He Asked for Help: The Chris Watts Case — Transcript

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1. 0:08On August 13, 2018
2. 0:10the sun rose over Frederick
3. 0:12Colorado like it always did
4. 0:16Quiet streets
5. 0:18Identical houses
6. 0:20Sprinklers turning on automatically
7. 0:23Nothing about the neighborhood
8. 0:24suggested that inside one of those homes
9. 0:27something irreversible
10. 0:29had already happened
11. 0:30At around 2 a m
12. 0:32Shanann Watts returned home from a
13. 0:35business trip in Arizona
14. 0:36Security footage from a
15. 0:38neighbor’s camera shows
16. 0:39her walking slowly toward the front door
17. 0:42pulling her suitcase behind her
18. 0:47She was 15 weeks pregnant
19. 0:49Friends described her as
20. 0:50exhausted but excited
21. 0:52She had posted on social
22. 0:54media just hours earlier
23. 0:56That video is the last time
24. 0:59she is seen alive
25. 1:01Inside the house, an argument unfolded
26. 1:04The details would later
27. 1:06come out during interrogation
28. 1:09Chris Watts would eventually
29. 1:10admit that he strangled
30. 1:12Shanann in their bedroom
31. 1:13He would say she didn’t fight back much
32. 1:17That detail alone
33. 1:19disturbed investigators
34. 1:22not because of the violence
35. 1:24but because of the intimacy
36. 1:28There were no signs of forced entry
37. 1:35No break-in
38. 1:37No outsider
39. 1:40Just a husband
40. 1:43Just a wife
41. 1:45Just silence afterward
42. 1:47By morning
43. 1:48Chris was already thinking ahead
44. 1:51Before coworkers arrived
45. 1:52at the oil field site he was
46. 1:54scheduled to inspect
47. 1:55he drove there alone in his work truck
48. 1:58In the back of that truck were his
49. 2:00wife and his two daughters Bella
50. 2:03four years old
51. 2:05and Celeste, three
52. 2:07The drive was nearly an hour long
53. 2:10Investigators
54. 2:11later described it as one of
55. 2:12the most chilling parts of the case
56. 2:15the fact that he spent
57. 2:16that time alone with what he had done
58. 2:19yet never turned around
59. 2:21At the remote oil site
60. 2:23he buried Shanann in a shallow grave
61. 2:25He then placed his daughters’
62. 2:27bodies inside separate oil tanks
63. 2:30The hatches were small
64. 2:32The act required physical
65. 2:33effort Deliberation Time
66. 2:39Then he went to work
67. 2:41He sent text messages
68. 2:44He responded to emails
69. 2:46He spoke casually with coworkers
70. 2:48Later that morning
71. 2:50when Shanann’s
72. 2:51friend couldn’t reach her
73. 2:52she grew concerned
74. 2:54Shanann never missed doctor appointments
75. 2:58She never ignored messages
76. 3:00The friend went to the
77. 3:01house and called police
78. 3:03for a welfare check
79. 3:04This is where the footage begins the
80. 3:08bodycam footage that millions of people
81. 3:11would later watch online
82. 3:13Chris greets the officer at the door
83. 3:16He smiles awkwardly
84. 3:19He sways slightly
85. 3:20He keeps his hands on his hips
86. 3:23then crosses his arms
87. 3:25then rubs the back of his neck
88. 3:27Small behaviors that seemed
89. 3:29insignificant at first
90. 3:31but became deeply unsettling later
91. 3:33Inside the house
92. 3:36nothing looks violently disturbed
93. 3:38Shanann’s purse is still there
94. 3:41Her phone is found
95. 3:42between couch cushions
96. 3:44The girls’ blankets are in their beds
97. 3:47It looks like a normal home paused mid-day
98. 3:51But the emotional tone is wrong
99. 3:54Chris doesn’t cry
100. 3:56He doesn’t demand urgent action
101. 3:58He doesn’t appear frantic
102. 4:01He appears
103. 4:02rehearsed
104. 4:05When officers go next
105. 4:06door to review security footage from a
106. 4:09neighbor’s camera
107. 4:10Chris stands behind them
108. 4:12The camera captures
109. 4:13his truck parked in the
110. 4:15driveway early that morning
111. 4:17He is seen backing it up unusually
112. 4:19close to the garage
113. 4:22something neighbors say he never did
114. 4:24As the footage plays
115. 4:26Chris places both hands on his head
116. 4:30It is not a gesture of grief
117. 4:32It looks like calculation
118. 4:34Later, during interviews
119. 4:37investigators begin noticing
120. 4:39inconsistencies in his timeline
121. 4:42His phone pings at unusual hours
122. 4:45His story changes subtly
123. 4:48He claims Shanann left with the children
124. 4:53There is no evidence she did
125. 4:55Under pressure, he breaks
126. 4:59First, he tells detectives that
127. 5:01Shanann killed the girls in a fit of rage
128. 5:04and he killed her in response
129. 5:06It is a story constructed quickly
130. 5:09and it collapses just as quickly
131. 5:12Finally, he confesses
132. 5:15The calm man who stood
133. 5:16on the lawn asking for his
134. 5:18family’s safe return had already disposed
135. 5:21of them hours earlier
136. 5:22What unsettles people most about this
137. 5:25case is not only the crime itself
138. 5:27It is the ordinariness
139. 5:30There were no warning signs
140. 5:32visible to neighbors
141. 5:34No police calls
142. 5:36No criminal history
143. 5:38Chris Watts was described as quiet
144. 5:42introverted, passive
145. 5:44The family presented
146. 5:45a curated image online
147. 5:48birthday parties
148. 5:49ultrasound photos, matching outfits
149. 5:53Behind that image
150. 5:54financial strain and an extramarital
151. 5:57affair were unfolding
152. 6:00Chris had begun seeing a coworker
153. 6:02He had searched online for new apartments
154. 6:06He had calculated
155. 6:07how much it would cost to
156. 6:08end his marriage
157. 6:09But instead of separation
158. 6:11he chose annihilation
159. 6:13When investigators
160. 6:14later interviewed him in prison
161. 6:16he spoke calmly about the timeline
162. 6:19The emotional disconnect is what
163. 6:21disturbed many viewers the most
164. 6:24His voice lacked intensity
165. 6:26He described events almost clinically
166. 6:29The idea that someone could wake up
167. 6:32one day and decide to erase their
168. 6:34entire family and then
169. 6:36stand on camera asking for help
170. 6:39fractured the sense of
171. 6:40safety many people feel
172. 6:42inside suburban normalcy
173. 6:45The Watts home still stands
174. 6:48The street still looks peaceful
175. 6:51Children still ride bikes nearby
176. 6:54But the case lingers in public memory
177. 6:56because it forces an uncomfortable
178. 6:58realization
179. 6:59Evil does not always look chaotic
180. 7:02Sometimes it looks polite
181. 7:05Sometimes it smiles at the camera
182. 7:07And sometimes
183. 7:09it asks for your sympathy while it
184. 7:11already knows the ending