According to Mowder, in case studies of dads committing similar slayings, the motive typically comes down to rage. “Most were done — 60 percent were done — by rage, the other 10 percent they don’t know the cause, and the other 30 percent were spousal revenge,” she said. “This whole facade he put on right after they started looking for them — that was very odd, and it makes me wonder if he wasn’t trying to find an out to be with the girlfriend,” Mowder said. “Somebody else did it. I’m the poor grieving father.” But when court documents revealed that Watts wasn’t the doting husband he claimed to be and was actually having an affair with someone else, Watts started blaming his wife. Based on her experience with domestic violence, this was a major red flag for Mowder. Instead, it’s believed that Shanann was killed on August 13 but her girls were killed sometime between August 12 and 13. Considering that Shanann was confirmed out of town until 2 a.m August 13, according to Fox 30, the girls could have been murdered up to 24 hours before their mom was even home. This means it wouldn’t have been possible for Watts to see those chilling details of how his babies died — unless he was the one doing it to them.
