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CRIME AND JUSTICE WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD
Hubby Kills Wife And Kids, Dumps Bodies; K-9 Provides Most Important Clue Yet. Aired 6-8p ET
Aired September 10, 2018 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
[18:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he is probably got a harder time right now being alive than being dead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHANANN WATTS, VICTIM, WIFE OF CHRIS WATTS: I love you. They are still sleeping. Nice, peacefully sleeping.
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST, HLN CRIME AND JUSTICE: What happened to the Watts girls before they wound up dead?
Bodies of these two little girls had reportedly been submerged in an oil well for days.
Tonight, a new notch on the timeline.
CHRISTIAN WATTS, HUSBAND OF SHANANN WATTS, SUSPECT: Just horrible.
BANFIELD: The girls last known moments alive. And who might have seen them last.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don`t get it.
BANFIELD: As more possible clues about their deaths start to emerge from the background.
WATTS: Hoping they can pick something up to where it`s going to lead to something.
BANFIELD: Just what did those dogs find when they were sniffing around the house?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You think it`s possible the dogs may have detected the smell of the dead woman and her two daughters inside the house and alerted
investigators?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. It is very possible.
BANFIELD: And why would daddy let them in if he had just killed the family?
And yet another telling image of that all-important baby monitor, might this one bring down his story or could it help him prove his case?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To think that a wife would kill her children after her husband said that he wants to leave is pretty far out.
BANFIELD: Is something very telling on that screen that we hadn`t seen before.
S. WATTS: Nope, she is standing in her bed. She is waiting for me.
BANFIELD: Possible answers to the brutal mystery that is haunting the nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Good evening, everyone. I am Ashleigh Banfield. This is Crime and Justice. It is the case that has captivated the country. The Watts
girls found dead on daddy`s work site, but even as friends and families gathered this weekend to remember the lives they lived, dark questions
loomed about the way they died. Like who killed the two little girls, just three and four years old. Daughters who loved playing games with their
dad.
And absolutely loved going everywhere with their mom. Including as it turns out, to their graves. And whether mommy or daddy killed them is
still a dark debate. With Chris Watts allegedly telling the police it was his wife who strangled the kids, but that story seems impossible for those
who knew Shanann was.
Like the friend who dropped her at home the night before she went missing, a woman who knew Shanann as a stellar mom, a doting wife and a helpful
colleague, but nowhere near a child killer. She posted this video to Facebook this weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICKOLE ATKINSON, FRIEND OF SHANANN WATTS: This is hard because some of those people, they`re not going to be in my life anymore, but part of the
reason I`m doing what I`m doing for this group that I joined is because I agreed to do it with a person and that person is unfortunately no longer
with me and I`m going to do it any ways, no matter how much I hate doing it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: The police say Chris Watts is the reason that woman lost her friend and her co-worker. And they gathered enough evidence to charge him
with five counts of murder. Evidence that may not have been obvious to the police at first, but may have been more than clear to the canines at the
house.
The canines at the house tell quite a story. In fact, Tracey Sargent is a canine handler and a search and rescue recovery specialist. She is with me
in studio tonight, because we`ve started to notice some things on videos that were shot while this story began to evolve. That now have become very
curious and Tracy, thank you for helping us navigate through this, but first and foremost, I want to play if I can something that caught our eye
during the interviews that Chris Watts posed for on his porch the day after his family had disappeared. He was trying to make us all believe they were
missing when in fact he knew full well they were buried, but this is interesting because off camera, you can hear him consenting to a search by
canines. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again, this is just consensual --
WATTS: Yes. I don`t need to sign anything?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Feel free to say no if you want to.
WATTS: No, like, you`re good just go ahead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[18:05:00] BANFIELD: Tracy, in your estimation as a sergeant who has worked with cadaver dogs like Chance who`s with you, how often is it that
someone just agrees to open their home if in fact something happened in that home and they know something happened in that home?
TRACY SARGENT, K9 DOG HANDLER: Yes, Ashleigh, that is not actually that uncommon. Especially if the individual feels like they`ve cleaned up all
the evidence, that they can get away with something, that the dogs aren`t going to detect anything. So it`s not uncommon for us to get consent, but
the key is that you can`t hide scent. You can`t remove that from an environment and that is essentially what the dogs are detecting is that
perhaps the physical evidence is gone, but the scent is still there.
BANFIELD: So, Tracy, I want you to watch along with me, specifically with your trained eye. The rest of us will only hear the dogs barking in the
background, but I have some specific questions about what may be a happening if in fact these are cadaver dogs that are making strikes inside
the home. Let`s just listen as Chris Watts is giving his pitch to the nation to help him find his missing family. Listen to what`s happening in
the background.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What`s going on right now around the house?
WATTS: Right now, it`s got canine units, the sheriff`s department, they`re going through the house, trying to get a scent and hopefully, they can pick
something up to where it`s going to lead to something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So we were fascinated by that and we continued to listen to his interview now with specifically that in mind. Tracy, listen once more as
the interview continued and you can start to hear lot more of the dogs inside that house. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WATTS: The dogs coming through to get scents. In my heart, I believe that she is somewhere and I hope that she is safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Well, we know that the hope was a lie, but dogs don`t lie. Give me your estimation of what you could hear both outside the house and
perhaps inside the house when you heard those barks. Is that something that they`re finding or did dogs do that as they`re working?
SARGENT: Well, with what I find most intriguing in that video is what is happening inside the home. So when the dogs are searching, if they`re
trained alert is a bark, that is certainly an indication that they`ve picked up scent. Those dogs are trained to find to find what we call human
remain scent. That is the full spectrum. That includes, let us say a full size body to just teeth and in this case, perhaps scent. So the dogs are
telling us not only where something isn`t, but also just as importantly as where something is. Even if we as the human investigators, part of this
team, cannot see it, the dogs can detect it and that zeros in as the investigators to say hey, the dogs searched this part of the house and
there is nothing here, but they`re telling us responding to this side of the house, so we need to really concentrate and find out why did the dogs
alerted or indicated to this room and not that room. So I found that very important.
BANFIELD: Can I ask you, if the dogs alerted to finding the scent of death, not a body part, just a scent of death, say in the basement, but
there`s no part of Chris Watts narrative that says he took the bodies to the basement. All he is saying is that eventually, he took those bodies to
the garage and loaded them in car and drove them to the work site, but if the scent is detected and say, the kitchen or say perhaps a bathroom or say
the basement, they can tell, can`t they, exactly where it is that a dead body had been?
SARGENT: Well, I think the clarification here again is human remain scent. As a dog handler, when my dog indicates to something, I can`t say
immediately that is where somebody died. I can simply say the dog is telling me they`re picking up scent in this location. Also, more
importantly, is to know is this where the dog responding doesn`t tie directly to the case? We`ve worked some cases, let us say the kitchen for
example. Somebody has cut their finger when they were cutting up something for dinner. Has nothing to do with the investigation, but the dogs are
still going to alert possibly in that area because there was blood there. There`s human remain scent. So that is why the dogs are really apart of
the investigative team.
BANFIELD: OK. That makes more sense. Thank you for that because what if there is a Band-Aid that one of the children had ripped off in the
basement. So, that would definitely be intriguing. Can you do me a favor with Chance, I know he looks very rested right now, but he is a working dog
and you can show me exactly what it looks like when he alerts to the scent of death. And I know that sounds macabre, but you`ve brought with you some
human teeth, they`re actually use for science from a dentist, they are cleared for public use and you`ve hidden them somewhere in the vicinity of
our shot right now? Correct?
SARGENT: Yes, ma`am, so, I`m going to give him his command. It`s small area, so we`re going to do it pretty close for the cameras. Chance, come
here. Come here. Chance, hunt.
