True Crime Case Analysis

Audio version now available: https://www.facebook.com/102475607821736/posts/131540338248596?sfns=mo

Chapter 8: Money, Money, Money, Money

“…sold his four wheeler and didn’t get enough money to pay off the loan. Shanann never trusted him thereafter, and she never allowed him to have anything to do with the money after that. It’s unclear to him if that’s the real reason she didn’t want him to touch the money or if it were because she didn’t want to answer for what she spent.”

—How many believe it was because of the four wheeler? I’ll ask again after discussing more about the money.

“The girls were enrolled in a $25,000 -a-year-school. Shanann liked to shop, sometimes spending most of her paycheck without having paid on her obligations. Christopher said they could not afford this. She would sometimes turn around and put a lot of the money she made back into Thrive.”

—When you research costs for Primrose schools, this amount is accurate. A few months back, I had contacted the school to see when the school day began, and they answered that circle time began at 8:15. According to Shannan’s profile the girls were dropped off between 7:00-7:15 in the morning. Bella had began full time at first and Celeste soon joined her, before she even turned two. They were usually picked up by Chris around 4:30 this computes to 45 hours a week. I can only assume that extra hour in the morning was an added cost possible even some afternoon hours too.

It’s rather clear money was being spent that didn’t exist. Being sued by the HOA, dipping into 401k, maxed out credit cards. We’ve all seen the videos of endless Thrive products coming to the house, in her office, and her friend Cristina said she had loads of products in the basement. If you are not familiar with MLM type businesses, you have to put money in to climb the ladder. Shanann at the time of her death was a 80k promoter for Le-Vel. All personal parties, giveaways, samples, shipping, packaging falls on the promoter. In order to do giveaways you got to, guess what? Buy products! Even if you are making money you are turning around and giving it back.

“She also had Christopher withdraw $10,000 from his 401k to catch up on house payments they were behind on. Christopher believes that’s what she did with it, but does not know for sure. He said she was the kind who can always find a way. The way things were going, they may have lost their house before they can sell it.”

—He does not even know for sure if that’s what she did with it. Wow. The Watts’ home while it still has not been auctioned off, foreclosed only four months after the murders. That indicates to me that they either missed a lot of payments, were late frequently, or both. That’s incredibly fast for a foreclosure to occur! The night Chris confessed in August he had said the mortgage was due the next day. The next day was the 16th, this means it was the final day to make their payment. Chris had gotten the bank on the phone on Monday and later said there was approximately $1500 in one account and $2000 in the other. That’s $3500 dollars. Their mortgage was $2800 a month, that leaves them with $700 dollars. The girls were starting school that week. How on earth was that going to get paid?! There was enough to pay for a week, but would of left them broke and not much leftover for any bills or even food. Yikes! Despite that money was spent on an elective ultrasound, an Aspen trip, and they just got back from a trip to Myrtle Beach. What goes on in a parents’ brain to think that daycare is more important than a mortgage payment? You know a mortgage payment that ensures you keep your house and your children have a home. Unless of course, the children HAD to go to school. We will eventually get to that as the author asked Chris about the CPS case I wrote about in my first blog post.

The last sentence talks about losing the house before they can sell it. That caught my eye because I think that’s absolutely spot on, based on what I said above. Shanann had contacted the realtor, Anne about selling their home before she left for Arizona. Anne texted Shanann on Saturday recommending she speak with one of her lenders. Shanann never answered her, but was answering her other texts.

“They had filed bankruptcy once and were headed that way again. He would not talk to Shanann about how bad things were financially and how he didn’t want the household money to abused in that way, and he felt enough money was coming in to afford the house.”

—It was too soon for them to file bankruptcy again. I would love to see the financial break down after this tragedy occurred. I am going to guess that her family may have been taken back. Frank had said he was not aware of any financial problems in his interview. Mortgage & daycare a month alone totaled $4800 a month. That is $57,600 a year on only two expenses. Now you have to factor in food, bills, gasoline, electric, water, cable, internet, medical insurance, medical copays, necessities, car maintenance and anything else that was needed.

