The story of one terrible betrayal I am passionate about criminology and have heard a lot of different, most nightmarish stories about the crimes of one person against the life of another. But this is... I first heard the name Watts somewhere on the news in 2018. A tragedy that is forever imprinted in my head like none that I have seen, read or heard.
Shannon Watts was a very active resident of Frederick, Colorado. Being 5 months pregnant, already having two girls, actively developing a career, loving husband, this woman seemed to succeed in everything. And this is despite a very serious disease - systemic lupus erythematosus, which takes all the strength of a person. Needless to say, Shannon was a fighter and had a steadfast character. It was during a difficult period of her life that she met her future husband and father of children Chris Watts, who simply wrote to her on the social network. Despite the fact that Chris and Shannon were very different and the girl strongly rejected the annoying gentleman, he did not give up. As a result, having gone through all the difficulties together, the couple got married and formed a union that could not be broken. Of course, as in any marriage, they had their own problems. Shannon’s domineering nature, Chris’s isolation, and the fact that his mother and sister disapproved of his choice resulted from Shannon’s conflicts with his husband’s family. But how did these typical problems turn into chaos that claimed four lives?
Chris and Shannon were married for 8 years. Everyone thought they were the perfect couple. Shannon assured everyone that Chris was sent to her by God, so she clearly felt that there was some kind of internal split in their family. Judging by her correspondence and conversations with friends and family, Shannon did not understand what was going on. Many times, trying to talk openly with her husband, she ran into a wall of denial and a complete lack of openness on his part. Not realizing what was happening, the woman began to blame herself. Like, her domineering nature and poor relationship with the family of Chris completely alienated her husband. Before realizing the horror of the nightmare, Shannon promised that she would try to be better for Chris. As for the main character of this cruel story, we can safely conclude that Chris has been suppressing anger towards his wife for many years. Wearing the mask of a loving husband and father, he wore hatred and aggression inside. He was irritated at Shannon by everything - her strength, her pressure, her energy, her habit of flaunting everything. Having met the attractive Nicole, who looked at him as perfection, he finally became enraged, which caused not only the desire to start another life with a new passion, but to build it on the bones of the old one. Literally, on the bones. Skin bumps.
No, this is not just a mass murder on domestic grounds. It's a sadistic plan that Chris has been hatching for a long time. It's a fact. It is very sad that the desire of this man had to pay his wife, two daughters, one of which is his copy and an unborn baby. And all this because he no longer needed them. The man whose duty it was to protect these people got rid of them as old and long-simmering things. And even the fact that Shannon sometimes suppressed him in this marriage did not give him the right to take their lives as if they belonged to him.
But for me personally, what is remarkable and so terrible about this story is that manipulator, pathological liar and selfish Chris Watts not only took the lives of his family members, he tarnished Shannon’s memory by blaming her for everything. He tried to make a good mother, daughter and wife look like a monster, while he was the monster. But truth and justice have leaked, one way or another. You can take a person’s life, but you can’t take away a good memory.
This review is dedicated to the memory of a very strong, bright Shannon Rzucek, who until the last believed in the love and importance of family.
As for the documentary itself, even though I’ve seen and read everything about the case, it does a good job of covering what happened on the fateful day of August 13, 2018.
