Featured Image Credit: Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo/Netflix
Topics: Crime, True crime, Netflix, Film and TV
Amelia Jones
Topics: Crime, True crime, Netflix, Film and TV
Netflix's American Murder: The Family Next Door, covered the heinous crimes of family annihilator, Chris Watts, but there are five things the documentary missed.
The documentary, which was released in September 2020, focuses on the murder of Watts' wife Shanann, who was 15 weeks pregnant at the time of her death, and their two daughters, four-year-old Bella and three-year-old Celeste on 13 August 2018.
After initially claiming he had no knowledge of their whereabouts, his story fell apart within days.
He pleaded guilty to the three murders, receiving five life sentences and an additional 48 years for the unlawful termination of Shan'ann's pregnancy and 36 years for 'tampering' with the bodies.
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But even with the documentary walking us through the tragic events there are still question marks over what happened and why - and Netflix merely scratched the surface of the layered events that shocked the world.
Firstly, there was reportedly tension between Shan'ann and Chris' parents.
Watts made claims that Shan'ann has never got on with his parents who didn't attend their wedding.
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He alleges she wasn't talking to his parents when he killed her, according to OK! magazine.
She believed that Watts' mother, Cindy, was reckless and didn't take her youngest daughter, Celeste's nut allergy seriously, serving her ice cream that contained peanut.
“You should call your dad and tell him you did not appreciate your mom putting your daughter at risk today,” she said in a text message to her husband, which was released by Weld County District Attorney.
“She’s evil and willing to risk your daughter’s life just to get under my skin. You and your dad are no different if you are ok with her behavior. There’s nothing wrong with me and l’m not crazy. I just love my kids way too much.”
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Watts' mother later told ABC11 in November that it was a 'hard relationship' with Shannan as far as she 'was concerned'. She said: "I couldn't do anything right."
Secondly, while we know Chris was having an affair with Nicole Kessinger - it was previously unclear how serious their relationship was.
Far from being a fling, Kessinger had 'searched Google for wedding dresses' for 'over two hours', on 4 August 2018, according to documents obtained by People.
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Kessinger also 'searched Google on topics related to ‘marrying your mistress'.
She claimed that Watts lied to her about being separated from his wife and was finalising a 'mutual' divorce when the two met at work.
"I believed him." she told The Denver Post.
It was reported by The Daily Mail that Kessinger had applied for paperwork in Jefferson County, Colorado to change her name and protect her identity.
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Also left out from the documentary was Watts' secret female prison visitor.
According to a 'Inmate Visitation History' document from 6 January, 2020, obtained by OK!, Anna Nowak is one of Watts’ approved visitors at Dodge Correctional Institution in Wisconsin.
She visits almost weekly and was even turned away in April 2019 for apparently exceeding the maximum number of visits per day.
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The fourth thing you might not know about is that Kessinger wasn't Watts' only indiscretion.
OK! claim that, despite being married, Watts was on Tinder before the murders, where he met and had a 'really fast and aggressive' one-night-stand with Amanda McMahon in March 2018, after meeting in a parking lot.
She also told Inside Edition that Watts said that he was divorced.
Trent Bolte, a male escort, also claims to have had a 10-month relationship with Watts in 2018.
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Bolte's mom, Colleen also confirmed he was 'seeing' Watts before the ‘horrible crime’.
However, Watts told investigators: “I’ve never been with a guy."
Lastly, it was also reported that Shanann was trying to save her marriage.
To help their relationship, the couple had planned a weekend away in Aspen and she had looked for couples counsellors in the area.
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In a text message obtained by People, she told him to stop 'living the bachelor life' and said they 'need to talk'.
She had also reportedly searched for Groupon deals for travelling and was able to get a babysitter for their daughters.