[18:10:12] So what he is telling me is that when we were right here, there`s nothing here, but when he went over there, he sat. That is his
trained alert or indication to say hey, I smell human remain scent in these area, so as an investigator, I need to go over there and find out what is
he alerting to. So at that point, he is done a good job. He has done the job that we need him to do so we`re going to reward him for that. So, it`s
very clear for the dogs that when we`re working them, they`re really black and white and regardless of the situation, again, whether we have physical
evidence or not, the dogs can tell us two things. Where something is and where something isn`t. And that is so important even if again, oftentimes,
we`ve worked many cases where a body was placed there and then later on moved, but the dog still alerted there, so the scent still remains in that
area. Especially if there`s body fluids. It can remain in the ground. Or the flooring for years.
BANFIELD: That is another issue. Because if the narrative is true and if well, listen, half of what Chris says is that he killed his wife. He
strangled her. The other half is that he saw her strangling the children. Who knows what that part of the story will yield, but if the bodies were
only in that house for say a matter of 15 minutes, half an hour, perhaps an hour, will the scent of death be there?
SARGENT: Well, it`s not an exact science, Ashleigh. There`s a lot of variety and variables involved in that. The size of the body or bodies in
this case. Is there any trauma to the body? If there is any body fluids. How long the bodies have been there. How they were killed. So there`s a
lot of parameters that we have to look at. But the most important part of that, is that if scent is there, the dogs will detect it. If scent is not
there, the dogs will not detect it.
What I have learned over the years doing this is that knowing where something isn`t is just as important to knowing where something is. So if
again, if the husband says that we, I killed them in the bedroom. Or I killed them in the basement and not in the bathroom, but if the dogs are
alerting in the bathroom and then the CSI folks come in and now they`re finding blood in the bathroom, we can now catch him in a lie and say
listen, that is not the right story. You didn`t tell us the truth. The dogs are telling us another story. So we need to hear the truth from you.
BANFIELD: Yes. Of course they`re so buttoned uptight on this case, they`re not leaking any of the information of what those dogs found or
where there dogs found anything, so whatever story Chris has already told to the police is ironclad and it`s on paper. And they are going to have to
match that up with what the forensics actually depicted. And just quickly to be super clear, one of the experts in your field has said the moment a
person dies, he or she begins to give off that scent. And understand it`s not a perfect science, but there is a scent from the moment that they die.
SARGENT: That is absolutely true. So the moment someone dies, we start the decomposition process. So it happens immediately, but let us say for
example, I`m standing here, I`m alive, I`m giving off life scent for the dog for Chance that he is in here in the room. My scent is filling this
room. So even if I died right now, that scent of me being alive still fills this room. It`s going to take time for the smell of death to
overcome the room.
BANFIELD: Can I ask you something specific about what we saw in the arrest warrant and that was, there were sheets in the trash in the kitchen. One
of those sheets was not with the set. It was found at the burial site. If Chance were in that house, would he alert to those sheets if say like you
mentioned, there were just maybe saliva or maybe some blood on the sheets from before or is there a scent that could be given off on those if someone
is strangled in the bed?
SARGENT: Well, again, understand that the dogs are a full spectrum of human remains. When you mention if there`s blood on the sheets, yes, a
human remains detection dog will respond to those sheets. Is that blood tied to the killing of this case? Or is it because somebody cut themselves
and it has nothing to do with this murder. So again, we have to look and see why did the dogs alert to this. Is blood related to someone being
murdered or is it an innocent situation that has nothing to do with the murder.
[18:15:03] BANFIELD: I saw Chance sit to alert. Very, very quietly. Which I`m sure in certain investigations, is extremely helpful so as not to
tip your hand, but those dogs were barking like crazy in the backdrop of Chris Watts` interview. Is that also an alert for a cadaver dog? Are they
trained differently all over the world?
SARGENT: Well, it depends upon what the dog`s trained alert is. Some dogs are trained to bark. Some of them to sit. To lie down. So there are a
variety of ways that as trainers can teach the dog to tell us there`s something here.
BANFIELD: So we shouldn`t read into the fact there`s barking going on in the background. That could have been that dog`s alert if that in fact were
a cadaver dog.
SARGENT: Yes, ma`am. That is because we don`t see what`s going on inside.
BANFIELD: So Randy Sutton, as a retired police lieutenant, help me to get inside the mind of the minds of the investigators as they get a report of a
missing family and they show up to a home with dogs. Do they automatically show up with cadaver dogs to establish they`re looking for live people or
if they`re looking for bodies somewhere else?
RANDY SUTTON, RETIRED LAS VEGAS METROPOLITAN POLICE OFFICER: Well they`re looking everywhere. When you`re talking about the dogs showing up,
they`re, they got consent, which is very important. If they had not gotten consent, they would have had to get a search warrant to have the dogs enter
the premises, because otherwise --
BANFIELD: you show up with cadaver dogs randy, is that a normal kind of investigation for a missing person story when you get to the house, those
dogs just say search. They don`t say what kind of search.
SUTTON: Right. Cadaver dogs are not brought in on a run of the mill investigation for a missing person. No. Clearly law enforcement had some
suspicions at the outset of this case.
BANFIELD: If in fact those ended up being cadaver dogs and we`re not entirely certain, but a few experts said it`s possible those dogs that had
shown up on that property were cadaver dogs. Tracy, I absolutely love your demonstration and please give our thanks to Chance who`s down out of the
picture now below you. He is obviously had his fun with the ball. So thank you so much for that. It is just, I find it so fascinating. That
particular science.
Randy, I`m going to ask you to stay on as well. Before Shanann Watts lived in Colorado or North Carolina, she was a grade school student at school 11
in Clifton, New Jersey and her former school and the community that surrounds it said their good-byes to Shanann Watts just a couple of days
ago. We`re going to show that to you, next.
[18:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CINDY DEROSSETT, SHANANN`S FRIEND AND COWORKER: I`m going to do this without her in it. This life without her in it. Every single person that
connected with her felt her light.
Doesn`t happen to somebody you care about and love never in a thousand years. How dare you take our girls away from us?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: When someone dies, you talk about all of the lives they touched. And Shanann Watts apparently touched lives all across this country.
Because even though she lived in Colorado and was laid to rest in North Carolina with her daughters, she is been honored on the East Coast as well.
Somber vigil was held this weekend in another place Shanann Watts called home, New Jersey. Where former friends and neighbors lit candles for the
lives that were taken too soon. And they sent four white balloons sailing into the night sky. One for Shanann, one for each of the girls and one for
their little unborn brother, who was soon to be named Nikko.
Just as the whole country is coming together to honor Shanann Watts` memory, the whole country is coming together to try to solve this
perplexing murder. Tens of thousands of Americans with lives just like Shanann`s, looking for clues in the common place. Featured in Shanann`s
catalog of Facebook videos, like the one device in the Watts home that could totally debunk her husband`s story. That baby monitor. On which
Chris Watts claims to have seen evidence his wife had killed the kids, but we have found a brand-new series of images on that monitor that was in use
in that home and frankly, it seems to cut both ways in this case.
I want to bring in Alexis Tereszcuk, a senior reporter for Radar Online and Kyle Peltz, is on the phone with us, he is a Crime and Justice producer who
has been working the story for several weeks now. Alexis, first to you. The first part of what I just introduced is the memory of Shanann all
around this country. There were more than 50,000 people who joined Facebook groups just to try to figure out the case or at least be a part of
this in some way to mourn her and the loss of these children and the unborn son. The candle light vigil in Clifton, take me there and tell me a little
about it.
[18:25:07] ALEXIS TERESZCUK, SENIOR REPORTER, RADARONLINE.COM: So, it was Thursday night. There were about 100 people there. It was a beautiful
ceremony. It was about 20 minutes long and you know what they did, they released four white balloons. As you said, for all three of the children
and one for her as well. This was a community where she lived when she was very, very young, but they still felt such a connection to her. And they
were so heartbroken about this horrific murder and then her brother release a statement, he said, I`m so touched by everybody that has spoken out about
my sister and these girls. It`s something that I never thought would happen. This is the worst thing that could ever happen to our family, but
the silver lining is we have met so many people that are so loving and so kind.
