What are people thinking of 'American Murder: The Family Next Door' on Netflix? *MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

[Monk9306]

Watched it tonight with my partner and was left absolutely heartbroken and feeling very shocked! What did other people think?

Horrific.

Very very upsetting. I was sobbing at the end. Those poor girls during that car journey. I hope they are all together again now.

Shocked I think the friend alerted the Police far more quickly than he expected and put paid to his cover up.

Those poor little girls is what has stuck with me.
I'm guessing they were still alive when he disposed of them, and the fact one if them said "daddy, no" as he did something so horrific, I can't unsee/unhear what I have, my heart breaks for them all.
Its just so mindless. Those poor innocent children. It makes me want to do something to go a little way to re-addrress the balance. I am considering making a donation to a children's charity in thier memory.

Truly an evil, selfish man. I honestly don't understand the mindset of him, he could have easily have walked away and never seen the woman or children again, rather than the course he took.

Same - we watched last night and my mouth was gapping for the entire time.

Those poor girls, I had to ask my DH if I’d heard correctly what he did.

I’m a coward and turned it off after 10 minutes. I googled the story and decided I just couldn’t watch. Absolutely heartbreaking!!

Horrific - It never fails to amaze me that these men can wipe out their own family. It happened to a friend of mines sister - drugged and strangled by her husband. He then stabbed his son and throttled his 9 year old daughter, the kids survived.

On the surface a normal family, how does it go so wrong?

We were in America on holiday at the time and the news story was headline news every day.

We watched it the other day on Netflix. Can't get it out of my mind. Dh is really affected by it too and feels angry. I don't understand. What an evil man.

It was pre mediated but there was no way he was going to get away with it. He hadn't really made any efforts to cover his tracks.

Does anyone also think the mistress has something to do with? Surprised the police didn't investigate her further.

I think the blame lies squarely at his door. He killed them. He disposed of them the way he did. The blame should be focussed on him.

I found it has really stayed with me and is playing on my mind. Just heartbreaking. Something about the location that he left the girls in just made it more disturbing than if he'd buried them. But, someone above said they thought they were alive when they were put in there, I don't think they were, he smothered them too. Horrific.

It's hard to know how premeditated it was. If he had been planning it, surely he would have covered his tracks better? He was the obvious suspect and just didn't give the police any reason to suspect it wasn't him! But maybe that was all part of his arrogance, that he just assumed that police would never think such a 'great guy' like him would do that.

I think the police probably knew it was him from the moment they met him, even before the neighbour said he wasn't acting right. He was far too cool and then the woman who had done the lie detector pointed out that he had not cried once, even though he apparently didn't know where his own little girls were or if they were safe.

The whole thing was horrific. And from the text messages it was clear that Shannan knew something was wrong but, unless they missed out certain messages, she never ever actually feared for her safety or the safety of her daughters. What an absolute psycho.

@hotpotlover when I was watching the documentary I was very suspicious of the mistress she came across badly a very odd type of person almost like she was on drugs! I've been reading about her since and I don't think she had anything to do with it, she went to the police voluntarily handed over her phone and has never been suspected. He fed her a pack of lies. I don't think anyone knew him at all.

I think he planned to use her phone to send messages to his phone to make it look like she had left with the girls..that would make sense of the wedding ring being at the house...but her friend messed it up for him by ringing the police so soon.

I was heartbroken watching this. Those beautiful baby girls. So heartbreaking. Sick, evil man. And then his mum forgiving him! Made my stomach turn

He was very cold when he said that he believed his wife had given birth when he disposed of her body. He gave her drugs to make her miscarry. Why do that if you were going to strangle her anyway?

There were also lots of financial problems which the documentary didn't address. They were made bankrupt in 2015. The wife worked for a MLM. They were struggling despite living in a lovely house.

I think his girlfriend did say something about not liking the fact he was married with kids, she denied it but.. He came across as a narcissist. He was talking about how it had affected him, not his victims. Also, his parents were very full-on.

@FurryTurnipHead

I found it has really stayed with me and is playing on my mind. Just heartbreaking. Something about the location that he left the girls in just made it more disturbing than if he'd buried them. But, someone above said they thought they were alive when they were put in there, I don't think they were, he smothered them too. Horrific.

I think you were referring to my post, thanks for clearing that up. I was trying to work out if they were alive or not when disposed of, I asked my DP (watching with me) and he thought they were. If they were already dead, somehow that gives me a small comfort (can't think of a better way to put it, so sorry, none of it is 'comforting'.) The thought of them being disposed of alive, in those tanks, is something I havent been able to get over.

I've read that his mother was an emotional abuser and his childhood was not good, she tried to control the whole family.

There was a thread on this the other day and someone posted lots of interesting details that weren't included in the documentary, I'll try and find it

It was so disturbing and horrific. How he could present himself so differently is shocking and his normality post the murders is unbelievable. He seemed completely unaffected which is the characteristic of a psychopath that Martha Stout in her book "The sociopath next door" discusses.

I wonder if he displayed textbook lovebombing at the outset as he seemed "perfect".

My heart broke for the last moments those little girls went though.

It didn't really cross my mind until now, but when he arrived back at the beginning and the police and friend were outside, had he just got back from killing them all?

but her friend messed it up for him by ringing the police so soon.

Yes, this was probably key. He probably didn't even know she had a doctors appt, and clearly didn't realise that she was so close to one of her friends that that friend would be so worried after a few hours of her not replying to texts. He was too busy planning his new life to know anything about his wife.

He was a real smooth talker the way he reassured Shannan when she had doubts. It made me think you never really know anyone!
What wasnt shown in the film is that apparently he actually smothered the two girls before Shannan but they both came around. He told that to someone he wrote to from jail. He said the girls had black eyes or were bruised badly on the face when he drove them to their deaths.
And they were further badly injured as he pushed them through a very small opening in the oil tanks.
Really heart breaking. He said the younger was possibly asleep when she was killed but Bella, the older one had to watch him burrying her mum and killing her sister and she really fought for her life. He said that shocked him.

It was such an awful thing. The man is pure evil, and when he tried to say that it was Shanann that had killed the children my blood boiled.