Chris made in the sixty thousand range. Daycare & mortgage was almost his entire paycheck per month. He had a wife whom was home all day who could have had the children with her. If she made what Chris was under the impression she did, their finances would not have been a total disaster. This is where others would say she had to work and it’s hard with children around. Shanann did all her work through her phone. These companies promote the easy life, it’s often said you can do it from anywhere, anytime. Shanann quit her job at the children’s hospital right around the timeframe the kids started daycare. She spoke of being wherever her kids are; unless she was hanging out at the daycare that’s simply not what happened. Why were the girls in such a prestigious costly school!? I think it’s clear the daycare was being paid before the mortgage. Which is better? A roof over their heads? Or mommy’s time to work her Thrive business? This was incredibly irresponsible. Unless like I said it was mandatory, if so, then why Primrose?

All power to anyone who does an MLM type business, it’s not for everyone. Shanann was a good saleswoman and great at portraying a perfect image. I have to wonder how successful she would have been if she put that trait to good use. Pharmaceutical sales? High end car sales? Expensive homes? Think of the money she could have been bringing in while the girls were at daycare instead.

Bella was already in full time daycare when this post was made. Celeste joined her a month later before she even turned two.

“He feels now they needed to find a more affordable school. Since Shanann worked from home, maybe daycare/school should not have been a full-time option. The girls should not have been taken to daycare from 7:15 a.m to 4:30 p.m. five days a week. Celeste was not even three and Bella was just four. There is more to the story but Christopher thinks much was kept from him.”

—Here it’s hard to tell which is Chris or the author. It starts off saying Chris feels they should have found a more affordable school. Then as she continues it’s hard to know if it’s her opinion that they shouldn’t have been full time or Chris’. I agree, clearly the children did not need to attend daycare 45 hours a week at the tune of $2000 a month!! They were still so young when they began, Celeste was a tender age of not even yet two.

The most interesting line in this quote is that last doozy. There is more to the story about the daycare?! He feels much was kept from him? At first I thought well maybe he means about the money. A few sentences later though it says, “The girls going to a $500 a week daycare was something Christopher was not allowed to have an opinion on. He now knows there were many things with their finances that was kept from him.”

Isn’t that interesting? Second time it’s said specifies finances. The other line is said right after discussing full time daycare. Remember the first blog post? If you’ve never seen it I suggest you do: https://truecrimecaseanalysis.home.blog/2019/05/22/the-curious-case-of-the-watts-family/

“The girls’ records were sealed by Christopher right after the sentencing, even though he does not remember signing them. No one seems to know why. He says it was a stipulation of his plea agreement, he was not clear headed, and he says he still does not remember everything that happened during that time.”

—Chris told the author that he was not clear headed at the time of the plea deal. This is different from what he said in the second confession. He spoke of it as though he wanted the deal and was fully aware of it all. Which is true? What records about the girls? Medical records? Those are automatically sealed due to HIPAA. There was a HIPAA motion before the plea deal not after, that has always been a mystery, and many have speculated about it. Or was it records that portions of the content were related & protected by HIPAA? Why would anything need to be sealed at all?! We have seen Chris’s plea deal and do not recall anything about sealing records. That’s not to say that the stipulation, if true, had been hidden from public access.

“Shanann was used to all the best money could buy.”

—From my understanding, her parents provided the necessities their incomes allowed, but not excesses to include luxury items, which Shanann learned to crave. Including sinking her young family into excessive debt.

Back to what I asked earlier: Do you believe she would not allow Chris to manage the money because of some bad four wheeler transaction? Or, is it more likely she wanted full and total control of the finances and used that excuse to do that very thing? Even perhaps keeping his eyes away from what those finances really were?

