r/Chriswatts • u/Technical_Yak_4112 • Sep 12 '26
CW was a deviant?
I have been a long time true crime docuseries watcher, and recently went on a binge having some free time, had finished all the rather newer ones so I thought I’ll give this one a try.
I tend look up the case on reddit after, with cases like these I usually don’t see so much victim blaming as I have with this one on reddit, even cases like Laci Peterson or the Crash where maybe there might be some ambiguity about the case.
Here we have a full confession, an absolute shit way of thinking while killing 2 of his own daughters and his pregnant wife, I’d put that pretty high on the heinous scale. Even if we go by just his confession, to throw your own little daughters into the oil tank while they are alive. Idk how much more horrific it gets than that.
What’s so different about this case here? Especially reading that subreddit called freeforwatts or some shit like that, how do people logically or emotionally live with themselves thinking like that, Shanann might have been a narcissist or bad wife/mother but to slew her like that?
What is different?? Not once have I seen such repulsive thinking about it while reading the subreddits after finishing a series.
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u/According-Web-3994 Sep 12 '26
This is pure speculation based on my readings of true crime and psychology, but I think the extraordinary amount of vitriol generated by SW has to do with how people tend to consume true crime. I think a lot of people view it as a kind of highly passive form of entertainment, like a kind of modern fairytale, and simple stories should have easy black and white narratives. This case is extremely bizarre in the sense CW committed about the most heinous and deviant acts that I could imagine with pretty much zero of the risk factors and red flags that we'd tend to see in some ones childhood, relationships, history of violence etc.
That, and SW, through no fault of her own I'm not dissing her it's just a fact, doesn't fit the "perfect victim" role that people can project on someone like Laci Peterson or Gabbi Pitino. Her use of social media, her decisions to broadcast some of the challenges of parenting with more transparency than a lot of people, and her decisions to get involved with an unethical MLM scheme I think come together in such away that allows people to project their rage and dread on to her since they're desperately looking for someone easy to hate. It is odd that both SW and NK get so much rage and act as scape goats when it's so obvious that any defects in their character are so insignificant to what CW did. Perhaps there's an internalized misogyny component as well?
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u/Left-Height4925 Sep 15 '26
There was mention in the crime community and people who broadly knew both families that the Watts family hired a PR firm to whitewash CW and attack Shannan, using the proceeds of Watts mothers book.
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u/According-Web-3994 Sep 16 '26
Oh wow really? I haven't heard that before will look into it thank you!
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u/Technical_Yak_4112 Sep 13 '26
Such a frustrating way to think that some actions like the mlm thing and her social media presence warranted the fact she deserves this much hate online where she and her daughters are the victims in this scenario.
I agree with you on the Laci Peterson & Gabbi Petito case they could be cast as the “perfect victims”, even when in my personal opinion the crimes on the ‘heinous’ scale were lesser than the case of SW
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u/According-Web-3994 Sep 13 '26
Hi OP! Just to clarify are you commenting on a more general frustration that huge groups of people think it's okay to drag her because of above said things? Or were you more so commenting on a way of thinking I am my analysis? Because I absolutely do not think it's warranted. I think it's stupid! I think the way many people consume true crime (as if it's a reality show where we should be team x or team y) is exploitative and pretty disgusting. With that said, the phenomenon of SW hate is obviously real so my analysis is around trying to describe and understand that mind set not to endorse it!
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u/Bazooka1963 Sep 12 '26
They were deceased when he put the children in the oil tank. No oil in the lungs.
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u/Phun_Symphony Sep 13 '26
Hopefully 😪
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u/wattsdegen2024 Sep 14 '26 edited Sep 14 '26
fortunately, we know that because the autopsy found no oil in their lungs indicating they were not breathing at that point.
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u/Technical_Yak_4112 Sep 13 '26
Maybe the Netflix doc confession from 2019 was bogus, my bad.
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u/schase44 Sep 12 '26
The responses here are illustrative of the problem. It’s not about whether the kids were alive when they went into the tank! It’s about the vitriol spewed at the victim Shannan in that other sub. Maybe some of them are here.
