We know for a fact that Nut Gate soured relations between the couple, but that couldn’t have been all. We also know for a fact that Watts’ affair meant he was disinterested because he was distracted. If Nut Gate hadn’t happened, Shan’ann would have had a clearer idea that something else was brewing, something that was less her doing.
But besides these hypotheticals, it’s likely the couple argued about money. This aspect is sequestrated from all the correspondence, but because it isn’t there is hardly evidence that it wasn’t a serious issue. Perhaps Watts felt embarrassed and ashamed that he’d allowed himself, and her, to get them into such a desperate financial situation again.
This was also the one aspect he didn’t really discuss with Nichol Kessinger, even though he felt he could be himself and talk to her about anything. Well, not this. Not the first bankruptcy, and not the second.
There may have been a verbal and emotional feedback loop between Kessinger and Watts – and Shan’ann – specifically on the issue on the best way to resolve the financial trouble.
If Watts was blissfully unaware or woefully ignorant of the finances, his affair with Kessinger forced the issue on two fronts:
1) he would need an additional budget to woo her. This would reinforce the knowledge and urgency of just how cash-strapped he really was. And why was he cash-strapped? Whose fault was that? What could he – should he – do about it?
2) As Kessinger became more familiar with Watts’ untenable situation, she may have provided him with sensible advice on how to manage his finances. But if he applied her advice, that would mean “managing” or in some way manipulating or controlling Shan’ann. Regaining financial control meant – necessarily – exerting control over Shan’ann [or attempting to].
As most couples know when marriages break down, the wrestle for control over money becomes if not a life and death struggle, ugly, and filled with ploys, dirty tricks and shenanigans. It’s push and go, spite, nitpicking, backscratching, baiting, naming and shaming and taking what you can get away with. It’s possible that was the content of these back and forth phone calls on Sunday, July 22nd.
We have no idea whether Watts went to the Home Depot on July 22nd, and if he did, what he got there. Did it have anything to do with Shan’ann? Or Kessinger? The discovery case file lists 14 instances of Home Depot in its 1960 pages. On page 945 a USB drive from Home Depot is listed. This may indicate that Watts, or Shan’ann, wanted information on a shared computer in a safe place [probably the former].
In total, Watts and Shan’ann spoke for 65 minutes on July 22nd, a record.
Now, the trouble with reviewing the case file in hindsight, simply glancing backwards through the rearview mirror, is that the weight of our perception is just that – a lightweight glance.
When we go through the timeline systematically, pacing ourselves in real time, we can see how the weight of the finances wasn’t just a factor, it was a daily burden.
And Watts and Shan’ann were unequally yoked. He was the one saddled with the mortgage. The house was in his name this time, and they were almost certainly going to lose the house, regardless of the arrival of a third child.
We don’t know when Watts received word from Chase Manhattan bank regarding their home loan, but we know on June 30th [3 weeks earlier in the timeline] Watts may have forged Shan’ann’s signature on this documents.
It’s likely a forgery simply because Shan’ann was already in North Carolina on June 30th. Regardless, Watts was also listed as a defendant on the summons. The summons was received and filed by Weld Count on the morning of July 12th, and Watts was the one collecting mail while Shan’ann was away. Besides this aspect, if we look at the crime scene, what stood out in a relatively pristine, innocuous looking crime scene overall was this:
It may be that the children trashed Shan’ann’s office, or it could be that Watts went through it looking for bills, familiarizing himself with their true financial situation.
Watts discovery of the paper trail while Shan’ann was away was likely an intermittent process, but with each successive discovery was a more startling revelation of the seriousness and sheer scale of the debt tsunami advancing towards them.
With each discovery, it became necessary to call his co-accused to discuss their debt mess. This would be followed by an inevitable blame game, along with – perhaps – a hastily cobbled strategy to deal with [or postpone] the next large payment.
Their biggest financial millstone was the mortgage, $2 700,going off at the middle of each month – or supposed to. When was the family murdered? Just prior to the middle of the month. July was the second or third month they were behind in paying it. If it was the third, then June was the second, and May the first. This suggests the moment they could no longer pay their mortgage was around the time Shan’ann fell pregnant.
Shan’ann’s trip to North Carolina was possibly a last ditch effort to turn around, to refloat their shipwrecked finances. But by investing all her hope and efforts into the MLM maelstrom, she was giving herself [and her family] a 0.4% chance of success. So there was still a chance, right?
It’s possible, during July, Watts quietly evaluated not so much his own ability to turn around their finances, but whether Shan’ann was capable. By late July it was becoming clear that they weren’t, and worse, that they were losing control. If Shan’ann wanted everyone to think they lived a certain way, that was certainly about to end. 
