Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers’ discretion advised.
August 13,2018 , in frederick, Colorado , American oil field operator and father christopher Lee Watts , murdered his pregnant s wife shanann watts , and their two daugthers, 4 years old Bella and 3 years old Celeste.
From outside ,the watts family was rather adorable.the picture -perfect young family.
” Happy husband Apreciation day! i couldn´t imagine a better man for us, you spil us with love and attention! you put up with 3 impatient ,demandig women in the house, you work so hard everydsay to provide for us . i love you you so much”
shanann captioned an instagram post in april 2018 .
Nicole Atkinson was the last friend to see shanann watts .
Atkinson told ” good morning america ” that she was not suprised to learn about that christofer watts had been arrested for the murder of his wife and children .
The grieving Atkinson explained that she watched watt´s interview like many others across America ” something was wrong”.
“He was defending himself , but it just didn´t make sense . likle in that moment it is kind of surreal ,he was just sitting there waiting for something to happen , it just didn´t seem right to me. ” she said .
Atkinson went on to say that the couple was ” having some issues” around three weeks before the murders and said that watts ” wasn´t being loiving chris that he normaly was”.
others close to the Watts family were similarly devastated by the news
jeremy lindstrom had recently hosted the Watts family at a birthday party for his son .
” you know , the hardest part about it all is -when you´re closer to the family is the” why” why do people do this ? why does it come doswn to this ?
neighbor and friend Ashley Bell couldn´t believe the christopher watts she knew could have murdered his family and then gone on television to ask for hel in finding them .
” i kept telling myself, no ,no he wouldn´t do anything to her giving him benefith of the doubt. Bell said .
Nick and amanda Thayer were aslso blindsided by the news that their friend Watts , was charged with murder . the couple took Watts in after his family went missing .
Now they´re saying they” feel so stupid,trusting him sto stay the night in the same house as our daughter “.
Amanda thayer said that their ” 48-72 hours”with Watts ” he was his normal self”.
“he fooled us . and i´m so sorry we just thought we were doing the right thing by being a good friend ” nick added. ” we were duped.”
A licensed psychotherapist who´s familiar with the case is speaking out about what she believes was going on in Watts ´s mind around the time of the murders -and no, she doesn´t believe he was ” insane” or mentally unsound.Lena Derhally is a licensed psychotherapist and author of the book my daddy is a hero :how chris watts went from family man to familly killer .”
In her book derhally attempts to peel back the many layers surronding the charming “family man” -who later confessed to strangling his wife, shan´ann. and smothering his daugthters, bella , 4, and CeCe 2.
Derhally, who works as a clinical instructor in the departement of Psyciatry and behavioral Sciences at George Washington school of medicine ,freeley admitted that she´s never personally met with watts , but she had studied the case extensively.based on the hours of evidence she´s reviewed, she fells strongly that what happened on that fatfeful day in august 2018 ” wasn´t a psychotic break” as some might hase assumed
Her beliefs about this have pretty much held firm since she first witnessed Watts´televised plea august 14 for his family to return -just one dsay after his wife and daughter disappeared.
” That was what drew me into the the case initially .derhally told hollywood life of the bizarre interview .
” There was something just really weird because he looked like this really nice ,handsome guy from a middle class – family . He just seemed like a normal guy . But most people i think had this very strong gut feeling that something was off with what he was saying. As soon as people sat that interview , they were like . ” oh, it´s got to be him .”
without even having evidence , it was just something about his interview , there´s somethinh not right here . He became suspect nuimber one based on that interview , and i think i felt the same way when i watched like “he has something to do with this “
Derhally wasn´t alone in her suspicion – it wass later learned that many people close to the couple voiced their concerns to police.
One of them was shan´ann´s friend and coworker Nikole Atkinson,who had dropped shan ´ann off att her home arond 2 .a.m . august 13 after the pair returned home from a business trip .when shan´anna failed to return text messages from nicole the following day , she stopped by the home to check on her friend – and grew worried when no one answered .
Calls to chris Watts only left her more alarmed ,when watts seemed unconcerned with the disapearance of his wife and kids.
Aktins alerted police to the home , where watts led them around , apearing unemotional and detached.
” he just kept saying that he didn´t know where she was and that she was on a playdate. but he couldn´t give us the name of the friend ” atkinson recalled .”i knew he had something to do with it the dasy i was at his house with him , but i didn´t want to think that . anyone , in their rigtht mind will start piecing things together and think something had happened, but you don´t want to go there ,” she continued.” you want to believe the best in people”.
When chris Watts first appeared on TV , standing outside his suburban Colorado home, on Aug.14 .talking to al local new reporter ,the only strange thing about him seemed to be the story he was telling.
