Death Over Divorce

I am not sure if you have heard me say this, or if I have mentioned this in my previous blogs before but you will not catch me binge watching a show for hours at a time while on the couch stuffing popcorn in my face. I must have a short attention span, hyperactivity, ants in my pants or whatever you want to call it, not sure what the case is with myself but I refuse to watch television unless the show/movie is super good and entertaining. There must be something wrong with me, but anyways this one documentary did catch my eye on Netflix one night while I was in bed searching for a movie to put on as I was planning to fall asleep.

The documentary called American Murder: The Family Next Door was trending at the time so I said screw it lets see what the hype was about considering I had seen buzz from friends about it on facebook. I personally recommend you go watch it, if you haven’t already it will explain why I need to talk about it on my blog. It is about an hour and 20 minutes of pure shockwaves. The heartbreaking story tells about a man who happened to murder his wife and three children. Initially he only had two daughters at the time, but Shanann Watts did have a bun in the oven during her murder which made the situation even more sad.

Chris Watts was the father in this “perfect” little family where his wife, Shannan Watts and two Daughters 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste all lived happily together. Well at least thats what Shannan would portray to everyone on social media as she would constantly upload vlogs of her family on vacation, eating out, birthday parties or just living day to day life. Now I know we all like to put up our social media image and make it look cookie cutter, but Shannan was next level with her camera always on, and her phone permanently attached to her hand since she did have a big fan base to entertain on her facebook platform. Shannan received a great amount of attention and positivity about her family so she didn’t mind giving the people what they enjoyed.

After watching behind the scenes and some of Shannans videos, I personally would say that she was over the top and probably annoying to her husband, respectfully. I wouldn’t like to stage every single moment and have a camera in your face requiring you to act fake for an audience.

The event happened in Colorado on August 13, 2021. Shannans friend became worried after she was unable to get in contact with her since the two friends had just came back from a business trip. Chris played it cool and told officers that he had not seen his wife and two daughters since his wives return. By the second day the CPI (Colorado Bureau of Investigation ) declared the family missing. Chris was able to play dumb and ask for sympathy upon the community through social media and news outlets.

Throughout investigation, police were able to find phone records of Chris having an affair with his coworker. Later he then failed a polygraph test which lead him to confess to his father what he had did. Watts took it upon himself to smother his two daughters and suffocate them until they were no longer alive. He also strangled his wife after addressing her that he wanted to get a divorce which lead to a heated argument. To dispose of the bodies, he later then shoved the toddlers into oil tanks but, previously dug a shallow grave for his pregnant deceased wife.

Chris Watts is a coward. After his confession to everything he was served with five counts of first degree murder, and five life sentences amongst many other charges. It was hard to relive the story while blogging this, I mustve gotten the chills about three different times, but it is very heart breaking. All of this could have been avoided had he been honest with his wife about his affair and just gone through with the divorce, or put in effort to work on his marriage for his family. It was a tragedy that shocked America.