BANFIELD: Let me read it, I grabbed his statement here from Facebook. Frankie. You know, by all descriptions, he was so close to his sister.
They were the best of friends, he loved those two little girls so much. Let me read to you what he wrote. We lost so much in the blink of an eye,
but we also gained love and support from people all over and they became part of our family. I`ve never felt so loved in all my life. To my
beautiful sister, Shanann, you`re truly an inspiration. Now the world can see why I always looked to up to you and I promise to carry on your legacy.
Love always, your little brother, xoxo, P.S., you changed the world without even knowing. I hope we made you proud.
It`s remarkable to see that even as far as Clifton, New Jersey, there was this outpouring, I think 100 people or so who had come forward. All of
this as people who never knew here, are trying figure out the clues that might be, you know, hiding in plain sight in all of these videos. And I
want to draw your attention to a video that we found over the weekend that was nothing to do with the case. It was about gift that Shanann got for
her birthday. An air diffuser on her bedside table and the remote control for it.
But what is fascinating about this January video, just from her birthday last January, where she is talking about this great diffuser, we see in
clear, crisp view, the baby monitor. At arm`s length away from her as she is lying in bed, so now we know exactly where that baby monitor was, it was
on the bedside table. And we see exactly what it looks like from that very close distance, which is key. Because Chris Watts, if you read from the
arrest affidavit, seems to pin this whole thing on what he saw on the baby monitor when he walked in the room.
Let me read from the affidavit. Chris stated, after he told Shanann, he wanted a separation, he walked downstairs for a moment and then returned to
his bedroom to speak with Shanann again. While in the bedroom, via baby monitor, located on Shanann`s night stand, he observed Bella sprawled out
on her bed and blue and Shanann actively strangling Celeste. We`ve shown a couple of photographs, we have showed a few pictures. Now we can see
clearly from the bedside table what you can actually see on that monitor. Have a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
S. WATTS: I`m sitting here with my diffuser that I just got on my birthday, but look at how awesome it is and it changes colors. Still
trying figure out how to work it. That turns the color off. Sarah`s out there, Sarah could help me here, but I love my aria diffuser. And I don`t
know how to turn the lights back on. Look how awesome it is and it changes colors. I am still trying to figure out how to work it. That turns the
color off. If Sarah`s out there, Sarah can help me here, but I love my aria diffuser. And I don`t know how to turn the lights back on. See.
It`s what happens when you play.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Notice how she is just talking about the diffuser in the background, but we have zeroed in on the baby monitor right next to her
hand. Look at the size of the image. Just look at that from two feet away. She is in her bed and reaching over an arm`s length is about two to
two and a half feet. You can see the size of her hand. Can you make out anything in that baby monitor? As it toggles from baby`s room to baby`s
room? A brand-new future we just noticed. At one point, it`s on one child`s view, and then it toggles to another child`s view.
So Alexis, I`m just going to ask you, I don`t know if you`ve just seen this for the first time, but can you make out what color the faces of the child
in night view on that -- they`re going to bed, she said it`s nighttime. It`s late. Can you make out anything about the color?
TERESZCUK: I cannot. We actually have this exact baby monitor in my house. If you can see on the right of the baby monitor, when there is a green
light and see how it is going up right now and it turns red, that means there`s noise in the room.
There`s a button where you can have the sound on, but the sound is off there, so that means there`s something going on in the room. But you cannot
see the color of anybody. It`s nighttime. Basically black and white.
There is nothing. It doesn`t also zoom in. The -- well, the camera can zoom in, but she`s not zooming in there right now. It`s very much -- it`s a
black and white bedroom. It`s an infrared light. I`m not sure what it is.
BANFIELD: She is two feet away.
TERESZCUK: Right.
BANFIELD: She is two feet away. And it`s still extremely hard to make out the baby because the size of the baby on a monitor that is smaller than an
iPhone is about the size of the pointer of your finger, the tip of your finger.
And he is walking into the bedroom and seeing this on the baby monitor. So he`d be a lot further away extensively than say lying in the bed right next
to the monitor. But I do want to point out the toggle feature because I think this cuts both ways.
Joey Jackson, I think as a lawyer, you should weigh in on this, because if I am a defense lawyer, I`m saying, of course he saw both rooms. He saw the
first image. And maybe Shannan turned the light on. And it wasn`t in black and white mode, which is nighttime imaging.
Maybe she turned the light on and strangled one child and went to the next room and turned the light on and strangled the next child, and he comes in
within eight seconds those images toggle from room to room.
JOEY JACKSON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, CNN AND HLN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, Ashleigh, I just don`t buy it. It`s such an implausible story. That`s
the issue when you speak to the police in the first instance. I think the play of the defense is to try to get the statement suppressed so that you
can have a fresh start at whatever defenses you`re going to have.
But in terms of pinning it on the wife, it`s not plausible, it`s not believable. And I think it`s somewhat offensive. And I think that becomes
problematic to his defense in general to blame his dead wife as to why he killed the children because she was strangling them and he did this in
retribution.
Furthermore, Ashleigh, the aftermath is not consistent with human behavior. So after your wife does this, the first thing you`re going to do is get rid
of everyone, put your children in oil, and hide your wife`s body. It just is a defense that is not something that I as a defense attorney would
pursue.
BANFIELD: Say it`s consciousness of guilt. You can -- but lots of people behave and mourn in different ways and we`ve seen that trip up cases
before.
Kyle Peltz, real quickly, as a producer, you had your hands on this similar baby monitor before. You`ve actually read the online instructions for the
baby monitor. Just five me a feel if we`re off on the assessment of what I just looked at and said. Did I make any mistake in any of these?
KYLE PELTZ, CRIME AND JUSTICE PRODUCER (via telephone): No, you`re absolutely right. We actually bought the same monitor. We believe it`s the
exact same monitor that Shannan and Chris had. We were poring through the instruction manuals today, and as you said, this monitor does have a
feature.
I believe they call it the scan feature, where it will toggle between however many cameras you have connected to this baby monitor. It appears
that the Watts had two cameras. And like you said, there`s a nighttime mode on this.
And at nighttime mode, it says clear as day in the instruction manual that the image in nighttime mode, when everything is dark, turns up black and
white. And from the videos that we`ve seen on Shannan`s nightstand, it certainly does look like that`s a black and white image.
BANFIELD: And it is a tiny, tiny image. And if you`re trying to tell me that you can see Bella sprawled out on her bed and blue from halfway across
the room, because I guarantee you, if you`re walking back into the bedroom and it`s the first thing you see, your face isn`t two feet away from the
monitor.
You`re seeing it across the room. And I dare say it is impossible to see what color Bella is on her bed even if the lights are on in that bedroom,
even if it`s toggling back and forth from room to room every eight seconds because the toggle happens about every eight seconds.
But I think it is an uphill battle. We still have a lot more questions. Since the arrest of Chris Watts, the theories and the questions about this
case have simply been endless. The public interest in this case has erupted. So we`re going reach out to those of you in our digital space.
We are taking your questions from our Facebook community about what`s next for this case, what`s next for Chris Watts, what`s next for what may end up
a death penalty case. How is he going to mount a defense given what we just told you? More, next.
[18:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My daddy is a hero.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Come to daddy. She`s hugging you, Bella.
I am gifted.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am gifted.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): I am smart.
[18:40:01] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am smart.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything in life happens for a reason. And I also believe people are placed in your life for a reason.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: There are a lot of reasons that the Watts case is confounding, because nothing about this family says murder, which is why tens of
thousands of people have been doing their own investigating, their own amateur sleuthing on Facebook to try to prove just what happened and maybe
more importantly what didn`t happen.
