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CRIME AND JUSTICE WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Cheating Hubby Kills Family, Goes On TV; Mollie Tibbetts Autopsy Results Just Released; Chilling New Clues Behind Family Massacre. Aired 6- 8p ET

Aired August 23, 2018 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[18:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHANANN WATTS, VICTIM, WIFE OF CHRIS WATTS: Why are you watching, you are sitting right here.

CHRISTIAN WATTS, HUSBAND OF SHANANN WATTS, SUSPECT: Go right ahead.

S. WATTS: Weirdo.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had seen his very first interview that he did on the porch. I said that is not right. Something is not right.

WATTS: I had every light in the house on. I was hoping I would get ran over by the kids running in the door just like barrel rushing, but it did

not happen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say he killed his entire family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody that knew him wanted to believe that it was him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But why he would do it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You said they were going to separate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was the plan. That was definitely the plan.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And how he could get to that point.

WATTS: We have an emotional conversation, but I will leave it at that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is still such a mystery.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone who look at Shanann, they just immediate thought was love. The way she look at him, the way he look at her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A textbook, rock star father. While the girls were off on vacation.

S. WATTS: Travel the world. One day Chris can travel that long with us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What was Chris Watts doing?

S. WATTS: Chris ran 6:00 in the morning on a Sunday on his day off. He went from a 2x to a medium.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And was there a curious time line to these murders? Just when were those children killed and why did those children end up in

an oil tank.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Had to have been an easier route.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you responsible for Mollie`s death?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have anything to say to the family?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: More disturbing details tonight about how the farm worker is accused of killing Mollie Tibbetts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our boy is not who he said he was.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leaving her bloody body in a corn field.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He cover it up with corn stalk.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And staying silent till the cops tracked him down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy stayed around for 35 days after he did this. Nobody noticed anything different.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why would he hunt down Mollie if he had a girlfriend and a baby back home? And was Mollie the first girl he followed or were

there more?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is an animal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And how do we handle a suspected killer who wasn`t supposed to be in this country?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were death threats. People threatening to burn down our building.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t want her death to be use for more prejudice and more discrimination. I don`t think she would like that either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST, HLN CRIME AND JUSTICE: It is a story rattling the country right now and it is the question completely haunting every parent.

How could you kill your own kids? How could you kill two little angels like Cici and Bella Watts? Just three and four years-old, all pigtails and

high pitch voice. They had just had the summer of their lives. Bouncing across the country on trips with mommy while daddy was apparently stuck at

work. Daddy is the one accused of killing them. But mommy had wanted to give them the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

S. WATTS: 2018 is my year. I`m claiming it. It is my year. Everything I want for my family is happening in 2018. I just feel blessed that we can

do that. We can travel the world. One day Chris can travel that long with us. And I love the fact that I can be there for them. We go where every

together and we do everything together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Shanann Watts didn`t know how tragically right she was. Because she and her girls did do everything together. They lived together and they

died together and they were laid to rest together on daddy`s work site. Although laid the rest might be a little forgiving.

If Chris Watts did indeed dumped them so that their bodies would never be found and so he would never be pinned with the crime. The question is what

he would have wanted his life to look like once his family was out of picture.

Joining me now on the phone, Crime and Justice Producer, Talia Tirella, Don Van Nieuwenhuise, the director of the University of Houston Petroleum

geoscience programs. Also, Randy Corporon, news talks on 710 KNUS, host of CNN law enforcement analyst and retired FBI supervisory special agent,

James Gagliano is with us. Former prosecutor, Jack Ford is joining us tonight, he is the author of Chariot on the mountain.

[18:05:03] A fantastic read, I highly encourage you to take a look. Also certified death investigator and professor of forensic at Jacksonville

State University, Joseph Scott Morgan is with us as well.

Randy, I`d like to begin with you, if I may. There was this telling piece of information in the legal filings at the time that Chris Watts was

arrested. And it`s all about a mistress that he had been having a protractive affair with another woman. Has she surfaced? Do we know

anything about how she factors in to this picture?

RANDY CORPORON, HOST, NEWS TALK 710 KNUS: Ashleigh, out here in Colorado rumors are just swirling around about this mistress. The police are being

extremely tight lipped. We don`t know a thing about her other than the belief that she is a co-worker of the father.

BANFIELD: And I know that there`s a name on the witness list of a co- worker who is also a woman. I know that is probably link to a lot of rumors. Talia Tirella, you are on the ground though there. You went to

this person`s home. You took a look around, what did you see?

TALIA TIRELLA, PRODUCER, CRIME AND JUSTICE: Yes, that is right Ashleigh. So, this person is listed on an official document in relation to this

investigation. I paid a visit to their home. No one answered the door. There was a car parked on a side street nearby. But again, no one answered

the door. It was a pretty nice, you know, one story home. It seemed like it, you know, it was just a very nice home, but no one answered the door,

basically.

BANFIELD: So, James Gagliano, I want you to take a look at something that our team noticed in many of the videos that we had been scouring for clues

on this case. And I don`t know if it is a huge clue. I don`t know if it will play on this story. I don`t know if it will play on the trial, but it

didn`t go unnoticed by people on social media as well. In those videos, the day after this family went missing, he is not wearing his wedding ring.

In many of the other videos he is. Some of the videos from just walking around the house he is wearing his wedding ring. But in many of the other

videos he is. Some of the video from just walking around the house he is wearing his wedding ring. Some of the videos he is not. And I understand

if he is an oil worker maybe he wouldn`t. But here he is in other days wearing his wedding ring, playing with the kid, messing with their hair.

In some of the family portraits he is wearing his wedding ring. He is an oil worker so perhaps he just doesn`t, but it wasn`t something that went

unnoticed. Is that something investigators would notice as well?

JAMES GAGLIANO, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Absolutely. Investigators are looking for anomalies. They are looking for things that are different.

And what you have to do is you have to establish a baseline. You have to say this is the way the individual acted and purported himself throughout

the first few years of his marriage and now all of the sudden he is doing different things. If it was his custom to wear a ring and if he is custom

to do certain things or not do certain things, those are absolutely somethings, Ashleigh the investigators want to take notice of.

BANFIELD: What about prosecutors? Do they look at that and say that is something I`m bringing up in court?

GAGLIANO: Especially as if the defense here, the defense is what it seems to be which him saying he comes across his wife strangling the two

daughters and in fate of range he reacts and he strangles her. You`re going to -- as prosecutor, point to things to be able to say that is not

consistent. That is not what he would be doing if indeed this horrible tragedy unfolded in front of him. And you say for instance, look the ring

is gone. And you know that he is involved in a relationship with somebody else. And maybe now he thinks he is free to engage in that relationship.

So, you`re going to look to find anything that you can that seems inconsistent with what he is saying and try to keep holes in everything the

defense is offering up as his version of what happens.

BANFIELD: There is something else about that video. We`re zeroing in right there on the accused hands. The wedding ring, but there was

something about the demeanor. We have all made light of the fact, that how could a man who had just witnessed all of this be so cavalier with the

cameras. It wasn`t just one interview. It was several different television stations who showed up. He was all too willing to join TV

stations and beg for us all to help him find his missing family. But there are other things.

So, I`m going to play for you some of those moments when he was asking us all to help him find his missing family knowing full well what he

eventually told the police. He knew exactly where they were. They were rotting in an oil field. They had been there for four days. OK? But the

tells are in his eyes and the tells are in his expression. Make no mistake, the investigators were combing his mannerisms for the

interrogation later. See if you can notice them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WATTS: It just seems like I`m living in a nightmare. And I can`t get out of it. I just want them home so bad. I have no idea like where they went.

It doesn`t -- it`s earth shattering. I don`t feel like this is even real now. I just want people to know that I want my family back. Like, I want

them safe and I want them here.

I don`t know where my kids are. I don`t know where Shanann is. It`s not something I could ever fathom would happen in my lifetime. And I have no

inclination of where she is.

[18:10:10] I text her a few times and called her and didn`t get a response. That was a little off. And then her friend Nicole showed up about a little

after noon. I see in the doorbell camera, I was like something`s not right if she is not answering the door, she said the car was here, it was like.

