The Disturbing Truth Of ‘American Murder: The Family Next Door’, We Never Truly Know What A Person Is Capable Of
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The Disturbing Truth Of ‘American Murder: The Family Next Door’, We Never Truly Know What A Person Is Capable Of

Chris Watts was supposed to be his wife and kids' hero. Instead, he turned out to be their worst nightmare.

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The Disturbing Truth Of ‘American Murder: The Family Next Door’, We Never Truly Know What A Person Is Capable Of
Image by Netflix

There's nothing more disturbing than a husband murdering his family. The idea that a man who was lucky enough to marry someone who loved him and to have children who viewed him as a hero is unfathomable. How does a situation like that even happen?

Chris Watts was supposed to be his wife and kids' hero. Instead, he turned out to be their worst nightmare.I don't think anyone could have seen it coming. Chris did not have a criminal background and as far as the world knows, he never physically or verbally abused his wife, Shan'ann. He had a virtually perfect life. Two little girls who loved him and his wife was pregnant with a boy. So what went wrong? What drives a person to kill their own family?

Chris was having an affair with Nichol Kessinger, who was his co-worker. It seems based on the documentary and all of Chris's confessions, that he was very much interested in Nichol, enough to make himself start lying to his own wife about and keeping it a secret.

So did Chris kill his family because he wanted to be with this new woman? Who knows. Nichol has stated that they barely knew each other so she doesn't believe that was Chris's motives. Many other people disagree though. Chris supposedly told his wife of his affair and that he wanted to get divorced right before he strangled her to death. That's enough evidence for me to believe that Chris cared more about getting out of the relationship with his wife and starting a new one with Nichol.

That's the scary part though. People get divorced a lot these days and sometimes it is for the best. If you were cheating on your spouse and wanted to get out of your marriage, which option seems more rational: divorce your spouse or kill your entire family. For some disturbing reason, Chris decided the latter.

He has claimed that Shan'ann told him that she would make sure he would never see his kids again and that was what set him off. Has he never heard of family court? Did he ever think for just a second that maybe she is just heartbroken and angry at the fact that she loved him and he wanted out of their marriage?

Imagine being in Shan'ann's shoes. You just got told that your husband of six years and the father of your two children is cheating on you with a younger woman and he wants to leave you for her. She had every right to be upset and furious so I can sympathize with her remark that she wanted to keep her children from Chris.

How can you physically harm someone you care about? How do you look them in the eyes and know that you are ending their life? Only a truly psychotic lunatic can do such a thing.

But killing his wife wasn't good enough. He had to kill his two beautiful, innocent baby girls that were half him. So what's his excuse this time? Did his children trigger him when they asked what was wrong with mommy? Did they trigger him when they held on to each other and slept in the backseat of their father's truck, not knowing that they would only be alive for another 45 minutes?

How can a father destroy the lives of his own little children? Parents are supposed to protect their children. Parents are supposed to be willing to die for their children and make sure that no one out there puts even a finger on them. Chris became the exact thing that he was supposed to protect his babies from.

You never truly know people. Shan'ann knew her husband for eight years and I bet she had zero clue of the monster she was married to. His children loved him and never knew that he was truly the monster under their beds but unfortunately no one was there to save them from the monster in the dark.

Chris was truly a monster in the dark and those are the scariest people in the world.

Everyone viewed Chris as a quiet, shy, subdued man. No one saw it coming.

I don't think we will ever know the true answer to why Chris did what he did. Did he have anger issues? Did he have some psychological disorder that no one knew about? What drives a person who has everything in the world, to destroy everyone in their world? Whatever the answer is doesn't matter because I don't think there was anything anyone could do to stop him. People who are involved in domestic violence don't care about their partners. They only care about power and control. Maybe that's what Chris wanted and when Shan'ann threatened to take that away, he decided to do the worst thing you can do in the world.

It's the sad and scary truth but we really don't know anyone and what they are truly thinking and feeling. We always worry about the monsters we can see ahead of us in the light, but it's the monsters that hide in the dark that are much more dangerous.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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