So with that in mind, I want to go right to some of your incredible questions. Jeffrey Dewey asked us this on Facebook. After a case that is so
horrific as the Watts` murders, as well as other cases, what happens to the house? Will it be resold or will it just get torn down?
Joey Jackson, as a defense attorney, maybe you can weigh in. What does happen? No one is coming back there.
JACKSON: No.
BANFIELD: The family is dead and the surviving family member is probably not going to get out of jail or prison for a long time.
JACKSON: No, they won`t, but, you know, he may have other family members who have an interest there. Just because he doesn`t have any family that`s
immediate, there could be extended family members who he may in fact sign over the house to, to the extent that they can -- well, it depends upon how
it was structured, right?
Who is the owner of the house? Who has the ownership interest in the house? She`s now dead. And so as a result of that, you could very well see here
family does have an interest and they settle and otherwise work it out.
BANFIELD: So sad. Precious Correa asks us, explain unlawful termination of pregnancy, many are confused. That`s a great question, Joey.
JACKSON: Very simple. What happens is that there`s a big issue here because some states have a murder charge with an unborn fetus. This
particular state does not have a charge of murder as it relates to an unborn fetus.
They do have an unlawful termination of pregnancy. The fact is he killed the baby. Since you can charge murder, this is the next thing that they can
do. He terminated the pregnancy without lawful authority. He killed that unborn child.
BANFIELD: And there`s a movement in Colorado to change that.
JACKSON: Yes, there is.
BANFIELD: They want a statute like other states. Usually the viability of the fetus is what determines --
JACKSON: A hundred percent right.
BANFIELD: All right. The next question is from DJ Jimmy Antinone, does anyone think he already dug the grave before he killed Shannan?
Alexis Tereszcuk, I`m going ask you that, because I think there is a timeline issue that comes into play here. There was a birthday party these
children went to on Sunday, and we think that maybe the last time they were seen, and yet the timeline of their death is Sunday or Monday. What are you
thoughts on that?
TERESZCUK: I think that it doesn`t seem very likely. She was out of town so he was with the children. They were alive. People saw them at this
birthday party. Then he was home on Sunday. She came home 2:00 in the morning Monday morning.
Her friend saw her again alive, waved at her as she went in the front door. And by about 1:00 the next day, the police were on the case. So it was
probably within those 12 hours that they were killed.
BANFIELD: Yeah.
TERESZCUK: It doesn`t seem like he had time to dig an actual grave.
BANFIELD: And if his story is true, the intention wasn`t necessarily to go back there with those children. He says that he only strangled her because
she strangled the kids. So, if his story is true, that`s impossible.
Real quickly, this last question from Cheryl Larosa Coady. Ashleigh, do you you think they are going to use her lupus against her and say some of the
side effects of lupus can make you do things that you normally would never do under normal circumstances?
Randy Sutton, as a retired police lieutenant, I suppose you try to investigate everything on the defense side as well, not just on the
prosecutor side, but this might be right for investigating.
RANDY SUTTON, RETIRED POLICE LIEUTENANT: Well, this is very, very thin. I mean, a medical condition that the victim allegedly had, we wouldn`t -- as
an investigative response, we wouldn`t put much stock in that. You might look at it but it`s very thin. It`s a very thin type of investigative
response.
BANFIELD: Yeah. And who knows. I mean, maybe the defense will jump on this and use everything they can, right? They grab everything they can. You
never know.
JACKSON: You blame the victim, Ashleigh, you`re in trouble.
BANFIELD: You blame the victim, you`re in trouble. You`re right. But his whole defense is blaming this victim. If she is a victim. OK. I`m going get
to break real quickly, but Shannan spoke very frequently on her Facebook videos about how she built her first home when she was just 25 years old.
And it was no starter house. That`s just from looking at the outside of it. You`re going to be blown away. A 25-year-old built this house. Wait until
you see the rest of it.
[18:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She taught them to be brave and independent, just like Shannan. She was very successful and independent, before any man came
along, and that`s just the way she wanted it. She moved out at 18 and never looked back. She was ready to take on the world, and we know she did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[18:50:00] BANFIELD: She worked so hard. She earned herself a Lexus. She was teaching her little girls to make vision boards at just three and four
years old. There was really no telling what Shannan Watts would do next or what her daughters would grow up to do with a role model like their mom.
And we will never get to find out. But there are some very big clues from her past that are helping to shed a lot of light on the kind of woman
Shannan Watts was before she ever crossed paths with Chris. The kind of success that she seemed destined to grasp.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was single for a long time. And my goal was to buy a house. I was tired of paying someone else`s mortgage, because, you know,
that`s what you do when you rent. And I wanted to buy a house. And I wanted to buy a house that I could resell one day and make a profit off of.
And so I worked and worked and worked and worked. I lost a lot of friends because a lot of my friends were still young. We were still young. And I
was 25 years old when I built my first house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Not many people would have called that a starter home. It is a mansion by any standards. Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, 4,000-plus square
feet, almost .7 of an acre. It sold for $349,000. Twenty-five years old. This girl got building and buying this home. Look inside. If you think it`s
incredible on the outside, the inside is remarkable.
Kyle Peltz, as a crime justice producer working the story for so long, you dug into the listing and you also dug into the history of the new homeowner
and what he had allegedly told another newspaper about what he found behind, left behind in this home, when she seemed in a hurry to move to
Colorado.
PELTZ (via telephone): Right. So the man who bought this house from Shannan, he actually gave an interview to The Associated Press, and he says
that Shannan had been in a hurry to sell the house and left behind the furniture as part of the sale.
Now, we don`t know if all the furniture you`re seeing in these listing photos of the house was in fact left behind by Shannan, but we can assume
most of it probably was. And when we reached this man today, who currently owns this house, he said his words were misconstrued and did not want to
comment further, but what he told The Associated Press is strange.
BANFIELD: And -- I mean, you can`t help but look at a house like that as a 25-year-old woman needing four bedrooms and 4,000 square feet. It is really
-- I mean, she has a force to be reckoned with, as you said, worked her butt off and was able to do this. Imagine what she could have done with her
life and with those kids.
Shannan`s brother, Frankie, lost two nieces and his sister in this terrible, terrible crime. So, how is he trying to get back some of the
sense of normalcy? He`s remembering them on his Facebook page. And I will tell you some of the things he`s posting will break your heart.
[18:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two thousand eighteen is my year. I`m claiming it. It is my year. Everything I want for my family is happening in 2018. I just
feel blessed that we can do that. We can travel the world. One day, Chris can travel that long with us. And I love the fact that I can be there for
them. We go everywhere together. And we do everything together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Shannan Watts` family will certainly search for answers, look for clues, but the understanding of why this tragedy happened to them will
never fully settle in. While the process of piecing their lives back together begins, Frankie Rzucek, Shannan`s brother, is reflecting on some
of those last moments that he had with his nieces, and he`s doing it on his Facebook page.
Frankie recently posted this video. It`s a video that he got from his sister just after he said good-bye to the girls for what would be
unbeknownst to him the very last time. This video is from their trip back home to Colorado after leaving their summer vacation with those family
members in North Carolina.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): What baby?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I miss Uncle Frankie.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): You miss Uncle Frankie and Nonna?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: That`s Bella saying she misses her Uncle Frankie. Next hour of "Crime and Justice" starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): I love you. They`re still sleeping. Nice, peacefully sleeping.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): What happened to the Watts girls before they wound up dead?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Bodies of these two little girls have reportedly been submerged in an oil well for days.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Tonight, a new notch on the time line.
[19:00:01] UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): Just horrible.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): The girls` last known moments alive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): What baby?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I miss Uncle Frankie.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): And who might have seen them last?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re dumbfounded. We don`t get it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As more possible clues about their deaths start to immerge from the background.
