WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.259 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are opening 00:00:03.259 --> 00:00:06.040 a file that I think a lot of people, you know, 00:00:06.040 --> 00:00:08.359 they think they know. Right. It's a story that 00:00:08.359 --> 00:00:11.220 was just splashed across every headline, every 00:00:11.220 --> 00:00:13.599 Facebook feed, and then of course that massive 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:16.960 Netflix documentary. But here's the thing. When 00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:20.359 a story gets that big that fast, we tend to memorize 00:00:20.359 --> 00:00:22.140 the bullet points. Yeah, you get the highlights. 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:25.679 Exactly. And you miss the actual human machinery 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:28.219 that's working underneath it all. We are talking, 00:00:28.260 --> 00:00:31.179 of course, about the Watts family murders of 00:00:31.179 --> 00:00:34.560 2018. And it is a case that has just stuck with 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:37.659 people, I think, largely because it dismantled 00:00:37.659 --> 00:00:40.079 a very, very specific American archetype. Yes. 00:00:40.259 --> 00:00:42.840 You had Christopher Watts, Shanann Watts, they're 00:00:42.840 --> 00:00:45.420 two beautiful little girls, Bella and Celeste, 00:00:45.479 --> 00:00:47.520 and they were living in Frederick, Colorado. 00:00:47.740 --> 00:00:49.920 To anyone just scrolling past on social media, 00:00:50.079 --> 00:00:52.240 they were like the absolute definition of the 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:54.420 family next door. And that phrase, the family 00:00:54.420 --> 00:00:57.020 next door, it really puts a lot away. on this 00:00:57.020 --> 00:00:58.560 whole discussion, doesn't it? It really does. 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:00.439 Because if you've seen the Netflix documentary 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:03.520 American Murder, you know it felt different from 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:05.620 other true crime docs. It wasn't just, you know, 00:01:05.620 --> 00:01:08.159 talking heads and reenactments. No, it was their 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:10.239 footage. It was their footage. It was found footage 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:13.299 in the truest sense. All their text messages, 00:01:13.540 --> 00:01:16.920 the police body hams, and just hours and hours 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:19.959 of Shanann's own Facebook Live videos. And that 00:01:19.959 --> 00:01:22.739 is such a crucial psychological component here. 00:01:23.700 --> 00:01:26.189 Shanann... through her social media she really 00:01:26.189 --> 00:01:29.489 created this uh this parasocial relationship 00:01:29.489 --> 00:01:32.310 with the public even before the tragedy so people 00:01:32.310 --> 00:01:34.140 felt like they knew her They felt like they knew 00:01:34.140 --> 00:01:36.060 her. She documented everything, the highs, her 00:01:36.060 --> 00:01:38.019 health struggles, the kids singing in the car, 00:01:38.140 --> 00:01:42.719 the vacations. It created this digital intimacy. 00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:45.819 So when people watched that documentary, they 00:01:45.819 --> 00:01:47.739 didn't feel like they were watching a stranger. 00:01:47.739 --> 00:01:49.599 They felt like they were watching a friend. Which 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:51.519 makes the betrayal feel so much more personal 00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:53.900 to the viewer. Exactly. But that digital footprint, 00:01:54.060 --> 00:01:57.219 it's also a bit of a trap, isn't it? We were 00:01:57.219 --> 00:01:59.219 only seeing the curated version. We saw the highlight 00:01:59.219 --> 00:02:02.099 reel. The highlight reel, yeah. And the mission 00:02:02.099 --> 00:02:05.359 of this deep dive is to go into the editing room, 00:02:05.500 --> 00:02:07.920 so to speak, look at what was left on the cutting 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:10.659 floor and really try to understand the darkness 00:02:10.659 --> 00:02:12.780 that was simmering behind those iPhone lenses. 00:02:13.139 --> 00:02:16.259 Precisely. We need to move past just the timeline 00:02:16.259 --> 00:02:18.719 of events and get into the pathology. And to 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:21.159 do that, we are leaning very heavily on a specific 00:02:21.159 --> 00:02:25.009 document that I think. changes the entire context 00:02:25.009 --> 00:02:26.789 of this crime. Right. We're not just relying 00:02:26.789 --> 00:02:29.689 on news reports. Oh, we're unpacking the 2019 00:02:29.689 --> 00:02:31.849 interview that was conducted by the Colorado 00:02:31.849 --> 00:02:35.030 Bureau of Investigation, the CBI, inside the 00:02:35.030 --> 00:02:37.150 prison. And just to clarify for everyone listening, 00:02:37.289 --> 00:02:39.210 this is not the confession we all saw on the 00:02:39.210 --> 00:02:41.650 news back in 2018. This happened months later. 00:02:41.789 --> 00:02:44.550 Right. A totally different thing. The 2018 confession 00:02:44.550 --> 00:02:48.009 was, it was a strategic lie. It was damage control 00:02:48.009 --> 00:02:51.610 on his part. But in February 2019, agents Tammy 00:02:51.610 --> 00:02:54.069 Lee and Graham Cota They traveled to the prison 00:02:54.069 --> 00:02:56.050 in Wisconsin where Chris is serving his life 00:02:56.050 --> 00:02:58.710 sentence. And they sit down with him for hours. 00:02:58.789 --> 00:03:02.669 No cameras, just audio recorders. And in that 00:03:02.669 --> 00:03:05.979 environment. The mask just completely came off. 00:03:06.120 --> 00:03:08.800 He revealed his internal state, the real sequence 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:11.780 of events and thoughts that are, frankly, terrifying 00:03:11.780 --> 00:03:13.840 in their clarity. So it's the difference between 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:16.020 knowing what happened and knowing what it felt 00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:17.919 like for him to make it happen. That's a perfect 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:19.740 way to put it. So before we get into all the 00:03:19.740 --> 00:03:22.319 grim details, can you help us frame this psychologically? 