it's it's a false narrative of how their relationship was, but you can see some inner workings there if you watch those
00:33:56
videos. Well, a little background on the Watts family. So, Chris and Shannan met
00:34:01
on Facebook in 2010. Uh Shannan had been married before. Both of them were from North Carolina and
00:34:08
that's where they met. Shannan was a year older than Chris. She was diagnosed with lupus, fibromyalgia, and migraines
00:34:16
and told friends she and Chris hit it off immediately and that he was very considerate and understanding of her
00:34:23
health issues. What was a little Okay, what was interesting to me was he actually tried
00:34:27
to add her on Facebook. Mhm. I know you're not big with the social media, so he tries to add her, she
00:34:34
deletes him. She declines it. Denied. But she just went through a a breakup she just went through a divorce. Mhm.
00:34:41
And then she's dealing with being sick and and and trying to overcome those battles and then her friend kind of
00:34:48
pushed her like, "Hey, this guy's a good guy." And she said, "Okay." Accepted the
00:34:53
friend request, figured I'll never talk to this guy again. He'll just be one of the friends on my Facebook and that's
00:35:00
what it will be. Right. Couple weeks later, they go out and she instantly kind of falls for this guy. Yeah, and by
00:35:07
all accounts, it seems like Chris was head over heels for Shannan. Uh at some point he started working a job as a
00:35:13
mechanic at a local Ford dealer and Shannan worked in the sales department. Yeah. They were married in 2012 and
00:35:20
moved to Colorado where in 2015 Chris got the job with the petroleum company. Shannan worked at a school for a little
00:35:29
bit and then at a local children's hospital before she got on with this direct sales marketing group.
00:35:36
But this is where it starts going wrong though. Mhm. So, when they go to Colorado, they're
00:35:40
going to have a house built and that house is worth about $400,000. Mhm. So, you're talking about a pretty
00:35:47
hefty mortgage. Well, they start racking up credit card debt and things of that nature. And they end up filing for
00:35:54
bankruptcy, which is I think well over $400,000 they filed for bankruptcy. Shannan was described as the
00:36:04
ultimate helicopter mom and Chris doted on his girls. They had two girls, as we mentioned, and he took care of them
00:36:11
after school. Both parents were very hands-on and both little girls had various health issues like asthma and
00:36:18
serious allergies. Everyone who knew Shannan says that she was controlling, a little OCD. Uh the house and the kids
00:36:27
ran on a very strict schedule. But the family seemed happy. The only black mark known to friends was that Shannan didn't
00:36:36
get along with Chris's parents. They did not like her, apparently, and refused to
00:36:41
attend their wedding. Chris started using the Thrive products from for Shannan's business in early
00:36:49
2018. He started watching his diet, running, and working out with weights. He lost a
00:36:54
lot of weight going from 245 to 185 lb. Well, by all accounts, uh they were the all-American couple. I guess I shouldn't
00:37:04
say all accounts. I don't think his parents would have said so, but the all-American couple with two
00:37:09
sounds like an American couple to me. Somebody hates somebody's parents. That's right. With two adorable little
00:37:15
girls and a boy on the way. Back to August 13th. By 3:48, some of Shannan's friends in a group text were commenting
00:37:25
that the cops needed to take a look at Chris's cell and his computer. Now, two of Chris's buddies, Jeremy and David,
00:37:32
came over to the Watts' home that night to check on him. They found him vacuuming. The police were gone at this
00:37:38
point. Chris said he planned to stay in the house that night in case his family came home. He told his friends that the
00:37:45
house was very strange and quiet without his kids. Chris had a strong support group. He and Shannan had a lot of
00:37:52
friends. After the first night alone in the house, he spent the next night at the home of their friends, the Thayers.
00:38:00
But by the morning of the 14th, when no one had heard from Shannan for more than
00:38:04
24 hours, things were starting to take a different turn. Note, a police officer called Chris in the middle of the night
00:38:11
to ask some more questions. Chris Watts failed to ask the officer whether there was any news about his family.