CHRIS WATTS: Hopefully they can pick something up to where it`s going to lead to something.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just what did those dogs find when they were sniffing around the house?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You think it`s possible that the dogs may have detected the smell of the dead woman and her two daughters inside that house and
alerted investigators?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. It`s very possible.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And why would daddy let them in if he had just killed the family?
OFFICER: This is just sensual.
WATTS: Yeah. I don`t need to sign anything?
OFFICER: You are free to say no if you want to.
WATTS: No, like you`re -- you`re good. Just go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And yet another telling image of the all-important baby monitor. Might this one bring down his story, or could it help him
prove his case in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To think a wife would kill her children after her husband said he wants to leave is pretty far out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s something telling on that screen that we hadn`t seen before.
WATTS: Nope, she`s standing in her bed. She`s waiting for me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Possible answers to the brutal mystery that is haunting the nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HLN HOST: Good evening, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is "Crime and Justice." It is the case that captivated the
country. The Watt`s girls found dead on daddy`s work site. But even his friends and family gathered this weekend to remember the lives they lived,
dark questions loomed about the way they died. Like who killed the two little girls, just 3 and 4 years old? Daughters who loved playing games
with their dad, and absolutely loved going everywhere with their mom including to their graves.
And whether daddy kills them is still a dark debate. With Chris Watts allegedly telling the police it was his wife who strangled the kids, but
that story seems impossible for those who knew Shanann Watts. Like the friend who dropped her at home the night before she was missing, a woman
who knew Shanann as a stellar mom, a doting wife, and a helpful colleague, but nowhere near a child killer. She posted this video to Facebook this
weekend.
WATTS: And this is hard because some of those people are not going to be in my life anymore, but part of the reason I`m doing what I`m doing with
this groups that I joined is because I agreed to do it with a person, and that person is, unfortunately, no longer with me. And I`m going to do it
anyways, no matter how much I hate doing it.
BANFIELD: The police say Chris Watts is the reason that woman lost her friend and her co-worker, and they gathered enough evidence to charge him
with five counts of murder. Evidence that may not have been of to the police a first, but may have been more than clear to the K-9s at the house.
The K-9s at the house tell quite a story. In fact, Tracy Sergeant is a K-9 handler and search and recovery expert. She`s with me in studio tonight
because we`ve started to notice things on videos shot while this story began to evolve that now become very curious. And Tracy, thank you for
helping us navigate through this. But first and foremost, I want to play, if I can, something that caught our eye during the interviews that Chris
Watts posed for on his porch the day after his family had disappeared.
He was trying to make us all believe they were missing, when, in fact, he knew full well they were buried. But this is interesting because off
camera, you can hear him consenting to a search by K-9s. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OFFICER: Again, this is just consensual --
WATTS: Yeah. I don`t need to sign anything?
OFFICER: Feel free to say no if you want to.
WATTS: No, like, you`re good. Just go ahead.
OFFICER: OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Tracy, in your estimation, as a sergeant who worked with cadaver dogs like chance who is with you, how often is it that someone just
agrees to open their home if, in fact, something happened in that home, and they know something happened in that home?
TRACY SERGEANT, K-9 HANDLER: Yes, Ashleigh, that is not actually that uncommon, especially if the individual feels like they cleaned up all the
evidence, that they can get away with something, that the do aren`t going to detect anything, so it`s not uncommon for us to get consent, but the key
is, you can`t hide scent. You can`t remove that from an environment, and that`s essentially what the dogs are detecting, that, perhaps, the physical
evidence is gone, but the scent is still there.
BANFIELD: So, Tracy, I want you to watch along with me, specifically with your trained eye. The rest of us will only hear the dogs barking in the
background, but I have some specific questions about what may be happening if, in fact, they are cadaver dogs making strikes inside the home. So
let`s just listen as Chris Watts is giving his pitch to the nation to help him find his missing family, listen for what`s happening in the background.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OFFICER: What`s going on right now at your house?
WATTS: Right now, it`s got K-9 units, the sheriff`s department, they are going through the house trying to get a scent and hopefully they can pick
something up to where it`s going to lead to something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So we were fascinated by that, and we continued to listen to the interview, now, specifically, with that in mind. Tracy, listen once more
as the interview continued, and you can start to hear a lot more of the dogs inside that house. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WATTS: Yes, the dogs coming through to get scents. It has to be somewhere. In my heart, I believe she`s somewhere and I hope that she is
safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Well, we know that the hope was a lie, but dogs don`t lie. Give your estimation of what you could hear both inside the house and perhaps
outside the house when you heard the barks. Is that something they are finding, or do dogs do that as they work?
SERGEANT: Well, what I find most intriguing in the video is what`s happening inside the home, so when the dogs are searching, if they are
trained alert is a bark, that`s certainly an indication that they`ve picked up scent. Those dogs are trained to find what we called human remain
scent. That`s the full spectrum. That includes let`s say a full-sized body to just teeth, and in this case, perhaps scent.
So the dogs are telling us, not only were something isn`t, but just as importantly as where something is, even as we, the human investigators,
part of this team, cannot see it, the dogs detect it, and that zeros in as the investigators to say, hey, the dogs searched this part of the house.
There`s nothing here. But they are telling us and responding to this side of the house, so we need to really concentrate and find out why did the
dogs alert or indicate to this room and not that room. So that`s what I find very important.
BANFIELD: Can I ask you, if the dogs alerted to finding this scent of death, not a body part, just the scent of death, say in the basement, but
there`s no part of Chris Watts` narrative saying he took the bodies to the basement. All he`s saying is that eventually he took the bodies to the
garage and loaded them in the car and drove them to the work site, but if the work is detected say in the kitchen or bathroom or say the basement,
they can can`t they exactly where a dead body has been?
SERGEANT: Well, I think the clarification here, again, is human remain scent. As a dog handler, when my dog indicates to something, I can`t say
immediately that`s where somebody died. I can simply say the dog is telling me they are picking up scent in this location. Also, more
importantly, is to know, is this where the dog responding, does it tie directly to the case? We`ve worked some cases, let`s say the kitchen, for
example, somebody has cut their finger when they were cutting up something for dinner, has nothing to do with the investigation, but the dogs are
still going to alert, possibly in that area because there was blood there, there`s human remain scent, so that`s why the dogs are really a part of the
investigation team.
BANFIELD: OK. Well, that makes more sense. Actually, thank you for that, because what if there is a band-aid that one of the children ripped off in
the basement, so that would be intriguing. Can you do me a favor with chance? I know he looks very rested right now, but he`s a working dog, and
you can show me exactly what it looks like when he alerts to the scent of death, and I know that sounds ma cover, but you have human teeth used for
science, from a dentist, cleared for public use, and you hid them in the vicinity of the shot, correct?
SERGEANT: Yes, Ma`am.
BANFIELD: So, I`m going to go ahead and give the command. It`s a small area, so we`re going to do it close for the cameras, so, Chance, come here.
Come here. Ready? Chance, hunt. So what he is telling me is that when we were right here, there`s nothing here. But when he went over there, he
sat. that is his trained alert or indication to say, hey, I smell human remain scent in this area, so as an investigator, I need to go over there
and find out what is he alerting to?
So at that point, he`s done a good job. He`s done the job we need him to do. So we`re going to reward him for that. So it`s very clear for the dogs
--
BANFIELD: Fantastic.
SERGEANT: That when we`re working them, they are really black and white. And regardless of the situation, again, whether we have physical evidence
or not, the dogs can tell us two things, where something is and where something isn`t, and that is so important, even if, again, oftentimes we
worked many cases where a body was placed there and then later on moved, but the dog still alerted there. So the scent still remains in that area,
especially if there`s body fluids, it can remain in the ground or --
BANFIELD: So that`s --
SERGEANT: -- the flooring for years.
