'American Murder: The Family Next Door' Review: Netflix documentary offers chilling look at Watts family tragedy
In 2018, the disappearance of Shanann Watts, her daughters, Bella and Celeste "Cece" Watts rocked the town of Frederick, Colorado. The family patriarch, Chris Watts, issued pleas on the radio and television news to return his family. Two days after they were reported missing by Shanann's friend, Nickole Atkinson, Chris Watts was arrested for the murders of his wife and children. The Watts family murders horrified the nation as details began to emerge of about the deaths of Shannan and her children.
Looking back to the incident from two years ago, many probably still wonder about what really happened. What could have led to Chris Watts committing those cold, brutal killings? How did investigators uncover that he was responsible for the murders and is there any other version of the events that transpired? In fact, many subreddits emerged where people doubted the story, wondering whether a seemingly respectable White man could have indeed done those deeds and if so, whether he was led to do so by an overbearing wife.
These narratives are probably common when it comes to White men who seem clean-cut with a lot going for them. After all, Chris was employed as an operator for an oil and gas company, Anadarko, and in the many videos and photos posted by Shanann on her Facebook page only showed him as a loving father. What the public was not privy to was that Chris Watts was a different man behind the scenes -- someone who became more interested in doing push-ups than having sexual encounters with his wife. The reason? Chris was having an affair with a colleague, Nichole Kessinger, who had no idea that he was still married.
Netflix's latest documentary, 'American Murder: The Family Next Door' chronicles the events on the day of Shanann, Bella and Cece's disappearance, the days following it as well as the days preceding it. Solely comprising of footage recorded by Shanann posted on social media, law enforcement recordings, and never-before-seen home footage, the Netflix true-crime documentary directed by Jenny Popplewell paints a thorough picture of the events that really transpired. Featuring nothing else, this documentary is, in fact, a time capsule of sorts, meticulously presenting just the case with nothing else to tarnish what could have happened.
It was a polygraph test that did Chris Watts in and the footage of the test is shown in detail as investigators pressured him to tell the truth. At this point, the investigators knew that Chris was having an affair when Kessinger approached them herself to tell them that she and Chris had been in a relationship and that she wanted to cooperate. When he requested to speak to his father, he confessed to having killed Shanann, who was 15 weeks pregnant with a son whom they had named Nico Lee Watts. However, initially, he claimed that it was Shanann who strangled the kids. It was only later that he admitted to killing Bella and Cece.
The documentary also presents text message exchanges between Shanann and Chris, as well as Shanann and her friends. Before she was killed, Shanann and her daughters had spent upwards of a month with her family in North Carolina. It was potentially during this separation that Chris began his affair. Shanann knew something was off when she returned when Chris would not show physical affection to her. She would often consult with her friends about her worries.
When Shanann was murdered, she had just returned from a business trip during which she started suspecting that Chris was having an affair when she realized that he had used his card to pay for an expensive dinner and had stayed out very late. Shanann had only been home for a few hours before Chris loaded her body and the children onto his truck as he headed to dispose them.
One of the first people to suspect Chris was a neighbor who collaborated with the police who came in on the morning of the disappearance to find out what had happened to Shanann. The neighbor had installed a camera outside and he showed the footage to the police while Chris was in the room. The neighbor then indicated he wanted to speak to the cop alone and it was then that the neighbor pointed out that Chris was acting weird -- normally, he was not as talkative.
With such footage, it may be hard to see that there was no other alternative than the officially presented events. However, many have risen to defend Chris (as on the aforementioned subreddits) that Chris was probably driven to do so because his wife was "bossy." Some still believe Chris's first confession when he said Shanann murdered the kids. However, the documentary notes that she was a loving mother who held her children above anything else in her life.
The Netflix documentary is a worthwhile watch, painting a picture of the events as it happened. As mentioned, given that there are no expert statements or interviews featured in the film other than what had gone on during the investigation, the true-crime documentary is as unbiased as it can be as it presents the evidence in a trustworthy way.
'American Murder: The Family Next Door' is now streaming on Netflix.