00:38:18
Yeah. Now, when the news of the strange disappea- disappearance broke nationally, Chris decided to give public
00:38:25
interviews. You heard heard one in our trailer there. As mentioned, police body cams recorded Chris viewing the neighbor
00:38:33
surveillance footage capturing Chris backing his truck up into the garage. As you stated, Captain, his body language
00:38:40
was very tense and stressed. And this is for a good reason because if you watch the video very carefully, you can see
00:38:47
that someone is actually moving along crouched down on the other side of the truck away from the camera.
00:38:54
So, that's a big red flag. Here's some more red flags. After the initial search of the home by police, Chris vigorously
00:39:02
cleaned the place and washed the kids' sheets. When authorities returned with a warrant and dogs to conduct more
00:39:09
thorough searches and seize evidence, the house reeked of cleaning chemicals. In a second search of the home, the cops
00:39:16
found the master bedroom top sheet and some pillowcases in the kitchen garbage can.
00:39:23
All of these had stains that were guessed to have been smeared mascara or eye shadow. The fitted sheet was
00:39:29
missing. Chris washed all the kids' linens and made the beds back up prior to the cops' second search of the home.
00:39:37
This search also turned up Shannan's missing Apple watch. It was on the couch in the loft area where her phone was
00:39:46
found. Well, this both of these are misfortunes because if she would have had a phone on
00:39:50
her or her Apple Watch, you would think that they might be able to track her GPS
00:39:55
location. August 13th was supposed to be the kids' first day back at their preschool. They
00:40:01
had even picked out their outfits, but Chris called the school that morning around 8:15 to tell them that the girls
00:40:08
would not be attending and said the family was considering moving away. This could have been a major slip because
00:40:16
apparently Chris didn't realize that while still on the phone after he reported that the girls weren't coming
00:40:21
in, he asked, "They aren't there, are they?" Yeah, that's just very odd. Mhm. Chris texted Shannan around 7:40 that
00:40:31
morning and sent a few more texts later, but never raised the alarm when they didn't
00:40:37
when she never responded to him. And he called her phone at 8:25 as well. Now, sometime on the 13th, he searched the
00:40:45
web for the lyrics to a Metallica song called Battery. Some of the lyrics are, "Smashing through the boundaries, lunacy
00:40:53
has found me. And pounding out aggression turns into obsession. Cannot kill the battery, cannot kill the
00:41:00
family." Get your lighters out. phone interview with Officer Matthew James of the Frederick PD, Chris told
00:41:08
him that while Shannan was away in North Carolina, this She actually went there for a couple weeks without him. Yeah,
00:41:15
she she was going to take a trip that's 6 weeks long and he wasn't going to he wasn't going to join them until the
00:41:21
last week. Yeah, he said the two of them, quote, fell out of love for each other.
00:41:27
He said there was a disconnect between them and after being asked, Chris denied that he was seeing anyone else. Now,
00:41:34
this story contradicts somewhat the stories that investigators were hearing from Shannan's friends and family. We
00:41:40
know, you know, with her social media life, that Shannan was a very communicative person with a lot of her
00:41:47
friends, very open. And her actual text back and forth with multiple uh friends during the few weeks prior to
00:41:55
her disappearance, these are all available in the case file. But what she told her friends and what they in turn
00:42:01
told police was this, that Chris and Shannan had always been a very good marriage. They always had a
00:42:08
wonderful marriage. He was very affectionate. Yeah. And he was a caring father and
00:42:13
husband. Shannan and Chris found out they were expecting a third child, a boy, sometime in late May.
00:42:20
Chris didn't seem thrilled at this. Shannan went to North Carolina with the girls in June for a multi-week visit.
00:42:29
Well, it's weird though because there was a video where she was going to videotape his reaction. And she is
00:42:36
wearing a shirt that says, "Oops, we did it again." Mhm. Okay, if that doesn't make you go
00:42:42
you know, but did she set up a video camera? Did she tell him, "Hey, I'm going to set this up. I need you to play
00:42:49
pretend with me so we can post this on social media so then we can sell some more products."