BANFIELD: That`s another issue because if the narrative is true, and if -- well, listen, half of what Chris says is that he killed his wife. He
strangled her. The other half is he saw her strangling the children, who knows what that part of the story will yield, but if the bodies were only
in that house for, say, a matter of 15 minutes, half hour, perhaps an hour, will the scent of death be there?
SERGEANT: Well, it`s not an exact science, Ashleigh. There`s a lot of variety and variables involved in that, so the size of the body or bodies
in this case, is there any trauma to the body, if there`s any body fluids, how long the bodies have been there, how they were killed, so there`s a lot
of parameters that we have to look at. But the most important part of that is that if scent is there, the dogs will detect it. If scent isn`t there,
the dogs will not detect it, but it`s -- what I had learned over the years doing this is that knowing where something isn`t is just as important to
knowing where something is.
So if again, if the husband says that we -- I killed them in the bedroom or I killed them in the basement, and not in the bathroom, but if the dogs are
alerting in the bathroom and then the CSI folks come in, and now they finding blood in the bathroom, we can now catch him in a lie saying,
listen, that`s not the right story. You didn`t tell us the truth. The dogs are telling us another story, so we need to hear the truth from you.
BANFIELD: Right. Yeah, and, of course, they are so buttoned uptight on this case, they are not leaking information of what the dogs found or where
those dogs found anything, so whatever story Chris has already told to the police is ironclad, and it`s on paper, and they are beginning to have to
match that up with what the forensics depicted. And just quickly, to be super clear, one of the experts in the field said the moment a person dies,
he or she begins to give off that scent. And we understand it`s not a perfect science, but there is a scent from the moment that they die.
SERGEANT: That is absolutely true. So the moment someone dies, we start the decomposition process, so it happens immediately. But as, let`s say,
for example, I`m standing here, I`m alive. I`m giving off live scent for the dog, for chance, he`s in here in the room. My scent is filling this
room. So even if I die right now, that scent of me being alive still fills this room is going to take time for the smell of death to overcome the
room.
BANFIELD: Can I ask you something specific about what we saw in the arrest warrant, and that was that there were sheets in the trash in the kitchen.
One of the sheets was not with the scent. It was found out at the burial site. If chance were in that house, would he alert to those sheets if,
say, like you mentioned, there were just maybe saliva or maybe some blood on the sheets from before, or is there a scent that could be given off on
the sheets if someone is, say, strangled in the bed?
SERGEANT: Well, again, understand that the dogs are a full spectrum of human remains. When you mention if there`s blood on the sheets, yes, a
human remains detection dog will respond to those sheets. Is that blood tied to the killing of the case? Or is it the -- because somebody cut
themselves? And it has nothing to do with the murder.
So, again, we have to look and see why did the dogs alert to this, and is it blood related to someone murdered or an innocent situation that has
nothing to do with the murder?
BANFIELD: Sure. I saw chance sit to alert. Very, very quietly, which I`m sure in certain investigations is extremely helpful so as not to tip your
hand, but those dogs were barking like crazy in the backdrop of Chris Watts` interview. Is that also an alert for a cadaver dog and trained
differently all over the world?
SERGEANT: Well, it depends upon what the dog`s trained alert is. Some dogs are trained to bark. Some of them are to sit, to lie down. So there
are a variety of ways that as trainers can teach the dog to tell us there`s something here.
BANFIELD: So we shouldn`t read into the fact there`s barking going on in the background? That could have been -- that could have been that dog`s
alert, if that, in fact, were a cadaver dog?
SERGEANT: Yes, Ma`am.
BANFIELD: OK.
SERGEANT: That is. Because we don`t see what`s going on inside.
BANFIELD: So Randy said, as a retired police lieutenant, help me get in the minds of the investigators as they get a report of a missing family.
And they show up to a home with dogs. Do they automatically show up with cadaver dogs to establish if they are looking for live people or bodies
somewhere else?
RANDY SUTTON, RETIRED POLICE LIEUTENANT: Well, they are looking everywhere. When -- when you`re talking about the dogs showing up, they`re
-- they got consent, which is important. If they had not gotten consent, they would have had to get a search warrant to have the dogs enter the
premises because otherwise any evidence --
BANFIELD: Would you show up with cadaver dogs, Randy? Like is that a -- is that a normal kind of investigation for a missing persons story when you
get to the house? Those dogs say search. They don`t say what kind of search.
SUTTON: Right. Cadaver dogs are not brought in on a run of the mill investigation for a missing person, no. Clearly, law enforcement had some
suspicions at the outset of this, of this case.
BANFIELD: If in fact those ended up being cadaver dogs, and we`re not entirely certain. But if you experts had said it`s possible those dogs that
showed up on that property were cadaver dogs. Tracy, I absolutely loved the demonstration, and, please, give our thanks to Chance down out of the
picture now below you. There he is. And he`s sleeping. He`s had his fun with the ball. So thank you so much for that.
It just -- I find it so fascinating, that particular science. Randy, I want to ask you to stay on as well. Before Shanann watts lived in Colorado
or in North Carolina, she was a grade school student at School 11 in Clifton, New Jersey. And her former school and community that surrounds it
said their good-byes to Shanann Watts just a couple days ago. We`re going to show that to you next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CINDY DEROSSETT, SHANANN`S FRIEND AND COWORKER: I don`t know how I`m going to do this without her in it. You know, with this life without her in it.
Every single person that connected with her just felt, you know, felt her light. It doesn`t happen to, you know, somebody you care about and love,
never; in a thousand years would you ever think this, ever. How dare you take our girls away from us? Just isn`t right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: When someone dies, you talk about all of the lives they touched, and Shanann Watts apparently touched lives all over this country because
even thought she lived in Colorado and laid to rest in North Carolina with her daughters, she`s been honored on the east coast as well. Somber vigil
held this weekend in another place Shanann Watts called home, New Jersey, where former friends and neighbors lit candles for the lives that were
taken too soon. And they sent four white balloons sailing into the night sky, one for Shanann, one for each of the girls, and one for their little
unborn brother, who was soon to be named Nicco.
But just as the whole country is coming together to honor Shanann Watts` memory, the country is coming together to try to solve this perplexing
murder. Tens of thousands of Americans with lives just like Shanann, looking for clues in the common place, featured in Shanann`s catalog of
Facebook videos. Like the one device in the Watts` home that could totally debunk her husband`s story, that picture on the video monitor on which
Chris Watts claims to have seen evidence his wife had killed the kids. But we found a brand new series of images on that monitor in use in that home,
and, frankly, it seems to cut both ways in this case.
I want to bring in Alexis Tereszcuk. He`s a senior reporter for radar online, and Kyle Pelts is on the phone with us, a crime and justice
producer working this story for several weeks now.
Alexis, first to you, the first part I introduced is the memory of Shanann around the country. There were more than 50,000 people that joined
Facebook groups to try to figure out the case or at least be a part of this in some way to mourn her and the loss of these children and the unborn son.
The candle light vigil in Clifton, take me there and tell me a little about it.
ALEXIS TERESZCUK, SENIOR REPORTER, RADARONLINE.COM: So it was Thursday night. There were about 100 people there. It was a beautiful ceremony.
It was about 20 minutes long, and you know what they did? They released four white balloons, as you said, for all three of the children and one for
her as well. And this was a community where she lived when she was very, very young, but they still felt such a connection to her, and they were so
heart broken about this horrific murder.
And then her brother released a statement, and he said, I`m so touched by everybody that spoke out about my sister and the girls. It`s something I
never thought would happen. This is the worst thing that happened to our family, but the silver lining is, we have met so many people that are so
loving and so kind." But this is pretty much --
BANFIELD: You know let me read it. I grabbed his statement here from Facebook, Frankie Rozeek, you know, by all descriptions, he was so close to
his sister. They were the best of friends. He loved those two little girls so much. Let me read for you what he wrote.
