American Murder: The Family Next Door - Netflix

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openbook1 said:
Do you think Shanann was really awake when he killed her? I think she was sleeping as believe she would have fought back and he didn't have a mark on him.
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I can’t for the life of me work out what happened in that house but I keep wondering, even if she was asleep would she not still have woken up at being strangled or smothered? Obviously not something that’s happen to me but I would have thought your reflexes still kick in if you are deprived of oxygen and you would wake up. I know I’ve once woken up because my head got under the blanket and I woke up kind of gasping. Does anyone know if you would wake up? I’m guessing they found no drugs in her system that could have indicated he drugged her first.
 
I just looked at Shanann's facebook... her profile photo and cover photo were updated this year since 2018 which is odd - do her family have access to the page? I know sometimes people assign a family member to their account in case something was to happen.

Enid Swamp said:
He is thick as tit. A dead behind the eyes moron. That’s what drove it all. Didn’t have the sense to separate/ divorce like a grown up.

But strong also, so she could not really have put up much of a fight.
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Yes. I just can't believe how gross he was. I am appalled also at the victim-blaming towards Shanann. I didn't find her that bad, to be honest. I don't like the idea of sharing your whole life on social media but people do it, it isn't anything outrageous. She knew what she wanted and wasn't afraid to say it. He was horrible to her, dismissing her, instead of being honest...an absolute coward. It is funny as in the relationship dynamic, he came across as a bit of a wet blanket. Do you know what pissed me off? When he was being interviewed, before the polygraph, he was speaking about Shanann asking if he was having an affair, and he said "you know how woman are" (implying we are crazy). That piece of tit was trying to make Shanann look bad from the beginning and then smeared her name saying she murdered the children. I wonder how his prison life is going? I am going to assume inmates have not taken kindly to him. I need to watch the videos on Youtube about the body language and the rest of the interview tapes. I noticed his Dad kept rubbing his back like the woman was doing (obv she was using it as a tactic).
 
Although I don’t think GF was involved having watched YouTube vid by someone who had access to her video the relationship was a lot more involved than she let on..there was a txt sent to a friend questioning if she could see herself pursuing a relationship with a man who already had children ..”. it wdnt be new for him”. I think this is a discussion she had with Chris & it made him think abt how he could start afresh. Also it did look like her truck in the b/g & it’s a bit odd that at 5am her phone pinged 40 minutes away from her house. After being I/v she was not further investigated as he pled guilty & it wasn’t deemed necessary I believe she should have been to get full disclosure. I’m inclined to think he pleaded guilty early to protect her ... I’d say she told him to keep her out of it & maybe sugg she wd “be there “ for him if he did so.
 
SarcasticEllis said:
What he did was just horrific and heartbreaking. And an eye opener too into what’s behind a full-on ‘happy families!’ social media presence.

Like @Jennytea I just don’t get it - he had no previous regarding violence or abuse, there doesn’t appear to be a lifetime of trauma preceding the events, and no ‘real’ motive - not that anything could ever justify his actions, but doing that just to go out with a new girlfriend?? It’s very hard to fathom.
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Makes you wonder if he just hadn’t got caught before ? His family are peculiar . Announcing they forgive him , I think they are all crazy !
 
Okay... did he really think that he would get away with it? Did he think the girl's bodies would never be found in the oil tank? I am pretty sure at some point they would, whether they caused a problem with the oil tank or whatever. I saw that the oil tanks were 8 inches wide... I don't understand how he even fit the kids into them? :sick:

Also, do we believe he actually killed the kids on the site? What if he killed them before she got home? And then killed Shanann. Would he have had enough time to bury Shanann AND get the girls in the oil tank before work? I guess we will never really know the truth.
 
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Since watching the netflix documentary ive been glued to this case and that poor woman/mother and her beautiful babies killed by that monster im watching a full documentary on youtube (not sure if i can post a link) but wow its an eye opener
 
I watched this a couple of days ago, just read the whole thread... some interesting and insightful opinions here, and sadly some slightly shocking/worrying opinions too.

I actually don’t think you need to look at Shanann, the kids and their life together at all to find the motive. This kind of ‘bankrupt but pretending in their McMansion’ lifestyle is RIFE in the US. Shanann was just like any other suburban MLM mum, and there’s tons of them. It’s entirely normalised and it doesn’t lead to or justify murder. Normal people divorce over this kind of thing, but they don’t kill.

Instead, I think you need to look at Chris’ family, and particularly his crazy enabling parents.

The two things that are clear to me is that Chris was unintelligent for a murderer, and that his parents would (and did) forgive any abhorrent behaviour. He was put on a pedestal in their world, clearly, and they seemed to have very vindictive, warped behaviour towards anyone they deemed not good enough for him (poor Shanann in this case).

Chris didn’t even lie effectively throughout the investigation. The neighbour was onto him straight away. He clearly got the idea about claiming Shanann killed the girls directly from the female officer, and then parroted it. His lack of intelligence becomes even more apparent when you know the crime was premeditated!

I think if you look back at the nastiness of his family, the coddling and forgiveness of his parents, the way he desperately wanted his dad during the police interview (and that’s the MOST emotion he ever showed), you can piece together a view of a very dim, damaged, possibly psychopathic man who was probably used to his parents making excuses for him and making his problems disappear, and maybe even had grown up in an environment where it was entirely normal to wish death on someone you didn’t care for - and he went one step beyond that.