00:42:54
Mhm. So, who knows? Yeah. Well, Shannan spent time with her parents and her brother
00:43:01
when she was in North Carolina. And until there was a falling out, she even spent time with Chris's parents. Now,
00:43:07
even though she didn't get along with them, she wanted the girls to know their grandparents on their dad's side. Right.
00:43:13
Chris's parents had initially disliked Shannan saying that they didn't trust her and thought she was a schemer.
00:43:20
But they were attempting to act nicer for the sake of the kids. But then there was an incident in North
00:43:26
Carolina that made her sever ties with them. There was a bunch of cousins over at the Watts's grandparents' home when
00:43:33
Shannan and the girls were the where they were staying at the time. Shannan told her mother-in-law that CC
00:43:40
was violently allergic to nuts and could not have them even near her. Despite this and maybe
00:43:48
deliberately, her mother-in-law purchased ice cream with nuts and served it to all of the children. Oh, that's
00:43:56
great. CC didn't get the ice cream as Shannan stepped in, but it's thought that the
00:44:01
intention was to make a statement that either Shannan was crazy or CC was coddled or both. Well, and this made me
00:44:10
wonder a little bit because I had a friend that dealt with um long-time girlfriend, but she became
00:44:17
very OCD, but also became a hypochondriac. So, when you hear that the mother has all these
00:44:24
ailments and then so do the children, you wonder do they have them? Right. Or, you know,
00:44:33
cuz it seemed like everybody in their family except for Chris had medical issues. Yeah. And I But I'm going to
00:44:40
take a little bit of uh a stance on this just because I feel like if you if you feel that maybe
00:44:48
something's made up almost, it it seems awfully dangerous to try to prove your point in this way because as we all
00:44:56
know, exposure to nuts for someone who is allergic can be can be fatal. Well, it's very dangerous and very
00:45:03
irresponsible. Well, when this happened, Shannan left her in-laws' home in a rage and she went
00:45:10
to her parents. Her father-in-law unfriended her on Facebook in retaliation for this uh event that took
00:45:17
place. Very mature. Shannan expected Chris to take her side. He was sympathetic, but
00:45:23
his reaction was not as strong as Shannan would have liked. There are many texts back and forth between the two
00:45:30
where she refuses to take the blame for his family disliking her and asking him to step up to the plate. She even told
00:45:38
him at one point to find his balls. Mhm. Now, it is evident that in general, Shannan may have been a little bit
00:45:47
belittling of Chris, who was known to be chill in comparison to her strong type A
00:45:53
personality. Well, he's chill because he can But he couldn't find his balls. Yeah. Well, anyway, following this
00:46:01
event, Shannan began to notice that Chris was somewhat distant from her. He never asked how she was feeling. You
00:46:07
know, she's pregnant, how's things going with the pregnancy, anything like that.
00:46:11
looking for his balls. Yeah. And and she also was telling friends that he was not
00:46:18
doing any of the normal lovey-dovey stuff. Right. So, while at the beginning of her stay in North Carolina, she said
00:46:25
that they had engaged in phone sex. Uh this tapered off dramatically and Chris seemed like he was pulling away from
00:46:34
Shannan. Mhm. Shannan didn't like it when he wouldn't answer her calls, but this seemed to be happening more and
00:46:41
more. Now, this went on for the rest of the time that she and the girls were in North Carolina. She continually texted
00:46:48
him asking what was wrong, why he showed no emotion or interest, so on and so forth. And you think at this point
00:46:57
that he would be pretty excited because they are having a boy. Mhm. And it seemed by all accounts that he wanted to
00:47:03
have a son. Well, he would respond to her text by simply saying things like, "I don't
00:47:11
know where my head is at" or "I'm sorry for the way that I've been acting." It's probably where his balls are. Yeah.
00:47:17
He told her that she didn't do anything wrong. He just didn't feel for her anymore.