"We lost so much in the blink of an eye, but gained love and support from people all over, and they became part of our family. I`ve never felt so
loved in all my life. To my beautiful sister, Shanann, you`re truly an inspiration. Now the world can see why I always looked up to you, and I
promise to carry on your legacy. Love always, your little brother, Xox, PS, you changed the world without even knowing. I hope we made you proud."
It`s remarkable to see that you know, even as far as Clifton, New Jersey, there was this out pouring. I think a100 people or so coming forward. All
of this as people who never knew her are trying to figure out the clues that might be, you know, hiding in plain sight on all of the videos. And I
want to draw your attention to a video we found over the weekend that was about nothing and you know, to do with the case. It was about a gift that
Shanann got for her birthday, an air diffuser on the bedside table and the remote control for it.
But what was fascinating about the January video, just from her birthday last January talking about the great diffuser, we see in clear crisp view
the baby monitor an arm`s length away from her lying in bed. So now we know where that baby monitor was on the bedside table, and we see exactly
what it looks like from that very close distance, which is key. Because Chris Watts, if you read from the arrest affidavit, it seems to pins this
whole thing on what he saw on the baby monitor when he walked in the room. Let me read from the affidavit.
"Chris stated, after he told Shanann he wanted a separation, she walked down stairs for a moment. And then returned to his bedroom to speak with
Shanann again. While in the bedroom, via baby monitor, located on Shanann`s night stand, he observed Bella sprawled out on the bed and blue
and Shanann actively strangling Celeste." And we`ve shown photographs. We`ve show a few pictures. Now we can see clearly from the bedside table
what you can actually see on the monitor. Have a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WATTS: I am sitting here with my diffuser that I just got on my birthday. But look how awesome it is. It changes colors. I`m trying to figure out
how to work it. That turns the color off. If Sarah is out there, help me here, but I love my aria diffuser. See now I don`t know how to turn the
lights back on. See?
This is what happens when you play with this. But look how awesome it is. And it changes colors. I`m still trying to figure out how to work it.
That turns the color off. If Sarah`s out there, Sarah can help me here. But I love my Aria diffuser. See, now I don`t know how to turn the lights
back on. See? This is what happens when you play --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: OK. Notice how she`s just talking about the diffuser in the background. But we have zeroed in on the baby monitor right next to her
hand. Look at the size of the image, just look at that from a two feet away, she`s in her bed, and reaching over, and arm`s length is two to two
and a half feet, you can see the size of her hand. Can you make out anything in that baby monitor? As it toggles from baby`s room to baby`s
room, a brand new feature we just noticed.
At one point, it`s on one child`s view, and then it toggles to another child`s view. So, Alexis, I`m going to ask you, I don`t know if you saw
this for the first time, but can you make out what color the face is of the child in night view on that --
TERESZCUK: No.
BANFIELD: They`re going to bed. She said it`s night time. It`s late. They`ve been up late she said. Can you make out anything about the color?
TERESZCUK: I cannot. We actually have this exact baby monitor in my house. And if you can see on the right of the baby monitor, when there`s a
green light and see how it`s going up right now and it turns red, that means there`s noise in the room. There`s a button where you can have the
sound on, but the sound is off there. So that means there`s something going on in the room but you cannot see the color of anybody.
It`s nighttime. It`s basically black and white and there`s nothing in it. And it doesn`t also zoom in. The -- well, the camera can zoom in, but
she`s not zooming in there right now. It`s very much -- it`s a black and white bedroom, it`s an infrared light. I`m not exactly sure on what it is.
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HLN HOST: She`s two feet away.
TERESZCUK: Right. Yes.
BANFIELD: She`s two feet away and it`s extremely hard to make out the baby because the size of the baby on a monitor that`s smaller than an iPhone is
about the size of the pointer of your finger, the tip of your finger, and he is walking into the bedroom and seeing this on the baby monitor. So,
he`d be a lot further away sensibly than, say, lying in the bed right next to the monitor. But I do want to point out the toggle feature, because I
think this cuts both ways. And Joey Jackson, I think as a lawyer, you should weigh in on this because if I`m a defense lawyer, I`m saying, of
course, he saw both rooms. He saw the first image and maybe Shanann turned the little on, and it wasn`t in black and white mode which is night-time
imaging. Maybe she turned the light on and strangled one child and went to the next room and turned the light on and strangled the next child. And he
comes in within eight seconds those images toggle from room to room.
JOEY JACKSON, HLN & CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, Ashleigh, I just don`t buy it, it`s just such an implausible story and that`s the issue when you
speak to the police in the first instance. I think the play of the defense is to try to get the statements supressed so that you can have a fresh
start at whatever the offenses you`re going to have. But in terms of pinning it on the wife is not plausible, it`s not believable, and I think
it`s somewhat offensive, and I think that becomes problematic to his defense, in general, to blame his dead wife as to why he killed the
children because she was strangling them, and he did this in retribution. And furthermore, Ashleigh, the aftermath is not consistent with human
behavior. So, after your wife does this, the first thing you`re going to do is get rid of everyone? Put your children in oil, and hide your wife`s
body? It just is a defense that is not something that I, as a defense attorney, would pursue.
BANFIELD: Say it`s consciousness of guilt, you can say, but lots of people behave and mourn in different ways, and we`ve seen that trip up cases
before. Kyle Peltz, real quickly, as a producer, you`ve had your hands on this similar baby monitor before. You`ve actually read the online
instructions for the baby monitor. Just give me a feel for if we`re off on the assessment of what I just looked at and said. Did I make any mistakes
in any of this?
KYLE PELTZ, HLN CRIME & JUSTICE PRODUCER (via telephone): No, you`re absolutely right. We actually bought the same monitor, we believe it`s the
exact, same monitor that Shanann and Chris had. We were pouring through the instruction manuals today, and as you said this monitor does have a
feature, I believe they call it the scan feature, where it will toggle between however many cameras you have connected to this baby monitor, and
it appears that the Watts had two cameras. And like you said, there`s a night-time mode on this. And a night-time mode, it says, clear as day in
the instruction manual, that the image in night-time mode, when everything is dark, turns up black and white, and from the videos that we`ve seen on
Shanann`s nightstand, it certainly does look like that`s a black and white image.
BANFIELD: And it is a tiny, tiny image, and if you`re trying to tell me that you can see Bella sprawled out on her bed and blue from halfway across
the room because I guarantee you if you`re walking back into the bedroom and it`s the first thing you see, your face isn`t two feet away from the
monitor. You`re seeing it across the room, and I dare say it is impossible to see what color Bella is on her bed, even if the lights are on in that
bedroom, even if it`s toggling back and forth from room to room every eight seconds, because the toggle happens about every eight seconds. But I think
it`s an uphill battle.
We still have a lot more questions, and since the arrest of Chris Watts, the theories and the questions about this case have simply been endless.
The public interest in this case has erupted. So, we`re going to reach out to those of you in our digital space. We are taking your questions from
our Facebook community about what`s next for this case? What`s next for Chris Watts? What`s next for what may end up a death penalty case? How is
he going to mount a defense given what we just told you? More next.
[19:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BELLA WATTS, MURDER VICTIM: My daddy is a hero, he helps me grow up strong.
SHANANN WATTS, MURDER VICTIM: Hang on to daddy.
(CROSSTALK)
S. WATTS: Oh, she`s hugging you, Bella.
(CROSSTALK)
S. WATTS: Oh, that`s so sweet.
I am gifted.
