Scott Peterson also appeared to make use of blue canvas to wrap his wife’s body in and to transport her in the truck and boat to San Francisco Bay. Whatever “wrapping” Scott Peterson performed it was almost 100% successful in sequestrating evidence from the crime scene. No traces of Laci were found, besides a single hair in a needle-nosed pliers lying in the belly of his boat.
In the Casey Anthony case, Caylee was wrapped in two garbage bags, which were in turn bundled into a canvas laundry bag. JonBenét Ramsey was wrapped in her favorite white blanket.
The three foot [0.9 meter] doll is also more or less the height of a Bella. Because a baby doubles in height from an average birth length of 50 centimeters over four years, the average height of a four-year-old is roughly 102 centimeters, or just over one meter.
We don’t know what Bella and Celeste were wrapped in, when they were recovered from the fuel tanks, or indeed if they were wrapped in anything. We do know that Shan’ann was wrapped in a bedsheet, so it stands to reason that the children were also wrapped in some fashion.
There are three reasons Bella and Celeste were possibly killed first, although the second reason has more to do with proving the allegation.
The disposal of the two children into two individual tanks required a certain amount of specialized technical knowledge. The bodies would need to not be discoverable, which means the sensors should not detect a sudden increase in volume beyond a particular threshold. This may explain why the children were dumped in separate tanks. It may also explain why Shan’ann was not dumped in a tank at all. Footage of the tanks suggests the opening may have been too narrow to stuff an adult inside anyway. The doll may have been used to test the changes in the displacement either before or after the photo was taken on August 9th. A bath with the doll submerged in it could also be used to measure volume displacement from home, assuming Chris had the mathematical aptitude to perform such a calculation.
Another aspect to why the children were possibly murdered first was the potential requirement that various chemicals or substances drain from their bodies ahead of being disposed in the tanks, and potentially contaminating or impeding the fuel mix that would set off other sensors.
If the police believe the children were murdered first, this may be down to elementary observations, including that their bodies were in a more advanced state of decomposition compared to Shan’ann’s remains. In line with this, cadaver traces linked to the children may have been far more potent due to the length of time they’d remained in the house post mortem. Besides this there are early indications that the children’s hair was shaved or cut, perhaps to prevent the hair from clogging pipes or filters in the fuel tanks during the early period of decomposition. [In Caylee Anthony’s case, a matt of her hair was found still attached to duct tape, the mat entirely separated from the skull after the fleshy tissue had decomposed].
If the bodies of the children were in the house for many hours, perhaps as long as two days, then Deeter would need to be kept away from them for a length of time, which may have meant a long period of solitary confinement. By Monday the dog may have been in this confinement not for several hours, but perhaps several days.
Despite Shan’ann arriving home at close to 02:00, Chris went ahead with what appears to be a premeditated murder, regardless. It’s not clear how long the delay was, whether two hours or four or more, but it appears the delay did have an impact on when Chris left home. He usually didn’t leave home so late. Shan’ann’s timeline repeats that they were usually up between 04:00 and 05:15. The fact that Chris left at 05:37 indicates that between 02:00 and 05:15 he ran out of time. He didn’t quite complete what he needed to do, in order to leave for work “as usual”, at the usual time. Bearing this in mind, it suggests if it took three hours to process Shan’ann’s body, Chris would need some length of time – also hours – to process the other two bodies. He would want to do this in separate relays, which suggests they were killed as early as Friday night, or as late as Sunday. It’s also possible but less probable that one or both of the children’s bodies had already been dumped even before Shan’ann arrived home. It’s improbable because the movement of a dead body anywhere, is a highly risky manoeuvre. Repeating the trip unnecessarily adds unnecessary risk.
If the children were murdered first, then Shan’ann – I believe – was murdered almost the moment she set foot into the house. She did not go upstairs. She was likely murdered downstairs, possibly in the kitchen.
Chris would have wanted to and needed to surprise her. The last thing he would want is for her to know something had happened to the children and begin to act out aggressively towards him. This would have made the task of subduing her harder than necessary.
The location of the attack was either at the foot of the stairs where she dropped her suitcase, moments after Nickole’s vehicle peeled out of the driveway, or in the kitchen, where her purse was found on the central island. The kitchen seems likely because the tiled floor and clean surfaces make it an easier area to clean compared to a stain-absorbent carpet. The interior wall leading to the staircase, and separating it from the kitchen, provided theoretical cover for an ambush.
Another question that arises is whether Chris used the front door to access his truck, after backing it up, or whether he loaded the bodies through the garage. In the Scott Peterson case, despite backing up his truck, there’s strong reason to believe a witness spotted him loading his truck at the time the crime was committed, or shortly after. In this case, Chris may not have expected to be seen in the dark by neighbors as he was loading. It’s also possible he temporarily placed something on the seat on the porch that had cadaver odor on it, during this loading phase. Three bodies in the rear cabin of his truck required some planning to pile without being seen through the window. In the same way that excess luggage sometimes requires several attempts to “fit in” a luggage compartment, the three bodies bundled and wrapped may not have been straightforward to load and keep out of sight.
An additional explanation for why preplanning and scheduling of this crime seems likely is because of Lauren Arnold’s assessment of Shan’ann’s habits at home. According to Heavy Arnold said:
“Shanann has a schedule and she goes by that schedule and she does not deviate. The girls are on a schedule. She has things that she does every day.”
Shan’ann herself invoked this schedule repeatedly, referring to Chris being up every morning at 04:00. The Watts household overall worked to a tight schedule. Thrive worked on schedule. Shan’ann’s trips were scheduled, booked and announced several months in advance. Her Facebook page is filled with countdowns, scheduled announcements and product placements [including and especially using Chris as a prop]. Shan’ann’s 15 week pregnancy milestone, the doctor’s appointment that day, and the Gender Reveal Party at the end of the week were all scheduled.
When Shan’ann violated these schedules by arriving home late, Chris was not going to change his plans, even though the annihilation of his family was intended to achieve precisely that: to clear his schedule. To set him free from the rigorous roles, deadlines and dates she’d set out for him. Killing her and them was turning the tables. Instead of being snared in her domestic traps, she would be snared in his. How about that. And then, it would simply be a matter of doing what they had done all along. Lying to an unsuspecting world by showing his other face to the cameras.
About the Author
Nick van der Leek [@HiRezLife on Twitter and @Nickvdk on Instagram] is a widely published photojournalist and the author of over 75 books, including several trilogies dedicated to unravelling the world famous, and still officially unsolved JonBenét Ramsey and Madeleine McCann cases.
Instead of journalism, Van der Leek studied law, economics and marketing. After cutting his teeth in a newsroom he became a full-time investigative writer and photojournalist. Today he is one of the most prolific true crime authors in the world.
He has sat in on many high-profile court cases, including Henri van B
reda, Oscar Pistorius and Jason Rohde, and has occasionally advised criminal prosecutors during court cases on an extemporary basis. His research on the mysterious death of Vincent van Gogh has been added to the archives of the Van Gogh Library, in Nuenen, the Netherlands.
The next Shakedown title, Two Face – The Murder Trial of Christopher Watts exposes additional evidence and focusses on the trial narrative. Available in December 2018.
For more information on new releases, reviews, blogs and discussions, visit www.shakedowntitle.com
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Two Face- the Man Underneath Christopher Watts Page 10