It’s a truly devasting case and I’m so angry to read that he’s picked up fans. Horrible. My thoughts are with Shanann’s family, who were so dignified in a way I think many of us would struggle to be, if we were in their shoes.
 
Spot on @Lanavalentine

And yes, the fake wealth/ McMansion life is a fascinating aspect of American Life. I didn’t look at that house and think security, I just thought ’for show’. On the wide pan out of the neighbourhood where you see the neighbourhood is made of squares of land, carved out of a featureless plot of land ... it’s not what, perhaps in other countries, you might consider desirable. Car dependant for activity, not rooted in local culture etc etc . A very American vision of success.
 
openbook1 said:
Do you think Shanann was really awake when he killed her? I think she was sleeping as believe she would have fought back and he didn't have a mark on him.
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I think he’s done it when she was sleeping 100% I think she would of fought back and screamed. The Netflix doc missed so much out though, all the stuff about him being bi-sexual wasn’t on the Netflix documentary
 
SarcasticEllis said:
What he did was just horrific and heartbreaking. And an eye opener too into what’s behind a full-on ‘happy families!’ social media presence.

Like @Jennytea I just don’t get it - he had no previous regarding violence or abuse, there doesn’t appear to be a lifetime of trauma preceding the events, and no ‘real’ motive - not that anything could ever justify his actions, but doing that just to go out with a new girlfriend?? It’s very hard to fathom.
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I suppose not all killers are outwardly violent men. Ted Bundy had a partner and daughter who had no idea what lurked beneath. Shipman’s wife never believed he was guilty. I think Chris is the sort of killer who annihilated his family because they stood in his way and they were of no tangible use to him anymore. It didn’t come from rage or a violent temperament - but a cold calculated desire to dispose of people who were inconveniencing him.
 
Unfortunately I think his parents are blinkered. I couldn't believe how chilled his dad was when he told him they were all dead. He just said something along the line of oh jeeze, he didn't look one bit sad. Also referred to his DIL and beautiful little grand babies as "those bodies"... I was disgusted.

As for his mother she's absolutely obsessed with Chris and its unhealthy. She didn't like Shanann or love her.... hence why she didn't care about what Chris did. But what I can't get my head around is they are more upset they have lost a devil to prison then losing those pure and innocent little girls because of his evil and twisted head. His mum needs locking up, she's a weirdo too. I'm disgusted with them and I hope they go to hell.

There's one thing supporting your son, but you don't tell them that they haven't done anything wrong and you will get them out. She encourages it the stupid witch.
 
Lunamoon22 said:
The thing that bugs me with the way the whole system works is that once they get a guilty plea that's it case closed. I still think there was a lot left unanswered when it came to the girlfriend... especially with evidence that she was near the house on the morning of the murders. But because he plead guilty she didn't need looking into at all.
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They have the guy that did the deed, the cost of The police investigation, putting him through the justice system and keeping him for life etc the man hours involved would be absolutely enormous.
It’s not right at all but I could imagine they don’t feel that going after the girlfriend who may or may not have been an accessory would be worth it at that stage. I doubt she’d be considered a public risk so while in an ideal world, those who do wrong are punished they won’t do it if it’s not in the public interest. The risk she poses to the public vs the cost and diversion of (public) resources vs the likelihood of prosecution = not worth pursuing

openbook1 said:
Okay... did he really think that he would get away with it? Did he think the girl's bodies would never be found in the oil tank? I am pretty sure at some point they would, whether they caused a problem with the oil tank or whatever. I saw that the oil tanks were 8 inches wide... I don't understand how he even fit the kids into them? :sick:

Also, do we believe he actually killed the kids on the site? What if he killed them before she got home? And then killed Shanann. Would he have had enough time to bury Shanann AND get the girls in the oil tank before work? I guess we will never really know the truth.
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8 inches would be 25 and a bit round so for a child of that age it wouldn’t be a huge squeeze. One of them had some marks on their buttocks and shoulders which I read it as implying this was from putting them through. He was asked and said he had no difficulty, he raised their arms above their heads.

He worked at that site and volunteered to go there so technically he was ‘at work’ already. His truck was tracked by the company too so it has to fit the going to work timeline. Colleagues were coming out to meet him there that morning I believe and he knew what kind of time so he knew how long he has. He put Shannan in a pretty shallow grave. He has claimed after that he’d tried to kill them at him but they’d woken up again hence his killing them on the site and placing them in the tanks to ensure they wouldn’t wake up again.

Shannan was online trying to buy something at around 3am. He claimed he was asleep and killed her in the morning. You’d think she would have looked in on the kids when she got home around 2 so would have realised if they were dead already and be dead herself by 3, certainly not online at least. However it’s also reported the girls were really light sleepers (why he never used the garage in the morning usually, so as the door noise wouldn’t wake them) so it’s possible he knew she wouldn’t go into them and he had killed them at that point.

I believe he may well have known he was going to kill her when he used their credit card to pay for his dinner with the other woman. Her flight had been delayed, she originally should have been back around 11 I think so he may have has it planned and that threw him.
 
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