Chris Watts exhibits all the classic traits of a psychopath, says expert
Close friends and family who followed Shanann Watts on social media always believed she had the ideal life — after all, she would frequently post pictures of her 'loving' husband and 'perfect dad' Chris Watts, and also flood her timeline with adorable pictures and videos of her two young daughters. But as with almost everything in life, there was a much darker side to Chris, something that even his close family and friends seem to have missed.
Experts are now wondering if Chris's super-charm was actually a sign of psychopathy. Was he using his superficial charm to deceive and to manipulate his family and close friends?
Chris has been charged with killing his pregnant wife and his two daughters — 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste. He has also been accused of disposing their bodies at an oil facility where he used to work.
Kim Gorgens, a clinical professor in the graduate school of professional psychology at the University of Denver, believes Chris exhibits all the traits of psychopathy. Gorgens, who has conducted extensive research on criminal behavior, told Fox 31 that being overtly winsome and charming are classic tendencies of psychopathy.
"It's not a personality characteristic that you can pick out of a lineup. It's not like someone wears a sign that says you can't trust. In fact, it's the opposite of that," Gorgens told the media outlet.
Gorgens also said that 5% to 7% of all people in the world tend to exhibit psychopathic behavior. However, not all of them end up going to prison for it.
"Often times they'll never offend in an illegal capacity and they'll rise to fame in politics, or as a CEO of a business," she said. "You can't tell for sure, but I will be less than surprised to see the picture of a true psychopath emerge. Someone who is really winsome, charming and psychopathic. It's not unusual for them to evade detection."
After allegedly murdering his family, Chris disposed the bodies in the property of Anadarko Petroleum Corp, one of Colorado's largest oil and gas drillers. He allegedly hid the bodies of his daughters in oil tanks to hide the smell. Court documents reveal that the bodies of the young girls were submerged in crude oil for four days before authorities discovered them. Shanann's body was found buried in a shallow grave nearby.
According to Gorgens, the murders that are usually committed by psychopaths are quite well thought-out in nature, and the deliberate crime is more often than not, committed by someone who wouldn't be ideally suspected.
"Persons who have a psychopathic personality are granted intimate access to people because they're really good at building those relationships and mimicking emotions," Gorgens said.
Before the bodies were discovered, Chris gave interviews to several media outlets appealing for information about his 'missing' family. “Hopefully they can pick something up where it’s going to lead to something," he told one outlet, adding, “If [Shanann and his daughters are] not safe, that’s what’s tearing me apart. But if they’re not, this has got to stop, someone has got to come forward.”
Shanann's friend Nickole Atkinson, who was perhaps the last person to see her alive, said that she was not in the least surprised at the arrest of Chris since he did not appear to be very much concerned when they had vanished initially. "He just kept saying that he didn't know where she was and that she was on a playdate. But he couldn't give us the name of the friend," Atkinson said of Chris' behavior after his wife was reported missing.
"I knew he had something to do with it the day I was at his house with him, but I didn't want to think that. Anyone in their right mind will start piecing things together and think something had happened, but you don't want to go there. You want to believe the best in people."