American Murder: The Family Next Door (Netflix)

[XelaM]

Omg has anyone else seen this? I knew about the case before, but watching the documentary I have no words. It's is just beyond belief. I find this case so different to the usual family murder cases because there were (what appears to be) absolutely zero motive or warning signs. I just can't understand how he could have done something so unbelievably evil for seemingly no reason at all?

Clearly I'm the only one watching these type of murder documentaries. 😬This case just seems so utterly bizarre. I don't think he ever explained why he did it and he seemed completely normal. The crime is so unbelievably brutal and cold though that it's difficult to begin to understand. It makes no sense at all why he would decide to do this. It's almost like he's not human.

It blows my mind that there's women writing to him in prison after what he done to those babies.

Is this about poor Shannan Watts and her children? I saw that documentary a while back, and yes it is just horrific.

Yes I've seen this one and other documentaries about the case. He is vile.

Yup I see this documentary. I guess we will never know what goes through some peoples mind. Such a sad ending for that poor family. I can't remember what his sentence was but feel like it should have been the death sentence for sure.

Yes, it's about Shannan Watts and the two girls. I can't wrap my head around it. He's just pure evil. He could have easily left her or divorced. I can (just about) get my head around him snapping and killing her even though she was pregnant with his much-wanted son... but the fact that the next morning he coldly put those girls in the car to drive them to be killed one by one for no reason at all... and then dumps them in the oil tanks! It's not possible to fathom this from someone who seems so absolutely normal.

Omg really?! 😱Who in Earth could possibly sympathise with him?!?

But then many people attacked Shannan on social media following the crime. It's unbelievable. People even believed him when he (like a true monster) tried to pin the kids' murders on her.

His sentence was reduced to life without parole because he pleaded guilty. He only pleaded guilty to avoid the death sentence, otherwise he would have continued saying that she killed the girls

He coldly drove the two girls out the the oil plant knowing the whole time he was planning to kill them and then calmly kills his younger daughter in front of the elder and then just as calmly kills the elder whilst she begs him not to. And then dumps them in the two separate oil tanks. It's not a crime whereby he just one day snapped and killed them in a rage or killed them in their sleep - he completely consciously carried out his plan. Just unbelievable! When those girls absolutely adored him and he had no reason at all to do this. It's evil almost beyond belief.

From recollection, didn’t he have Shannan’s body in the car as well for that journey? I hope to God those poor girls weren’t aware of it if so.

Yes he did! On the floor of the car and the girls kept asking "Is mummy ok?" 🥹 It's truly an unimaginable crime because of the utterly horrifically cold conscious manner in which he carried out those murders. And he didn't even have a motive. He could have just easily left them. It's not like he was financially dependent on Shannan and his new girlfriend of 5 weeks could have still been there if he had just left his family.

There’s always a certain type of gullible/desperate/lacking a life women that write to criminals. They also think it makes them ‘edgy’. The letters (especially the racier ones) are used as a currency. Stupid cows (yes, I fully meant to say that) don’t realise they’re either a joke, wank fodder for randomers or useful fools.

That's generally always the case in family inhilators, if you research it, they are always the same to the outside world, calm caring family men, but then they snap!!!

I'm not one to easily.wish death on people...

But that guy?..
I hope he's getting beaten multiple times a day by men 4 times his size.

The victims family requested the death sentence be removed

I watched this a while ago with no prior knowledge of the case, I had no idea what to expect from it - I was absolutely aghast., it was beyond any comprehension.

It would be more understandable if he had "snapped" and maybe when he killed Shannan that's what happened, but he killed the girls in an absolutely cold and calculating fashion the next morning. It's not like he was in some spontaneous rage. He chillingly drove them out to the desert and killed them one by one whilst they were very much awake and talking to him. That's insanely evil. Usually men "snap" and kill their wife and kids in a rage or in their sleep and then often kill themselves. But this guy just calmly killed his whole family in a completely premeditated fashion and then went about his day as usual.

Oh, and he just dumped these two beautiful little girls that were singing "Daddy is my hero" a few days ago into two separate oil tankers, didn't even think to bury them with their mother. He really is truly evil. He had absolutely zero feelings towards them.

Unfortunately, this kind of crime is not that rare. The Scott Peterson case was really similar. Basically, these men don’t want to be the “bad guy” who left their wife and kids for another woman and their utter arrogance makes them think they’ll get away with it. They’re sociopaths.

Yes, Scott Peterson was a similar case, but at least there he "only" killed his pregnant wife, but here he not only killed his pregnant wife but also very much planned to kill his two cute kids. It's just so scary how absolutely normal this guy seemed with seemingly the perfect life - loving pretty wife, two cute little girls and a boy on the way, big house and good job. Seemed like he had it all.

I think he believed his new gf would prefer him without 'the baggage ' of a first family.

I have read a lot about the case and it's interesting because it seems like she was the difficult one and emotionally controlling. She was into MLM schemes and they had already declared bankcrupty once because of them..

A divorce made sense, and I think even understandable but he killed his kids and her. I will never understand that.

It's a massive stretch for me to imagine killing a partner but as messed up as it is, I can at least see why he wanted to kill his wife but what he did to those poor wee girls is horrific. How on earth to do murder any child & their them in a tanker, especially his own 2 girls. Absolute evil

I watched this too. At the beginning I didn’t suspect him. Then as the documentary revealed more I realised he did it and yes it doesn’t make sense of any normal person. He is not normal. He’s some kind of psychopath or sociopath devoid of any empathy or capacity to love. And yet he presented himself as completely normal. Chilling.

To be sharing your life with someone who you would never imagine would be capable of doing that to you and your kids. Believing that this person loves you and being completely oblivious to who they really are. Truely awful, terrible beyond words.

And his parents who raised him loved him. Did they ever suspect what their son really was? Or were they completely fooled by him too? I couldn’t imagine my own child growing up to being this monster who murdered their family. You’d be grieving for the child (grownup) you thought you once had who is no more but feeling like you should have known or prevented it, or done something different. It would be isolating because who could you really talk to about your grown up child who has done something so horrific.

And his in-laws who welcomed him into the family and had no idea that he was a risk for their daughter and grandchildren.

I agree. I really do think this was his reasoning. Absolutely disgusting though.