An excellently-produced documentary covering the investigation of the disappearance of pregnant mom-of-two Shanann Watts (34) and her daughters Bella (4) and Celeste (3), and the [spoiler]timeline, documentation and media coverage leading up to the discovery of their triple murder and following on from the killer's arrest[/spoiler].

I most appreciate the way that it uses real text messages, footage recorded [spoiler]prior to their deaths[/spoiler] by Shanann and her friends and family, and recordings made by the authorities and everyone else immediately after the fact.

My only quibble with the doc is that it could have been more in-depth than it ended up being, but it does work well as a film, in both length and pacing. I do like that it gives a more in-depth view of the family's lives than most such casefile films could, and better still, it doesn't use them to sensationalise, [spoiler] or to make Shanann look like a bad mother, as has been done with victims who were popular social media figures in many similar situations in the past. Despite the bit showing how horrible people on the internet were about her after she and her girls vanished, and how much that hurt the people who'd loved her. I do wish folk wouldn't **do** that! [/spoiler].

I don't really feel I should review the actual _case_ in a post like this, on a site like this, or that it's my place, but I do have one final thing to say - or two? [spoiler]Hearing that Watts actually bundled his two little daughters into the backseat of his truck _right next to the murdered body of their mom_ and, as if that alone hadn't been sufficiently horrendous, went on to murder sleepy, tiny, three-year-old CeCe _right in front of_ four-year-old Bella, who was awake, coherent, adored her daddy and had reportedly been questioning what was going on the whole time, was just about old enough to understand how badly he'd hurt them both, and seems to have been pretty protective towards her baby sister ...[/spoiler] There isn't much I've heard about this case, or similar ones, that's more carelessly, heartlessly, casually evil than that considered action. On a second watch, [spoiler] the recording where Bella sings that song about her daddy being a hero ... [/spoiler] that's even more of a gut punch in hindsight. [spoiler] That poor baby. [/spoiler]

I also feel I should say, I completely believe Shanann's dad's idea about [spoiler] how she herself died. There's no way a mom who loved her babies as much as Shanann obviously did would give in to being murdered without a fight, leaving not a single defensive injury on him at all. She probably _was_ sleeping when he killed her, just as her father believes. [/spoiler]

Not that that makes any of this case any _better_. I doubt anything could. But it's covered about as well as it could be in a documentary of this length, I believe.