Shelly Watson comes to live with her father Les and stepmother Lara after her unstable mother can no longer care for her.

Shelly falsely accuses her father Les of rape, shocking the Watson family and requiring psychological intervention.

Shelly marries her first husband Randy Rivardo and gives birth to her oldest daughter, Nikki.

After divorcing Randy, Shelly abandons baby Nikki at Lara's home and disappears for a year without explanation.

Dave Knotek meets Shelly at a bar in Raymond and the two quickly begin dating.

Dave and Shelly marry in a ceremony attended by Shelly's best friend, hairdresser Kathy Loreno.

Shelly announces that her best friend Kathy Loreno will move into the family home, claiming Kathy needs help.

Tori is born and Shelly's physical abuse of her children, including brutal nighttime outdoor punishments, intensifies.

Kathy Loreno dies in the family's laundry room after years of escalating torture and neglect.

Dave and Shane cremate Kathy's body at night while Shelly takes the girls to a motel.

Dave shoots Shane Watson in the back of the head after Shelly relentlessly pressures him to silence the teenager.

Ron Woodworth, a financially struggling man Shelly befriended, moves into the Knotek home.

Nikki confides in Lara that Shelly and Dave killed Kathy, and they fax a detailed report to the Pacific County sheriff.

During a police interview, Dave confesses to the murders and reveals where the bodies were hidden, and Shelly is arrested.

Sami is granted guardianship of Tori, and all three Knotek sisters maintain their close bond into adulthood.

Shelly Watson arrives at her father Les and stepmother Lara's home as a child already displaying manipulation, cruelty, and pathological lying. After a series of failed marriages, she settles with Dave Knotek in rural Washington and begins subjecting her daughters and household dependents to brutal abuse. Shelly's best friend Kathy Loreno moves in and is slowly tortured to death, with Dave and Shane helping cover up the murder. Shane is later killed at Shelly's insistence to prevent him from going to the authorities. When a new victim, Ron Woodworth, moves in and disappears under the same pattern, the Knotek daughters finally force an investigation that leads to Dave's confession and Shelly's arrest. Both are convicted, and Sami is granted guardianship of Tori, allowing the three sisters to begin rebuilding their lives.

The headline crimes and arrests of Shelly and Dave Knotek.

Shelly's biological mother Sharon is found murdered in a seedy Los Angeles motel room.

Shelly falsely accuses her step-grandfather of molestation, causing the family to send her to boarding school.

Shelly stages a fake rape at gunpoint in her and Randy's trailer as a ploy to get money to move out.

Shelly destroys gifts from Randy's visiting family members and barricades herself in the bedroom to avoid them.

Shelly tells Dave and the family she has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, fabricating treatments and medical bills.

Shane Watson, Dave's troubled nephew, moves in with the Knoteks and is quickly put to work doing punishing chores.

Shane and Nikki secretly search Shelly's bedroom and discover dozens of hidden prescription drug bottles from doctors across the country.

Kathy escapes to a nearby mall and buys new outfits before Shelly tracks her down and brings her back home.

Shelly and Dave duct-tape a naked Kathy to a plywood board and repeatedly dunk her head underwater while hurling insults.

Sami graduates high school and secretly escapes with friends while Shelly is away, later finding refuge at Lara's house.

Shelly befriends Ron Woodworth while the two of them volunteer together at a Habitat for Humanity event.

Ron attempts to run away from the Knotek home, but Shelly tracks him down and coaxes him back with promises of love.

Ron's close friend Sandra meets him for lunch and finds him gaunt, sedated, and barely recognizable as himself.

After Ron's death, Shelly drives Tori to Seattle to stay with Sami, keeping her away from the crime scene.

Dave pleads guilty to second-degree murder for Shane's death and is sentenced to just under 15 years in prison.

Long before her murders, Shelly's pattern of deceit was established through false accusations, staged attacks, and manipulation of everyone around her. She destroyed her first marriage through lies and cruelty, then repeated the cycle with a second husband before luring Dave Knotek into her orbit. Her teenage nephew Shane and her daughters were all subjected to escalating humiliations, while Kathy Loreno was slowly stripped of her health and freedom. After Kathy's death Shelly found a new victim in Ron Woodworth, whose friends watched him deteriorate and disappear under her care. The sisters escaped one by one, and when Ron's body was finally discovered, the full weight of the Knoteks' crimes collapsed around them.

The victims Shelly exploited and the family members who barely escaped her.

Lara and Les find a bookmarked magazine article about molestation, confirming that Shelly fabricated her rape accusation against her father.

Nikki wakes up being smothered by a pillow and realizes her mother has attempted to kill her.

Nikki catches Shelly pressing a pillow over baby Tori's face, and the two older sisters begin watching their mother closely.

Lara and Shelly's half-sister Carol confront Shelly and find scissors and cut hair in the bathroom trash, exposing her fake cancer.

Shelly forces Nikki and Shane to strip naked and slow dance together as a humiliating punishment while Dave does nothing.

Shelly instructs Sami to survey the new farmhouse from the road to identify every spot where neighbors might see into the yard.

Shane unlocks the pump house to free Kathy, but Kathy refuses to leave, revealing she has given up all hope of survival.

Nikki tells Shelly that Shane discovered photos of Kathy's corpse, inadvertently sealing Shane's fate.

Nikki eats poisonous berries in a desperate suicide attempt after Shelly stabs her in the leg during a yard work punishment.

Sami confronts Dave at a summer camp event, and both tearfully acknowledge that they have always known Kathy is dead.

The three Knotek sisters share a meal in Seattle, and Sami reveals the full truth about Kathy and Ron to Tori.

Tori searches the pole building and hides Ron's bloodied belongings in the chicken coop as evidence for police to find.

Sami and Nikki drive to the Pacific County sheriff's office about Ron's disappearance, and this time the sheriff takes them seriously.

Tori whispers to Deputy Bergstrom where she hid Ron's belongings as Child Protective Services removes her from the family home.

Shelly blames Nikki and Sami for Kathy's abuse at her sentencing hearing, and the judge responds by increasing her sentence to 22 years.

From Shelly's earliest lies through to her sentencing, the story of the Knotek family is shaped by a series of shattering revelations and pivotal choices. Lara repeatedly uncovered Shelly's fabrications, while Nikki and Sami found ways to survive by reading their mother's behavior and slowly recognizing its true horror. Kathy's hopeless refusal to flee and Nikki's fateful decision to tell Shelly about Shane's photos sealed both their fates. Years later the three sisters reuniting gave them the collective courage to act, and Tori's quiet gathering of evidence provided the physical proof authorities needed. At sentencing, Shelly's attempt to blame her daughters backfired spectacularly when the judge responded by extending her prison term.

The discoveries, betrayals, and decisions that finally brought Shelly to justice.