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Watts family murders12/31/2023 ![]() Once upon a time, the cliche of a small town homicide was the clueless next door neighbor, who would turn their shocked eyes to the local news camera and hollowly pronounce: “He was a quiet man. And it’s easy because we’ve been given the script. Or we show our brave face when we are feeling less than brave. ![]() We fear committing a faux pas so we curate the representations of our own lives so that we show only the blessings and the happiness. We know that feeling of second-hand embarrassment when someone shares too much. The problem is that we, as social media users, mute the struggles and amplify the joys. Part of me thinks it’s all noise and no signal. The question I come back to is this: Does all the artifice of social media stand in the way of real conversations and real insight? There’s part of me that thinks we have more data points and less information than we ever did before. ![]() That said, it’s also possible he had long been acting as a perfect father while deteriorating internally. Narratives don’t always make sense and murder never does. He may have suffered a profound psychological break. Look, it’s possible that the care and love Chris appeared to have for his children was genuine. How much do I really know about my neighbor’s lives? If there was something wrong would I notice? Would I do something? I can’t help but wonder what lies beneath every carefully posed selfie or every #blessed. Still, I can’t help but think of my neighbors and friends - of their carefully curated feeds. The murders are tragic and I don’t want to trivialize that tragedy by solipsistically recontextualizing loss. I think how foolish it is to pretend that the glimpses we have into the homelives of others are meaningful. Then I think of the horror and how I can’t empathize with what I don’t see. Their moments of joy feels genuine and my response to genuine joy is empathic. When I see video of Shanann and her daughters, I smile in spite of myself. How can anyone possibly reconcile the tragedy and terror with the family on the social feed. “Really?” He asks as you hear the couple kiss off camera. When Shanann became pregnant with their third child, she filmed the reveal as Chris grins broadly and laughs at her “Oops … We did it again” t-shirt. Another video shows Chris gamely doing squats as each of his little girls, in turn, is perched on his shoulders. In one video, they play a “pie in the face” game and Chris’ daughters take turns propelling whipped cream into their dad’s face while he smiles patiently and laughs at the mess. ![]() Her now memorialized page is packed with videos of her home life, often featuring a smiling Chris playing with his daughters. What people saw was largely what Shanann Watts posted on Facebook. In surfacing the photos and videos of the smiling and unsuspecting dead, the news leans into the pain and the deeply uncomfortable realization that when it comes to the American family, what we see isn’t always what we get. The shock is propelled and prolonged by media outlets mining Shanann’s social media, which represents her family as normal and apparently thriving, living a life marked by travel and togetherness. Particularly perplexing is why Chris Watts, who appeared to be a doting father would commit such a heinous act. His arrest has shaken town of Frederick, Colorado, a small community where the Watts were known as good neighbors, and the country. Colorado father of two Chris Watts was arrested on Wednesday and has reportedly admitted to the murder of his pregnant wife Shanann Watts and his two daughters, 4-year-old Bella, and 3-year old Celeste.
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