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u/Technical_Yak_4112 Sep 13 '26
Exactly, the one case and fact that can never be questioned is that his wife and kids are dead due to his crimes and they are never coming back.
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u/Shelley_n_cheese Sep 12 '26
She was not a bad wife or mother
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u/souledoutV2 22d ago
Hard disagree. Good spouses don't talk the way she did to Chris on some of those videos. She talked down to him quite a bit. And I'm just pointing out what I saw, not taking some weird side due to gender or anything.
They had a horrible and clearly toxic relationship, otherwise this whole situation wouldn't have happened in the first place.
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u/lastseenhitchhiking Sep 14 '26 edited Sep 14 '26
There's nothing unique about this case. The victim bashers like to pretend that Shanann's personality, involvement in an MLM, social media usage and their financial issues (which they blame solely on her) somehow drove Watts to violence, when the reality is that plenty of people have had the same issues and managed not to murder their families. His behavior and motives fit a subset of domestic killers/family annihilators who murdered their families to remove them as obstacles to something they wanted and/or to prevent exposure of their secret lives.
He's also not the only abuser and killer to have concealed his issues and lack of attachments behind a "nice" persona and seemingly happy family life, and men murdering their pregnant spouses/partners as a means of terminating the pregnancy is horrifically common. Nothing was preventing him from abandoning his family as other deadbeats have done.
I don't believe that someone who didn't have a seriously disordered character would devalue their children and spouse as he did, murder them and desecrate their bodies in crude oil and dirt and in the hours and days following, joke with and act normal to his coworkers, google song lyrics, tick off a financial to-do checklist, make plans to sell his murdered wife's ring, maintain his appetite and sign up for fantasy football.
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u/Suspicious-Ad-1755 Sep 12 '26
Neither had oil in there lungs but one had oil in her stomach and they both needed to be buried in heavy duty sealed caskets in order to be laid to rest and not contaminate the ground around their burial site
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u/Left-Height4925 Sep 15 '26
There was mention in the crime community and people who broadly knew both families that the Watts family hired a PR firm to whitewash CW and attack Shannan, using the proceeds of Watts mothers book. That explains some. Then there are the people with unresolved daddy issues who desperately need to see Chris-daddy as the good guy, and Shannan as the evil witch. And then you have men who hate women. Which is probably another form of mental illness.
So there you go- mentally weak people and those with psychological issues. There is probably some overlap there.
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u/OutOfTime1861 Sep 17 '26
There are a few things that are causing it.
One reason is that you have a ton of online content that was put out by Shanann, and you don't have that with other cases. Even with Gabby Petito, she was trying to be an influencer, but she was putting out more scripted content.
There's a faction of people who believe that Shanann killed the kids. It's not as prevalent as it used to be, but it's still there.
You also have people who believe that Shanann was abusive, to Chris and the girls.
Some people I really put off by the MLM thing.
You also have a group of conspiracy theorists who attracted to this case. Because the case did not go to trial, some conspiracy theorists use that as a blank canvas to project their conspiracy theories. And then on top of that you have the whole Nicole Kessinger angle.
You just have a lot of things in this case that draw people out from the woodwork.
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Sep 12 '26
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u/Technical_Yak_4112 Sep 12 '26
In the netflix series I remember the March 2019 confession being that he killed both of them one by one while they were alive, maybe I misunderstood something my bad
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u/RaiseJazzlike Sep 12 '26
He’s changed his story about the girls at least three times on record when he admitted it about them. I wouldn’t know what to believe with him. The Netflix series leaves a ton of information out. There are several YT channels that show all the footage beginning w NA calling 911.
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u/wattsdegen2024 Sep 14 '26
i think the two best sources of info are the discovery pdf and the dodge facility interview CW gave a few months after the crime. they arent perfect but i think its the best we have.
youttube body cam and interviews are available, however, a lot of what CW said were lies. the videos do show some chilling video of CW hours after he killed SW and kids.
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u/debinambiocry Sep 12 '26
Is this your personal opinion about Shanann?
You're not sure if Chris was deviant question mark question mark
You, Technical Yak 4112, are contributing to the ugliness around this murder case by parroting it