00:03:22.780 --> 00:03:24.620 What are we dealing with here? We are discussing 00:03:24.620 --> 00:03:27.479 the concept of the family annihilator. It's a 00:03:27.479 --> 00:03:31.500 very specific and just a harrowing category of 00:03:31.500 --> 00:03:35.419 criminality. always involves a father, often 00:03:35.419 --> 00:03:37.879 the good provider type, who murders his entire 00:03:37.879 --> 00:03:40.780 family. And there's almost always a deep tension 00:03:40.780 --> 00:03:43.340 involved. It's a tension between a very carefully 00:03:43.340 --> 00:03:46.620 constructed public self and a hidden, crumbling 00:03:46.620 --> 00:03:49.300 reality. In this case, you have the digital self, 00:03:49.400 --> 00:03:51.680 the happy videos, the thriving lifestyle clashing 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:54.259 directly with domestic friction, financial ruin, 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:57.560 and a secret life. And the really scary part, 00:03:57.639 --> 00:04:01.110 I think, is the disconnect in his demeanor. You 00:04:01.110 --> 00:04:03.889 watch Chris Watts in those home videos, and he 00:04:03.889 --> 00:04:07.650 just seems kind of boring. He's passive. He's 00:04:07.650 --> 00:04:09.750 the quiet guy in the background holding the baby. 00:04:09.889 --> 00:04:12.069 He's not the guy you see screaming or punching 00:04:12.069 --> 00:04:14.449 walls. And that's the family next door illusion 00:04:14.449 --> 00:04:17.910 in action. We all have this bias where we assume 00:04:17.910 --> 00:04:20.689 monsters look like monsters. We assume they'll 00:04:20.689 --> 00:04:24.490 act erratic or aggressive. But Chris Watts was... 00:04:24.750 --> 00:04:27.689 A nice guy. He was passive. He just went with 00:04:27.689 --> 00:04:29.370 the flow. And as we're going to see from that 00:04:29.370 --> 00:04:32.649 CBI report, that passivity wasn't a virtue. It 00:04:32.649 --> 00:04:35.029 was a vacuum. He just let things happen to him 00:04:35.029 --> 00:04:37.970 until he decided to assert control in the most 00:04:37.970 --> 00:04:40.509 destructive way possible. So let's go back to 00:04:40.509 --> 00:04:42.670 the beginning, the foundation. Before all the 00:04:42.670 --> 00:04:44.689 horror, there was a history. Chris was from North 00:04:44.689 --> 00:04:46.689 Carolina. Shanann was from North Carolina. They 00:04:46.689 --> 00:04:50.040 met back in 2010. Right. Chris was about 25 when 00:04:50.040 --> 00:04:52.699 they met. He was working as a mechanic. Shanann 00:04:52.699 --> 00:04:54.579 was dealing with lupus, which is, you know, a 00:04:54.579 --> 00:04:57.540 very serious autoimmune condition. And Chris 00:04:57.540 --> 00:04:59.899 really stepped into that caretaker role early 00:04:59.899 --> 00:05:02.160 on. He helped her organize her life. He went 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:04.240 to her doctor's appointments. Shanann actually, 00:05:04.620 --> 00:05:07.420 well, her friends told investigators that Chris 00:05:07.420 --> 00:05:09.339 wasn't really her type initially. Oh, really? 00:05:09.500 --> 00:05:11.720 Yeah, but he was persistent. He offered stability. 00:05:11.980 --> 00:05:14.220 So they get married in 2012 and move to Colorado. 00:05:15.100 --> 00:05:17.980 And on paper, it looks like they're chasing the 00:05:17.980 --> 00:05:20.279 American dream. Big house in Frederick, nice 00:05:20.279 --> 00:05:23.620 neighborhood. Yep. Chris gets a good job at Anadarko 00:05:23.620 --> 00:05:26.120 Petroleum, which is a solid blue -collar job 00:05:26.120 --> 00:05:28.779 with good pay. And Shanann was working in multi 00:05:28.779 --> 00:05:30.879 -level marketing, specifically for a company 00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:33.959 called Lavelle, selling Thrive products. But, 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:36.439 and this is a huge but, if we peel back that 00:05:36.439 --> 00:05:38.839 financial layer, the rot was already there. The 00:05:38.839 --> 00:05:41.300 CBI report highlights that despite this appearance 00:05:41.300 --> 00:05:44.019 of wealth, They filed for bankruptcy in 2015. 00:05:44.439 --> 00:05:47.139 2015? Wait, that's three full years before the 00:05:47.139 --> 00:05:49.639 murders. Three years, yes. And despite that bankruptcy, 00:05:49.899 --> 00:05:51.500 it's supposed to be, you know, a reset button, 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:53.959 they were back in the hole almost immediately. 00:05:54.670 --> 00:05:57.230 They bought a massive five -bedroom house that 00:05:57.230 --> 00:05:59.430 they absolutely could not afford. They had high 00:05:59.430 --> 00:06:02.829 HOA fees. By 2018, they were behind on their 00:06:02.829 --> 00:06:06.509 mortgage payments again. Shanann was apparently 00:06:06.509 --> 00:06:09.550 paying the HOA fees to the wrong address for 00:06:09.550 --> 00:06:12.610 an entire year. The financial pressure cooker 00:06:12.610 --> 00:06:15.199 was just whistling. But Chris claimed in that 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:17.180 big interview that he didn't know the extent 00:06:17.180 --> 00:06:19.759 of it. He played ignorant. He did. He claimed 00:06:19.759 --> 00:06:22.339 total ignorance. He said Shanann handled all 00:06:22.339 --> 00:06:24.319 the finances and he just brought home the paycheck. 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:27.040 He said he was blind to it all. Which fits that 00:06:27.040 --> 00:06:28.500 pattern of passivity you were talking about. 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:30.579 It's his whole M .O. I just live here. I don't 00:06:30.579 --> 00:06:32.699 run the ship. But that also means he felt he 00:06:32.699 --> 00:06:35.199 had absolutely no control over his own financial 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:37.860 survival. I want to pivot for a second to the 00:06:37.860 --> 00:06:40.660 Thrive aspect. Yeah. Because I think in a lot 00:06:40.660 --> 00:06:42.480 of the public discussion, people kind of gloss 00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:45.500 over it as just Shanann's job. But in the prison 00:06:45.500 --> 00:06:47.839 interview, Chris talks a lot about using the 00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:50.439 products himself. Oh, yeah. Specifically, something 00:06:50.439 --> 00:06:53.560 called the Duo Burn Patch. This is a detail that 00:06:53.560 --> 00:06:55.899 needs some serious unpacking because the physiology 00:06:55.899 --> 00:07:00.300 here is critical. These patches, they're transdermal 00:07:00.300 --> 00:07:03.000 delivery systems. They aren't just... you know, 00:07:03.019 --> 00:07:06.139 vitamins, they are pumping stimulants directly 00:07:06.139 --> 00:07:08.920 into your bloodstream. Simulants like what? Things 00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:12.019 like caffeine, willow bark for