American Murder True Story: What The Shanann Watts Documentary Leaves Out

American Murder: The Family Next Door documents the events leading up to a disturbing 2018 triple homicide, but doesn’t fully examine the backstories of its main subjects, Chris and Shanann Watts. Directed by Jenny Popplewell, the 82-minute true crime film uses social media footage and text messages to establish the appropriate context for the familial dynamics.

Shanann and her two daughters, Bella and Celeste, were reported missing on August 13, 2018 in Frederick, Colorado. The following day, Chris spoke with local media outlets from his home and pleaded for the safe return of his wife and children. By August 15, Chris had failed a polygraph test and subsequently admitted to murdering Shanann in a fit of rage after she allegedly killed Bella and Celeste. American Murder on Netflix details the couple’s chaotic relationship in the six weeks leading up the murders, and builds to the revelation that Chris actually smothered his daughters to death after murdering Shanann at the family home. The bodies were eventually discovered at Chris’ place of work, Anadarko Petroleum.

Through interview footage, American Murder shows how investigators slowly but surely discovered the truth about Chris’ crimes, and his affair with a woman named Nichol Kessinger. The Netflix documentary provides a thorough account of how the Watts family interacted with each other, but leaves out information about the formative years of both Chris and Shanann. Here’s what American Murder doesn’t fully address.

Shanann Watts’ First Marriage

The opening 10 minutes of American Murder features social media footage of Shanann explaining her life story. She states that she felt “very insecure” during her first marriage, and goes on to discuss how bad experiences transformed her into a self-motivated woman who built her own home by age 25.  The Netflix documentary then shifts to Shanann’s battle with lupus shortly before she met Chris.

More details about Shanann’s first marriage would’ve allowed for a better understanding of her relationship with Chris. In American Murder on Netflix, one of Shanann’s friends light-heartedly describes her as “bossy,” and Shanann herself even acknowledges her domineering personality. All of this offers some insight for the audience about how Shanann and Chris interacted with each other, in good times and bad, but details about the victim’s past would’ve helped viewers better understand the interactions between the couple in the weeks leading up to the tragedy.

The Reason For Chris Watts’ Weight Loss

American Murder acknowledges Chris’ noticeable weight loss after his marriage to Shanann, but the specifics are never made clear. During an investigation interview, Chris states that his weight dropped from 245 to 180, which means that he lost 65 pounds between 2012 and 2018. It’s understandable that the Colorado native would want to have a healthier lifestyle, yet nobody in the Netflix documentary ever mentions the motivations for the weight loss. Based on how the focal relationship is presented in American Murder, the evidence suggests that Chris may have needed extra motivation from his wife. Once Chris dropped the weight, it seems that he began focusing more on his routine than his marriage, at least based on several of Shanann’s text messages to friends.

The context for Chris’ weight loss is relevant because the psychological aspect links to his affair with Nichol Kessinger. If Shanann urged her husband to lose weight after their marriage, then Chris may have resented the implication that he needed to change. In the Netflix documentary, the audience doesn’t get much insight into the reasons for the physical transformation, but does learn that Chris rejected physical intimacy with his wife while pursuing a sexual relationship with Kessinger. So, Netflix viewers are left to wonder if Chris displayed narcissistic behavior all throughout the marriage, or whether it only emerged after he began losing weight and feeling more confident.

Context For Chris Watts’ Upbringing & Relationship With Parents

The Netflix documentary reveals that Shanann had a difficult relationship with Chris’ parents. Six weeks before the murders, Shanann traveled home to North Carolina with her daughters and spent time with her in-laws. One particular sequence shows that Shanann clashed with Cindy Watts, who bought ice cream that affected Celeste’s allergies. Text messages reveal that Shanann asked her husband to speak with his father about the ice cream incident, and it’s stated through interviews that Cindy kicked her daughter-in-law out of the house after the argument. American Murder also notes that Chris’ parents didn’t attend his wedding to Shanann because they simply didn’t like her, according to friend Nickole Atkinson.

By not exploring Chris’ upbringing with his parents in North Carolina, American Murder once again ignores crucial contextual information. Did Chris have a relatively happy childhood? And how did his parents shape his worldview? The Netflix documentary makes it seems that Shanann clashed with her in-laws because of her “bossy” personality, but she may have believed that Chris’ parents were too soft with him. As Chris began to lose his “spark” with Shanann, he may have viewed her as an overwhelming motherly figure. Once again, Chris’ backstory and upbringing directly connects to his frame of mind in the weeks before the murders. When he no longer wanted a family, he took shockingly drastic measures to re-gain his independence. The investigation interviews show that Chris tried to talk his way out of a major predicament, and then tried to pin a double-murder on his late wife. Such actions can be psychologically linked to the killer’s upbringing. Unfortunately, the Netflix documentary spends little time exploring the past.

The Timeline For Chris Watts’ Alibi

Overall, American Murder effectively lays out a timeline of what happened before and after the Watts murders. There’s even footage that shows Chris arriving home on the day of his wife and daughters’ disappearance, and then trying to explain to investigators what might’ve happened. A security employee points out that Chris’ behavior seemed incredibly odd, which makes sense given what the Netflix documentary ultimately reveals about his crimes.

What’s missing, however, is an hour-by-hour timeline of Chris’ activity on August 13, 2018. It’s revealed that he had dinner with Kessinger the night before, and told Shanann that he went to a Colorado Rockies game, but American Murder never fully details Chris’ movements from the time he left for work to when he came home later that afternoon. There’s a brief interview segment with Chris’ supervisor, Luke Epple, but nobody else comments about Chris’ demeanor in the hours after he killed his wife and daughters.

What Happened To Nichol Kessinger

Popplewell’s Netflix documentary includes interview footage with the aforementioned Kessinger, who seems entirely baffled by Chris’ initial behavior after his wife and daughters’ disappearance. Later, she’s naturally disturbed upon realizing the truth about the murders. American Murder never positions Kessinger as a suspect, or someone that helped Chris cover up the crimes, but the Netflix documentary doesn’t acknowledge that she herself disappeared once the legal proceedings began.

According to an October 2020 report (via Yahoo!), Kessinger could potentially be in the Witness Protection Program. Her current whereabouts are unknown, and her Google searches before and after the tragedy reveal that she was concerned about how her affair could affect her reputation. Two days before Chris was charged with murder, Kessinger googled “Did people hate Amber Frey?” – a reference to the mistress of convicted murderer Scott Peterson. She spoke with The Denver Post in November 2018, but hasn’t been heard from since. The final update in American Murder doesn’t provide any current information about Kessinger, presumably because she’s trying to avoid the spotlight at all costs.

About The Author

Q.V. Hough
(1892 Articles Published)

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Q.V. Hough is a senior writer at Screen Rant. He’s also the founding editor at Vague Visages, and has contributed to RogerEbert.com and Fandor.

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