Starting off strong with the picture perfect family - this documentary was a hit with true crime fans world-wide. With exclusive body-cam and CCTV footage of case-specific events, this piece is an elegant and hard-hitting look at familicide.
Shanann, Nico, Celeste, and Bella.
What poor suffering they experienced. They all deserved better.
I have to say I was truly moved by this documentary. Concise, clear, and straightforward. If they left anything out, I couldn't tell, and frankly if something mattered much to the case I feel it would have been included in this comprehensive film.
Shanann and Chris' relationship was, in fact, falling apart. Eight years was becoming too difficult to push through to nine and a third child was going to add a new level of stress that I think Chris wasn't ready for. I think he planned to kill them all before Shanann was pregnant with the third baby.
More on that later.
My favorite moment is when the investigators confront Chris with the polygraph results. They call his ass out on the spot and boom - busted.
He tries to feign innocence, but the investigators don't even let him finish his sentences.
Caught.
From this the documentary cuts to flashbacks and dialogue from the weeks leading up to the murders and we finally reach the crux of the issue - Chris seems to be having an affair. The married couple are no longer having sex, and during the trip to visit grandparents, and he is acting strangely. But he's not being open and honest with Shanann, so of course she accuses him, and then we get another cut.
To whom?
Nichol Kessinger. The other woman. Yeah.
Some people speculate that she was involved, or at least was scheming with Chris, but I'm not so sure. She seems to have been caught up by a shitty liar with sexy muscles just like so many people are.
Cut back to the confrontation between Chris and the investigator. He admits that he cheated on Shanann with Nichol, and lied dead to Shanann's face.
So then the investigator does something really smart, I think. She sets up a fake story almost in a minor suggestion; "Did Shanann do something to them that you felt like you had to do something to her?!"
"No!" was the first thing out of his mouth.
So, Chris lets his dad know that he failed the polygraph and we see some footage of Chris lying some more to everyone around him, and then we get another cut.
Shanann was not an easy person to deal with, it seems by the footage presented in this documentary of her, most of it recorded by Shanann herself. But by NO MEANS does this warrant what Chris did to them all.
Cut back to the interrogation room: Chris lies and says Shanann killed the children. Can I see that? Absolutely not. Shanann may have been a bitch but she fiercely loved her kids. No way in hell would she have harmed them. I could see her beating Chris's ass though. ;)
So they turn the house into a crime scene to process because of Chris' claims, and then Chris drops the bombshell.
The bodies are all at the work site he's been contracted at for the time being.
But somehow he's still the hero because Shanann killed the girls so he killed her. Sounds familiar, right?
Right.
The investigators get on to him again.
"I'm not a monster."
Sure, Jan.
So just before the murders, Nickole, Shanann's friend, not to be confused with Chris' secret girlfriend, mentions that there was a letter Shanann wrote to Chris.
The letter is tragically genuine, and sad. She wanted to fight for them, she wanted to love Chris for life everlasting, and boy did she miss him while he was gone with his secret girlfriend.
So they arrest Chris, finally, and he is pat down, cuffed, finger-printed, and photographed. Booked bitch.
The team pulls the bodies from Cervi 319, the work site, including the two girls' bodies out of the tanks, and Shanann's pregnant body from nearby brush.
There is a candle-light vigil held, and we cut back again - just before the murders, and Shanann is excited about the family and about pushing forward as a team; married couple against the problem.
Cut forward - Nichol - the girlfriend, is explaining that she was as shocked as the rest of the world about the murders. More questions come up - just before the murders, he was out with Nichol as well. And then we learn the catalyst.
Shanann found out. Or at least almost did. He was gone for long hours. He was spending more money than expected. And he wasn’t hiding it very well.
Shanann knew.
So we cut forward again - Chris pleads guilty to three counts of first-degree murder.
Cut - back again. The day before the murders, or possibly the night of, Shanann returns home from a conference.
Cut forward - Chris is sentenced to five life-sentences with no possibility of parole.
Cut way forward - 2019 - Chris tells the story; he knew that Shanann must have known about the affair. Shanann comes home from the trip at 2 am. They have sex. The next morning, he tells her he wants to end it. An emotional argument ensues, and he chokes Shanann to death. He claims "I had no control over it." Bella walked in the room, and saw Shanann dead. He put Shanann's body in the car, put the two girls in the truck, alive and unsuspecting, and drove them all out to Cervi 319.
He smothered the two little girls, murdering them, and dumped their bodies in the tanks at Cervi 319.
He unenrolled them from school. Texted his girlfriend. Contacted his realtor.
Sandi, Shanann's mother, makes an amazing statement to the Court at Chris' final sentencing hearing. Cindy Watts, Chris' mother, makes an interesting statement, and forgives her son.
Chris denies his ability to make a statement, and the sentencing carries on.
In 2018 he was moved to an out-of-state jail because inmates were kicking his ass in his state of residence.
He's a family annihilator. I say, have at it. He killed four people because he wanted to get his dick wet. One an unborn child unwillingly killed, two toddlers, and one adult woman who loved her husband and family. They all deserved better.
-B
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