scolin, and Chris 00:07:12.019 --> 00:07:14.139 was wearing them constantly. And he described 00:07:14.139 --> 00:07:17.079 a pretty intense... physical reaction he wasn't 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:19.300 just feeling like a little more perky not at 00:07:19.300 --> 00:07:21.819 all he told the agents that the patches gave 00:07:21.819 --> 00:07:24.139 him this surge of energy where he felt like he 00:07:24.139 --> 00:07:27.199 could go longer and longer he mentioned specifically 00:07:27.199 --> 00:07:29.420 that his apple watch would register a really 00:07:29.420 --> 00:07:31.360 high heart rate like he was in a workout zone 00:07:31.360 --> 00:07:33.779 even when he was just sitting on the couch so 00:07:33.779 --> 00:07:35.920 his resting heart rate is just jacked all the 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:39.079 time constantly what about his sleep and this 00:07:39.079 --> 00:07:42.459 this is the massive red flag he told the agents 00:07:42.459 --> 00:07:44.899 he was sleeping about three hours a night Three 00:07:44.899 --> 00:07:47.939 hours? For how long was this going on? For weeks 00:07:47.939 --> 00:07:50.040 leading up to the murders. And he told them he 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:52.819 wasn't tired. He was just wired. Okay, let's 00:07:52.819 --> 00:07:54.399 just stop there. We have to look at the biology 00:07:54.399 --> 00:07:56.899 of that. If a human being is only sleeping three 00:07:56.899 --> 00:08:00.040 hours a night for weeks on end, while also pumping 00:08:00.040 --> 00:08:02.839 stimulants into their system, what is actually 00:08:02.839 --> 00:08:04.680 happening to their brain? Well, you are entering 00:08:04.680 --> 00:08:08.160 a state of severe cognitive degradation. I mean, 00:08:08.180 --> 00:08:11.379 sleep deprivation studies show that chronic restriction 00:08:11.379 --> 00:08:14.279 hits the prefrontal cortex first. Which is the 00:08:14.279 --> 00:08:16.079 executive function part of the brain. Exactly. 00:08:16.139 --> 00:08:18.800 It's where your impulse control, your emotional 00:08:18.800 --> 00:08:21.980 regulation, and your empathy. It's where all 00:08:21.980 --> 00:08:24.620 that lives. It's the brakes of the brain. So 00:08:24.620 --> 00:08:26.459 you're saying he was basically chemically eroding 00:08:26.459 --> 00:08:28.740 his own ability to hit the brakes on any impulse. 00:08:29.060 --> 00:08:31.600 I'm saying he created a physiological environment 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:34.480 where he was likely paranoid, hyper -focused, 00:08:34.759 --> 00:08:38.519 and emotionally blunted. You combine that biological 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:41.500 state with massive financial stress and a high 00:08:41.500 --> 00:08:44.620 stakes secret affair. You are creating a cocktail 00:08:44.620 --> 00:08:47.419 that mimics a psychotic break. It doesn't excuse 00:08:47.419 --> 00:08:49.279 it, obviously. No, of course not. It doesn't 00:08:49.279 --> 00:08:51.700 excuse the murder. Plenty of insomniacs don't 00:08:51.700 --> 00:08:54.539 kill their families, but it does help explain 00:08:54.539 --> 00:08:57.799 the mechanism of the snap. He was operating on 00:08:57.799 --> 00:09:01.379 a razor's edge biologically. And while he's walking 00:09:01.379 --> 00:09:04.659 this razor's edge, the family dynamic just completely 00:09:04.659 --> 00:09:08.440 implodes. The CBI report dives deep into this 00:09:08.440 --> 00:09:11.559 incident they call Nutgate. And I have to say, 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:14.200 the name sounds ridiculous. Dude, it sounds silly. 00:09:14.340 --> 00:09:16.899 Like a pabloid headline. But the fallout from 00:09:16.899 --> 00:09:19.379 it was absolutely nuclear. It sounds trivial, 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:22.039 but in family systems theory, this is what you'd 00:09:22.039 --> 00:09:25.120 call a rupture event. It happened in the summer 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:28.299 of 2018. Shanann took the girls to North Carolina 00:09:28.299 --> 00:09:32.039 to visit family for about five weeks. Chris stayed 00:09:32.039 --> 00:09:34.480 back in Colorado for work, at least initially. 00:09:34.679 --> 00:09:36.600 Okay. When they were visiting Chris's parents, 00:09:36.779 --> 00:09:38.759 there was an incident involving Celeste and her 00:09:38.759 --> 00:09:41.240 nut allergy. And Celeste was three? And her allergy 00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:43.639 was like life -threatening, right? Correct. Anaphylactic. 00:09:44.059 --> 00:09:46.340 Chris's mother apparently served ice cream or 00:09:46.340 --> 00:09:49.100 had chips out that contained nuts. Shanann felt 00:09:49.100 --> 00:09:51.340 it was negligent, maybe even malicious, and she 00:09:51.340 --> 00:09:53.440 just went ballistic. She felt her mother -in 00:09:53.440 --> 00:09:55.860 -law was actively endangering her child. And 00:09:55.860 --> 00:09:57.740 this wasn't just a simple argument at the dinner 00:09:57.740 --> 00:10:00.500 table. This was a complete severance of their 00:10:00.500 --> 00:10:03.690 relationship. A total break. Shanann stopped 00:10:03.690 --> 00:10:06.690 speaking to Chris's parents entirely. She told 00:10:06.690 --> 00:10:08.750 Chris he wasn't allowed to talk to them either. 00:10:09.009 --> 00:10:11.330 There was a text message exchange where she essentially 00:10:11.330 --> 00:10:13.450 said, you will never see your grandchildren again. 00:10:13.730 --> 00:10:16.470 Wow. And where was Chris in all of this? Caught 00:10:16.470 --> 00:10:19.509 right in the kill zone. And this is so key to 00:10:19.509 --> 00:10:23.029 his psychology. He told the CVI he felt completely 00:10:23.029 --> 00:10:26.200 isolated. He had always been a mama's boy in 00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:27.960 some respects. He was very close to his dad. 00:10:28.299 --> 00:10:31.139 And suddenly, the woman he married has just cut 00:10:31.139 --> 00:10:33.860 the cord between him and his entire family of 00:10:33.860 --> 00:10:37.340 origin. He felt he had to choose sides. And outwardly, 00:10:37.340 --> 00:10:40.799 he chose Shanann, but inwardly. Inwardly, he 00:10:40.799 --> 00:10:43.000 was completely untethered. He lost his primary 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:45.240 support system. He was angry at Shanann for putting 00:10:45.240 --> 00:10:47.340 him in that position. And now he's all alone 00:10:47.340 --> 00:10:49.039 in Colorado while they're still in North Carolina 00:10:49.039 --> 00:10:51.860 for weeks. Alone in Colorado. Yeah. With an empty 00:10:51.860 --> 00:10:55.120 house. With the thrive patches pumping. And that 00:10:55.120 --> 00:10:57.440 is exactly when the catalyst enters the picture. 