00:47:23
Then Chris came to North Carolina to join her as planned and this is when things went really south. Yeah, but what
00:47:30
is strange though is you could actually read his text messages before he gets there and it's almost like he turns
00:47:38
around a little bit. Like he's trying to say, "Hey, I love you. I can't wait to see you."
00:47:42
A lot of people have speculated well, that might be because he was missing his children.
00:47:48
But that that's kind of where he was almost where he was going to try to reconnect once he got down there. Mhm.
00:47:56
Well, his behavior in North Carolina in the early part of August was described by Shannan as completely cold and
00:48:02
distant. He wouldn't touch her, wouldn't kiss her, wouldn't hug her. They slept in different rooms.
00:48:08
He would barely talk to her. She continually confronted him about his change and he was evasive. Finally, when
00:48:15
she got him to talk, he told her they weren't compatible anymore and he wanted to to consider separating.
00:48:22
He wanted to sell the house and he wasn't sure he wanted the new baby. He was happy with just the two girls.
00:48:29
He refused to enter marriage counseling with Shannan. There was no doubt from the
00:48:35
correspondence that Shannan genuinely loved her husband, but he was rejecting her, the kids, and their life together.
00:48:44
This was a complete shock to Shannan. Now, she did at this time cancel their gender reveal party that the two had
00:48:52
planned. The Watts family flew back to Colorado on August 7th and Chris slept in the basement. The two
00:49:00
continued to talk the next day at Shannan's insistence and Shannan got Chris to agree to counseling and a
00:49:07
getaway trip to Aspen the following weekend. August 17th through the 19th. Then on
00:49:14
the 10th, she left on her trip to Arizona feeling a little more optimistic about her marriage.
00:49:19
Mhm. While there, her friends, who were also reps for Thrive, say she was not herself. She was sad and preoccupied and
00:49:27
told them that there's some trouble in their marriage and she was confused about the whole
00:49:33
situation. Right. They started to talk about whether Chris could be having an affair.
00:49:40
Well, Shannan said no because he's got no game. She did not think that Chris would
00:49:45
so he he needs to find his balls and he has no game. Yeah. Okay. She didn't think that
00:49:51
Chris would cheat on her, uh but she was concerned enough to be checking the charges on the credit card
00:49:58
Mhm. that he was using. Now, that weekend, she was sitting with her friends on Saturday night when she
00:50:04
saw a charge for over $60 from the Lazy Dog Saloon back at home. She knew Chris was supposed to be at a Colorado Rockies
00:50:13
baseball game with his buddies. He had gotten a sitter for the girls and he went out around 5:30 p.m. until about
00:50:22
10:30 p.m. She texted him and asked about this charge. He said he ordered salmon and a beer. But when she looked
00:50:31
up the menu for the restaurant, she noted that his bill should have been more like $20.
00:50:35
And remember what I said before about gut feelings, her friend following the gut feeling,
00:50:39
her parents following gut feelings. She had a gut feeling uh and maybe she was just making some
00:50:46
snarky remark, well, he has no game, but he obviously had something if you're checking up on him in this manner. Yeah,
00:50:53
and there's also some question or at least Shannan questioned how late Chris got home that night. Now, one of the
00:51:02
reasons that the public is so fascinated by this case is that everyone knows everyone that who knows Chris says he is
00:51:09
a totally upstanding guy, a great friend, devoted father and husband. He doesn't have a temper. He's like super
00:51:16
mellow. He was considered to be 100% reliable at work and he was the quote go-to guy
00:51:23
according to his colleagues. Yeah, he seemed like the husband that most women would want and really the
00:51:30
father that most women would want their husbands to be. Even Shannan's parents have spoken publicly saying they adored
00:51:37
him and he was wonderful to their daughter. But then, a 30-year-old brunette named Nicole
00:51:44
Kessinger walked into the Frederick Police Department. But before doing so, she deleted all records of Chris Watts
00:51:52
from her phone, including all text, phone calls, photos, and even his contact information.