B. WATTS: I am gifted.
S. WATTS: I am smart.
B. WATTS: I am smart.
S. WATTS: Everything in life happens for a reason, and I also believe people are placed in our life for a reason.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:39:59] BANFIELD: There are a lot of reasons that the Watts` case is compounding because nothing about this family says murder. Which is why
tens of thousands of people have been doing their own investigating, their own amateur sleuthing on Facebook to try to prove just what happened. And
maybe more importantly, what didn`t happen. So, with that in mind, I want to go right to some of your incredible questions. Jeffrey Dewey, you`ve
asked us this on Facebook. "After a case that is so horrific as the Watts` murders, as well as other cases, what happens to the house? Will it be
resold or will it just get torn down?" Joey Jackson, as a defense attorney, maybe you can weigh in. What does happen? No one`s coming back
there.
JACKSON: No.
BANFIELD: But the family`s dead and the surviving family member is probably not going to get out of jail or prison for a long time.
JACKSON: No, they won`t but you know, he may have other family members who have an interest there. Just because he doesn`t have any family that`s
immediate, there could be extended family members who he may, in fact, sign over the house to.
BANFIELD: What about her family?
JACKSON: To the extent that they can`t -- well, it depends upon how it was structured, right? Who is the owner of the house; who has the ownership
interest in the house? She`s now dead. And so, as a result of that, you could see -- very well see that her family does have an interest, and they
settle and otherwise work it out.
BANFIELD: So sad. Precious Correa asks us, "Explain unlawful termination of pregnancy, many are confused." And that`s a great question, Joey.
JACKSON: Very simple, what happens is that there`s a big issue here because some states have a murder charge with an unborn fetus. This
particular state does not have a charge of murder, but as it relates to an unborn fetus, they do have a -- unlawful termination of pregnancy, which in
effect, he killed the baby. Since you can`t charge murder, this is the next thing that they can do. He terminated the pregnancy without lawful
authority, he killed that unborn child.
BANFIELD: And there is a movement afoot in Colorado to change that because of this case.
JACKSON: Yes, there is.
BANFIELD: They want -- they want a statute like other states, usually the viability of the fetus is what determines the --
(CROSSTALK)
JACKSON: 100 percent right.
BANFIELD: All right. The next question is from DJ Jimmy Antinone, "Does anyone think he already dug the grave before he killed Shanann?" Alexis
Tereszcuk, I`m going to ask you that because I think there`s a timeline issue that comes into play here. There was a birthday party these children
went to on Sunday, and we think that may be the last time they were seen, and yet, the timeline of their death is Sunday or Monday. What are your
thoughts on that?
TERESZCUK: I think that -- it doesn`t seem very likely because he -- she was out of town so he was with the children, they were alive, people saw
them at this birthday party. Then, he was home on Sunday, she came home 2:00 in the morning Monday morning, her friend saw her, again, alive, waved
at her as she went in the front door. And by about 1:00 the next day, the police were on the case, and so it was probably within those 12 hours that
they were killed. It doesn`t seem like he had time to dig an actual grave.
BANFIELD: And if his story is true, the intention wasn`t necessarily go back there with those children. He says that he only strangled her because
she strangled the kids. So, if his story is true, that`s impossible. Real quickly, this last question from Cheryl Larosa Coady, "Ashleigh, do you
think they are going to use her lupus against her and say some of the side effects of lupus can make you do things that you normally would never do
under normal circumstances? Randy Sutton, as a retired police lieutenant, I suppose you try to investigate everything on the defense side as well,
not just on the prosecutor side, but this might be right for investigating.
RANDY SUTTON, FORMER POLICE LIEUTENANT: Well, this is very, very thin. I mean, a medical condition that the victim allegedly had, we wouldn`t -- as
an investigative response, we wouldn`t put much stock in that. You might look at it, but it`s not -- it`s a very thin -- it`s a very thin type of
investigative response.
BANFIELD: Yes. And who knows, I mean, maybe the defense will jump on this, and they use everything they can, right? They grab everything they
can. You never know.
JACKSON: If you blame the victim, Ashleigh, you`re in trouble.
BANFIELD: If you blame the victim, you`re in trouble, you`re right. But his whole defense is blaming this victim, if she is a victim.
OK. I`m going to get to break real quickly, but Shanann spoke very frequently on her Facebook videos about how she built her very first home
when she was just 25 years old. And it is no starter house. And that`s just from looking at the outside of it. You`re going to be blown away, a
25-year-old built this house. Wait until you see the rest of it.
[19:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV. JOHN FORBES, SACRED HEART CATHOLIC CHURCH: She taught them to be brave and independent just like Shanann. She was very successful and
independent. Before any man came along, and that`s just the way she wanted it. She moved out at 18 and never looked back. She was ready to take on
the world, and we know she did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:50:01] BANFIELD: She`d worked so hard, she earned herself a Lexus. She was teaching her little girls to make vision boards at just 3 and 4
years old. There was really no telling what Shanann Watts would do next, or what her daughters would grow up to do with a role model like their mom.
And we will never get to find out, but there are some very big clues from her past that are helping to shed a lot of light on the kind of woman
Shanann Watts was before she ever crossed paths with Chris, and the kind of success that she seemed destined to grasp.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
S. WATTS: I was single for a long time, and my goal was to buy a house. I was tired of paying someone else`s mortgage because, you know, that`s what
you do when you rent, and I wanted to buy a house, and I wanted to buy a house that I could resell one day and make a profit off of. And so, I
worked and worked and worked and worked. I lost a lot of friends because a lot of my friends were still young, we are still young, and I was 25 years
old when I built my first house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Not many people would have called that a starter home. It is a mansion by any standard, four bedrooms, three bathrooms, 4,000 plus square
feet. Almost 0.7 of an acre. It sold for $349,000. 25 years old, this girl is building and buying this home. Look inside. If you think it`s
incredible on the outside, the inside is remarkable. Kyle Peltz, as a CRIME & JUSTICE Producer working this story for so long, you dug into the
listing and you also dug into the history of the new homeowner, and what he had allegedly told another newspaper about what he found behind, left
behind in this home when she seemed in a hurry to move to Colorado.
PELTZ: Right. So, the man who bought this house from Shanann, he actually gave an interview to the Associated Press, and he says that Shanann had
been in a hurry to sell the house and left behind the furniture as part of the sale. Now, we don`t know if all the furniture you`re seeing in these
listing photos of the house were in fact left behind by Shanann, but we can assume most of it probably was. And when we reached this man today, this -
- who currently owns this house, he said his words had been misconstrued and didn`t want to comment further. But what he told The Associated Press
is certainly strange.
BANFIELD: And I mean, it`s -- you can`t help but look at a house like that as a 25-year-old woman needing four bedrooms and 4,000 square feet. It is
really -- I mean, she is a force to be reckoned with as she -- as she said worked her butt off and was able to do this. Imagine what she could have
done with her life and with those kids. Shanann`s brother, Frankie, lost two nieces and his sister in this terrible, terrible crime. So, how is he
trying to get back some of the sense of normalcy? He`s remembering them on his Facebook page and I will tell you, some of the things he`s posting will
break your heart.
[19:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
S. WATTS: 2018 is my year. I`m claiming it. It is my year. Everything I want for my family is happening in 2018.
I just feel blessed that we can do that, we can travel the world. One day Chris can travel that long with us. And I love the fact that I can be
there for them. We go everywhere together, and we do everything together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Shanann Watts` family will search for answers and look for clues but the understanding of why this tragedy happened to them will likely
never fully settle in. And while the process of piecing their lives back together begins, Frankie Rzucek, Shanann`s brother is reflecting on some of
those last moments that he had with his nieces, and he`s doing it on his Facebook page. Frankie recently posted this video. This video that he got
from his sister just after he said goodbye to the girls for what would be unbeknownst to him, the very last time they begin their trip back home to
Colorado from North Carolina.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
S. WATTS: What, baby?
B. WATTS: I miss uncle Frankie.
S. WATTS: You miss uncle Frankie and Nonna?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: This is her family and they miss her. Thank you for watching, everyone. "FORENSIC FILES" begins right now.
END