I got to go home. She wasn`t here. The kids weren`t here. Nobody was here, knowing I wasn`t going to kiss them to bed tonight that is why I

left. It was horrible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So, James Gagliano, critical to look at his face and critical to see what he does and how he behaves when he thinks everything is fine. Do

the investigators use those techniques and go into the interrogation room and watch for the same kinds of tells?

GAGLIANO: Absolutely. It goes back to establishing that baseline. And Ashleigh, it defies conduit that this guy was so capture, so confident

rising to the level of arrogance and Hubers that he would voluntarily put himself out there and give us all this video to take a look at.

Investigators are looking at three things in that video. Body language, tone and selected chosen words. And they`re going to go through and they

are going to look at Facebook videos. They are going to compare it to these news videos and compare it to what he did in the interview room.

BANFIELD: So, what asked you this, in the interview room, they had a guy who didn`t think they knew anything. They knew a lot. Before he

confessed, they presented him with a lot. He actually refuted the fact that he had an affair. He denied it until he didn`t. But are they using

the facial expressions from the known lies on television to see what the new lies might be?

GAGLIANO: Yes with a caveat. You have to be careful here, because people grieve differently. People respond to fearful act, people astounded

tragedies in different way. We look at this and we are aghast, because we know now he did this. And we look at this and say, how could he have gone

out there and done that. Now we`re picking apart the things that the average citizen look at that and says. Well, it seems a little strange,

but did he do it, did he not do it. Now we know for sure because investigators had chance to talk to him. They probably now established a

baseline from all this video that he gave him and then they put the pressure on him.

BANFIELD: So, Jack Ford, I want you to look at this with me, if you will. It`s a series -- very unfortunate videos if you`re Chris Watts. 2012 he

gets married to Shanann Watts. He is about 50 pounds heavier, he is definitely bulkier. Doesn`t look like this vision of health that you are

seeing in all these new videos. And he is giving some kind of a lecture on relationships going sour.

I think, you cannot write this material, Jack. You cannot write these in the fiction books that you had been writing. But it`s true. And I want to

play for, one of the soundbites in particular and pay attention to the words he is saying. The quality of the video is great, but the words he is

saying are remarkable given the turn of events just half a decade later. Have a look at this moment where he is outlining three questions, three

questions for his audience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WATTS: You have to ask yourself three questions when you`re in a relationship. Do I have a desire to keep this relationship going? Do I

have a moral obligation to stay in this relationship? Or is it a necessity for me to stay in this relationship? According to my research, sometimes a

necessity could be children. Sometimes when you have children and your relationship starts to deteriorate, a child could help repair it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: I just -- I cannot believe he said those words. Do I have a moral obligation to stay in this relationship or is it a necessity for me

to stay in this relationship? Sometimes in a relationship is deteriorating a child can help repair it. And of course they had a baby on the way. I

want to point out something a little different than those remarkable words. It`s something I wonder if prosecutors notice as well. That was him 50

pounds heavier. And then this is Chris in more recent pictures working out. His wife so proud of him. Taking pictures and posting them on

Instagram. Wearing the health patch that she in fact representing and selling as her new at homework. A health line including health patches.

She actually bragged. She was so excited about her husband losing weight. Listen to how she talks about how proud she was of him and the health that

he achieve.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

S. WATTS: Today is Sunday. Chris ran at 6:00 in the morning on a Sunday on his day off. What you do five miles? Come over. Chris has lost a

significant amount of weight since he started.

WATTS: 50 pounds.

S. WATTS: He is in a medium. He went from a 2x to a medium.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[18:15:05] BANFIELD: Well, that is curious Jack Ford, because often times in the case we hear about people when they are having an affair begin to

change their look and appearance.

JACK FORD, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Whenever you see advice that they be giving to people in terms of the relationship and a question is posed on line or

in the old newspaper columns and they say should I be worried. Is my spouse, especially my husband having a relationship. And the first advice

is all of a sudden, he is concerned about his weight, is he starting to lift a bit. Is he wearing different clothing than before? They say that

is classic signs of that. And you go back to what you`re talking about before the notion of him talking so much and one of the thing I noticed as

a prosecutor and law enforcement people know is that a lot of criminals --

BANFIELD: This is before and after?

FORD: Yes.

BANFIELD: He is a different man. That says a lot right there. This is him on the year they were married. Shanann fell in love with the man on

the left and the year that Shanann dies is the man on the right.

FORD: That is one of the men`s health magazine before and after advertisement. We go back to what we are saying, you know, one of the

things law enforcement people realize and prosecutors too, is a lot of criminals think they are smarter than everybody else. They think they are

smarter than law enforcement. They think they are smarter than the prosecutors had been doing and what you do is say, OK, go ahead. Keep

talking. We`re going to let you talk as much as you want to talk and sure, we will do this, you want to go on TV, go ahead and do it. Because if

you`re in fact guilty, we`re going to find something. They were going to find something that we can pull out and use if actually the trial get here.

BANFIELD: Hold that thought for one moment. We have seen some incredible pictures and some video of Shanann and Chris on social media smiling for

the selfies and you know, loving on those girls. But we have a last photograph that Shanann posted on her Facebook. This is very uncomfortable

to see this. This is just days before she and those children were murdered. It`s a baby doll laid out on the couch in a bag. Who did this?

What does it mean, if anything? She says she doesn`t know what to make of this. But it is eerie to say the least. And tomorrow night a special

crime and justice report. Secret Lies and Family massacre. We are going to take a closer look at the Watts seemingly picture perfect family and

what may have been the ultimate deception. Secrets, lies and family massacre airs tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

Still to come here. There`s breaking news in the Mollie Tibbetts murder investigation. The Iowa State Medical Examiner says, the 20-year-old co-ed

died as a result of multiple sharp force injuries. Mollie was found in a corn field on Tuesday morning. Her body had been covered up with corn

stalks. This as investigators face tougher new questions about Christian Rivera. How could he stay under the radar for 35 days while police on that

State looking for Mollie Tibbetts. Even the owners of the farm where he worked said they didn`t notice anything different about this man seen in

better days on Facebook. Is there a linked between the accused murder and other missing person`s cases? You may be surprised to hear what the police

say about that. That is next.

[18:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Plenty of families fall apart and that might have been the case for the Watts family no matter what they looked like on Facebook. But no

family falls apart the way they did. With a pregnant wife buried on her husband`s work site. Their little girl`s body in an oil tank and daddy

behind bars, accused of murdering all of them. But were there signs that he wasn`t happy? Were there signs that he wanted something more? If he

was willing to kill the family that loved him in the most heartless way imaginable, what did he want instead?

My panel is still with me. Welcome to all of you again. I could not help, but notice the eerie photograph that was the last photograph that Shanann

Watts posted on her Facebook, presumably before she went on that work get away after which she returned within hours to be murdered. It is a picture

that is astounding given the series of events followed. She posted this on August 9th. She would be dead on August 13th just four days later. It`s a

picture of a doll covered in what looks like a sheet with the caption, I don`t know what to make of this. Randy, it`s not hard to notice that

people on social media are very rattled by this picture. Is there anything to make of this at all?

CORPORON: Ashleigh, I`ve tried to look at this as an attorney, as a news reporter, as a father, as a grandfather to be on a somber and I have to

agree with Shanann Watts when she wrote I don`t know what to think about this and what`s really odd about this, if you look closely, there are two

smiley face, laugh out loud, smiley faces with tears coming under their eyes. This looks like, you know, first gasp, a dead body covered in a

sheet like you`d find on a crime scene.

[18:25:04] BANFIELD: It`s just astounding to look at it. On August 9th she posted that picture. But five days earlier, on August the 4th, she

posted something even more foreboding. And I want to read this for you. One of the daughters is in the background of this posting and she says the

older she gets, the more scared I am to let her out into the real world. The world of evil. The world of hate. The world of bullying. The world

is a scary place. I will do everything in my power to teach her right and to protect her, advocate, stand up for her and to defend her.

Talia Tirella, I know you`re out there in the field. There are two scenes developing. The crime scene at the household where people are pouring out

their souls by bringing stuffed animals and candles and flowers and notes and signs for the memory of this family. Then there`s the online community

reading posts like that. And equally devastated. The comments sections are filled with people who are just rocked by what happened to Shanann and

these girls. Take me a little bit to Colorado. Tell me what the mood is especially being there on location as opposed to just seeing this online.

