Shan’ann Watts’ body was exhumed at 23:00 on August 15th, about the same time Watts was arrested and taken into custody.
From the station in Frederick Watts was taken to Weld County Jail by Officer James. The same officer had taken Watts’ father earlier in the evening to local hotels on Firestone Boulevard.
He didn’t know it just then, but that night was to be the first night of the rest of Watts’ new life – not surfing sand dunes but wiling away his life, reading the bible and tattered prison paperbacks all within an incarcerated state. So much for keeping his home, his girlfriend and people’s good impression of him – within three days of the murder he’d lost all of that, as well as his freedom for the rest of his life.
The Phone Data Review has one fairly nondescript entry for Thursday the 16th.
It’s easy to forget this aspect one year later, but immediately after Watts’ arrest, the Thayer couple did a series of interviews with the media. Some following this case may recall that Nick and Amanda had let Watts sleep over in their home on Tuesday night, August 14th, following a few hours of questioning by the FBI. Nick [a professional photographer] and Watts were jogging pals. Nick Thayer had taken the now famous Watts Family Photos and also likely photographed Shan’ann’s spread for a Thrive magazine promotion.
Shan’ann and Amanda [an education director] were friends and fellow Thrivers.
The couple had copped a lot of flack online for harboring a man suspected of killing his family. Many who had watched the Sermon on the Porch reckoned Watts story didn’t add up, but the Thayers seemed to feel differently. They’d actually stood beside him, off camera, while he addressed the media.
Prior to his arrest the Thayers defended their decision to on social media, and defended Watts. But on Thursday and Friday they did damage control, doing back to back interviews, apologizing to the public – as well as their own daughter – for their mistake.
Although Watts is often criticized, not without justification, the Thayers were among those duped by his explanations. Watts may not have had much game, but it’s not like he didn’t have any game.
More: ‘He fooled us’: Friends of man who allegedly killed pregnant wife, daughters speak out after shocking arrest – ABC
The interview on Thursday following the arrest of her former boyfriend was the second Kessinger had given to law enforcement, but it was the first time Kessinger and CBI agent Greg Zentner sat down together.
Zentner was easygoing, sometimes he seemed too easy going, just as Coder seemed perhaps too friendly to Watts in the beginning. But don’t be fooled, Zentner’s no slouch, he’d already interviewed another Nickole [Atkinson] at length at her work place. He knew what was going on and he knew to approach these people carefully and in a friendly, somewhat firm and open manner.
The other question to ask is if you’d sent naked pictures of yourself, would you want the world to see all that, even within the context of a crime? The point is, it doesn’t matter what you or I would do, Kessinger didn’t want to do that. And on this point, she was questioned by Zentner.
The interrogation above, recorded in camera, was Kessinger’s third meeting with law enforcement, from August 17th at Thornton Police Department. Discovery Documents page 568 onwards. Her second meeting with law enforcement occurred on August 16th, the day after Watts’ arrest.
Kessinger’s reason to Zentner isn’t the full story of course. She had other reasons to delete their affair, principally the fact that she wanted to keep her job. It’s important to draw a distinction between the interrogation with Watts and the interviews with Kessinger. If Watts lies, he’s covering up the premeditated murder of his own family. If Kessinger’s economical with the truth, she’s covering aspects of an affair she considers private and not necessarily relevant. There’s a tradeoff here between her and law enforcement. If they don’t go after everything, she’ll co-operate.
And Kessinger does provide law enforcement with a lot to go on. She tells them about her two visits to the Watts home. We still haven’t seen security footage of this, either from the neighbor of potentially from Watts’ doorbell camera.
Something else we still haven’t seen are those dozens of naked and semi-naked images sent by Kessinger to Watts, and that is as it should be. Fact is, while it would be tabloid gold, it’s not in the public interest in the conventional sense that true crime is meant to be. Even so, Weld County have released some images that give one a sense of the relationship between the two Anadarko co-workers. It’s sufficient.
What does come through quite strongly in Kessinger’s interviews is even though by August 16th it’s clear Watts probably murdered his wife [her body was recovered from a well site he visited, and her death was reported in the media], it doesn’t seem to really register with Kessinger. She seems to be in a dreamworld, and Agent Zentner would – from time to time – have to remind her that she was talking him about her former boyfriend not for fun, not for tiddlywinks, but as part of a murder investigation.
There was also that moment in Watts interrogation where he waxed slightly poetic about NK, and Coder had to steer him back to the matter at hand, saying let’s get back to your missing wife. It was probably the first time CW had actually had the opportunity to talk about her to someone, even though it was an FBI agent. I know I’m in the minority, but I do feel sympathy for NK — she had a colossal lapse in judgement by becoming involved with a married man, however he did lie and lie and lie to her. She wasn’t the first and won’t be the last to fall for that. She might have had a little edge to her, but that’s ok. I really don’t believe she had any part in any of it, and contrary to some social media theories, I don’t think she was in the truck that night !
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I think she’s been treated harshly too. She also lost her home, her privacy and her livelihood. And these accusations that she’s an accessory have got to stop. There have been more than enough victims in this tragedy.
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In all the years you’ve been studying true crime and all the cases you have deconstructed, have you ever gotten a last minute shocker that you were not expecting?