00:10:57.759 --> 00:11:00.220 Let's move to the affair. Enter Nicole Kessinger. 00:11:00.440 --> 00:11:02.860 She was a co -worker of his at Anadarko Petroleum. 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:06.179 They met around June of 2018. The way Chris talks 00:11:06.179 --> 00:11:08.419 about this relationship in the prison interview 00:11:08.419 --> 00:11:11.259 is just fascinating. He doesn't just talk about 00:11:11.259 --> 00:11:13.580 the sex. He talks about how she made him feel 00:11:13.580 --> 00:11:15.940 about himself. It's a classic case of limerence. 00:11:16.039 --> 00:11:19.440 That's the clinical term for that state of infatuation, 00:11:19.539 --> 00:11:23.360 the obsession with a new romantic object. Chris 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:26.419 told the agents he felt in control. With Nickel. 00:11:26.580 --> 00:11:29.220 In control. Yeah. He said that with Shanann, 00:11:29.299 --> 00:11:31.820 he was always the passenger. Shanann made all 00:11:31.820 --> 00:11:34.279 the decisions. Shanann was the dominant personality. 00:11:34.919 --> 00:11:37.960 But Nickel, she asked for his opinion. She had 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:39.740 asked him what he wanted to eat, what he wanted 00:11:39.740 --> 00:11:41.840 to do. He said he felt like he could finally 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:44.320 be himself. He used some really strong metaphors 00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:46.419 in that interview. He described the affair as 00:11:46.419 --> 00:11:48.960 a leash that she was using to tug him away from 00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:51.049 his family. But the one that really haunts me 00:11:51.049 --> 00:11:53.669 is the blindfold. Oh, the blindfold comment is 00:11:53.669 --> 00:11:56.350 deeply revealing. He said, every time I was with 00:11:56.350 --> 00:11:58.230 her, I felt like there was a blinder in my face. 00:11:58.690 --> 00:12:01.110 He was essentially blocking out his own reality. 00:12:01.269 --> 00:12:03.549 So when he was with her? When he was with Nickel, 00:12:03.730 --> 00:12:06.809 the debts didn't exist. The screaming poddlers 00:12:06.809 --> 00:12:09.870 didn't exist. The angry pregnant wife didn't 00:12:09.870 --> 00:12:12.289 exist. He was living in this complete fantasy 00:12:12.289 --> 00:12:15.149 world where he was a successful, fit, independent 00:12:15.149 --> 00:12:17.980 bachelor. And he was acting like a bachelor. 00:12:18.139 --> 00:12:20.419 Yeah. He talked about experiencing firsts all 00:12:20.419 --> 00:12:23.200 over again. Yes. While his family was away, he 00:12:23.200 --> 00:12:25.799 was actively dating Nickel. They went camping 00:12:25.799 --> 00:12:28.139 at the Great Sand Dunes. They went drag racing 00:12:28.139 --> 00:12:30.919 at Bandimere Speedway. They visited the Shelby 00:12:30.919 --> 00:12:33.399 Car Museum. Things he liked to do. These were 00:12:33.399 --> 00:12:36.620 things Chris loved cars, the outdoors, but felt 00:12:36.620 --> 00:12:39.080 he couldn't do in his married life. He was test 00:12:39.080 --> 00:12:41.600 driving a completely new identity. There's a 00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:43.279 detail from that time that just really sticks 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:46.190 with me. He deleted his Facebook. He did. Now, 00:12:46.190 --> 00:12:48.750 in 2018, for a guy whose wife practically lived 00:12:48.750 --> 00:12:50.750 her entire life on Facebook, that is a massive 00:12:50.750 --> 00:12:53.309 move. Why did he do that? He told the CBI he 00:12:53.309 --> 00:12:55.070 did it because Nicole had told her friends about 00:12:55.070 --> 00:12:57.549 him. He was terrified that her friends would 00:12:57.549 --> 00:13:00.029 look him up, find his profile, and see very, 00:13:00.110 --> 00:13:02.309 very clearly that he was married with two kids 00:13:02.309 --> 00:13:05.230 and a pregnant wife. So this is active concealment. 00:13:05.350 --> 00:13:07.450 This isn't just going with the flow anymore. 00:13:07.649 --> 00:13:10.649 This is him actively erasing his family. Exactly. 00:13:11.320 --> 00:13:13.620 And we have to talk about the discard phase here. 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:16.440 In the psychology of this kind of affair, the 00:13:16.440 --> 00:13:19.279 new partner represents the dopamine hit. The 00:13:19.279 --> 00:13:22.500 old family, they represent the stressor. Over 00:13:22.500 --> 00:13:25.779 those few weeks, his family stopped being people 00:13:25.779 --> 00:13:28.679 in his mind. They became obstacles. They became 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:30.659 obstacles. They were just the things standing 00:13:30.659 --> 00:13:32.580 in the way of the high he was getting from Nickel. 00:13:32.740 --> 00:13:35.159 He even admitted that Nickel was looking up apartments 00:13:35.159 --> 00:13:36.980 for him. They were actually planning a future 00:13:36.980 --> 00:13:39.240 together. They were. And you have to remember. 00:13:39.840 --> 00:13:42.039 All this is happening while Shanann is pregnant. 00:13:42.539 --> 00:13:45.399 She was 15 weeks pregnant with their third child, 00:13:45.620 --> 00:13:49.039 a boy they were going to name Nico. Wow. Chris 00:13:49.039 --> 00:13:50.639 admitted in the interview that when he found 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:52.919 out about the pregnancy, he wasn't excited. He 00:13:52.919 --> 00:13:57.120 was scared because a baby is an anchor. It locked 00:13:57.120 --> 00:13:59.519 him into the old life just as he was desperately 00:13:59.519 --> 00:14:02.159 trying to float away into the new one. So let's 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:05.320 fast forward. The morning of August 13th. The 00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:07.399 catalyst has been engaged. The cracks in the 00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:09.980 foundation are wide open. Shanann returns home 00:14:09.980 --> 00:14:13.039 from a business trip to Arizona. It's 1 .48 a 00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:16.240 .m. Her friend, Nicol Atkinson, drops her off. 00:14:16.519 --> 00:14:19.299 We have that grainy doorbell camera footage of 00:14:19.299 --> 00:14:21.320 Shanann walking up to the door. It is the last 00:14:21.320 --> 00:14:24.580 time she is ever seen alive. In the initial investigation, 00:14:24.980 --> 00:14:27.340 Chris lied about everything that happened next. 00:14:27.700 --> 00:14:31.320 But in that 2019 prison interview, he walks the 00:14:31.320 --> 00:14:33.759 agents through the bedroom scene. And it is. 00:14:34.220 --> 00:14:37.019 It's just disturbing in its intimacy. It's deeply 00:14:37.019 --> 00:14:39.080 disturbing. He claims that when Shanann got into 00:14:39.080 --> 00:14:41.840 bed, she was the one who initiated sex and he 00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:44.379 engaged with her. Which just seems insane given 00:14:44.379 --> 00:14:46.039 that he was already planning to leave her. Why 00:14:46.039 --> 00:14:48.240 would he do that? He described it to the agents 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:51.179 as a test. He said he felt strange doing it. 00:14:51.220 --> 00:14:53.000 He called it a trigger point or like pushing 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:55.340 a button on a bomb. A test for what? He was checking 00:14:55.340 --> 00:14:57.580 to see if there was any spark left, any connection 00:14:57.580 --> 00:15:00.419 at all. And he realized in the act that there 00:15:00.419 --> 00:15:02.600 was nothing. For him, it was the final confirmation 00:15:02.600 --> 00:15:05.139 that he was completely done. So they fall asleep. 00:15:05.700 --> 00:15:08.419 Or at least he says they did. Then he wakes her 00:15:08.419 --> 00:15:10.720 up. He wakes her up to tell her it's over. He 00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:13.279 tells her he doesn't love her anymore. He tells 00:15:13.279 --> 00:15:15.659 her they aren't compatible. And this is where 00:15:15.659 --> 00:15:19.000 the story pivots to the act of violence itself. 00:15:19.620 --> 00:15:21.600 He's straddling her on the bed. She's crying. 00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:25.090 She realizes there must be someone else. And 00:15:25.090 --> 00:15:27.350 she said something to him. According to Chris's 00:15:27.350 --> 00:15:29.370 account, Shanann says you're never going to see 00:15:29.370 --> 00:15:31.990 the kids again. And that was the trigger. That 00:15:31.990 --> 00:15:34.769 was the moment he claims he snapped. He says 00:15:34.769 --> 00:15:39.169 he just put his hands around her neck. But here, 00:15:39.269 --> 00:15:41.990 this is where we have to stop and apply the science. 00:15:42.070 --> 00:15:44.950 We hear the word snapped and we think of a split 00:15:44.950 --> 00:15:47.009 second reaction like throwing a punch. Right. 00:15:47.370 --> 00:15:49.309 But strangulation doesn't work that way. It's 00:15:49.309 --> 00:15:51.490 not instantaneous. Because he said he couldn't 00:15:51.490 --> 00:15:53.710 let go. Right. He told the agents, why couldn't 00:15:53.710 --> 00:15:57.590 I just let go? But strangulation takes, on average, 00:15:57.909 --> 00:16:00.850 two to four minutes to cause death. Two to four 00:16:00.850 --> 00:16:02.669 minutes. Let's just sit with that for a second. 00:16:02.730 --> 00:16:07.370 That is 120 to 240 seconds. Count to 10 in your 00:16:07.370 --> 00:16:09.850 head right now. It feels like a long time. Now 00:16:09.850 --> 00:16:12.769 imagine doing that 12 times over or more. He 00:16:12.769 --> 00:16:14.889 had minutes to stop. He had minutes to look at 00:16:14.889 --> 00:16:17.470 her face, to see the fear, to think about the 00:16:17.470 --> 00:16:20.210 son that she was carrying. And he sustained that 00:16:20.210 --> 00:16:23.509 pressure. That is not a snap. That is a decision 00:16:23.509 --> 00:16:26.789 being made over and over and over again, second 00:16:26.789 --> 00:16:28.809 by second. He also mentioned a thought he had 00:16:28.809 --> 00:16:31.159 before it happened. He said it felt like the 00:16:31.159 --> 00:16:34.299 idea was implanted in his mind. Implanted. Like 00:16:34.299 --> 00:16:37.179 it was premeditated. But he wants to distance 00:16:37.179 --> 00:16:39.399 himself from the ownership of the idea. It's 00:16:39.399 --> 00:16:41.679 a way of deflecting responsibility. He said he 00:16:41.679 --> 00:16:43.080 woke up that morning knowing it was going to 00:16:43.080 --> 00:16:45.879 happen. That directly contradicts the idea of 00:16:45.879 --> 00:16:48.639 a sudden rage. It suggests a grim inevitability. 00:16:48.899 --> 00:16:50.940 He knew the only way out was through them. And 00:16:50.940 --> 00:16:53.710 then. Yeah. That was the most harrowing part 00:16:53.710 --> 00:16:56.789 of the 2019 confession. In his original story, 00:16:56.909 --> 00:16:59.549 the one he told his dad, he said he killed Shanann 00:16:59.549 --> 00:17:01.809 in a rage. She killed the kids. Yes. That was 00:17:01.809 --> 00:17:04.089 a story the entire world lived with for months. 00:17:04.289 --> 00:17:07.230 A complete and total lie. In the 2019 interview, 00:17:07.430 --> 00:17:09.450 he finally reveals that after he killed Shanann, 00:17:09.630 --> 00:17:12.250 Bella walked into the room. Bella, his four -year 00:17:12.250 --> 00:17:14.190 -old daughter, she walked into their bedroom 00:17:14.190 --> 00:17:16.750 holding her blanket. She saw her mother's body 00:17:16.750 --> 00:17:19.329 wrapped in a sheet on the bed. And she asked, 00:17:19.450 --> 00:17:22.180 what's wrong with mommy? This changes everything. 00:17:22.599 --> 00:17:25.279 The children were alive. They were alive. And 00:17:25.279 --> 00:17:28.180 this leads us to the section of the story that 00:17:28.180 --> 00:17:31.259 is just the hardest to get through. The drive. 00:17:31.380 --> 00:17:33.839 We really need to slow down here. Because this 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:36.259 isn't just a transport. This is a journey into 00:17:36.259 --> 00:17:39.380 hell. It is. He loads Shanann's body into the 00:17:39.380 --> 00:17:42.220 floorboard of his work truck. And then he puts 00:17:42.220 --> 00:17:44.740 his two living daughters, Bella and Celeste, 00:17:44.839 --> 00:17:47.730 into the back seat. Just try to imagine the sensory 00:17:47.730 --> 00:17:50.730 experience inside that truck. It's dark. It's 00:17:50.730 --> 00:17:52.910 early morning. He's driving to the Anadarko oil 00:17:52.910 --> 00:17:56.710 site, a place called Servini 319. It is a 45 00:17:56.710 --> 00:17:59.549 -minute drive. 45 minutes. Most of us can't handle 00:17:59.549 --> 00:18:02.630 a 45 -minute commute with traffic. He is driving 00:18:02.630 --> 00:18:04.509 with his murdered wife at his feet and his living 00:18:04.509 --> 00:18:07.009 children sitting right behind him. And they are 00:18:07.009 --> 00:18:09.089 talking to him. Bella complained about the smell. 00:18:09.130 --> 00:18:12.450 She said, Daddy. It smells. Because after death, 00:18:12.690 --> 00:18:15.289 Shanann's body had released its bowels. It's 00:18:15.289 --> 00:18:18.789 the biological reality of death. The smell would 00:18:18.789 --> 00:18:21.029 have been overpowering in that small cab. And 00:18:21.029 --> 00:18:24.589 Chris, what did he do? He just drove. He told 00:18:24.589 --> 00:18:27.130 the CBI he was on autopilot. He said he wasn't 00:18:27.130 --> 00:18:29.950 thinking. But I challenge that. He was navigating. 