TIRELLA: Right, so, every person I speak with if they even do want to give me a few minutes of their time, everyone keeps saying over and over again

it`s absolutely devastating. They never saw anything like this coming. They are still trying to process the entire thing and it`s been almost two

weeks. You know, you have neighbors here who either don`t want to speak to members of the press or, again, if they do give me a few minutes of their

time, they cannot say enough how much they are in shock and disbelief and grieving over, you know, something that you never expect to happen just

right next door.

BANFIELD: You might be right next door. You may be a world away. It`s so devastating even for people who never knew them, but feel like they do,

because of these posting, they are so personal. Shanann breaks through the camera lens and becomes almost like a friend. It is really hard when you

see someone like that, not to be affected, by this, the horrible way in which those children died and then horrible way that they were disposed of.

I want to bring in, Don Van Nieuwenhuise, as the Director of University of Houston petroleum geoscience programs, I want you to help navigate us

through the site, where this bodies were dispose of. There have been people who have noticed the oil tanks that are located in that area could

actually be something called oil separators. And it`s possible that they could be oil separators that are heated in order to separate the impurities

out of the oil before piping that oil elsewhere. And if that is the case, would this oil field operator know that and might there had been intention

to have those bodies going into tanks, especially he had oil tanks to dispose of them permanently and to dispose all evidence. And again, you

will have to walk me through this, the engineer, there are plenty of tanks on that property, both large and small. What do you see?

DON VAN NIEUWENHUISE, DIRECTOR OF UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON PETROLEUM GEOSCIENCE PROGRAMS: Well, the ones that I have seen appear to be stock

tank oil tanks. Basically, they look like they are atmospheric tanks that are not heated. They are storing the oil at atmospheric pressures and

temperatures and there is a small tank to the side which is an out flow tank. And I`m not sure, but I`m wondering if he put their bodies into that

tank because it`s wide open and it would be easy access for him to put it in there.

Now, if you were able to shut down heated tank, he would have to be able to get through with what they call a man way instead of manhole. Usually

those are pressure sealed as well. So, I don`t really think that he actually put them in the larger tanks, but perhaps in the smaller tank.

But you may have information -- direct information from police exactly where they were found and which tank they were found in.

BANFIELD: They are being extremely tight lipped as you can imagine, Don. Your expertise is helpful. Just been trying to get to the bottom of this.

Several of us thought perhaps he buried Shanann instead of putting her into the oil tanks with the children. I can`t even believe I am saying this

words, because it would have been very difficult to perhaps haul all of those bodies. Of course, the mother being much heavier than the children

up those very steep stairs to the top of those tall tanks to get into what you call the man hole. But it is possible, correct? They could have been

in what they call the pit tank, the overflow tank to the side. You can access those. If you want to dispose children or a grown up you could have

done this -- top tanks?

(CROSSTALK)

VAN NIEUWENHUISE: Yes, you could do that. It`s where the over flow can come out. If he is an operator, he could pulled some oil of the bottom

that was heated, if it is heated. It doesn`t look like a pressurized type tank which I would expect if it was heated. But the oil can come off of

there --

BANFIELD: Opening those manholes would be difficult. If they were filled with oil, as we learned they were, the pressure would make that very

difficult to open those manhole capping devices at the top of the tanks, right?

NIEUWENHUISE: Right. And you see a lot of them are at the bottom so they almost have to be empty.

BANFIELD: Yeah.

NIEUWENHUISE: And, so, what I`m thinking is that if anything, if he was using it for anything special, it would have been to perhaps get them

soaked in oil so it might remove his DNA from their bodies, that sort of thing. I don`t think he would have done --

BANFIELD: One quick question about what he said in an affidavit in his admission. The police actually said that he looked at these aerial photos

and he pointed to quote, three separate locations, where he disposed of the bodies.

We know that Shannan was buried in a shallow grave. But what does that say to you when you look at that picture of the two tall tanks, the overflowed

tanks, and he pointed to three locations where the three bodies were disposed of?

NIEUWENHUISE: Yeah, that`s kind of incredible. Again, if he was to just put it into regular oil, that was at room temperature or atmospheric

temperature and pressure. It would have acted more as an embalming-type fluid rather than a destructive fluid.

But if there was high pressure, high temperature, he would have had to taken the time to let those vessels cool down and lose their pressure

before he could actually open them and put anything into them. So I don`t think --

BANFIELD: I`m so curious if he used two different tanks for each of the girls. But we won`t know that until more information comes. Can you hold

your thought for a moment.

I just want to say that if you`re thinking that Shannan Watts` murder case sounds like something right out of Hollywood, you`re not alone, and you`re

absolutely right, because there actually is a movie, and it is almost identical in its plot to this real life tragedy. That`s next.

[18:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: We`re talking about Chris Watts. The hardworking husband and father, who starred quietly in countless family videos that made loved ones

think he was the perfect husband and dad.

The question now is whether there were any signs that Chris didn`t want the current life that he had, because he`s now accused of wiping out his entire

family and confessing at the time to having an affair, to being actively involved with someone at work.

My panel is still with me. Joseph Scott Morgan is a certified death investigator. I want you to take me to the forensic map inside that home

because there were bags and bags of material that investigators were bringing out of that home last week.

They towed that car away as well. Because if the story that he tells is true as wild as it sounds, that he spotted her killing the children and

went after her, there would be a pitch battle to the level of a war, and I`m guessing there would be a hell of a forensic map that they would be

able to determine in that house.

JOSEPH SCOTT MORGAN, CERTIFIED DEATH INVESTIGATOR: Yeah, there would actually, Ashleigh. Here is something that hasn`t been brought up and I`m

very curious about if police observed this or not. I am interested in what they found on Chris Watts` body. Was there any evidence that he had been

scratched, scraped, punched?

Did he have any scars or scrapes on his chin, around his throat, when he talked (ph) about the throats of his children and wife? I want to know if

he had any injuries on the back of his hands. So that`s going be very important for the police to have taken note of.

As you rightly said, this -- you know, there will be a full harvest of evidence here. Here is another little piece. We have talked about this

other actor in his life. I want to know if any other foreign DNA was found in that home that could be tied back to this individual.

Because if he`s involved in some kind of illicit affair, I want to know if somebody may or may not have assisted him in this undertaking. So that`s

going to be key. They would be looking for things like touch DNA at the scene, evidence of things being overturned or broken, maybe out of place.

BANFIELD: I asked if that mystery woman might not just be somewhere in hiding but might be interrogated herself or himself. We don`t know what

kind of affair he was having as a conspirator in all of this. I`m still definitely curious about who this other person is. That person will emerge.

Guaranteed that person will emerge. It`s matter of time. There`s this other issue that I want to bring up.

[18:40:00] It is this film that we found called "True Story." It depicts the story of Christian Longo, a case back in 2001, allegedly cheating and

blamed some of his children`s death on his wife, . Blamed it on his wife, Maryjane, killed three of his kids. Ultimately, he was convicted, and they

made a movie of this with James Franco. I want to play a little bit of it. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was just a regular guy. An intelligent man. He comes home one night and kills his wife and kids. It makes no sense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chris, did you (INAUDIBLE)?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Jack Ford, his name is Chris. You can`t write this. It`s your next book. I know it.

JACK FORD, FORMER PROSECUTOR: What we don`t know is, there could be an extraordinary coincidence here that he might have seen this movie and in

the moments when now his first story is collapsing around him and he has to create another story, now is it the truth? Well, we`ll have to find that

out.

Certainly not what he told first. So if in fact he is looking to manufacture a story that is kind of put him in a better position, he has to

go for at least one of the murderer`s but he will try and use the fact that he was enraged by the fact that his wife killed the children to try to

mitigate things, get him out of the other two.

But who know what`s going on in his mind? And what`s percolating to the surface here? And who knows whether he has seen something like this or seen

a plot like this?

BANFIELD: Movie plots and TV plots have made their way into death penalty cases --

FORD: That`s reality.

BANFIELD: -- in the past.

FORD: Absolutely.

BANFIELD: And this is a reality.

FORD: These are based on a true story. So to think that maybe this is where he grabbed that story from, it`s entirely possible.

