he married the woman of his dreams, beautiful and sweet. she was just angelic. and was folded into her tight-knit family headed by an elderly religious matriarch. you were either part of their family or you weren t. together they had a little girl, sydney. when their marriage fell apart, her family closed ranks. in their view, sydney was their property. one day he went to pick up his little girl for a visit and was never seen alive again. he died right there. dad?ut who would kill a devoted the unbelievable choice, his golden girl wife or the gracious family matriarch? they seemed so loving, but was there another side. it s a monster that comes out of a closet. it s very ugly. how dark is that side? murderous. but which one was the killer? hello and welcome to dateline. he was a man suddenly confronted with something monstrous, evil at the door. this story is a mystery about a father of two young daughters. one night he left to pick up one of them an
their family or you weren t. together they had a little girl, sydney. when their marriage fell apart, her family closed ranks. in their view, sydney was their property. one day he went to pick up his little girl for a visit and was never seen alive again. he died right there. but who would kill a devoted dad? the unbelievable choice, his golden girl wife or the gracious family matriarch? they seemed so loving, but was there another side. it s a monster that comes out of a closet. it s very ugly. how dark is that side? murderous. but which one was the killer? hello and welcome to dateline. he was a man suddenly confronted with something monstrous, evil at the door. this story is a mystery about a father of two young daughters. one night he left to pick up one of them and never came back. the question for investigators wasn t what happened. it was who did it. in the home of a god-fearing family in one of the smallest of american towns, the worst of crimes.
there was never his way, so he didn t stick around. he divorced her? yes, sir. did you blame him? no, sir, not at all. state police say when they talked to jennifer s first husband, he described an us-against-them mentality in jennifer s insular family. they did everything together. you were either a part of their family or you weren t. stephen watkins was clearly no longer part of the family, after the divorce filing, accusations of child molesting and the custody dispute. now jennifer was losing that dispute. abuse allegations had been found baseless. a court hearing about increased visitation for stephen had been scheduled. how concerned is the skinner family about this visitation ruling? very concerned, very concerned. in their view sydney was their property. they were not going to share their property with anyone outside that skinner family, even stephen watkins. the skinner family was circling the wagons for themselves, and he was the enemy. jennifer and her fam
together. you were either a part of their family or you weren t. stephen watkins was clearly no longer part of the family, after the divorce filing, accusations of child molesting and the custody dispute. now jennifer was losing that dispute. abuse allegations had been found baseless. a court hearing about increased visitation for stephen had been scheduled. how concerned is the skinner family about this visitation ruling? very concerned, very concerned. in their view sydney was their property. they were not going to share their property with anyone outside that skinner family, even stephen watkins. the skinner family was circling the wagons for themselves, and he was the enemy. jennifer and her family feared stephen would be successful in getting overnight visitation at that hearing. he was also continuing his quest for sole custody of sydney. but he never made it to the courthouse. he was killed the night before at his estranged wife s home. according to investigators, the
and the custody dispute. now jennifer was losing that dispute. abuse allegations had been found baseless. a court hearing about increased visitation for stephen had been scheduled. how concerned is the skinner family about this visitation ruling? very concerned, very concerned. in their view sydney was their property. they were not going to share their property with anyone outside that skinner family, even stephen watkins. the skinner family was circling the wagons for themselves, and he was the enemy. jennifer and her family feared stephen would be successful in getting overnight visitation at that hearing. he was also continuing his quest for sole custody of sydney. but he never made it to the courthouse. he was killed the night before at his estranged wife s home. according to investigators, the skinner family had been so concerned about the hearing, jennifer s mother hired a private investigator to witness stephen picking up the baby the evening he was killed, perhaps to ob