00:18:30.349 --> 00:18:33.109 He was obeying traffic laws. He was planning 00:18:33.109 --> 00:18:35.650 the disposal. This is profound dissociation. 00:18:35.890 --> 00:18:38.589 How does the human mind even do that? How do 00:18:38.589 --> 00:18:40.950 you not just... Pull over, turn the car around, 00:18:41.049 --> 00:18:43.309 do something. It's a psychological break called 00:18:43.309 --> 00:18:45.690 depersonalization. He had already crossed the 00:18:45.690 --> 00:18:48.049 Rubicon when he killed Shanann. In his mind, 00:18:48.069 --> 00:18:50.150 the family was already gone. He wasn't seeing 00:18:50.150 --> 00:18:51.829 them as his daughters anymore. He was seeing 00:18:51.829 --> 00:18:54.809 them as loose ends. He was in task mode. Transport. 00:18:55.529 --> 00:18:58.210 Dispose. Finish. So they get to the oil site. 00:18:58.909 --> 00:19:01.430 He buries Shanann first. In a shallow grave. 00:19:01.589 --> 00:19:03.950 He noted specifically in the interview that the 00:19:03.950 --> 00:19:06.190 ground was hard. He actually broke the rake he 00:19:06.190 --> 00:19:08.509 was using. He was frustrated by it. And the girls 00:19:08.509 --> 00:19:10.450 are just watching this. They're in the truck. 00:19:10.470 --> 00:19:12.430 They're watching him dig a hole. They asked him, 00:19:12.430 --> 00:19:14.710 what are you doing to mommy? Oh, my God. That's 00:19:14.710 --> 00:19:16.789 true. And he goes back to the truck. He takes 00:19:16.789 --> 00:19:19.609 Celeste, Cece first. She was three years old. 00:19:19.769 --> 00:19:22.650 He used her own blue Yankees blanket to smother 00:19:22.650 --> 00:19:24.609 her. And Bella's sitting right there. Bella's 00:19:24.609 --> 00:19:27.349 sitting right next to her. She watches her father 00:19:27.349 --> 00:19:30.430 kill her little sister. Then he takes Celeste's 00:19:30.430 --> 00:19:32.609 body. And we have to be graphic here because 00:19:32.609 --> 00:19:35.269 the cruelty is the entire point. He takes her 00:19:35.269 --> 00:19:37.630 to the oil tanks. The hatch size. The hatch opening 00:19:37.630 --> 00:19:40.150 was only eight inches in diameter. Eight inches. 00:19:40.170 --> 00:19:42.069 A standard sheet of paper is eight and a half 00:19:42.069 --> 00:19:44.369 inches wide. Yeah. He had to physically force 00:19:44.369 --> 00:19:46.589 those little bodies through that hole. Jesus. 00:19:46.670 --> 00:19:49.329 He dropped Celeste into one tank. Then he went 00:19:49.329 --> 00:19:51.809 back to the truck for Bella. And Bella. She knew 00:19:51.809 --> 00:19:53.769 what was coming. She knew. She was four, but 00:19:53.769 --> 00:19:56.289 she was smart. She asked him, is the same thing 00:19:56.289 --> 00:19:59.359 going to happen to me as Cece? Oh, no. And her 00:19:59.359 --> 00:20:02.420 final words to him, words he claims he hears 00:20:02.420 --> 00:20:05.519 every single night in his cell were, Daddy, no. 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:10.160 That is just, that is the sound of absolute betrayal. 00:20:10.380 --> 00:20:13.299 Daddy, no. And he did it anyway. He smothered 00:20:13.299 --> 00:20:16.119 her. And he put her in the other tank. He separated 00:20:16.119 --> 00:20:19.920 the entire family. Shanann in the ground. Celeste 00:20:19.920 --> 00:20:23.440 in one tank. Bella in another. He told the CBI 00:20:23.440 --> 00:20:26.079 later, I was angry at Shanann and I took it out 00:20:26.079 --> 00:20:29.410 on the kids. It was an act of total annihilation. 00:20:29.809 --> 00:20:31.869 He didn't just kill them. He submerged them in 00:20:31.869 --> 00:20:34.210 crude oil. He wanted them to disappear completely. 00:20:34.509 --> 00:20:36.789 He wanted to wash them out of existence. And 00:20:36.789 --> 00:20:39.309 then he gets back in his truck and just drives 00:20:39.309 --> 00:20:42.309 away. Like nothing happened. He ate a sandwich 00:20:42.309 --> 00:20:44.849 later that day. That leads us right into the 00:20:44.849 --> 00:20:47.410 cover -up. Because this is where the whole mastermind 00:20:47.410 --> 00:20:49.509 theory just completely falls apart. He drives 00:20:49.509 --> 00:20:52.309 away and the mask goes back on. but it doesn't 00:20:52.309 --> 00:20:54.170 fit right anymore. No, it's slipping immediately. 00:20:54.609 --> 00:20:56.769 He does things that make absolutely no sense 00:20:56.769 --> 00:20:59.589 for a grieving or worried husband. He calls the 00:20:59.589 --> 00:21:01.990 girls' school to unenroll them. Wait, hold on. 00:21:02.069 --> 00:21:04.829 He called the school that morning. The same morning. 00:21:04.990 --> 00:21:07.250 That same morning, before anyone had even reported 00:21:07.250 --> 00:21:10.589 them missing. That is just idiotic. If you were 00:21:10.589 --> 00:21:12.589 pretending your wife took the kids to a play 00:21:12.589 --> 00:21:15.170 date or something, why on earth would you unenroll 00:21:15.170 --> 00:21:17.289 them from school? Because he was just checking 00:21:17.289 --> 00:21:19.900 things off a to -do list in his head. In his 00:21:19.900 --> 00:21:22.859 mind, they were gone. He was cutting ties. Sell 00:21:22.859 --> 00:21:26.559 house, cancel school, start new life. He wasn't 00:21:26.559 --> 00:21:29.420 simulating grief. He was executing a logistical 00:21:29.420 --> 00:21:33.319 plan. He also called a realtor to discuss selling 00:21:33.319 --> 00:21:36.180 the house. It's so transactional. It's like he 00:21:36.180 --> 00:21:38.920 was cleaning out a closet to make room for new 00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:42.980 stuff. Exactly. But he made a critical, critical 00:21:42.980 --> 00:21:47.029 error. He fell victim to what we call the narcissist's 00:21:47.029 --> 00:21:50.269 error. He completely underestimated the intelligence 00:21:50.269 --> 00:21:52.930 and intuition of the people around him. He thought 00:21:52.930 --> 00:21:54.710 he was smarter than everyone else. He thought 00:21:54.710 --> 00:21:56.769 he could just say they left and everyone would 00:21:56.769 --> 00:21:59.029 believe him because he's good guy Chris. He did 00:21:59.029 --> 00:22:01.170 not account for Nicole Atkinson. Shanann's friend. 00:22:01.329 --> 00:22:03.569 She is the hero of this story without a doubt. 00:22:03.750 --> 00:22:06.269 She really is. She knew Shanann's routine intimately. 