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I wouldn’t say last minute, but there are situations where new information emerges that was previously unknown. If you know your true crime, it shouldn’t alter much, but that’s not to say one shouldn’t allow the pieces to fall where they do. A few examples of shockers:
1. JonBenet Ramsey new “last photo” released:
https://crimerocket.com/2019/04/13/new-last-photo-of-jonbenet-ramsey-has-just-been-release-and-theres-a-problem/
2. Oscar Pistorius – phone was hacked by “Titanium Hulk” user [the same avatar used by his brother on Twitter].
https://ewn.co.za/2014/10/02/Pistorius-the-Hulk-and-Babyshoes-What-the-court-didnt-hear
3. O.J. Simpson caught out wearing Bruno Magli shoes [evidence not led at trial]
https://people.com/crime/oj-simpsons-reaction-to-photo-of-bruno-magli-shoes-in-deposition-tapes/
4. Chris Watts – plea deal requested after 4 days.
https://crimerocket2.com/2019/08/25/48-sunday-august-26th-2018-plea-deal-offered-less-than-1-week-after-formal-charges-lodged-against-chris-watts-1yearagotodaycw/
5. Amanda Knox – Meredith Kercher’s DNA and Knox’s DNA found on murder knife found in Sollecito’s apartment. Meredith Kercher had never been to Knox’s boyfriend’s apartment.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5369922/Amanda-Knoxs-DNA-found-on-handle-of-knife-in-murder-flat.html
6. Steven Avery
https://www.businessinsider.com/making-a-murderer-jodi-stachowski-interview-steven-avery-2016-1?IR=T
7. Damien Echols cruelty to animals
8. Casey Anthony – someone “Foolproof Suffocation”…
https://techcrunch.com/2012/11/25/google-search-history-murder-evidence/
9. Scott Peterson tried to pawn Laci’s gold watch on eBay. [Link has been removed].
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/LAW/06/18/peterson.trial/index.html
10. Rebecca Zahau – Xena Zahau’s 911 call.
https://crimerocket2.com/2019/06/15/xena-zahaus-911-call-july-11-2011-adam-shacknais-911-call-july-13-2011/
And on and on and on.
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Excellent news! Thank you for all these great examples. There are a lot of them! You have renewed my hope that we may still get a surprise or two.
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Do you think a major oil company would be able to control what the FBI does as far as not pursuing cases that would bring negative attention to Them? Have there been cases in the past where major corporations successfully influenced the FBI to “bury justice” that would negatively affect them?
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I absolutely do not think she had anything whatsoever to do with this crime. Her fault was believing all the lies he told her. Shes a human being, and made a mistake. And lets not forget he was the one with the obligations. Many men and women have affairs. It doesn’t make them murder their family. I may get attacked for this but this woman’s face and pics are all over the internet to view. People treat her sometimes worse then the murderer himself. If she had anything to do with this, the experts that are far more educated in this area would’ve known. She had an affair. She doesn’t deserve a Scarlett letter, HE DOES! And yes she probably did know he was married, yes she probably did know he had a kid on the way, but thar does not make her a murderer! JMO
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You’re absolutely right. And isn’t it convenient that they leave out that Shan’ann was a cheater? She cheated on her first husband with her boss (the one she embezzled with/from) and Chris? It doesn’t really come up, but I have noticed that once the media caught on to Shan’Ann being a grifter they slowly started stepping back. Whenever it’s brought up that she was also a cheater, people start trying to back peddle.
Everyone has secrets, however to say “Chris fooled us all” is kinda incorrect. Technically, they both fooled everyone. She wasn’t the smart wealthy person with a booming business despite “multiple health issues”, those were just as made up as her business, and he (at the end) wasn’t a blindly devoted husband.
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Here is my source for the longer response I sent several hours ago under this same post. My Item 1, where I feel NK catches herself giving too much information to Kobak on “just how deep the rabbit hole goes”
I believe she starts to tell CW, “You should make sure that you have a (burner) phone, wait a minute….”
Dangerous Minds U-tube Channel
Watts Murders
Nichol Kessinger Interview 2 part 6 (Parody) Finale
January 21, 2019
Time stamp 10:43
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Know what folks? It’s time to let it go and get a life. Chris did it, and he is locked up for the rest of his life.
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Off you go then.
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lol. I’d still like to see the nude pictures of NK anyway – afterall we were “treated” to those nude pictures of Jodi Arias that quite frankly, turned my stomach. I saw on a Plunder video where Nichole was a little disgusted at the picture Watts sent her of himself. And I’ve heard that – that women don’t like it, but of course men like to see women. It’s highly erotic. And it’s possible he took quite a few of them himself, saved them somewhere, then transferred them into his secret calculator.
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Be good if you can share the link here of Kessinger saying she was disgusted.
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I do wonder how close Chris Watts was to getting away with it.
Chris needed to get Shanann’s phone unlocked to send fictitious messages.
This buys him time to go back to Cervi 3-19 and ‘get rid’ of any evidence (like bed sheet, reburying Shanann or staging the whole site to blow up).
remove final traces from the house (he had almost cleaned up the house apart from the soiled bed sheet in the bin / trash).
Now if Nickole Atkinson wasn’t a dedicated friend and Shanann didn’t have a doctors appointment he would have got away with it.
Also getting rid of his Facebook page put him at a disadvantage. he may have known about the doctors appointment and various other plans Shanann had made
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I’ve heard a few people putting this idea out there of staging the site to blow up. It’s possibly the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever come across in true crime. Do you realize the point of going to so much trouble to hide bodies out of sight is to hide bodies out of sight? The whole idea is not to draw attention anywhere. It’s hard to imagine anything drawing more attention than an explosion. The Firestone explosion in 2017 attracted regional, national and international attention. It led to huge community distress and ultimately a referendum on Proposition 112. Only someone with zero concept of the criminal mind thinks like this.
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After seeing it again the word was “inappropriate” and that she didn’t want them- far cry from disgusted, it’s what she’s telling the officer, my interpretation got in the way. But here it is at 3:00:
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The latest revelation: The officer’s iPhone passcode is 6663.
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I hate to even say this, but looking at the photos of CW with NK, he actually looks like he is in love and happier than any of the “staged” photos with SW.
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