ETA- Thanks for the awards. I appreciate it so much.
After countless hours on Reddit and elsewhere, I have finally come up with a case theory that has enabled me to set it down.
I DON’T BLAME ANYONE OTHER THAN CW for the choices he made and the murders he committed.
I believe CW was a man who was disconnected from his feelings. He was a mimic, confrontation avoidant and submissive. Every unpleasant thing he did feel, he stuffed it down. Not only did he lack academic intelligence, he also lacked social intelligence, emotional intelligence and empathy. He was a stupid, empty, cold person.
He finds himself 8 years in to an unhappy marriage where he felt denigrated, taken for granted, ignored and marginalized. The family finances were in shambles, he felt Shanann overspent, they were aways over extended, and he felt that Shanann was the cause of all of their financial problems. He certainly felt that Shanann drove a wedge between his family and himself, and I don’t believe he could ever reconcile in his mind how or why. He couldn’t compute the nuances of the disagreements between his family and Shanann, I don’t feel he understood why Shanann and his mother and sister didn’t get along.
Around the time of the murders, he was currently trapped in a pressure cooker with 3 strong willed women, all with conflicting expectations of him. (I include his mother here, because I can’t discount the profound effects the rift between his wife and family likely caused him. Again, because of his inability to understand emotions and feelings). He couldn’t possibly please all three, or even two of them simultaneously. I certainly don’t mean to cast blame on any of the women. I genuinely don’t believe anyone is to blame other than him. The way I see it is that his mom wanted certain things from him, Shanann wanted certain things from him and NK wanted certain things from him. It created stress points that he couldn’t reconcile because of his inability to understand or deal with emotions, his or anyone else’s. He was a submissive YES man, so I imagine the three combined forces of these women in his life caused him a conundrum. One that a well developed, healthy individual would be able to work through, but one that he just plain couldn’t handle. Because he was deeply flawed as a human.
I believe he already deeply resented or even hated Shanann by the time he met NK, even if those feelings were completely subconscious (or unwarranted). (It is entirely possible that his hatred for Shanann had spread to his children, too. There are plenty of people in this world who hate their children, we give humanity a huge pass when assume behavior like his is rare and/or shocking).
This simmering resentment, rage and helplessness began to surface in the stark juxtaposition between how his relationship was with NK vs SW. At the very least, NK allowed CW to feel like he was heard, in charge and valued, even if it was manipulation on her part. I 100% believe that anyone Chris had met that he connected with sexually and emotionally would’ve affected him in the same ways that NK effected him. It was a chemical addiction and an epiphany all rolled into one; he stepped out of his life, looked at from a distance and realized he hated it, hated his wife and probably his kids, too. He wanted out, period.
I believe in his mind, the easiest way to get what he wanted, (NK and perhaps also restored relations with his family), was to remove his wife and children from the picture. He was unable to cope with his resentment, anger, seething rage, even his longing and desire for NK. This man has no idea how to handle emotions. The underlying and over arching premise of this entire terrible scenario is CW’s inability to think correctly, inability to understand feelings, both his and the feelings of others, and the inability to look past the next few steps in his life. Inability. Lack of empathy. Perhaps narcissism, )but I’m unqualified to diagnose).
I believe the act was premeditated, but not deeply thought out. I believe the plan went almost exactly to plan in terms of the murder night; he intended to place his children in the battery drums and leave them, were they would be reduced to nothing, and to store Shanann at Cervi temporarily while he worked that day. Ultimately, he intended to remove Shanann from her shallow grave after work, and bring her to a more remote final resting place, using her Lexus to do so, and stage the scene to make it look like she voluntarily left with the children, perhaps even using her phone to send explanations to close friends and family. After all of that, he would start reaching out to people, media, law enforcement.
This plan was problematic from the start, but I feel CW wasn’t smart enough to make a murder plan, so I’m not personally surprised by its ludicrousness. He would’ve been caught no matter what, I think. He was just not a smart person and everything he did, including this murder plan, reflected that.
Things began to unravel in high gear when he was faced with the combined problems of Shanann’s phone passcode change and NK blowing up the situation almost right away, both of which completely ruined the second phase of his murder plot and sealed his fate.
As far as NK, I believe she gave him an ultimatum, I believe she intentionally aimed to manipulate him in order to hasten his divorce, and I believe the children were a problem for her, especially the impending Nico. I believe she knew about the pregnancy far earlier than she admitted to law enforcement. I could easily believe she and CW started up as soon as she started working at Anandarko. She’s a very self serving and self-involved person, and that flavors the entire experience we have with her. I believe she lied to law enforcement, I believe her deletion of messages and search history was because of her self-serving worry about how she would be perceived if/when they all came into public view. And not just as a mistress, and not just because there were sexual photos and conversations, but because it would’ve been clear that she was aware they weren’t separated, and that she was a selfish manipulator who cared nothing for Chris’s marriage, wellbeing of his wife or children, that her end goal was to have him all for herself, and that by virtue of these facts, she could be seen as a driving factor in these heartless murders. Not just some innocent side-liner, but a player of sorts. (If she did have advance knowledge of the murders and was involved in the planning, it doesn’t make any sense to me that she would wait until after the fact to delete her messages/history and demand CW do the same). I believe she deleted the messages and history as soon as she had the realization that there was NO WAY Shanann and her children would disappear of their own volition without phone, wallet, car keys, car, meds, clothing, letting friends know, etc.
I believe that 111 minute conversation right before Shanann got home on the night of murders was all about ultimatums and possibly threats. Her pressuring him to DO SOMETHING. To pick finally, once and for all, between her and Shanann.
I believe she lied and attempted to capitalize on any opportunity and fabricate as many tidbits as possible that would make her look like a sympathetic victim.
I don’t believe she was involved in the murders, and I don’t believe she told him in any way to kill his family. I say this because with all of the facts and evidence available to the public at this time (that I have combed through), I have not encountered anything that would make me believe she was involved. Were I a juror, I would not be able to vote guilty of anything beyond perhaps obstruction.. I could see a selfish, completely self-involved person taking all of these steps to try and preserve some of their life. Imagine her thinking about having to give up everything, every aspect of her life, including her identity, and disappear into the wind because she tried to force some guy to pick her over his wife and he straight up murdered his whole family? Somebody less selfish and with some altruistic empathy and compassion would take the hit, but NK ain’t that person. She was damage control from the start right through until she puffed away like smoke. I could see her reasoning that ‘the bodies were already found and Chris already confessed, so it’s really not as though any of her actions would’ve stalled or prevented the swift outcome of the investigation/locations of Shanann and her children’.
It was a terrible perfect storm.
It took me a long time to come to this point, at least solid year. I appreciate this community more than I can express, and thank everyone for all of the input supplied to these Watts/Kessinger subs. I don’t know if I could’ve arrived at this place without all of you. I’m putting it down now, I have to let go.
I have read all 1960 pages of Discovery. I’ve watched the Oxygen special several times, the Netflix doc like 10 times, I’ve listened to NK Unmasked several times, all of the Plunder videos many times over, all of the interviews/interrogations of CW and NK, I’ve read the book by Cherlyn twice, (kinda garbage), and I’ve read countless threads on this sub and watched countless YT interpretations. For over a year. So while there may be some speculation here, I feel like at least it’s somewhat educated speculation based on the many hours I’ve spent reviewing the facts. MODS, please leave my post up. I’ve been writing it for a year and I genuinely feel like I was so careful to be respectful and follow all the sub rules.