00:22:06.529 --> 00:22:08.390 Shanann didn't answer her texts. She missed a 00:22:08.390 --> 00:22:10.690 doctor's appointment. Nicole didn't wait 24 hours 00:22:10.690 --> 00:22:12.750 to file a report. She went to the house. She 00:22:12.750 --> 00:22:15.369 called the police. She forced Chris's hand. She 00:22:15.369 --> 00:22:18.819 knew something was wrong. Immediately. If not 00:22:18.819 --> 00:22:21.279 for her, he might have had days to cover his 00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:24.539 tracks. But because of her, the police were there 00:22:24.539 --> 00:22:26.799 by that afternoon. And we have all that body 00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:29.200 cam footage of him arriving home to help the 00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:31.680 police. He's running around opening doors. It's 00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:34.079 just acting. And it's bad acting. He was doing 00:22:34.079 --> 00:22:36.000 what he thought a worried husband should do, 00:22:36.099 --> 00:22:38.960 but there was no genuine emotion behind it. He 00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:42.119 was sweating profusely. He was fidgeting. And 00:22:42.119 --> 00:22:45.640 then he did the porch interview. Ah, yes. The 00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:47.279 famous interview with the news stations. He's 00:22:47.279 --> 00:22:49.539 standing there, arms crossed, kind of swaying 00:22:49.539 --> 00:22:51.960 back and forth. Experts analyze that footage 00:22:51.960 --> 00:22:54.480 constantly. There's something called duping delight. 00:22:54.880 --> 00:22:57.240 It's a subtle smirk that happens when a liar 00:22:57.240 --> 00:22:58.640 thinks they're getting away with it. And you 00:22:58.640 --> 00:23:00.440 see flashes of it. You see flashes of it. But 00:23:00.440 --> 00:23:03.720 mostly you see a flat effect. He talks about 00:23:03.720 --> 00:23:05.460 them in the past tense. He says, I want them 00:23:05.460 --> 00:23:08.400 back. But his eyes are just dead. He wasn't crying. 00:23:08.619 --> 00:23:11.779 He wasn't frantic. He was just blank. So the 00:23:11.779 --> 00:23:14.200 police, obviously, they are not buying this story 00:23:14.200 --> 00:23:16.640 at all. The FBI gets involved. The CBI gets involved. 00:23:16.940 --> 00:23:19.359 They bring him in for a polygraph test. Which 00:23:19.359 --> 00:23:22.099 he fails, just miserably. He scored a negative 00:23:22.099 --> 00:23:25.599 18, which is a number that strongly implies deception. 00:23:26.019 --> 00:23:28.920 And then comes the interrogation room. Agents 00:23:28.920 --> 00:23:32.920 Tammy Lee and Graham Coder. And they were just 00:23:32.920 --> 00:23:35.500 masterful. They were. They used this technique 00:23:35.500 --> 00:23:38.279 where they essentially dismantled his reality. 00:23:38.809 --> 00:23:41.890 piece by piece. But the key moment, the turning 00:23:41.890 --> 00:23:44.250 point, was when he asked to speak to his father, 00:23:44.470 --> 00:23:46.910 Ronnie Watts. His dad was in the building at 00:23:46.910 --> 00:23:48.930 the time. He was. They had brought him in. Chris 00:23:48.930 --> 00:23:52.190 asked for him. And in that room with just his 00:23:52.190 --> 00:23:55.130 dad, he admitted that he killed Shanann. But, 00:23:55.210 --> 00:23:57.569 and this is the crucial manipulative part, he 00:23:57.569 --> 00:24:00.549 blamed her. He told his dad, she hurt the kids. 00:24:00.750 --> 00:24:03.309 I killed her because she killed them. Why did 00:24:03.309 --> 00:24:05.750 he choose that specific lie? It seems so calculated. 00:24:06.109 --> 00:24:08.180 Because the agents gave it to him. It's a very 00:24:08.180 --> 00:24:11.339 common technique called minimization. In an interrogation, 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:13.900 investigators will offer a suspect a moral out. 00:24:14.119 --> 00:24:15.779 They'll say things like, did you do something 00:24:15.779 --> 00:24:17.920 to hurt the kids? Were you defending them? We 00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:19.700 know you're not a monster. They give them a more 00:24:19.700 --> 00:24:22.650 palatable story to tell. Exactly. They provide 00:24:22.650 --> 00:24:25.130 a narrative where the suspect can confess to 00:24:25.130 --> 00:24:28.210 the act but deny the malicious intent. And Chris 00:24:28.210 --> 00:24:30.789 latched onto that immediately. It allowed him 00:24:30.789 --> 00:24:33.269 to confess to the murder of his wife while trying 00:24:33.269 --> 00:24:36.109 to maintain some twisted moral high ground as 00:24:36.109 --> 00:24:38.769 the avenging father. It's just the height of 00:24:38.769 --> 00:24:42.109 cowardice. It's incredibly cowardly. He tarnished 00:24:42.109 --> 00:24:44.089 her memory, the mother of his children, just 00:24:44.089 --> 00:24:47.089 to try and save his own skin. He let the world 00:24:47.089 --> 00:24:49.750 believe for weeks that Shanann, a truly devoted 00:24:49.750 --> 00:24:52.519 mother, had murdered her own children. But eventually 00:24:52.519 --> 00:24:54.299 the evidence was just too strong. He pleaded 00:24:54.299 --> 00:24:57.339 guilty to all counts. He had to. The GPS and 00:24:57.339 --> 00:24:59.359 his work truck placed him at the oil site for 00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:02.099 the exact amount of time needed. The bodies were 00:25:02.099 --> 00:25:04.220 found exactly where he eventually said they were. 00:25:04.440 --> 00:25:06.619 He pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty 00:25:06.619 --> 00:25:09.140 in Colorado. Which brings us to the final chapter, 00:25:09.539 --> 00:25:12.039 Reflections from Prison. He's serving multiple 00:25:12.039 --> 00:25:15.119 life sentences without parole. And in 2019, the 00:25:15.119 --> 00:25:18.180 CBI goes back to talk to him. What does his life 00:25:18.180 --> 00:25:21.190 even look like now? It's a strange paradoxical 00:25:21.190 --> 00:25:24.130 existence. He told the agents he has photos of 00:25:24.130 --> 00:25:26.369 Shanann and the girls up in his cell. Wait, wait. 00:25:26.430 --> 00:25:29.109 He keeps photos of the people he murdered in 00:25:29.109 --> 00:25:32.049 his prison cell. He does. He tossed them. He 00:25:32.049 --> 00:25:33.970 reads a book to his deceased daughters every 00:25:33.970 --> 00:25:36.670 single night. He reads them the same book he 00:25:36.670 --> 00:25:39.549 used to read to Celeste. He mixes it with scripture. 00:25:39.910 --> 00:25:42.000 That is... I don't even know what the word for 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:44.059 that is. It feels completely delusional. It's 00:25:44.059 --> 00:25:46.680 a way of compartmentalizing. He has separated 00:25:46.680 --> 00:25:49.099 the Chris who killed them from the Chris who 00:25:49.099 --> 00:25:52.079 loves them. He speaks as if it was some dark 00:25:52.079 --> 00:25:54.299 force that took him over. He calls it a dark 00:25:54.299 --> 00:25:56.559 shadow. He mentioned that in the interview. He 00:25:56.559 --> 00:25:59.079 said he felt possessed by rage. He said I'm not 00:25:59.079 --> 00:26:01.880 the monster. He's trying to externalize the evil. 