00:51:59
In contrast, Chris Watts had all his messages with and pictures of her, including naked selfies of both of them,
00:52:07
hidden in a secret calculator app on his phone. Yeah, this is ingenious. So, it looks like if you just look at the
00:52:14
person's phone, it it looks like a calculator app, but when you open that up, I think you have
00:52:21
to type in a certain number into the calculator, that's your pass code, it opens it up and you can store files in
00:52:28
there. It's a completely different folder all together. Yeah, don't ask me how I know all about this.
00:52:34
Well, it would only be a matter of time before law enforcement techs would crack
00:52:38
this system that he set up. Now, in coming forward and seemingly quote doing the right thing, Nicole was protecting
00:52:46
herself and she was heavily downplaying to the police the nature, length, and extent of her relationship with Chris.
00:52:54
Well, hold on a second cuz she is going to be she is downplaying. So, totally correct about that.
00:53:01
And we're going to know we're going to get all this information out of her because not only is she willing to talk,
00:53:08
she is turning over um her technology, computers, phone to the police so they can go through it with a fine-tooth
00:53:16
comb. Yeah, and she I mean she did throw him under the bus in the sense that she
00:53:20
came forward and told police that Chris lied to her and if he had done that, she
00:53:26
was wondering what else he could be lying about. Right. Nicole and Chris met in June of
00:53:32
2018 at work where Nicole was a contract employee working in the main office. Chris would come in every morning before
00:53:42
heading out into the field and the two started chatting and flirting. Nicole says she knew Chris was married, but he
00:53:49
told her he was separated and that they were filing for divorce. She did not know that he had two kids
00:53:56
until later when Chris told her. Now, she says that she thought this was cute that he was a dad.
00:54:03
She told cops that she didn't even know his wife's name. Now, we know that Nicole has
00:54:10
an agenda of self-preservation and so we don't know how much to believe in how she characterizes the nature of
00:54:18
their relationship, but she says that Chris was more into her than what she was into him. Right, but she says that
00:54:26
she doesn't know Chris's wife's name, but we also know that she searched Chris's wife's name on her computer.
00:54:35
After the disappearance? No, before the disappearance. Well, she told police that that he had
00:54:42
said, "I love you." like pretty quickly in their relationship. She did say that she said it back to him a couple of
00:54:48
times, but again, she's trying to point out a picture or paint a picture of him being much more into her and that their
00:54:55
relationship was not all that, let's say. Which again is fishy, too, because we're
00:55:01
later going to find that with Google searches, she was searching like kind of vacation destinations for
00:55:09
couples and also wedding dresses and and things of that nature. Well, Chris and Nicole, according to her, had a very
00:55:18
active sex life. She said that they sometimes did it up to four times a day, but they really didn't go out into
00:55:25
public much, instead staying in at her apartment. didn't have any time. They did go on a
00:55:31
camping trip together at Great Sand Dunes National Park. Now, I'm a little off on this because I don't know where
00:55:40
Shannan believed Chris would have been at this time. Well, I think this is during the five weeks that she's in the
00:55:47
Carolinas. Oh, that would make much more sense. Yeah, because basically that whole five
00:55:51
weeks that she's gone and remember how she's like, "All of a sudden now he's like really cold and
00:55:56
distant. He's not returning my texts." and all that stuff. That's because he spent pretty much every day with his new
00:56:03
girlfriend. Well, on one of the few times that they actually went out, this was on August 11th when they went to the
00:56:11
Lazy Dog Saloon for that $60 dinner. Right. They also had sex both before and after the meal. Nicole says that she was
00:56:20
encouraging Chris to make up with his wife and try to work on his marriage, but this seems unlikely given that we
00:56:27
know you know, what she was Googling. Right, but hold on, there might actually be
00:56:33
some truth to this. And and here's why. Because sh- during that time when they're spending all this time together,
00:56:41
it kind of becomes like, well, yes, we're separated, but he kind of lets her know there is a
00:56:48
chance that we could work things out. And I think that was his slimeball way of basically saying, "Yes, I know I'm
00:56:54
having fun with you, but it's a possibility I'm going to stay with my wife and my kids." Mhm.