His pregnant wife ,shan´ann watts , and daughters Bella ans Celeste were missing ,he said.
He was unnaturally calm, even awkward- as though he had never expected to find himself in this position ,talking about his family on the news , or like he had something to hide.
In body cam footage released last year, neighbor Nate Ttrinastich could heard telling cops ,
“He is not acting right .” before pointing out how “fidgety watts appeared. He also noted how its seemed odd that watts kept “rocking back and forth” sas he stood in Trinastich´s home while reviewing surveillance footage .
But even more curious was what the actual surveillance footage showed :watts had backed his pickup truck to his open garage in the early morning hours of august 13 and apeared to take quite a while loading it before driving awsay .he told the investigators he was merely unloading toiols before heading off to work , said watts .unfortunately , that wasn´t the case.
Two days later ,ther first piece of the truth emerged: Authorities arrested chris, 22 after confronting him about an affair he was carryin on with a co -worker. they charged him with first-degree murder in the death of his wife and daughters -even as he claimed in a police interview that shan´ann 34 ,was to blame ,that héd witnessed her strangling Celeste in apparent revenge when he announced he wanted a separation .
Nichol kessinger / fotos chris kept his on his phone on a secret app from his wife .
The affidavit a, wich was released mondsay afternoon after Watts was formally charged with nine felonies in the case , including first -degree murder and unlawful termination of a pregnancy, reaveals more details about what led to watts ´s arrest in the death of shanann watts and their two daughters ,Bella and Celeste
According to the affidavit shanann arrived home from a work trip just before 2. a.m last monday and was dropped off by a friend. but the friend became concerned when shanann missed a 10 a.m doctor´s appointment.
the friend found shanann´s vehichle in the garage and the car seas inside . she called chris and asked him to come home because she was worried that shan´ann may have suffered a medical episode and passed out , accordiug to the affidavit .
But police arrived before Chris did ,the affidavit says .
He let them inside the family´s home ,where officers found shan´ann´s purse and key´s on the kitchen island and a suitcase at the bottom of the stairs.
“if you´re out there , just come back . if somebody has her just please bring her back . I need to see everybody . I need to see everybody again. this house is not complete without anybody here “. chris own words.
Nearly 24 hours beforechris watts was arrested in the disappeance of his pregnant wife and young daughters in colorado , he stood outside his porch and pleaded for their safe return ………
Tusday , august 14 ..
While police and canine unites swept the property for clues about where shanann and her girls may have gone . chris spoke with a TV crew from Denver7 . He confirmed that shanann had gotten back from a business trip at 2 a.m on monday , and said that he went to work around 5.15 a.m and hadn´t seen her since. He added that he and his wife had an ” emotional” conversation before she disappeared ,but didn´t elaborate .
Thursday, august 16.
A frederick police departement official told Denver7 that law enforcement arrested chris just after midnight on thursday . he was charged with three counts of first -degreee murder , and thre counts of tampering with evidence.
Chris Watts is seen here being strip searched by investigators just hours before he was arrested for the murders of his pregnant wife and their two young daughters back in August. Agents photographed Watts’s chest, hands, torso, back, neck, head and legs for the purpose of the investigation.
The shirtless images reveal the Colorado killer’s collection of tattoos, including a huge Metallica inking on his upper back — in tribute to his favorite band. Just two hours later Watts, 33, was formally arrested and cuffed in the same room. The images have been released by investigators in the shocking Colorado case following an open records request.
Last month Watts had his sentences handed down, including three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for the murder of his pregnant wife Shanann, 34 — who was carrying their unborn son — and daughters Bella, aged four, and Celeste, aged three. Prosecutors say Watts strangled his wife for two minutes, before suffocating their two children. The bodies had been dumped by Watts and were discovered on August 16 at the Anadarko oil and gas drilling site where he worked near their home in Frederick on the northern outskirts of Denver, Colorado. According to authorities Watts was having an affair with a female coworker and had told her he and his wife were separating.
06 Dec 2018 Pictured: Killer dad Chris Watts is seen being strip searched by agents shortly before he was arrested for the murder of his pregnant wife and their two young daughters on August 15, 2018. Photo credit: Weld County DA/ MEGA TheMegaAgency.com +1 888 505 6342 (Mega Agency TagID: MEGA320099_001.jpg) /Photo via Mega Agency
At a press conference later that day , police said they found the body of a women they believe to be shanann on the property of Watts´s former employer,Anadarko Petroleum coporation.. the girls bodies were reportedly recovered later that day .
