I had the opportunity last week to watch "American Murder: The Family Next Door" on Netflix. Seeing as thought it was on their top trending shows all last week tells me that many of you probably watched it in gut-wrenching horror just like I did. I’m fascinated by how he thought he could get away with something so horrific and just “act” his way through it.

If you're not familiar with the story, it's when Chris Watts murdered his wife Shannan, their unborn son, and their two daughters in Colorado a couple years ago. Lifetime featured a movie called "Chris Watts: Confessions of a Killer" based on it in their Ripped From The Headlines Series, which aired in January of this year.

Anyway, American Murder premiered last week and I had to watch it. I'm not going to give too much away for those of you who haven't seen it. BUT here are a couple things I picked up on:

  • He was in a big hurry to get into the house when the cops were on scene (made a mad dash through the garage but let everybody come in through the front door)
  • All the bedding was stripped off the bed in the master bedroom
  • He was the one who found her cell phone (in the couch cushions I think) and also found her wedding ring
  • When made the call into the police department (the one where the cops needed descriptions of his kids’ height, weight, hair color, etc), he never asked “Have you found my kids?”  “Has she contacted you?” “Any of my leads check out?”

I thought that last one was REALLY odd. In my head, I was thinking “yeah right...they edited that stuff out to make him look worse!” Nope. In the case files you can see the call logs and that call in particular, the cop’s notes indicate he didn’t ask any of those questions.

Here's a direct link to the case files. Be warned, there are almost 2,000 pages, and some of them are not worth anything, BUT then there are ones that are completely crazy. I'm completely fascinated by this kind of stuff, so if you're like me, you're going to really like digging through these pages.

Here's the breakdown of how the pages are laid out for easier viewing, and FYI CW=Chris Watts, SW=Shannan Watts, NK=Nichol Kessinger (Chris Watts' girlfriend on the side).

  • (5—63) Police notes on search for SW
  • (52—55) Texts from SW to babysitter on failing marriage
  • (81) Picture of burial site
  • Nearly 200 pgs of boring interviews between police and reporters. Not worth reading.
  • (287—312) Interview with CW’s coworkers about him, how he was acting when SW went missing, and his marriage.
  • (313—329) Interview with SW’s friends who give details about CW/SW’s bad marriage
  • (330—336) Interview with NK about relationship with CW
  • (371—372) Interview with CW’s father about upcoming baby/marriage
  • (389—393) Interview with CW’s boss about CW and the burial site
  • (397—408) Interview with SW’s friends about SW’s home life and marriage
  • (410—411) Search of bedroom
  • (416—419) Interview with CW’s friend at work (TM)
  • (422—424) Police search work site, find bodies
  • (426—429) Interview with SW’s friend. MANY details on bad marriage.
  • (430—450) Texts between SW and friend about CW
  • (452—426) Texts between SW’s friend and CW after disappearance
  • (466) In the middle of investigation, CW chats about fantasy football with friends
  • (474—480) Interview with NK (#2)
  • (493—495) Interview with CW’s supervisor about GPS on work truck
  • (501—510) First interview with NK (But #3 in this document) about start of affair
  • (513—532) Full polygraph of CW
  • (532—544) CW’s post-polygraph interview and CONFESSION
  • (548—554) Recovery of bodies
  • (561—566) Texts between SW and friend about marriage troubles
  • (574—577) Interview with NK (#4) about affair, especially near the time of the murder
  • (591—592) Interview with SW’s ex-husband about life insurance policies
  • (594—599) Interview with realtor
  • (601—609) Interview with SW’s family
  • (615—619) Texts between NK and CW, and interview with NK (#5)
  • (633—637) Texts between NK and friend about sex life with CW/affair
  • (652—672) Man (TB) alleges affair with CW. Everything regarding that is in this section
  • (680—681) CW's cpr certifications, and he says he didn't resuscitate his daughters (EDIT)
  • (705—716) Complete rundown of the search of CW’s home, recovery of the bodies.
  • (726—815) Letters from fans to CW in jail, mostly women professing love for him.
  • (816—821) Letter from SW’s to the cops about SW’s terrible relationship with CW’s mother. And a bad recent incident involving one of the daughter's allergies.
  • (883—931) Full autopsy reports of all 3. Death by asphyxiation in each case.
  • (942—948) Interview with NK about CW’s failing marriage—he badmouthed SW a lot
  • (1,037—1,155) FBI interviews CW
  • (1,156—1,159) CW’s confession and details on how he killed SW
  • (1,190—1,200) Reports from jail on CW day-to-day as an inmate
  • (1,262—1,271) Email from SW’s mother about the marriage/disagreements with CW’s parents
  • (1,272—1,274) Friend details CW’s shady behavior when SW went missing
  • (1,359—1,550) More letters sent by fans to CW in jail
  • (1,581—1,602) Phone data from CW’s, NK’s and SW’s phones on the day of SW’s disappearance. Includes search history, messages and health app data from all 3 people.
  • (1,710) Friends detail last meal with SW Sunday and marriage to CW
  • (1,712—1,1717) Woman (not NK) alleges “aggressive” Tinder hookup with CW in March
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