00:57:01
And so, did she say, "Hey, if you guys work things out, fine, just let me know." Mhm. She might have been
00:57:09
a cool person like that. And what she claims is that when sh- when he went to the Carolinas and had that emotional
00:57:17
conversation where he claim- where sh- we know that he basically said, "Hey, I want a divorce. I want to sell the
00:57:24
house. Blah, blah, blah." Mhm. And then eventually turns back around and says, "Well, maybe we'll stay
00:57:29
together." Yeah. Right. When he he he ends up texting his girlfriend Nicole and at some point
00:57:36
actually calls her and says that they actually might try to work things out. Mhm. So,
00:57:42
if those statements are true, I think there might be some truth to that she's like, "Okay, well,
00:57:48
it's nice that you're married and it's cute that you have kids, but if you do want to work it out with your wife, I'm
00:57:53
not going to stop you from that." Right. Well, Nicole says that she chose to come
00:57:58
forward or go to the police because Chris had lied to her by omission, by not telling her that his wife was
00:58:05
pregnant. She learned this on the news on Monday the 13th when Shannan disappeared. Right. She talked to Chris
00:58:11
on the phone for 52 minutes on Monday the 13th when his wife and kids were gone. He told her it was true that
00:58:19
Shannan was pregnant, but the baby was not his. Right. She said she didn't really believe him and then the next
00:58:26
morning, she went to the police. Well, and think about this way, you have this guy that you're seeing, he's bitching
00:58:32
about his wife, he's saying all this stuff that she didn't do or doesn't like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:58:39
That might seem okay and you're going, "Okay, well, you guys are separated, so it's okay that we're hanging out." But
00:58:44
then you find out that she's pregnant and then he's going, "Well, it's probably somebody else's." and you know
00:58:50
that's probably a [ __ ] lie. Now it's becoming a little more greasy, you know what I mean? It's
00:58:57
becoming a little more where now you're not feeling so great about the actions and the actions of hanging out with him
00:59:03
and possibly having sex with him. Well, real quick before we move on, in case anyone is out there scratching their
00:59:09
heads, there is something that's a little difficult about this case to follow along in the story here because
00:59:16
there are a lot of people in this case with the name based off of the name Nick. Mhm. Right? So, we have Nicole who
00:59:25
is Shannan's friend, the one that shows up to the home, calls police because Shannan is missing. Right.
00:59:30
Then we have the other Nicole who is the mistress. They're not the same person. Right. Okay. We also have Nicholas, who
00:59:37
was Shannan's friend's son. We have Nick Thayer, who is one of Chris's friends. This is where he stayed on the 14th. And
00:59:44
then on top of all of that, Nico was going to be the baby's name that Shannan was pregnant with. All
00:59:50
right. I think you just made all that more confusing for me now. Well, the the the most
00:59:56
the the best thing to understand here is that the two Nicole's are different Nicole's.
01:00:00
Right. But, this case it feels familiar. And if it feels familiar, Gone Girl, Scott Peterson, it feels very similar.
01:00:14
But, what's interesting about this case is where the Scott Peterson case, a lot of things come out, they trickle out.
01:00:23
This stuff is like a flood. Right. And the technology that we have today, all the um police
01:00:30
officers' body cams that we can see of Chris. So, we basically get to see almost minute-by-minute of these
01:00:37
people's actions. But, then once they get phone records, text records, we get to
01:00:45
see exactly what these people Googled. Right. It's very fascinating. And so, with that technology, we have a
01:00:54
piece of evidence that the cops are now really honing in on is Yes. We we know that
01:01:03
the girls went missing between roughly around this point. Mhm. We have no evidence of them leaving
01:01:09
the house. Right. So, then they start assuming they left in his truck. Where did his truck go?