True Crime Rocket Science II 
In some ways it’s like they’re coming together was a perfect storm of people unable to manage financial reality. Poor shannan with her belief that the selling would come right and provide for them….and living the lifestyle anyway till it did. It’s interesting that her last failed and declined credit card transaction on the night of her death was for a hair products line modelled on a similar sales model to what she was selling. Suggests she didn’t fully get how this stuff works – otherwise she wouldn’t have been a customer as well as a operator. CW apparantly happy to stick his head in the sand and leave all the finance stuff for her to manage until perhaps fully realising the state they were in near the end. Which in itself must have been a pressure on her, putting her in the position of having to be ‘responsible parent’ that she was ill equipped for, and likely caused tensions.
Both like children in many ways, and clearly it was all about to crash down around their ears. And yet they’d been through it all before with the first bankruptcy.
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Shan’Ann may have not understood how MLMs work, but she had to have some idea because this was her 4th or 5th MLM venture. Levels Thrive is only a bit different in that they give lower end reps bonuses for things that other MLMs only award at higher levels. She had 100+ people on the te as m she was on, and maybe 3 or 4 people below her (including bella, I believe she had her signed up which is an idiotic thing MLM reps sometimes do to make it look like they have a downline). It’s clear she didn’t understand how the car bonus worked because every month it resets, so she’d have to hit ridiculously high numbers every month in order to get that car bonus, and Level doesn’t care because it’s in the reps name – not the company’s, so they’re not on the hook.
The people at the top of the pyramid who started the MLM or got in super early are the only people making money, and they know that their customers are actually their reps. That’s why they make it known that you have to hit a minimum each month in order to keep “rep” status. They unload all their product off to the reps and give them a slight discount, then wash their hands of it and walk away. That’s why they make money off recruiting, not product because in the end, what other job can you name that actively tells you to create competition for yourself in your market? None.
By the time Shanann got into Thrive, she had an icebergs chance in hell of making money. Not only that, but they couldn’t afford their lifestyle as it was, and now she’s got herself and her husband as active reps, so she’s gotta fulfill the “monthly dues” for two reps every month and that’s 300+ dollars they just don’t have. Still, she continued on. At one point bella was signed up underneath her but she probably let that account go as she couldn’t afford the monthly dues for 1 account, let alone 3.
That’s probably where a bulk of their money was going, and the higher ups string you along by saying things like “This will be your month! If you quit now, you’ll forever be broke”. In reality they don’t believe that, they just don’t want to lose the sucker’s under them because then they make less money. They encourage you running up credit cards and lines of credit because “it’ll pay off in the end!” It’s a cult like mentality.
I’d bet good money that Level was one of the main things drowning them. She was probably doing payment plans with the utility companies to not get shut off, paying minimums on cards, paying for the unnecessary daycare (she’s unemployed and at home all day) and then fulfilling the minimum orders she needed for the level rep accounts. Anything left over went to her spending, and the mortgage didn’t get paid. Only a few months prior she borrowed 10k against Chris’s 401k to catch up on months of mortgage arrears, and now theyre right back in it again.
If this was her first MLM, I’d have more sympathy, but it wasn’t. She had quit a few prior to this, so she was well aware there wasn’t much pay off but I think she wanted to project a certain image. Unfortunately, she couldn’t afford to, it’s not like this was a pet business that the wealthy husband keeps afloat to keep his spouse busy and happy. They were barely making it when she was working in the call center, now they’re without that income plus she’s spending upwards of $300 a month to stay active in Level. A nightmare all around.
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The office aspect is interesting – I can picture Chris going through all the paperwork that he had probably not looked at in forever, and as he began to see the full extent of their financial situation he just started throwing papers wherever as sort of a passive/aggressive gesture. When Shan’ann asked him to lock the office, she wanted to make sure the babysitter didn’t wander in to snoop a little, and discover their hopeless and embarrassing predicament. The more they talked while she was away, the more distant he grew, she could have thought the finances were playing a part in the problem. I’ve read in posts that she was the one who had been working on their relationship, however I disagree, I don’t really think either of them ever had. She only did when she realized that this time there were actual serious problems, and oh @#%& now I’m in real trouble, and for once he was kind of holding the cards.
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Agree 100%. “Too little too late”. She realized they were about to be screwed and she’d be left with 3 kids living in her parents basement with her brother and 3 kids. Without Chris, she knew she’d never be able to secure an apartment or home because of her obliterated credit. No bank would lend to her before the foreclosure, let alone after, and without a couple grand up front, a cosigner and a prayer, shed never be able to get into an apartment. She spent so much energy trying to project an image that was so far from the truth, and now she’s about to end up in the worst position possible. The truth was about to come out and with 3 kids and no money, she wouldn’t be able to hock her “wonderful life due to Thrive!”.
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