BANFIELD: Oh, that`s not the last we`re going to talk about that. We`re going to dig deeper into that as we continue to cover this case. Randy

Corporon, Talia Tirella, Don Van Nieuwenhuise, thank you all so much. Jack Ford (ph) and Joseph Scott Morgan, I`m going to ask you guys all to stick

around, if you would, please.

We have this other story parallel that we`re coping with and it is in Iowa. And tonight we now know how Mollie Tibbetts was murdered. We`re going to

have the details of her autopsy report ahead and what they mean to this case.

Also, when the man accused of murdering Mollie Tibbetts made his first court appearance in the courthouse, you could hear a pin drop. If you

listen very, very closely, you might also have heard a very small child say the word, daddy.

We`re learning a little bit more who that woman was in the front row of Christhian Rivera`s hearing and who that baby is as well, and what possible

connection she has to Mollie Tibbetts. Details next.

[18:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: He traveled that dusty road home every day, taking up a cloud behind him as he drove through the Iowa farm field. Scattered along that

very road, the signs and the posters were visible. Missing, Mollie Tibbetts. Have you seen her?

In his confession, if it`s true, Christhian Rivera had seen her. He`d seen her on the run on the evening that she went missing. When police say he

stopped her in her tracks and then abducted her and left her lifeless, bloody body in a cornfield.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY JO COLLUM, FRIEND OF MOLLIE TIBBETTS: He covered her up with corn stalks. He`s an animal. That`s all I can think. And where did he come from?

I mean, he said he`s been here seven years. Where? I mean, like, under a rock.

DAVE COLLUM, FRIEND OF MOLLIE TIBBETTS: He knows what the hell he did. He doesn`t have the guts to admit it. That`s how I felt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Rivera allegedly told police he blacked out once he had taken Mollie Tibbetts. Tonight, he is charged with her murder. As we now hear

just how she died. And as we get a clearer picture of the people he might have driven home to, passing all of those missing posters along the way.

I want to bring in Steven Fabian, correspondent for "Inside Edition." Also, Joseph Scott Morgan, Jack Ford, and James Gagliano are still with me.

Steven Fabian, we have the preliminary autopsy reports out and they say how she died.

STEVEN FABIAN, CORRESPONDENT, INSIDE EDITION: Yeah. First time we`re hearing this. Of course, the body confirmed to be Mollie Tibbetts, cause of

death homicide, sharp force injuries. We`ll have the full autopsy report in four to eight weeks.

BANFIELD: What about a murder weapon? If you know she died from the sharp force injuries, what about a murder weapon?

FABIAN: Yeah, investigators are still trying to track that down right now. We`re seeing a clearer picture of the scene where they found her. There`s a

cornfield where Rivera said he led the authorities to, saying this is the place where I dropped the body.

We flew a drone over that cornfield today and you see this sort of ominous cutout in the corn, a rectangle shape in the corn. Could that be where

Rivera dumped the body and covered her with corn leaves? I`m sure we`re going to find out soon.

BANFIELD: We`re showing that picture that you and your team were able to get from that drone video.

[18:50:00] It is so harrowing to think that that is where she was these 34 days while everyone was looking for her, if the reports are true and if

that is the spot, that cutout in the cornfield.

You know, our Michael Christian was on the air with us, our producer, who got into his hands right away. The probable cause affidavit literally as

they were making the announcement that they had found Mollie and that they had charged Christhian Rivera.

And now that we know that this autopsy says she died from multiple sharp force injuries, that probable cause affidavit actually makes a lot of

sense. Have a listen to how he put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Until he noticed there was an earpiece from headphones in his lap, and that is how he realized he put her in the trunk. He went to

get her out of the trunk and he noticed blood on the side of her head.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So uncomfortable now to hear that, but it makes a little more sense, doesn`t it? Steven Fabian, one other piece of news that you`ve been

working on and you`re breaking a lot of information on this, the connection between Rivera and Mollie. They were not unknown to each other.

FABIAN: Yeah, investigators I talked to said, look, there`s a reason to believe he at least knew who she was, right? He had a girlfriend who went

to high school with Mollie. She was just one year older than Mollie. We know the high school right up the road here.

The class sizes are 40 students per class. You go to a school with less than 200 kids, you run around in the same circles. It`s easy to believe

that he at least had an idea who Mollie was.

BANFIELD: Yeah, and that picture of the young woman with the baby on her lap at the court hearing, we`re now confirming this is his girlfriend and

that that is, more than likely, their baby. This was the little voice that we assumed we heard say "daddy" as he walked into court. Do we know

anything more about what they`re doing now and what kind of investigation is involving them?

FABIAN: Well, right now, it doesn`t appear that they`re under investigation. She may have been living on that farm with Rivera, the farm

he was working at, Yarrabee Farms. You know, there are sort of bunk houses there. There are trailers there where employees live. And she may have been

living there with him on the farm. Still trying to track down more information about what she`s up to.

BANFIELD: James Gagliano, very uncomfortable to hear reports, unconfirmed reports that there may have been other girls that followed. A 17-year-old,

her sister, reported to the police that a 17-year-old says he followed her, too, and that it made her feel uncomfortable.

He drove up alongside her. She felt creeped out. She said it was flirty but she felt unsafe. And now the police are saying it is something they are

going to talk to the FBI about.

JAMES GAGLIANO, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Important work for police right now. First of all, were there any accomplices? They have to rule that

out as well. And then second of all, link analysis. Who was this individual linked to? Was there anybody else in that world?

It`s a very small cloistered community where everybody appears to know everybody, except they didn`t seem to know this gentleman too much. Police

got a lot of work to do. They will do it by going through all the digital exhaust from laptops and cell phones and things like that.

Signal intelligence and E-Z (ph) passes, things like that. They`re going to follow this, make sure that they track everywhere that this individual

went, who he came in contact with.

BANFIELD: And Jack, at another time, we are going to talk about this but it should not go unnoticed that this has become a political football. In

fact, that the attorney for this young man filed a motion for a gag order so that the government would no longer use the term illegal immigrant

because of the way Donald Trump and others in the government have been using this story.

It`s actually a request that sad and sorry Trump has weighed in on this matter in national media which will poison the entire possible pool of jury

members. So this is a very difficult case. We`ll talk about that aspect in a moment.

But I do want to let you know, tomorrow night, we have a "Crime and Justice" special report that`s airing. "Secrets, Lies and Family Massacre."

We`re going to take a closer look at the story of Chris and Shannon Watts, the seemingly picture-perfect family in Colorado. And what may have been

the ultimate deception. "Secrets, Lies and Family Massacre" airs tomorrow night, Friday night, 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Back right after this.

[18:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Still talking about the evening Mollie Tibbetts went for a run and ended up dead in a cornfield instead. Lifeless there for over a month.

Because police say an undocumented young farm worker stopped her in her tracks and killed her.

Tonight, we`re learning just what Mollie had to go through because of that death. Multiple sharp force injuries. Jack Ford, it`s not lost on anyone.

This is all over cable news.

Every headline saying illegal immigrant, which is not always the term that`s supposed to be used but the lawyer in his case has asked the

government not to use any term other than documented resident. And he stood up in front of everyone wearing a USA tie. Is this going to help his case?

FORD: I don`t know if it is going to help this case wearing the tie but he has the right to step in and say to a judge, look, I`ve got a drumbeat here

of illegal alien, illegal immigrant. It`s going to prevent me from getting a fair trial. A judge can look at this and a judge can limit lawyers on

both sides in terms of what they say in order to preserve the opportunity for a fair trial.

[19:00:01] BANFIELD: But by all reporting so far, he is not a documented resident. I don`t know how anybody can have a motion for a gag order and

then demand a term that isn`t necessarily accurate. We`ll have to get to the bottom of that at another time. Thank you for that, Jack.

The next hour of CRIME AND JUSTICE starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WATTS, HUSBAND OF SHANANN WATTS: I had every light in the house on. I was hoping that I would just get just ran over by the kids running in the

door and just like, you know, rushing me, but it didn`t happen.

BANFIELD (voice-over): His two little girls had reportedly been submerged in an oil well for two days. Police say he killed his own kids.

LAURA, BABYSITTER TO THE WATTS FAMILY: Nobody that knew him wanted to believe that it was him.

BANFIELD (voice-over): Dumping their bodies into a pitch-black vat of hot crude oil.

