#7 July 10th, 2018: Nut Gate Aftermath #1yearagotodayCW

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It’s unlikely Watts knew about Shan’ann ranting about his folks on social media on the day she posted them [July 9th]. From the Phone Data Review Watts only appears to be aware of it three days later on July 13th, and July 14th, when he – atypically – logs onto Facebook.

24 hours after Nut Gate Shan’ann is surprised her husband is quiet and distant. Watts admits “being short” to her, but he tells her he still loves her.

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When Watts tells Shan’ann he wants to clear his head, what he’s really saying [if only to himself], is he wants to clear his head of her. And a month later, he succeeded.

#6 July 9th, 2018: Nut Gate: “My heart is still racing 30 mins later and tears of anger…” #1yearagotodayCW

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This post is likely to be controversial, and trigger venting, so take a deep breath before reading further, and remember, we’re trying to understand the people in this scenario and why they did what they did.

We don’t want to project or transfer who we are onto them. Whether we think peanuts or tree nuts were the real problem, or whether Nut Gate was justified or irrelevant isn’t the point – it’s what they thought, how they reacted, and how the dynamics played out in terms of their personalities.

Now, to appreciate just how much is missing from the Discovery Documents, and Phone Data Review in particular, have a look at this vanilla version of July 9th.

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Scroll down from here to the end of the post, and all that mess is the messy business of family dynamics and human psychology. It doesn’t fit into the neat, black and white confines of a few lines in the Phone Data Review, yet it’s absolutely integral to understanding criminal motives and the underlying mechanisms of what drove a man to annihilate his family.

For an amateur investigator glossing through the timeline, this incident would be easy to miss. The only telltale clue that shit had really hit the fan from the official Phone Data Review is Watts putting himself on record by saying:

“It’s not fucking cool at all…”

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But it takes a real sleuth who knows his way around social media to dig up the true meat and potatoes of what went down that day.  Shan’ann vented on the afternoon of July 9th, perhaps not just about nuts – that was just the trigger. She had a lot on her plate. The pregnancy. Her lupus. Her husband becoming cold and distant. And the widening maw of a money malaise that just wouldn’t go away.

So when Shan’ann tore into  Watts’ mother, she was really crying tears of anger at the world.

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In the post above, which I analyzed in more detail in TWO FACE TWO POLLYANNAS, Shan’ann implies this wasn’t the first time there was a nut incident with her in laws. It could be the pistachios were out earlier in the day, and then the ice cream came out later, or that the pistachios were found on a different day and then “today” – again – another issue.

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So we see when Watts called his mother, Shan’ann was there and overheard it. This also seemed to set her off, hearing Cindy lay down the law not only to her, but to her son, and indirectly to her child, and Shan’ann felt powerless as a result.

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As much as we can sympathize with Shan’ann, Facebook is not the place to vent about family.

We know that as the deadline approached for Shan’ann to announce the gender of her baby, Watts was dreading her doing this as it would spell the end of his affair with Kessinger. If Nut Gate proved anything, it was once Shan’ann felt scorned, she would turn to social media to weaponize her anger, and she didn’t care how many lives she burned in the process.

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One year on there are many who still say:

Why didn’t he just get a divorce?

This is why. This was over nuts in icecream. Imagine the reaction over a full-blown affair with a coworker while she’s pregnant, while they have no money, and one that will lead to divorce and losing her home?

Why didn’t he just get a divorce?

It’s also worth noting that Shan’ann applies a double standard here. She claims in her posts above that she doesn’t have any tree nuts in her home. In fact, like many children were serious allergies, Ceecee was particularly allergic to peanut butter.

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This is repeatedly stressed in the autopsy report. Meanwhile Shan’ann took this photo of a jar of Jif creamy peanut butter in her own kitchen.

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One year on we ought to ask:

Did Shan’ann overreact, and if she did, did that seal her fate?