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:04.299 He's saying he couldn't control it. But again, 00:26:04.420 --> 00:26:06.420 that completely contradicts his own statements 00:26:06.420 --> 00:26:09.440 about the premeditation, that implanted idea. 00:26:09.880 --> 00:26:12.400 He wants to be the victim of his own rage rather 00:26:12.400 --> 00:26:14.680 than the author of it. And then there's the fan 00:26:14.680 --> 00:26:18.019 mail. Yes. This is a very disturbing phenomenon 00:26:18.019 --> 00:26:20.819 in true crime. He receives letters from women 00:26:20.819 --> 00:26:23.000 all over the world. Some of it is hate mail, 00:26:23.160 --> 00:26:25.799 of course, calling him a monster. But many are 00:26:25.799 --> 00:26:28.160 romantic, women who think he's misunderstood. 00:26:29.029 --> 00:26:32.130 Women who want to save him. It's that Ted Bundy 00:26:32.130 --> 00:26:35.349 effect. Hybristophilia, a clinical attraction 00:26:35.349 --> 00:26:37.970 to those who commit crimes. Chris seems sort 00:26:37.970 --> 00:26:40.809 of baffled by it, but also a little flattered. 00:26:40.849 --> 00:26:42.710 He talked about one woman who wrote to him four 00:26:42.710 --> 00:26:45.509 times a week. It just feeds that deep -seated 00:26:45.509 --> 00:26:48.589 narcissism that was there all along. In the 2019 00:26:48.589 --> 00:26:52.150 interview, he does finally officially clear. 00:26:52.789 --> 00:26:54.890 Shanann's name. He did. And that was the most 00:26:54.890 --> 00:26:57.210 important thing for the Rosedick family, Shanann's 00:26:57.210 --> 00:26:59.450 parents. They had been dealing with these horrible 00:26:59.450 --> 00:27:01.990 internet trolls calling Shanann abusive or a 00:27:01.990 --> 00:27:05.349 narcissist because of Chris's initial lie. In 00:27:05.349 --> 00:27:08.130 2019, Chris admitted she was a good mother. He 00:27:08.130 --> 00:27:09.950 admitted she wasn't abusive. He admitted there 00:27:09.950 --> 00:27:11.910 was no domestic violence until the moment he 00:27:11.910 --> 00:27:14.180 killed her. He also reflected on the thrive patches 00:27:14.180 --> 00:27:17.220 again, didn't he? He did. He wonders if the patches 00:27:17.220 --> 00:27:19.119 played a role. He wonders if he would have snapped 00:27:19.119 --> 00:27:21.660 if he wasn't so sleep deprived. He's constantly 00:27:21.660 --> 00:27:24.019 looking for these external reasons. Was it the 00:27:24.019 --> 00:27:26.160 patches? Was it the affair? Was it the finances? 00:27:26.680 --> 00:27:29.359 And the real answer is probably all of the above. 00:27:29.619 --> 00:27:32.299 It's a convergence of factors. But we have to 00:27:32.299 --> 00:27:34.480 be very clear. Plenty of people go bankrupt. 00:27:35.049 --> 00:27:37.369 plenty of people have affairs. Plenty of people 00:27:37.369 --> 00:27:39.609 have overbearing in -laws. They don't put their 00:27:39.609 --> 00:27:42.769 children in oil tanks. The missing piece is Chris 00:27:42.769 --> 00:27:46.039 himself. His profound lack of empathy, his inability 00:27:46.039 --> 00:27:48.660 to confront conflict in any kind of a healthy 00:27:48.660 --> 00:27:51.859 way. He chose the most destructive path possible 00:27:51.859 --> 00:27:54.440 because it was the only way he could see to just 00:27:54.440 --> 00:27:56.839 delete his problems. It's the fresh start fallacy. 00:27:56.940 --> 00:27:59.039 He thought if he just got rid of the old life, 00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:01.339 the new life would just begin, clean slate. He 00:28:01.339 --> 00:28:03.480 didn't realize the old life consisted of human 00:28:03.480 --> 00:28:05.940 beings. He treated them like objects, like debts 00:28:05.940 --> 00:28:08.000 to be canceled or furniture to be thrown out. 00:28:08.440 --> 00:28:11.359 And that is the true horror of the family annihilator. 00:28:11.480 --> 00:28:15.420 The family becomes disposable property. So after 00:28:15.420 --> 00:28:18.799 all this, what does this all mean for us? We 00:28:18.799 --> 00:28:20.839 started this by talking about the illusion, the 00:28:20.839 --> 00:28:23.349 curated digital life. I think that's the big 00:28:23.349 --> 00:28:26.289 lingering lesson here. We rely so much on social 00:28:26.289 --> 00:28:29.029 media to understand the people around us. We 00:28:29.029 --> 00:28:31.829 see the posts, the smiles, the perfect families. 00:28:32.150 --> 00:28:35.150 But those posts are advertisements. They're not 00:28:35.150 --> 00:28:37.970 documentaries. The reality of the Watts home 00:28:37.970 --> 00:28:41.109 was financial terror, emotional isolation, and 00:28:41.109 --> 00:28:43.109 a husband who was actively checking out of his 00:28:43.109 --> 00:28:45.609 own marriage. It really makes you wonder how 00:28:45.609 --> 00:28:49.210 well we truly know anyone. Chris Watts was the 00:28:49.210 --> 00:28:52.019 quiet one. the nice neighbor, the guy who would 00:28:52.019 --> 00:28:53.900 help you fix your car. And that's the provocative 00:28:53.900 --> 00:28:55.680 thought I'd want to leave our listeners with. 00:28:55.920 --> 00:28:58.420 We often look for the monster to have fangs. 00:28:58.660 --> 00:29:01.019 We expect them to be angry, violent men with 00:29:01.019 --> 00:29:03.660 long criminal records. Chris Watts had no criminal 00:29:03.660 --> 00:29:06.059 record. He was polite. He was the family next 00:29:06.059 --> 00:29:08.559 door. The capacity for this kind of evil can 00:29:08.559 --> 00:29:11.279 hide behind a very banal, very ordinary mask. 00:29:11.519 --> 00:29:13.200 And perhaps that's why this case haunts us so 00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:16.349 much. It wasn't a stranger in a dark alley. It 00:29:16.349 --> 00:29:18.730 was the man sleeping in the bed next door. Precisely. 00:29:18.750 --> 00:29:20.569 It is a heavy one today. But it's important, 00:29:20.650 --> 00:29:22.569 I think, to understand the reality behind the 00:29:22.569 --> 00:29:25.049 headlines, to understand that the monster isn't 00:29:25.049 --> 00:29:28.609 always who we think it is. And to remember Shanann, 00:29:28.750 --> 00:29:32.609 Bella and Celeste, not just as victims in a Netflix 00:29:32.609 --> 00:29:35.250 documentary, but as real people who deserved 00:29:35.250 --> 00:29:37.730 a future that was stolen from them. Absolutely. 00:29:37.849 --> 00:29:39.730 Thank you for listening. We will see you on the 00:29:39.730 --> 00:29:40.390 next Deep Dive.