Shelly Knotek: When A Mother Becomes A Monster

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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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murder for today Brief and binge Able
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