C. WATTS: To know I wasn`t going to kiss them to bed tonight.

BANFIELD (voice-over): And burying their pregnant mom nearby.

SHANANN WATTS, MURDERED WIFE OF CHRIS WATTS: How are you watching and you`re sitting right here.

C. WATTS: I`m right here.

(LAUGHTER)

S. WATTS: Weirdo.

BANFIELD (voice-over): He was the star of all those videos she posted to social media.

S. WATTS: Chris ran at 6:00 in the morning on a Sunday on his day off.

One day, Chris can travel that long with us.

The best thing that has ever happened to me.

BANFIELD (voice-over): So what turned this supposed family man into a suspected family annihilator?

LAURA: Everyone who looked at Shanann and Chris, their just immediate thought was love.

BANFIELD (voice-over): And are there clues in Chris Watts` past --

DANELL SEARCH, FAMILY FRIEND OF THE WATTS FAMILY: Chris was very standoffish.

JOE DUTY, FORMER TEACHER OF CHRIS WATTS: He was so quiet.

JEREMY LINDSTROM, FAMILY FRIEND OF THE WATTS FAMILY: He was a good mechanic.

BANFIELD (voice-over): -- that could explain how the Watts girls were killed?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel he knew who she was, whether he had seen her running before, whether he`d seen her earlier that day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He covered her up with corn stalks.

DANE LANG, CO-OWNER, YARRABEE FARM: Our employee was not who he said he was.

BANFIELD (voice-over): The search for a missing girl turns into a cold- blooded murder case.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you responsible for Mollie`s death?

BANFIELD (voice-over): And now, the disturbing details are beginning to surface about how her suspected murderer actually killed her.

LANG: This guy stayed around for 35 days after he did this. Nobody noticed anything different.

BANFIELD (voice-over): Did he really target Mollie Tibbetts with a girlfriend and a baby daughter back home?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have anything to say to the family?

BANFIELD (voice-over): Was Mollie the first girl that he followed?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s an animal.

BANFIELD (voice-over): And is this crime being unfairly exploited?

LANG: There were death threats. People threatening to burn down our building.

BRECK GOODMAN, FRIEND OF MOLLIE TIBBETTS: I don`t want her death to be used for more prejudice and for more discrimination, and I don`t think she

would want that, either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Good evening, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield and welcome to the second hour of CRIME AND JUSTICE.

We`re supposed to recognize the monsters among us, to rely on that sixth sense that something just isn`t right. It`s how we keep our children safe,

and it`s how we steer clear of harm. But when the monsters among us hide in plain sight, we don`t stand a chance against them.

And you have to wonder if Shanann Watts realized this, that perhaps she married a monster before, police say, he took her life. And if she knew in

her final moments that he might have just killed their daughters, too. Those two little girls who adored him would end up in an oil tank on

daddy`s work site, with Shanann in a shallow grave nearby.

Now it`s a matter of figuring out how this Facebook video father of the year could have really been perhaps a monster in disguise. Because Chris

Watts sure didn`t look like a killer. He looked like the kind of man you`d want to marry. The kind of dad you would want raising your kids, including

that little baby boy who was on the way that Chris had supposedly wanted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

S. WATTS: Boy, boy. Chris wants a boy. I hope it`s a boy for him. It will make him happy.

C. WATTS: I guess, when you want to, it happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Joining me now on the phone, CRIME AND JUSTICE producer Talia Tirella. Also, Jenna Ellis, attorney and radio host for KLZ 560.

Don Van Nieuwenhuise is the director of the University of Houston Petroleum Geoscience Programs. CNN law enforcement analyst and retired FBI

supervisory special agent James Gagliano is here.

And former prosecutor Jack Ford is with me. He`s the author of "Chariot on the Mountain," a brand-new book. It`s a fantastic read. I encourage you

to buy it.

Certified death investigator and professor of forensics at Jacksonville State University, Joseph Scott Morgan is also here to lend his expertise.

[19:05:06] First, out of the gate, Jenna Ellis, this notion that there was a mistress, this notion he was having an affair, a serious affair, a

protracted affair with someone at work, do we have any idea yet who she is?

JENNA ELLIS, HOST, 560 KLZ THE SOURCE: Well, Ashleigh, there are a lot of rumors, but we don`t know yet. Everyone has been very tight lipped around

this.

What we do know, according to the police affidavit, is that Chris Watts was actively involved in an affair with a co-worker, but we don`t know any

other information. But probably when the witness list is released, if it does head to trial, that`s when possibly that person will be identified.

BANFIELD: And the witness list naming a woman who also worked at the site has a lot of, you know, tongues wagging at this point.

Talia Tirella, you`re on location there. You went to the home of this mystery woman, and you have also noted that her social media has been

scrubbed. That is intriguing. Did you see anything or learn anything at that home?

TALIA TIRELLA, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE EDITORIAL PRODUCER (via telephone): Yes, that`s right, Ashleigh. So as Jenna said, you know, this alleged

mistress, whoever he was having an affair with, Chris Watts, you know, we`re not sure at this point who this person is. But the name is floating

around out there, so I was able to track down a potential address.

I drove to the home this morning. No one answered the door. There was a car parked nearby, but again, no answer. And right, as you were saying,

social media reportedly has, you know, been completely scrubbed.

So at this point, there is really not many signs, you know, many photos of whoever this person could be.

BANFIELD: One thing we noticed since we`re discussing the issue of him having an affair and, finally, after denying it to the police, admitting it

to the police, we took a closer look at some of the videos and all the photos that this family posted. And we noticed something very curious,

especially in the videos the morning after these people were killed.

Chris Watts is out on his porch begging any T.V. camera that would listen, while not wearing his wedding ring, to help find his beloved family. There

it is. Plain sight. Out the morning that he`s looking for his family but not wearing his wedding ring.

Maybe he`s the kind of guy who just doesn`t wear a wedding ring. Except if you go back in social media of this family, there are plenty of photos of

Chris combing his daughter`s hair wearing his wedding ring. Doing mundane things, appearing in photographs, all sorts of evidence in the home and

elsewhere that Chris Watts was wearing his wedding ring.

But now you see it, now you don`t.

You know, Jack Ford, I don`t know if this is something that prosecutors will pick up on. I don`t know if this is something investigators will pick

up on. But it is something that`s not going unnoticed, and I don`t think a jury would like.

FORD: It`s something that they`re going to pay attention to as they`re putting their case together. Whether it gets inside a courtroom or not is

a different question.

As you know -- and, Ashleigh, you`ve covered a lot of trials here -- investigators will put together reams of evidence and documents. When it

comes time to trying the case, it`s only what a judge is going to allow in.

So something like this, the suggestion that he`s not wearing -- because the suggestion is clear that he`s not wearing this ring right now because he

knows his wife is dead. He knows he killed her and knows the children are dead, and he`s ready to launch into his -- the next level of his life.

Perhaps arguably with the person he`s having a relationship with.

So is it noticed? Yes. Is it -- does it help investigators move forward? Yes. Does it end up in a courtroom? Don`t know about that.

BANFIELD: That`s hard to tell. I will say this, in his defense -- and he deserves all of the fairest defense that we can offer him because that`s

our way -- he`s an oil field operator. He may deal with some heavy machinery, and a lot of people who deal with heavy machinery in their

lifestyle may not wear a ring on a regular basis.

We just happened to notice that he was wearing it on a lot of different occasions in his social media but not the morning that he was looking for

his family.

To that morning as well, I know you have seen the video -- and it probably repulses you now to look at it -- of him standing on his porch and

interviewing with T.V. station after T.V. station, begging the country to help him find his missing family.

I know you watch that with disgust now. The wedding ring is one aspect. What about his face? And what about the tells?

Were investigators looking at these videos before they brought him into the interrogation room to see what he`s like when he lies? Take a look and see

if you notice any tells in these videos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

C. WATTS: It just seems like I`m living in a nightmare, and I can`t get out of it. I just want them home so bad.

I have no idea, like, where they went, and it doesn`t -- it`s just earth shattering. I don`t even feel this is real right now.

[19:10:04] I just want people to know that I want my family back. Like, I want them safe, and I want them here.

I don`t know -- I don`t know where my kids are. I don`t know where Shanann is. It`s -- it`s not something I could ever, ever fathom would happen in

my lifetime, and I -- I have no inclination of where she is.