01:01:16
Cuz he didn't go to work, he went to a job site. And they're going to track down and
01:01:21
they're going to go to this um job site. Well, let's go through that real quick. Because as you pointed out,
01:01:27
the work truck, the F-250, was equipped with GPS, apparently very high-tech GPS.
01:01:32
This recorded every trip in the vehicle. It also recorded when it was started up
01:01:38
and turned off. Mhm. Now, Anadarko was all too happy to cooperate with the cops, and they handed over the GPS
01:01:46
records immediately. And here's what the police learned. Chris started the engine
01:01:51
on his truck at 5:18 a.m. on the morning of the 13th when he backed it into the driveway. It ran idle for 28 minutes.
01:02:01
At 5:46 a.m., Chris started driving and headed directly for the Cervi Ranch, 47 miles away. Now, this is a huge cattle
01:02:12
ranch that had leased a number of oil wells on the ranch property to Anadarko. Chris's truck parked at site number 319.
01:02:22
This is a pump site with two 400-barrel oil tanks on it. Mhm. Chris stayed there
01:02:30
from 6:53 a.m. until about 8:30 a.m. And other employees showed up to join him at
01:02:38
the 319 site after 7:00 a.m. They said that when they arrived, Chris was parked in an unusual spot near the
01:02:45
tanks and appeared to be finishing digging a hole. His co-worker, Troy McCoy, noted that
01:02:52
Chris was wearing a very old He's wearing very old baggy clothing and an old pair of boots, which he thought
01:03:00
was very strange. After this, Chris went to some other locations on the ranch and then stopped
01:03:07
at a convenience store. Now, we've seen this video on TV, and in the video, you can see that he's now wearing an orange
01:03:16
shirt. Mhm. He bought a breakfast roll, and he's chatting casually with the cashier. He's smiling. He was at another
01:03:25
site when he began to receive calls from Shannan's family and friends, including
01:03:29
Nicole, her friend Nicole, saying that no one could find his wife. Yeah, so police are going to go out to the scene,
01:03:36
and like you said, there was these two giant like oil pumps. Um and and Tanks. Like yeah, yeah. And there's
01:03:44
there's these lids on top, which look like like manhole covers, basically. And so, when police go out there and
01:03:52
they start searching around, they also have sent dogs and stuff, but they also find a a part of the land that looks
01:04:00
like where he would have been digging. And so, now it's time where they go, "Hey,
01:04:07
we now know that this guy is not the husband we thought he was. We have people close to this girl saying, "Hey, this
01:04:16
guy is suspicious." We got the neighbor saying this dude's acting weird. And they're going to bring him They're
01:04:22
going to bring him in for questioning, but they tell him the day before, "Hey, are you cool with doing a polygraph
01:04:28
test?" He says, "Yes." He said, "Okay, we'll set it up for tomorrow." Yeah, and the FBI actually interviews him on the
01:04:34
14th. And then Chris agreed to go down to the station on August 15th to take a polygraph test, but this would be after
01:04:41
picking his father, Ronnie, up at the airport. Now, the entire pretest interview video is available online. And
01:04:50
Chris gives some personal background information in the course of this pretest. His dad, Ronnie, was
01:04:57
a parts manager for a Ford dealership, where his mother worked as a secretary. Mhm. He has an older sister named Jamie.
01:05:05
Chris attended NASCAR school, which is where he learned to work on engines. He worked at various Ford dealerships until
01:05:13
2015. This, of course, when he landed his job with Anadarko. Now, the actual polygraph consisted of just three
01:05:22
questions. One, "Did you physically cause Shannan's disappearance?" To which he answered no.
01:05:30
Two, "Are you lying about the last time you saw Shannan?" He says no. Three, "Do you know where Shannan is
01:05:38
now?" Chris Watts says no. And check out our show Off the Record on Stitcher Premium, available now. And
01:05:54
this week we discussed the very important update in the Tara Grinstead case. Yeah, the arrest of
01:06:01
And we will see everybody back here in the garage tomorrow. Until then, be good, be kind, and don't litter.