Watts family murders

The Watts family murders occurred on the morning of August 13, 2018, in Frederick, Colorado. Christopher Lee Watts murdered his pregnant wife Shanann and their two daughters: four-year-old Bella and three-year-old Celeste. Watts had been having an affair with a coworker, Nichol Kessinger, who was unaware that he was still married and cooperated with police in the investigation. Watts originally denied knowing the whereabouts of his wife and daughters but later confessed to killing Shanann, saying that he had asked her for a divorce and, in a fit of rage, she had killed the girls. Then he, in a similar emotional state, killed Shanann. However, Watts eventually admitted to killing his daughters by smothering them with a blanket. On November 6, 2018, he was sentenced to five life sentences without the possibility of parole. He is serving the sentences in a maximum-security prison in Wisconsin.

Background

Chris Watts and Shanann Rzucek met in 2012 and married two years later. They had two daughters—Bella (born in 2013) and Celeste (born in 2015). They lived in a five-bedroom home in Frederick, Colorado, worth about $400,000. Watts was employed by Anadarko Petroleum, and Shanann was a sales representative at Le-Vel, a multi-marketing company. In 2015, the couple sought Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, claiming that they had liabilities totaling nearly $450,000. The Watts had a combined income of about $100,000. At the time of her death, Shanann was fifteen weeks pregnant with a son they had named Nico Lee Watts.

On August 13, 2018, Shanann returned home from a business trip in Arizona at about 2:00 am. She was driven home by her friend and coworker Nickole Utoft Atkinson. When she arrived home, Chris Watts was in the house with the girls.

Later that day, Shanann and the girls were reported missing by Atkinson, who became worried when Shanann did not respond to her text messages and missed an important prenatal appointment. Atkinson went to the house and knocked on the door but received no response.

Atkinson called Watts at work as well as the Frederick Police Department. Watts left work, and when the officers arrived at the house, he gave them permission to search it. The police discovered Shanann’s purse with her car keys and phone inside it. Atkinson said that Shanann would never leave her purse behind because her lupus medication was in it. Shanann’s car was in the garage, and her wedding ring was on the couple’s bed. The next day, Shanann and her daughters were officially declared missing and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) released Endangered Missing Person alerts for all three.

Overview

The next day, the local police were joined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI). At first, Watts claimed to have no idea where his wife and children were, claiming to have last seen Shanann at 5:15 am the previous day when he left for work.

Police learned that Watts was having an affair when investigators went through his phone records. After this, Watts agreed to take a polygraph test but failed it badly, receiving one of the lowest possible scores. He then said he would confess if allowed to speak to his father. After he did this, he admitted to strangling Shanann. According to Watts, he told her that he was having an affair and wanted a divorce. She then went into a fit of rage, smothering the two girls as revenge. He then became enraged and strangled Shanann. He took their bodies to a remote storage site where he had worked.

Watts revealed to police the location of the bodies on August 16. They were on the property of his former employer, Anadarko Petroleum. (Watts was fired after his arrest on August 15.) Shanann and Nico were buried in a shallow grave, and the two girls’ bodies had been hidden in oil tanks.

On August 21, Watts was charged with five counts of first-degree murder. He received two counts of first-degree murder for each daughter because they were under the age of twelve, and he was in a position of trust. Watts was also charged with the unlawful termination of a pregnancy and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body. He was released on $5 million bail.

Watts pleaded guilty to the three murders on November 6. The death penalty was not an option in the case because Shanann’s family did not want another killing to occur. On November 19, Watts was sentenced to five life sentences, three consecutive and two concurrent, without the possibility of parole. He received an additional forty-eight years for terminating Shanann’s pregnancy and thirty-six years for tampering with a deceased body. After his sentencing, his bail was revoked, and he was taken into custody. Into the mid-2020s, he was serving his life sentences at the Dodge Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison in Waupun, Wisconsin.

In a five-hour follow-up interview with investigators, Chris said that he strangled Shanann after fighting about his wish to separate. While he was attempting to bring Shanann’s body downstairs, the girls woke up and saw him. He smothered the girls individually with a blanket that was in his truck and then disposed of the three bodies.

The Watts family murders have been the subject of many media accounts, which included interviews with Shanann’s parents, Frank and Sandra Rzucek, and an interview with Nichol Kessinger. On January 26, 2020, the Lifetime network released Chris Watts: Confessions of a Killer as part of its “Ripped from the Headlines” feature film. However, Shanann’s family criticized the film, saying that they had not been consulted and were not aware of it until it was already in production. They said the film was inaccurate and feared that it would increase the online harassment they had been receiving since Shanann’s murder. On September 30, 2020, Netflix released American Murder: The Family Next Door, a documentary about the Watts family that includes home movies, text messages, and social media posts. Several additional media portrayals of the Watts family murders, such as 2022's Suburban Nightmare: Christ Watts, have also been released in the 2020s.

Bibliography

Anderson, Michaela. “The Strange and Curious Case of the Watts Family Murders.” USAProjects.org, www.usaprojects.org/the-strange-and-curious-case-of-the-watts-family-murders. Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.

Chang, Rachel. “Chris Watts: A Complete Timeline of the Murder of His Wife and Daughters.” Biography, 29 Sept. 2020, www.biography.com/news/chris-watts-wife-daughters-murder-mistress-confession-timeline. Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.

Collman, Ashley. “From a Happy Pregnancy Announcement to a Shallow Grave: The Full Timeline of the Chris Watts Murder Case.” Insider, 11 Oct. 2020, www.insider.com/chris-watts-murder-timeline-2018-12. Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.

Dickson, EJ. “What Drives a Man to Kill His Own Family? Inside the Psychology of Family Annihilators.” Rolling Stone, 6 Mar. 2019, www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/chris-watts-family-murder-colorado-why-803957. Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.

Finn, Heather. “The Heartbreaking True Story of Chris Watts and His Wife and Daughters’ Murders.” Good Housekeeping, 24 Sept. 2020, www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a30655961/chris-watts-murders-wife-daughters. Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.

Mcafee, Tierney. “The Horrific True Story Behind Chris Watts and the Gruesome Murders of His Family.” Country Living, 25 Jan. 2020, www.countryliving.com/life/entertainment/a30656329/chris-watts-family-murder-true-story. Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.

Park, Andrea. “Chris Watts’ Ex-Girlfriend, Nichol Kessinger, Helped Put Him Behind Bars.”Marie Claire, 2 Oct. 2020, www.marieclaire.com/culture/a34251457/chris-watts-girlfriend-nichol-kessinger. Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.

Paul, Deanna. “Christopher Watts Receives Love Letters While Serving Life Sentence for Murdering Pregnant Wife, Two Daughters.” The Denver Post, 22 Dec. 2018, www.denverpost.com/2018/12/22/christopher-watts-love-letter-life-prison-murder-frederick-family. Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.

“Shanann Watts’ Family Denounces Upcoming Lifetime Movie about Daughter's Murder.” ABC7 News, 16 Jan. 2020, abc7news.com/shanann-watts-family-denounces-upcoming-lifetime-movie/5855171. Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.