I texted her a few times and called her and didn`t get a response, which -- that was a little off. And then, her friend, Nicole, showed up about -- a

little after noon. I can see on the doorbell camera.

That was when I was just, like, all right, something is not right if she`s not answering the door, and the car was here. So, like, I`ve got to go

home.

She wasn`t here. The kids weren`t here. Nobody was here. To know I wasn`t going to kiss them to bed tonight, it was -- it was -- that`s why

last night was just horrible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: OK. James Gagliano, you`re an investigator. You`ve done interrogations. You go in prepared. Do you think the police, in this

case, watched those videos very closely for his mannerisms and then watched for the same things playing out in the interrogation?

JAMES GAGLIANO, FORMER SPECIAL AGENT, FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: They are an absolute treasure trove for investigators. And remember, the

three things we`re focused on -- body language, tone, and the selective verbiage.

A couple of things jumped out at me about his body language. The fact that he was in that defensive posture with his arms clasped. The fact that he

rocked like this, back and forth, throughout the entire interviews.

And then lastly, Ashleigh, we got to be careful because sometimes we look at what we think are tells. People that are trying to be deceptive will

often purposefully make eye contact with you to try to convince you they`re telling the truth. And in this instance, he did a lot of this. And I

notice eye movement when he spoke about his daughters where maybe he couldn`t control that himself.

He thinks he`s smarter than everybody else. He thinks he`s comfortable enough doing this, national, international news. He made a colossal

mistake in judgment.

BANFIELD: Well, it sure feels uncomfortable when someone stares at you like that. And usually, that spidey sense kicks in. Just something

doesn`t feel right.

I want you all to watch something that I`m sure Chris Watts prefers weren`t out on the internet from several years ago, in 2012, the year that he

married Shanann. These are presentation videos that still exist today.

Chris Watts was 50 pounds heavier. He looked nothing like he looks today. Really, a completely different version of himself back then. And lo and

behold, guess what he`s talking about?

Relationships. Relationships and how they fray. And you won`t believe some of the things he said knowing what we know now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

C. WATTS: Relationships, no matter how harmless -- even at the job -- you might meet a new person, and it could strengthen into something else and

could weaken the bond you have with the partner you have. You spend less time with each other. And sometimes, you have to try to maintain the

relationship.

Sometimes, in a relationship you have, you maybe make promises that can turn into a major betrayal, or minor arguments that could turn into things

where you say spiteful comments which turn into bigger problems.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Pretty amazing to see those remarkable words. Boy, would they come back to haunt him.

Jack Ford, I play that not just because of the haunting words but also because of the image. We could not help but notice how remarkably

different he looks now. And I know he`s 50 pounds heavier because Shanann herself said it.

Take a look at some of the pictures that Shanann has been posting on her Facebook and how proud she is of her husband and the health regimen he`s

been in. She posted all these photos of him lifting weights, doing push- ups, wearing the health patch that she was representing for her health company work at home job.

Not only that, we had a before and after that we wanted to show you. But it is so stark, the difference that you will see between Chris Watts whom

she married in 2012 and Chris Watts who is accused of murdering her in 2018.

Here is Shanann talking about how proud she is of her husband`s health.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

S. WATTS: Today is Sunday. Chris ran at 6:00 in the morning on a Sunday on his day off. What did you do, five miles?

Well, come on over. Chris has lost a significant amount of weight. Since you started, right? How much?

C. WATTS: Fifty pounds.

S. WATTS: And he`s in a medium. He went from a 2X to a medium.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Jack Ford, that is not lost on anyone. It is so -- I mean, how many cases have you and I covered together in our careers where the affair

either began because someone started looking good or the affair began when someone tried to start looking much better than they did.

[19:15:01] FORD: And if you are the prosecutor here -- and this is going to play out where, if the defense is consistent, saying, look, OK, I killed

my wife but I did it in a rage because I caught her killing my two daughters, the prosecution is going to have to say to the jury, that`s not

at all the story. Here`s the story. An affair. A relationship. And you know how we know he`s in a relationship? Look at how he changed his

lifestyle.

You know, the classic, all right, now I`ve got to look better than I looked when I was 50 pounds heavier. So I`m going to start working out. I`m

going to wear nicer clothes. It`s a sign that he was involved in a relationship.

So it could play out in a courtroom where the prosecution is saying, look, this was a calculated murder on his part because he had created a new life,

a shadow life, and he wanted out from this life. And how many times have we seen it in other cases?

And the only way for him to get out of this life now? He had to kill his wife and he had to kill his two children. So it`s all part of the picture,

the prosecution would argue.

BANFIELD: But if you are the defense attorney, I think you just look at a panel of jurors and say, but, really, do you believe he really put his

hands around the necks of his babies just for a girlfriend, or put his hands around the neck of a woman just for his girlfriend? I mean, that`s

really hard to get over. And I think it`s why we are talking about this case because it`s so unbelievable.

Six years ago, Chris Watts gave a presentation about relationships. And what a presentation it was. And then we saw all the amazing pictures and

videos of Shanann and Chris on social media, living out their lives as he got thinner and seemingly was so happy, smiling for the selfies, loving on

the girls.

But the last photo that Shanann posted on her Facebook feed is eerie. It was days before she and her children were murdered. A baby doll laid out

on the couch and stuffed in a bag or covered with some kind of bag or blanket. Who did this, and does it mean anything?

You can see what Shanann thought. She didn`t know what to make of it. Tomorrow night at CRIME AND JUSTICE, a special report, "SECRETS, LIES AND

FAMILY MASSACRE." We`re going to take a much closer look at the Watts` seemingly picture-perfect family and what may have been the ultimate

deception

"SECRETS, LIES AND FAMILY MASSACRE" airing tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

Still to come, there is breaking news in the Mollie Tibbetts murder investigation. The Iowa state medical examiner says that that 20-year-old

coed was killed as a result of multiple sharp force injuries.

Mollie was discovered dead in a cornfield on Tuesday morning. Her body had been covered up with some of the corn stalks. This as the investigators

face some tough new questions about this man, Cristhian Rivera.

How could he have stayed under the radar for 35 days while police were tearing apart the state and looking desperately for Mollie? Even the

owners of the farm where he worked didn`t notice anything different about the man who is so proud on Facebook. And is there a link between this

accused murderer and other missing persons cases?

All of that is coming up.

[19:18:03] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Plenty of families fall apart. And that might have been the case for the Watts family, no matter what they looked like on Facebook.

But no family falls apart the way they did -- with a pregnant wife buried on her husband`s worksite, their little girls` bodies in an oil tank, and

daddy behind bars accused of murdering all of them.

But were there signs that he wasn`t happy? Were there signs that he wanted something more? And if he was willing to kill the family that loved him in

the most heartless way imaginable, what did he want instead?

My panel is still with me. Welcome to all of you again.

I could not help but notice the eerie photograph that was the last photograph that Shanann Watts posted on her Facebook, presumably before she

went on that work getaway after which she returned, within hours, to be murdered. It is a picture that is astounding, given the series of events

that followed.

She posted this on August 9th. She would be dead on August 13th, just four days later. It`s a picture of a doll covered in what looks like a sheet

with the caption, I don`t know what to make of this.

Randy, it`s not hard to notice that people on social media are very rattled by this picture. Is there anything to make of it at all?

RANDY CORPORON, HOST, NEWS/TALK 710 KNUS: Ashleigh, I`ve tried to look at this as an attorney, as a news reporter, as a father, as a grandfather-to-

be in December, and I have to agree with Shanann Watts when she wrote, I don`t know what to think about this.

And what`s really odd about this, if you look closely, there are two smiley faces, laugh out loud smiley faces with tears coming under their eyes.

This looks like, you know, first gasp, a dead body covered in a sheet like you`d find on a crime scene.

BANFIELD: It`s astounding to look at it. On August 9th, she posted that picture. But five days earlier, on August the 4th, she posted something

even more foreboding. And I want to read this for you.

[19:25:03] One of the daughters is in the background of this posting and she says, the older she gets, the more scared I am to let her out into the

real world. The world of evil. The world of hate. The world of bullying. The world is a scary place. I will do everything in my power to teach her

right and to protect her, advocate, stand up for her, and defend her.

