How was Nichol Kessinger involved in the Watts Murders?

For true crime fans one of the nagging questions of the last few years is the role of Nichol Kessinger in the murders of Shannan Watts and her children. While some people believe she may have had an active role, and Chris may be hiding her involvement, others have seen Nichol as another one of Chris’ victims.

There is a third possibility, which explains her attempts to hide some of her communications with Chris while not implicating her in the crimes. Let’s explore that idea.

Nichol was emotionally immature. Even though she worked with a lot of men she struggled to form relationships where she felt sufficiently adored and got enough attention. She was also competitive.

When she formed a connection with Chris she felt excited by the fact that, in her mind, he was so obsessed with her he could throw away his seemingly perfect life with her because of how attracted he was to her physically and mentally. Her value was enhanced by the fact that she was valued more than not only another a woman, but another woman and the children she’d had with him. The fact that he was married was part of the attraction.

When they talked, she’d talk to him in her emotionally immature way and trying to get him to talk about how he loved her more than his wife. Telling him that she wished they’d met years before, that she wished that his wife would just run away and they could have a simple and stress free life filled with sex and sandboarding and no commitments. And he promised he’d find a way to show the depth of his love and commitment to their relationshop Which turned out to be a disaster.

And then at some point she found out what he’d done and when she reviewed those messages she realised that viewed in retrospect, against the backdrop of that terrible crime she could be seen as a motivator and an instigator of that crime. So she destroyed her SIM and tried to remove as much evidence of their relationship and it’s intensity as possible.