It started in 2010, on social media. Shanann had moved from New Jersey to North Carolina, and upon moving received a friend request from Chris Watts. Shanann made the decision to accept the request, figuring she would never actually meet him (Chang). At the time the two met, Shanann was going through a health crisis with a recent Lupus diagnosis. Shanann attributed her relationship with Chris to how sick had become during that time, pulling down her walls and opening her to him (Swanson) (American Murder: The Family Next Door). The two married on November 3, 2012 (Chang) and moved to their home in Frederick, CO in 2013 (Swanson).
According to friends, the Watts family was the perfect family from the outside. Chris and Shanann had two children, Bella, four, and Celeste, three, as well as a third on the way. Shanann worked as a brand promoter for Le-Vel, a nutrition and supplement company, and was known to always have her phone and be easy to get ahold of. On August 13, 2018, Shanann, 15 weeks pregnant, missed a doctor’s appointment. Her friend, Nickole Atkinson, was unable to reach her and alerted authorities to the unusual situation (Swanson). Investigators arrived, as well as Chris Watts, and began their search for the missing mother and her two children who were also found to be missing. Watts made a show of trying to get into contact with Shanann, texting her asking where she was and to get into contact with him. Atkinson has stated that Watts’ parents didn’t like Shanann and that the two had been having difficulties before the events of August 13th (American Murder: The Family Next Door).
Suspicion quickly turned to Watts in the disappearances. He was brought in for questioning within just a couple days of the disappearance, where he admitted to having an uncomfortable conversation with Shanann the morning of the disappearances. He told investigators that they had discussed possibly selling the house and going through with a separation, which he said led to Shanann questioning if he had met someone else (American Murder: The Family Next Door). It is known now that Watts was having an affair in the months leading up to the events of August 13th. Nichole Kessinger began talking to Watts in June of 2018, where they both worked. The two met outside of work for the first time later that month, and by July the relationship had turned physical. At the time, Watts had been telling Kessinger that he was nearly divorced, and eventually told her the divorce was final. Kessinger believed him, going so far as to have spent more than an hour looking at wedding dresses. While Shanann was away on a business trip between August 9th and 13th, Watts hired a babysitter and went out with Kessinger, despite still being married (Chang).
On August 14th, Watts went on television to plead for the return of his wife and children, asking that if someone has them they return them to his home (Chang).Watts tells investigators while under polygraph that the two had had an uncomfortable conversation that morning, that lead to Shanann strangling their daughters and Watts strangling her in a fit of rage (Swanson). The bodies of Shanann, Bella, and Celeste were found on August 16th, just three days after they first went missing, on the worksite Watts had been working on at the time. While they were being discovered, Watts, having been arrested officially on August 15th, was appearing at a bond hearing. Watts was charged with three counts of first-degree murder on August 21st, along with six more charges including the unlawful termination of a pregnancy. While Shanann, Bella, and Celeste were laid to rest on September 1, 2018, Watts was sitting in prison awaiting trial. Come November 2018, Watts plead guilty to the murders and was sentenced to life in prison (Chang).
In 2019, Watts confessed the details of his crimes to investigators in a prison interview. According to his confession, in the early hours of August 13, 2018 he woke Shanann up as he was getting ready for work to talk with her about the affair he was having and getting a divorce. Watts told her that their marriage just wasn’t going to work and that he no longer loved her. According to Watts, Shanann told him that he would never see his daughters again, to which Watts responded by strangling her. Bella was woken up by the commotion coming from their bedroom, coming into the room and asking him what was wrong with her mother. Watts said he then wrapped Shanann in a sheet and dragged her down and into his truck. Bella had begun crying and woken up Celeste, who he loaded into his truck and began heading to his worksite. During the drive, he debated on killing them and himself, but in the end that wasn’t what he did. Upon arriving, he pulled Shanann’s body from the car and horrifically smothered three-year old Celeste with a pillow before disposing of her remains in an oil tank. According to Watts, when he returned to the car Bella asked him if the same thing that happened to her sister was going to happen to her. Unfortunately for the four-year old, that was exactly what was going to happen. Watts used a blanket instead of a pillow to smother his oldest daughter before disposing of her remains in another oil tank and burying Shanann nearby (Schmelzer).
The events of August 13, 2018, changed the lives of everyone who knew the Watts family. Shanann’s parents had to deal with people ridiculing their daughter and granddaughters online, using Shanann’s heavy social media presence to criticize her parenting style. Some even went so far as to say Shanann drove Watts to murder with her behavior (American Murder: The Family Next Door). Friends lost people they loved because of his actions that day. Chris Watts will likely spend the rest of his life in prison, having received five life sentences for the horrific crimes he committed.
Chang, Rachel. “Chris Watts: A Complete Timeline Of The Murder Of His Wife And Daughters”. Biography, 2020, https://www.biography.com/news/chris-watts-wife-daughters-murder-mistress-confession-timeline?li_source=LI&li_medium=m2m-rcw-biography.
Swanson, Sady. Coloradoan.Com, 2018, https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2018/08/23/colorado-watts-family-who-were-christopher-watts-shanann-watts-prior-murder/1062614002/.
“American Murder: The Family Next Door”. Netflix, 2020.
Schmelzer, Elise. “Christopher Watts Confession Details Murders Of Shanann Watts, Daughters”. Denverpost.Com, 2019, https://www.denverpost.com/2019/03/07/christopher-watts-confession-murder-details/.
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