Talia Tirella, I know you`re out there in the field. There are two scenes developing. The crime scene at that household where people are pouring out

their souls by bringing stuffed animals and candles and flowers and notes and signs for the memory of this family.

And then there`s the online community reading posts like that and equally devastated. The comments sections are filled with people who are just

rocked by what happened to Shanann and these girls.

Take me a little bit to Colorado. Tell me what the mood is, especially being there on location as opposed to just seeing this online.

TIRELLA (via telephone): Right. So every person I speak with, if they even do want to give me a few minutes of their time, everyone keeps saying,

over and over again, it`s absolutely devastating. They never saw anything like this coming. They are still trying to process the entire thing, and

it`s been almost two weeks.

You know, you have neighbors who either don`t want to speak to members of the press or, again, if they do give me a few minutes of their time, they

cannot say enough how much they are in shock and disbelief and grieving over something, you know, that you never expect to happen just right next

door.

BANFIELD: And you might be right next door, you may be a world away. It`s so devastating even for people who never knew them but feel like they do

because of these postings. They`re so personal.

Shanann breaks through that camera lens and becomes almost like a friend. It`s really hard, when you see someone like that, not to be affected by the

horrible way that she and those children died. And then the horrible way in which they were disposed of.

And to that, I want to bring in Don Van Nieuwenhuise. As the director of the University of Houston Petroleum Geoscience Programs, I want you to help

navigate us through the site where these bodies were disposed of.

There have been people who have noted that the oil tanks that are located in that area could actually be something called oil separators. And it`s

possible that they could be oil separators that are heated in order to separate the impurities out of the oil before piping that oil elsewhere.

And if that`s the case, would this oil field operator know that, and might there have been an intention to have those bodies going into tanks,

especially heated oil tanks, to dispose of them permanently and to dispose of all evidence?

And again, you`ll have to walk me through this as the engineer. There are plenty of tanks on that property, both large and small. What do you see?

DON VAN NIEUWENHUISE, DIRECTOR OF THE PROFESSIONAL GEOSCIENCE PROGRAMS, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON: Well, the ones that I have seen appear to be stock

tank oil tanks. And, basically, they look like they`re atmospheric tanks that are not heated. They`re storing the oil at atmospheric pressures and

temperatures. And there is a small tank to the side which is an outflow tank.

And I`m not sure but I`m wondering if he put their bodies into that tank because it`s wide open, and it would be easy access for him to put it in

there.

Now if you were able to shut down a heated tank, he would have to be able to get through what they call a manway instead of a manhole. And usually,

those things are pressure-sealed as well. So I don`t really think that he actually put them in the larger tanks but perhaps in the smaller tank.

But you may have information, direct information from police, exactly where they were found and in which tank they were found in.

BANFIELD: Well, they`re being extremely tight-lipped as you can imagine, Don, but your expertise is helpful just in trying to get to the bottom of

this.

Several of us had thought that, perhaps, he buried Shanann, instead of putting her into the oil tanks with the children -- I can`t even believe

I`m saying these words -- because it would have been very difficult to perhaps haul all of those bodies -- of course, the mother being much

heavier than the children -- up those very steep stairs to the top of those tall tanks to get into what you called the manhole.

But it is possible, correct? They could have been in what you call the pit tank, the overflow tank to the side? You can access those. They would fit

if you wanted to dispose of children or a grown body --

VAN NIEUWENHUISE: Yes, and to do that --

BANFIELD: -- you could have gone into that pit tank in the side or the top tanks?

VAN NIEUWENHUISE: Yes, and it`s where the overflow can come out. And if he`s an operator, he could have pulled some oil off the bottom that was

heated, if it is heated. It doesn`t look like a pressurized type tank, which I would expect if it was heated.

BANFIELD: Because opening --

VAN NIEUWENHUISE: But the oil could come off there --

[19:30:03] BANFIELD: Don, opening those manholes would be difficult. If they were filled with oil as we learned they were, the pressure would make

that very difficult to oil those -- open those manhole capping devices at the top of the tanks, right?

NIEUWENHUISE: Right. And usually, a lot of them are at the bottom, so they almost have to be empty. And so, what I`m thinking is that if

anything -- if he was using it for anything special, it would have been to perhaps get them soaked in oil so that might remove his DNA from their

bodies, that sort of thing. I don`t think it would have done --

BANFIELD: One quick question about what he said in an affidavit in his admission. The police actually said that he looked at these aerial photos

and he pointed to, quote, three separate locations where he disposed of the bodies. We know that Shannan was buried in that shallow grave, but what

does that say to you when you look at that picture of the two tall tanks, the overflow tank, that pit tank on the side, and he pointed to three

locations where the three bodies were disposed of.

NIEUWENHUISE: Yes, that`s kind of incredible. And again, if he was to just put it into regular oil, that was at room temperature or atmospheric

temperature and pressures, it would act of more as an embalming type fluid, rather than a destructive fluid. But if it was high pressure, high

temperature, he would have had to take the time to let those vessels cool down and lose their pressure before he could actually open them and put

anything into them. So, I don`t think there`s --

BANFIELD: I`m still curious if he used two different tanks for each of the girls but we won`t know that until more information comes. Can you hold

your thought for a moment? I just wanted to say that if you`re thinking that Shannan Watts` murder case sounds like something right out of

Hollywood, you`re not alone. And you`re absolutely right because there actually is a movie. And it is almost identical in its plot to this real-

life tragedy, that`s next.

[19:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: We`re talking about Chris Watts, that hard-working husband and father who starred quietly in countless family videos that made loved ones

think he was the perfect husband and dad. The question now is whether there were any signs that Chris didn`t want the current life that he had

because he`s now accused of wiping out his entire family and confessing at the time to having an affair, to being actively involved with someone at

work.

My panel is still with me. Joseph Scott Morgan, as a certified death investigator, I want you to take me through the forensic map inside that

home because there were bags and bags of material that investigators were bringing out of that home last week. And they towed that car away as well

because if the story that he tells is true, as wild as it sounds, that he spotted her killing the children and went after her, there`d be a pitched

battle to the level of a war. And I`m guessing there`d be a hell of a forensic map that they`d be able to determine in that house.

JOSEPH SCOTT MORGAN, CERTIFIED DEATH INVESTIGATOR: Yes, there would, actually, Ashleigh. And here`s something that hasn`t been brought up, and

I`m very curious about if police observed this or not. I`m interested on - - in what they found on Chris Watts` body. Was there any evidence that he had been scratched, scraped, punched? Did he have anything scars or

scrapes on his -- on his chin, around his throat? We keep talking about the throats of these children and wife. I want to know if he had any

injuries on the back of his hands. So, that`s going to be very important for the police to have taken note of. Now, as you rightly said, this --

you know, there`ll be a full harvest of evidence here.

Here`s another little piece, we`ve talked about this other actor in his life, and we`ll term it like that. I want to know if any other foreign DNA

was found in that home that could be tied back to this individual. Because if he`s involved in some kind of illicit affair, I want to know if somebody

may or may not have assisted him in this undertaking. So that`s going to be key. They would be looking for things like touch DNA at the scene,

evidence of things being overturned or broken, maybe out of place. It might have --

BANFIELD: I asked if that -- I asked if that mystery woman might not just be somewhere in hiding but might be interrogated herself or himself. We

don`t know what kind of an affair he was having, as a conspirator in all of this. I`m still deathly curious about who this other person is. And that

person will emerge, guaranteed that person will emerge. It`s a matter of time. So, there is this other issue that I want to bring up. And it is

this film that we found called "True Story." And it depicts the story of Christian Longo, a case from back in 2001, allegedly cheating and blamed

some of his children`s death on his wife, Mary Jane, killed three of his kids. Ultimately, he was convicted. And they`ve made a movie of this with

James Franco. I want to play a little bit of it. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[19:40:12] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was just a regular guy. An intelligent, sane man. He comes home one night and kills his wife and kids, it makes no

sense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chris, did you (INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Jack Ford, his name is Chris. You can`t write this. It`s your next book. I know it.

