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Shelly Knotek: When A Mother Becomes A Monster · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

0:37
For most of us, the phrase look what you made me do sounds melodramatic,
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something straight out of a soap opera that we'd never really take seriously unless
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it's a Taylor swift lyric. But for others, it's a bone chilling reminder
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that their fate lies completely in someone else's control. That helplessness is at the
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heart of today's case featuring other than Michelle Nottek. Born in Washington in nineteen
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sixty four, Michelle, who went by the name Shelley, had a much
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rougher start in life than many others. Her parents had separated, leaving Shelley
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and her two younger brothers solely in the care of their mother, Sharon Watson.
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Sharon suffered from addictions and had several mental health issues, meaning that she
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was drunk more often than she was not, and she wasn't there to look
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after her children. It is suspected, but unconfirmed, that during this time
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of her life, Sharon was working as a sex worker and would often bring
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strange men to the home her children were living in. Just about the time
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Shelley had turned six, Sharon disappeared, and it was only then that Less
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Watson scooped in to try to save the day. The father to three now
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homeless Watson children, Less was known to be charming and charismatic. He was
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a successful businessman, so he was able to to financially provide for his three
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children, and he even had a new wife, Laura Stallings, who could
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fill in for Sharon as the mother figure. From the outside looking in,
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this could appear to be a fresh start that the Watson children so desperately needed.
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They would have a stable and safe home and two parents on hand to
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make up for the trauma they had experienced already together. But that was only
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on paper. In truth, the Watson Stallings household was rife with grief and
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torment, and at the heart of it was Shelley Watson herself. Like many
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older siblings, Shelley enjoyed tormenting and teasing her younger brothers, but she would
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take things much further than most people would ever go. She did the somewhat
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usual thing of blaming them if she was called skipping chores or missing homework,
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but then again, she would also line the inside of their shoes with glass
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shards and beat them. Stunned and shocked by her stepdaughter's behavior, Laura tried
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to do the responsible thing and step in, only to find Shelley's ire then
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directed towards her instead. Shelley hated Laura and used every excuse she had to
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try to make Laura's life more difficult. She frequently refused to listen to her
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and flat out picked fights with Laura, all the while reminding everyone around them
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that Laura wasn't her real mother. And even though that could sound like Shelley
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was missing her mom Sharon, again, the truth is far more chilling than
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that. Les Watson later described what happened to his ex wife Sharon when Shelley
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was only thirteen years old. He claimed that she was living with another man
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at the time, but that they were, in his own words, homeless
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drunks living on skid row. She was beaten to death. That was how
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Shelley lost her mother, but far from being even more traumatized by the situation,
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Shelley seemed to ignore it. Quote. Shelley never once asked about her
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mother, Laura said in an interview later. But maybe it was that Shelley
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couldn't let people in to show them her pain, or maybe it was because
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the trauma she experienced in those first six years of her life when she was
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still living with Sharon had simply caused too much damage. Only about a year
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later, Less and Laura found themselves panic stricken and calling Shelley's school when she
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didn't come home. During that phone call, their worst fears were confirmed when
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the school informed them that Shelley had been picked up by the police. Less
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and Laura rushed down to the station, desperate to protect Shelley from whatever it
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was that she was in trouble for, only to find the spotlight directed at
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them well directed it. Less in particular, Shelley had shared some startling and
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heartbreaking news, both with her teachers and with the police. Less had been
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sexually abusing her. Determined to get to the bottom of things, The police
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conducted a thorough investigation, but a medical exam revealed that Shelley had been lying
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about the whole thing. After several failed attempts at patching their family back together,
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Shelley then went to live with Laura's parents. Her behavior did not improve
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there. Instead, she would often be caught tormenting neighborhood children and locking them
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into rooms when she was babysitting them. She also made one more claim that
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her grandfather abused her during this time, but no one around her took the
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allegations seriously. Now as an adult, Shelley married and had two daughters,
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Nicki and Sammy, before she met David no Tek. David was a Navy
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veteran turned construction worker, and five years after Shelley walked into his life,
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the two of them were married together. They welcomed another daughter named Tory into
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the world, and their family was complete. But as Nicki would later say,
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quote, my mother was like a ticking time bomb. I never knew
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when she would go off. When Shelley was calm and happy, she showered
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her three daughters and husband with love and affection. When she wasn't, she
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would turn in a flash into someone completely cold and sadistic. Whatever the girls
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had done wrong would need to be punished, and Shelley's favorite method of punishment
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was something she liked to call wallowing. She would force the children outside,
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usually during the night, and make them roll around naked in the mud.