The answer to this question isn’t what you or I think, it’s what her husband thought. And we know now what he thought. In the CBI Report Watts was asked about Nut Gate and whether it had any impact on his thoughts, feelings and emotions. Not surprisingly, it had a huge impact.

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While it’s overly simplistic and reductionist to say Shan’ann’s venting gave Watts the license to vent as well, human psychology, and criminal psychology, does often work that way. But clearly, there is a difference between burning someone close to you on social media, and blocking family, and triple murder. In terms of social symbology however, there’s absolutely no difference.

#5 July 8th, 2018: The Day Before Nut Gate #1yearagotodayCW

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July 8th was a Sunday. It didn’t start off well. Watts texted his wife at 05:15 in response to questions about not calling her [or answering her calls] the night before. [He was with Kessinger at the Orchard Mall, watching Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom].

Watts’ excuse was that he fell asleep.

We don’t know what Shan’ann’s answer was to his text, or whether she answered at all. Watts was prompted to call Shan’ann shortly afterwards.

In both his “confessions” Watts claims he was asleep when Shan’ann arrived home from the airport, and in his Second Confession that they had sex and then that they slept afterwards, a period that couldn’t have been longer than three hours.  It’s difficult to believe Shan’ann would want to get the airport off her [as Watts claimed in the First Confession], but be okay to have sex and not want to wash up, or remove her make-up afterwards.

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In any event, on the day before Nut Gate Shan’ann was not happy with her husband. At 16:44 she called him and spoke for 22 minutes, her longest conversation with him thus far. On Sunday night, like all the other nights in July, Watts slept at his mistresses home.

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#4 July 7th, 2018: Watts takes Kessinger to the late show of Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, and Shan’ann can’t reach him… #1yearagotodayCW

/ nickvdl / 2 Comments

July 7th was a Saturday. Just after midnight, Nichol Kessinger called Watts and spoke to him for almost two minutes. This was the first call recovered between Watts and Kessinger. Watts added Kessinger’s number as a contact on his work phone on June 14th.

Shan’ann called Watts twice between 05:00 and 06:00, for a total of eight minutes.

Watts appeared to be wining and dining Kessinger, especially Saturday night. They visited two restaurants and went to watch a movie at the Orchard Town Center, in Westminster. [It’s also possible his phone merely connected to nearby routers, rather than the couple actually eating at the restaurants].

Westminster is labout 10 miles due south of Saratoga Trail.

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Since the 19:00 show of Jurassic World* was sold out, Watts and Kessinger sat on a bench and talked for two hours, then attended the 21:00 show.

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Although the discovery refers to the movie as Jurassic Park, Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom released in Mid-June 2018.

The delay in watching the movie would prove to be dangerous. While watching the film Shan’ann would repeatedly try to get hold of her husband but be unable to reach him. By the time he came out of the cinema, close to 23:30 [Jurassic World has a 2 hour 10 minute running rime] it was too late to call her back, and had he done so, it would be difficult to explain calling her back so late. Instead he elected to leave damage control to the next day.

Interestingly, Watts first date with Shan’ann involved him taking her to a movie.

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Presumably Watts made sure he dressed appropriately, or perhaps he knew with Kessinger how he was dressed wouldn’t be such a big deal.

Movies features significantly in Watts’ reference field. When his boss asked about the disappearance several weeks later, Watts told him it was like something out of a movie or television show. When CBI Agent Tammy Lee asked him about ways a person could make someone else disappear, Watts specifically referred to the movies. It’s possible Watts got the idea, or fuel for what he would eventually do, from movies and/or television.

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At 3:15 in the clip below, when Watts was standing on the driveway and asked to explain the circumstances of his family vanishing, he also said:

“I’ve-I’ve never seen something like this in my lifetime, unless it was on TV, or a movie. And this-this doesn’t seem real at all.”

The plot of Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom involves a threat to the dinosaurs, and the protagonist deciding that they should not be saved.  In the trailer the question is pertinently raised:

Should they be left to die?

The voice-over in the trailer also states:

Life cannot be contained. 

Life breaks free.

Life finds a way.

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