JACK FORD, FORMER PROSECUTOR: And what we don`t know is -- look, there could be an extraordinary coincidence here that he might have seen this

movie and in the moments when now his first story is collapsing around him and he has to create another story, now is it the truth? Well, we`ll have

to find that out. It`s certainly not what he told first. So, if, in fact, he`s looking to manufacture a story that`s going to put him in a better

position, he has to go for at least one of the murders but he`ll try and use -- the fact he was enraged by the fact that his wife killed the

children to mitigate things, get him out of the other two. But who knows what`s going on in his mind, and what`s percolating to the surface here,

and who knows whether he`s seen something like this, or scene a plot like this.

BANFIELD: Movie plots and T.V. plots have made their way into death penalty cases in the past.

FORD: Absolutely.

BANFIELD: And this is the reality.

FORD: So, this was based on a true story. So, to think that maybe this is where he grabbed that story from, it`s entirely possible.

BANFIELD: Well, that`s not the last we`re going to talk about that. We`re going to dig deeper into that as we continue to cover this race. Randy

Corporan, Talia Tirella, Don Van Nieuwenhuise, thank you, all, so much. Jack, James, and Joseph Scott Morgan, I`m going to ask you guys all to

stick around if you would, please.

We have this other story parallel that we`re coping with, and it is in Iowa. And tonight, we now know how Mollie Tibbetts was murdered. We`re

going to have the details of her autopsy report ahead and what they mean to this case.

Also, when the man accused of murdering Mollie Tibbetts made his first court appearance, in that courthouse, you could hear a pin drop. And if

you listened very, very closely, you might also have heard a very small child say the word "daddy." We`re learning a little bit more who that

woman was in the front row of Cristhian Rivera`s hearing and who that baby is as well. And what possible connection she has to Mollie Tibbetts,

details next.

[19:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: He traveled that dusty road home every day, kicking up a cloud behind him as he drove through the Iowa farm fields. And scattered along

that very road, the signs and the posters were visible. Missing, Mollie Tibbetts, have you seen her? In his confession, if it`s true, Christhian

Rivera had seen her. He`d seen her on a run on the evening that she went missing. When police say he stopped her in her tracks and then abducted

her and left her lifeless, bloody body in a cornfield.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY JO COLLUM, FRIEND OF MOLLIE TIBBETTS: He covered her up with cornstalks. He`s an animal. That`s all I -- I just can`t. And where did

he come from? I mean, he said he`s been here seven years. Where? I mean, like under a rock.

DAVE COLLUM, FRIEND OF MOLLIE TIBBETTS: He knows what the hell he did. He doesn`t have the guts to admit it. That`s how I feel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Rivera allegedly told police he blacked out once he had taken Mollie Tibbetts. But tonight, he is charged with her murder. As we now

hear just how she died. And as we get a clearer picture of the people he might have driven home to, passing all of those "missing" posters along the

way. I want to bring in Steven Fabian, correspondent for "Inside Edition." Also, Joseph Scott Morgan, Jack Ford, and James Galiano are still with me.

Steven Fabian, we have the preliminary autopsy reports out, and they say how she died.

STEVEN FABIAN, CORRESPONDENT, INSIDE EDITION: Yes, first time we`re hearing this. Of course, the body confirmed to be Mollie Tibbetts. Cause

of death, homicide, sharp force injuries. We`ll have the full autopsy report in four to eight weeks.

BANFIELD: What about a murder weapon? If you know she died from the sharp force injuries, what about a murder weapon?

FABIAN: Yes, investigators are still trying to track that down right now. We`re seeing a clearer picture of the scene where they found her. There`s

a cornfield where Rivera says he led the authorities to, saying this is the place where I dropped the body. We flew a drone over that cornfield today,

and you see this sort of ominous cut-out in the corn -- a rectangle shape in the corn. Could that be where Rivera dumped the body and covered her

with corn leaves? I`m sure we`re going to find out soon.

BANFIELD: We`re showing that picture that you and your team were able to get from that drone video. It is so harrowing to think that that is where

she was these 34 days while everyone was looking for her. If the reports are true, and if that is the spot, that cut-out in the cornfield.

[19:49:58] You know, our Michael Christian was on the air with us, our producer who got into his hands right away the probable cause affidavit,

literally as they were making the announcement that they had found Mollie and that they had charged Christhian Rivera. And now that we know that

this autopsy says she died from multiple sharp force injuries, that probable cause affidavit actually makes a lot of sense. Have a listen to

how he put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL CHRISTIAN, HLN CRIME & JUSTICE PRODUCER: Until he noticed there was an earpiece from headphones in his lap, and that is how he realized he

put her in the trunk. He went to get her out of the trunk and he noticed blood on the side of her head.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: It`s so uncomfortable now to hear that. But makes a little bit more sense, doesn`t it?

Steven Fabian, one other piece of news that you`ve been working on and you`re breaking a lot of information on is the connection between Rivera

and Mollie. They were not unknown to each other.

FABIAN: Yes, investigators I talked to said, look, there`s a reason to believe he at least knew who she was, right? He had a girlfriend who went

to high school with Mollie. She was just one year older than Mollie. We know the high school right up the road here, the class sizes are 40

students per class. You go to a school with, you know, less than 200 kids, you run around in the same circles. It`s easy to believe that he at least

had an idea who Mollie was.

BANFIELD: Yes. And that picture of a young woman with the baby on her lap at the court hearing, we`re now confirming this is his girlfriend, and that

that is more than likely their baby. This was the little voice that we assumed we heard say, "daddy" as he walked into court. Do we know anything

more about what they are doing now, and what kind of investigation is involving them?

FABIAN: Well, right now, it doesn`t appear that they are under investigation. She may have been living on that farm with Rivera, the farm

that he was working at, Yarrabee Farms. You know, there are sort of bunkhouses there. There`s trailers there where employees live. And she

may have been living there with him on the farm still trying to track down more information about what she`s up to.

BANFIELD: James Gagliano, very uncomfortable to hear reports -- unconfirmed reports that there may have been other girls that were

followed, a 17-year-old, her sister reported to the police that a 17-year- old says he followed her to and that it made her feel uncomfortable. He drove up alongside her, she felt creeped out, she said it was flirty but

she felt unsafe and now the police are saying it is something they`re going to talk to the FBI about.

JAMES GALIANO, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Important work for police right now. First of all, were there any accomplices? They have to rule

that out as well. And then, second of all, link analysis. Who was this individual linked to? Was there anybody else in that world? It`s a very

small, cloistered community, where everybody appears to know everybody except they didn`t seem to know this gentleman too much. Police have got a

lot of work to do. They`ll do it by going through all the digital exhaust from laptops and cell phones and things like that, signal intelligence and

easy passes, things like that. They`re going to follow this, make sure that they track everywhere that this individual went, who he came in

contact with.

BANFIELD: Yes. And Jack, at another time, we`re going to talk about this but it should not go unnoticed that this has become a political football.

In fact, the attorney for this young man filed a motion for a gag order so that the government would no longer use the term illegal immigrant because

of the way Donald Trump and others in the government have been using this story. It`s actually a request that sad and sorry Trump has weighed in on

this matter in national media which will poison the entire possible pool of jury members. So, this is a very difficult case. We`ll talk about that

aspect in a moment.

But I do want to let you know, tomorrow night, we have a CRIME & JUSTICE special report that`s airing "SECRETS, LIES & FAMILY MASSACRE." We`re

going to take a closer look at the story of Chris and Shannan Watts, that seemingly picture perfect family in Colorado. And what may have been the

ultimate deception. "SECRETS, LIES & FAMILY MASSACRE" ends -- airs tomorrow night, Friday night, 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Back right after this.

[19:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Not being able to speak English can hinder people from seeking the American dream, from moving up the ladder at work, accessing medical

care, and fully integrating into the fabric of society. This week`s CNN Hero Florence Phillips provides a vital tool to help them overcome these

challenges and get one step closer to getting that dream.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FLORENCE PHILLIPS, CNN HERO: It`s the immigrants that made the United States. It was the immigrants that came here to have freedom of religion,

freedom of speech, freedom of doing whatever they wanted to do, and they`re the ones that made this country. We are giving them the key to unlock all

doors. And I see the pride when they say I am an American.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: And to see how Florence`s program unlocks the doors of the American dream, go to cnnheroes.com right now. We`ll see you back here on

Monday night at 6:00 Eastern. Thanks so much for watching. "FORENSIC FILES" begins right now.

END