October 5, 2020
On August 13, 2018, Shanann Watts was dropped off at her home in Frederick, Colorado at around 2 am from the airport by a friend. However, the next morning, she was not answering any of her texts and calls. When her friend went to check up on her, it seemed that Shanann and her two toddler daughters Bella and Ce-Ce had disappeared. Her husband Chris was called to come home from his workplace, and he was shocked by the loss of his family. However, it increasingly seemed that something more sinister had transpired.
This true-crime documentary had been put together by Jenny Popplewell from available footage from home surveillance cameras and police body cameras. Shanann herself was very active on social media and loved to document various moments of her life on video, further providing Popplewell with a trove of intimate family scenes and conversations. Shanann was also the type who would send lengthy text messages in which she frankly expressed her innermost frustrations to Chris as well as to her girlfriend Nickole.
Shanann met and married Chris when she was at her lowest, getting over a divorce and being treated for a difficult disease. We see their blissful wedding video and the happy family videos they led as a couple and as parents, which Shanann shared online. She also shared that she was now pregnant with their third child, whom they hope would be a boy. In the course of their five year-marriage, Shanann was the dominant one, while Chris accepted his submissive role -- an arrangement not entirely alien to other marriages.
However, behind Shanann's ideal media facade, things were not that perfect as can be expected. Shanann did not have a smooth relationship with her in-laws, especially her mother-in-law. She clearly emphasized to her husband that he should defend his family, not his parents. She was also not averse to discussing about her marital sex life with her best friend. The director seemed to be setting up all of these issues to build up to a possible explanation to the final scenario that would ensue.
The heinous crime documented on this film was so difficult to accept because it was true-to-life and we actually get to meet everyone involved. The manner in which the crimes were committed was so heartless, especially since everything about it seemed so uncalled for. There was an attempt of the perpetrator to create an alternate false situation which made it even more chilling and cruel. The most unlikely suspect can still turn out to be the guilty person. Too bad it was not entirely made clear what the immediate rationale for the crime was, it felt like too great a jump of logic that was not anything more behind it. 6/10.
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