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Then, to clean them off, she would hose them down with the cold
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water from the garden hose and make them stand outside until they were dry enough
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to come back in. Wallowing was Shelley's go to answer for most things.
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If the girls ticked her off or didn't ask for permission before using the bathroom,
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they would all find themselves outside in the mud. This was also the
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case when Shelley invited her nephew, Shane Watson to come and live with them
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while his father was in prison. Shane, like the others that would follow
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after him, actually believed that he was walking into a warm and safe home,
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but he quickly discovered that this was far from the case. Like his
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cousins, he would face wallowing two and as an extra form of punishment,
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he would sometimes have to slow dance naked with his cousins in the living room.
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It was during this period that Shelley would further torment Nicki and Sammy by
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demanding handfuls of their pubic hair and locking them in a dog kennel after they'd
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been out wallowing. And it was also during this period that Shelley shoved Nicky's
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head through a glass door and yelled at her, look what you made me
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do. But it was also only a few short months after Shane moved in
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that the children found a brief moment to breathe. Shelley got herself a new
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victim and usually directed all of her attention towards him instead of at the other
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children. It was this fact that kept the children quiet during most of the
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abuse that would follow, a silence that they later said they would forever regret.
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Kathy Loreno was one of Shelley's old friends who had fallen on hard times
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after losing her job. Shelley invited Kathy to live with them until she had
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gotten back on her feet, but soon after Cathy moved in, Shelley did
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everything she could to make sure that never happened again. Shelley would beat Kathy
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after claiming that Kathy was a binge eater. Shelley took all of her clothes
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and forced her to do chores around the house naked. After accusing Kathy of
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sleepwalking, Shelley then started forcing her to take sedatives and made her sleep in
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the basement. During the five years that Cathy endured this abuse, she lost
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one hundred pounds and most of her teeth, and then one night she suddenly
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disappeared. According to David Nottech, Shelley had beaten Kathy before leaving the house.
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That evening, he could hear Kathy down in the basement but something about
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the way she was breathing made him want to go and check on her.
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No, I should have called nine one one, he later said, but
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with everything that had been going on, I didn't want the cops here.
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I didn't want shell in trouble. David found Kathy unconscious and choking on her
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own vomit. He performed CPR and tried to save her, but the beating
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had gone too far. Cathy died on the basement floor. When David told
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Shelley what had happened, she flew off the handle and told everyone in the
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household that they would go to jail if anyone talked to the police. David
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and their daughters believed her. They stayed silent while David burned Kathy's body,
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and he and Shelley disposed of her ashes, but Shane didn't. He told
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Nicki that he had taken pictures of Kathy during the abuse and he was going
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to show them to the police. Terrified and a victim herself, Nicki told
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Shelley about the pictures. Shelley then ordered David to handle the situation. David
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shot Shane and the head. He then burned Shaine's body and scattered his ashes
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into the ocean. It was shortly after the murder of her own nephew that
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Shelley found yet another victim. He was another friend who had fallen on hard
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times, but in Shelley's opinion, Ron Woodworth was nothing but an ugly low
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life. Ron was a fifty seven year old veteran who struggled with the diction,
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but Shelley believed she would be the one to convince him to get his
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life together. Ron wasn't allowed to use the bathroom in the house. Instead,
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he was forced to go outside and was on at least one occasion forced
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to drink his own urine. Shelley made him cut all ties with his family,
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and with no one else to look out for him or ask questions,
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Shelley could do whatever she liked to Ron. She then made him jump barefoot
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off the roof of the house onto the gravel pathway. Ron was severely injured
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from the jump, and Shelley treated his wounds by pouring bleach onto them.
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Ron would not survive the abuse. After he'd died from his injuries, Shelley
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hid his body in the freezer and told David that he'd committed suicide. David
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then helped Shelley cover her tracks by burying Ron in the yard. By that
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point in time, only fourteen year old Tory was still living at home,
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and after witnessing her mother murdering Ron, she knew that enough was enough.
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She went to her sisters and all of them agreed that they were finally going
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to talk to the police. The subsequent police investigation uncovered Ron's remains in the
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yard and confirmed the sister's stories. David was sentenced to thirteen years for second
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degree murder for killing young Shane. Shelley was sentenced to twenty two years for
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second degree murder and manslaughter for killing Kathy and Ron. She was released in
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November twenty twenty two at the age of sixty eight. That is ten minute
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