He had wrapped shan´ann in bedsheets after strangling her in t heir bedroom . amd he dragged her body down the stairs befor getting interruped by Bella , who woke up during the commotion and ask him ” what´s wrong with mommy?”
” mommy was sick ” watts claimed to have told her ,though he later admitted she could clearly sense something wsas wrong . soon after , 3 years old CeCe was up too , and Watts made the decision to take both his daughters with him to a job site near where he worked at anadarko petroleum .
once there , he buried shan ´ann´s body in a sshallow grave befor smothering his daughters one by one and stuffing their bodies into the large ttanks filled with crude oil.
According to CNN a court filing from the prosecutor says that shan ann Watts´body was recovered from a shallow grave near an oil tank . and that law enforcement recovered the bodies of the defendant´s two daughters from inside oil tanks located near the grave of their mother .
an affidavit obtained by CNN later revealed police founs shanann´s body when they used a drone to survey the fields and saw a bedsheet near the oil tanks.
“her eyes filled with blood as she looked at me and she died .I knew she was gone when she relieved herself.”
” when she started to get drowsy , i somhow knew how to squeeze the jugular veins until it cut off the blood flow to her brain , and she passed out .”
” i knew if i took my hands off of her ,she would stil keep me from nikki
” all the weeks of me thinking about killing her, and now i was faced with it .-Chris Watts.
He reportedly wrote that he surreptitiously gave shannan the opiate painkiller Oxycodon to kill their unborn child, telling cheryl Cadle . an author of ” letters from christopher: the tragic Confessios of the watts famyl murders ” and pen pal . was featured in liftetime´s “cellmate secrets:chris watts .” wich premiered friday night.
chris watts & cheryl Cadle.( chris pen pal )
Cadle said that chris also confessed to her via letter that he attempted to murder his two daughters in their bedroom before killing shanann . He allegedly wrote her that he had sex with shanann after she returned from a business trip . then as she slept he went into the girl´s bedroom to smother them .
He alegedly claimed he didn´t wont them to hear him murder their mother and that he planned this act ahead of time.
The father thought both Bella and Celeste were dead as he reentered the bedroom he shared with his wifte and got into an argument with her about their failing relationship . Cadle said.
While he didn´t admit to cheating , chris told shanann he no longer loved her . according to Cadle; that´´s the same story he told the FBI . shanann allegedly responded that i f he were to end their marriage . he´d never see his daughters again .Despite the fact he allegdly already thought the girls were dead . this comment enraged him enough to kill her at that moment, cadle said .
following his guilty plea and conviction,chris gave the FBI a chilling five-hour interview detailing the killing of his family. He described in horific detail how he suffocated his children after strangling shanann. whom he said didn´t fight back.
But now ,cadle claims that chris has divulged even more disturbing detals to her during the cours of their communictions . she tells the producers of “cellmate secrets” that chris told her during a prison visit that he drugged shanann with Oxycodon weeks before her murder.
” He tried to poison shanann with a large dose of it .” she said .”what he wanted her to do was for her to miscarry .”
She said he told her he never wanted the baby and that it was easier to cheat if his wife wasn´t pregant. the alleged attempt was unsuccesssful ,though shanann did become ill , according to Cadle.
Cadle´s allegations haven´t been independently corroborated .
Cadle divulges in the show that at one point ,chris told her that he drugged shannan that night. however ,he changed his story during another correspondence to say he didn´t.” so i´m not sure what the truth is there but i believe he drugged her again ” she said.
“shanann was a vivacious and tenacious woman . i believe that she would have fought back and there was no signt that she fought back at all.”
chris then drove his dead wife and his two children who were still alive. to an oil site where he worked . it was there where he fatally smothered the girls,before stuffing them into oil wells . He buried shanann in a shallow grave nearby.
Cadle asked the killer why his wife couldn´t be with her own children , even in death.” He said he wanted just to get them far away from shanann as he could .” she said.
the author said he wanted the kids away from their mother ” because he was so angry with shanann ,he at that moment hated her so much .”
In chris watts confenssion ,he said that he had strangled shannan in a” fit of rage ” after watching her smother their two daughters .Bella and Celeste. she was upset, he said , because he had tried to talk to her about separating and ending their marriage , and she hade retaliated by killing t he girls . After murdering shanann , he took the three bodies to the oil sit and buried them ,he said .
come novembetr ,however ,chris story had changed-again.This time he confessed to killing his wife and daughters and peaded guilty to all nine counts against him. :five counts of firs degree murder ( including two additional counts for his daughters because they were children under 12 )
One count of unlawful termination of pregnancy, and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body. Ultimately,he was sentenced to five life sentences( three consecutive and two concurrent) for the murders,plus a total of 84 more years for the other crimes.
