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Reveiw of American Murder The Family Next Door

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Lasell chapter.

I’m sure by now you have heard of the hit documentary film on Netflix called “American Murder The Family Next Door”. Well if you haven’t then had you been living under a rock? Regardless, you’re about to hear about it now and fair warning, there are spoilers. So you might want to watch it and then come back to read this article. 

 

So for those of you that are unaware, like I was this case happened back in 2018. I had never heard of it until about a week ago when the documentary for it came to Netflix and everyone was shocked that I hadn’t heard about it. The case is about a missing wife named Shanann Watts and her kids. Her friend dropped her off late one morning around 2 am coming back late from a work trip. However, later that day Shanann was not returning any phone calls or messages to the friend and was a cause for concern. They ended up going to her house and the police were called and which caused her husband Chris to return home. He was confused as everyone else was and went into a mode of panic. Not out of worry for her I can tell you that much. 

 

The documentary gave a good insight into Chris and Shanann’s relationship before she went missing, and it wasn’t as smooth or perfect as social media made it seem. She was pregnant with their third child, while he was having an affair with a coworker. As a result, Chris was the one who had murdered his wife and disposed of her body as well as their two other children. That was one thing about the documentary I didn’t like was, that even though I was unfamiliar with the case, I knew very early on that the husband was guilty. I do recommend people to watch this if they’re familiar with the case as it does give more background information. I don’t recommend to people that are looking for more of a mystery, however. 

Kaylee Bickford is a Junior at Lasell University studying psychology. She is also a member of Class Committee as the Junior Class Treasurer and CAB. A few fun facts about her are; she absolutely loves sloths, obsessed with her birthday, and Christmas is her favorite holiday. Her instagram can be found at @kaylee_bickford.
Ariana is the Editor In Chief for Her Campus Lasell. She is a senior at Lasell double majoring in Business Management and Marketing. When she's not editing for HC Lasell, she's binge-watching Netflix or buried in a good book.