The counter to that would be that “American Murder” reveals how much an online persona can hide an unsettled life. The facts of this case aren’t really in question. It’s not one of those mysteries that people dissect on message boards or obsess about on podcasts. On August 13th, 2018, Shanann Watts came home from a work trip. Her husband Chris strangled his pregnant wife to death, burying her body near one of his work sites, and then dumped his two other children, who he had smothered to death, in an oil vat at the same scene. He was an absolute monster, and the theory is that he basically wanted to wipe away one family life so he could start another one with his mistress.
Early body cam footage of Chris speaking to police officers in his home about where Shanann and the girls might be is arguably the most unsettling in the film. Mere hours earlier, this man watched the life come out of his wife’s eyes and brutally killed his daughters, and he’s there pretending to be concerned about where his family might be, caught on camera talking to cops. It’s a great example of the dead-eyed manner in which sociopaths can move through this world. He’s remarkably calm and believable. It’s scary. (In fact, he's too calm. If my wife and kids were gone, I'd be in full-blown panic, and the cops must have been instantly suspicious at his lack of emotion.)
“American Murder” cuts back and forth between August 13th and the investigation of the next few days with footage from Facebook and text messages about what might have led Chris to that point. Much of it focuses on the increasingly poor sex life between Chris and Shanann, which led her to believe he was cheating (he was), but I’m not sure what is gained by seeing personal text messages from Shanann about her lack of intimacy with her husband. And it’s a beat that the filmmakers hit too often, almost as if they’re reaching hard for the “why” of this case, trying to figure out what led Chris to such a horrible decision, but invading Shanann’s privacy to do so.
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