Chris’s fault in the finance debacle, is absolutely the fact that he allowed her to do this. He should have, and technically, could have spoken up. We learn in the book he didn’t because he wanted to keep the peace. In relationships of this nature it’s not always as simple as speaking up without ramifications. The gender bias in this case has been strong since day one and it’s often dismissed because – “He’s a man he should have grown balls.” Sigh! This case is just so interesting.

Chapter 9: Dynamics

“By his own admission he knows that Shanann wanted a husband who takes charge, but he didn’t have the confidence to do that.”

—I’ve got to disagree with Chris here. I think Chris’s submissive personality is precisely what sparked Shanann’s interest in him. By appearances, without knowing these people, it appears as though Shanann married someone just like her daddy. She also seemed to favor her mother’s take charge personality and this is why they constantly bumped heads. I think Shanann, based off everything we have seen, that she liked and wanted control of every aspect of every little thing. The only time I saw her wanting a take charge man was in her text messages when she kept trying to get him to tell his parents off.

“Christopher is the kind of person that has always just done as told to do.”

—I would say this is accurate. Review Shanann’s posts, videos, and interviews, it all lines up. He would have done quite well in the military honestly.

“Also by his own admission he had a hard time telling the people who worked under him to do something.”

—Chris was described by coworkers as a “helper.” It was not abnormal for him to offer assistance or to do a task for a coworker.

“The last time he challenged her during an argument and tried to hold his own, she got very angry and screamed, “get out of my house!” he says. She kicked him out and wouldn’t let him come home overnight, even. He said he had to do some huge, “Please forgive me’s to get back in the next day. He says that gave him a fear of going up against her. So he decided after that, he would never argue with her again, just take it.”

—We heard this story in the second confession where he also disclosed it was over a female friend texting him. This was way back in North Carolina, before they even got married. Eek! If that’s how Shanann reacted over a female texting Chris, we have to wonder how she would react to knowing he was having an affair. Him saying he feared her fits the story. Why else would he allow her to get away with basically everything? He just took it! Shanann’s texts described Chris perfectly. He is submissive and avoids conflict. You know what is a very huge conflict? Planning murder of your entire family. We are to believe a submissive man who was used to being told what to do all the time to suddenly take control and plan to put himself in the biggest conflict ever!? You know what can be seen as just taking it? A plea deal. Oh wait…

“Yet their problems are problems many families face.”

—While yes many families deal with financial hardships, not many families continuously inflict the financial burden on their spouse, they work together to resolve financial hardship. This was irresponsible and to a large degree! In a marriage, it should be a partnership your spouse becoming your best friend who you problem solve and make decisions with. Sometimes one more dominant than another can work, this was much more than that. He literally said nothing and we can know this is true based off their financial history. Shanann’s parents said in a television interview, he never raised his voice to her. Please remember they were together 8 years, 6 years of which they were married. Despite all this financial talk, Chris stood to gain NOTHING financially in the event of her death. Had he ever received the life insurance funds, he likely would have had nothing left over after a portion of the debt was paid off. Their desperate financial situation would not have been eradicated by killing Shanann: he would have had no home, bad credit, and a substantial amount of debt left over. Murdering her for the sake of “starting over” financially would make no sense, as the household was better off with more than one stream of income. Had Chris and Shanann followed through with their separation and divorce, the debt would likely have been split 50/50 between the two. Start over fresh with Nichol? Was not going to happen.

Dear readers and listeners,

We are at the end of Part 3. We have so much more to cover. As soon as I click publish I’ll start on Part 4. Isn’t this story just so absolutely fascinating? A horrific tragedy beyond words but there’s just so much that went on within the walls of the home on Saratoga Trail. Two flawed people trying to coexist in a home they couldn’t afford. Two little girls barely in that home except it seems when they were sleeping. Wow…

I’ll be back soon…

Part 4 begins here: https://truecrimecaseanalysis.home.blog/2019/10/15/letters-from-true-crime-case-analysis-part-4/