In August 2018, American oil field operator Christopher Lee Watts murdered his pregnant wife Shanann and their two children, Bella and Celeste, by strangulation and suffocation. Watts buried Shanann in a shallow grave near an oil-storage facility and dumped his children’s bodies into crude oil. He was imprisoned for killing his family and confessed just days later.
On Aug. 15, 2018, two days after his wife and daughters were reported missing, police say Watts confessed to killing Shanann, though claimed it was because she had smothered the kids to death. In November 2018, Watts received three consecutive life sentences for the August 2018 deaths of his pregnant wife, Shanann Watts, and their daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, in exchange for being a witness.
During a nearly five-hour interview with investigators last month, Watts revealed that he killed his family over a longer period of time in August than was previously reported. In November, Watts pleaded guilty to murdering his wife, Shanann, and their daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, last August and is serving three consecutive life sentences.
The murders of Shanann Watts and her two daughters in Colorado are the subject of a new Netflix documentary. The crime is hard to comprehend, as new details emerge. The former Watts house in Frederick, CO, was originally put on the market in April 2024 for $775, 000, but it was sold for much less. Watts recently told Watts that he is serving five life sentences in prison for the murder of his pregnant wife Shanann and their two little girls, Bella, four, and Celeste, and that the crime is still hard to comprehend.
| Article | Description | Site |
|---|---|---|
| Chris Watts: A Complete Timeline of the Murder of His Wife … | The Colorado father killed his family in August 2018 and confessed just days later. | biography.com |
| The full timeline of the Chris Watts murder case | A chronology of Shanann and Chris Watts‘ summer shows how their marriage fell apart as he started an affair with a coworker. | businessinsider.com |
| Where Is Chris Watts Today? A Look at His Life in Prison … | Aug. 13, 2024 marks the sixth anniversary of Chris Watts murdering his wife Shanann Watts and her two children, Bella and Celeste. | people.com |
📹 What Was Chris Watts Motive For Killing His Entire Family? Detective’s Den Oxygen
In this exclusive sneak peek of the upcoming Chris Watts episode of “Criminal Confessions,” hear from Denver Post Reporter …
📹 Christopher Watts describes killing his daughters in chilling jailhouse interviewing
The convicted killer detailed how he murdered his young daughters after slaying his pregnant wife. Subscribe to the CBS News …
He didn’t just kill his family for the life insurance money.. This guy wanted a fresh clean start with his new woman…. He didn’t want the baggage from his wife and 3 kids that he would’ve had.. He obviously wasn’t a “family man” like everyone says… I can’t stand when articles or other people say this… Some say he didn’t preplan this, but think about it, why did he say days before that he would go first thing in the morning to that leak and why did he use a debit card for dinner with nikki instead of a gift card like he usually did? I hope he gets all he deserves and I hope he gets it good…
As a father of two beautiful girls, I was unable to cry because I was so incredibly enraged at this. My daughters are the loves of my life and I thank God everyday for them. To imagine someone doing this and his one daughter asking if she was going to die, just, I’m sorry but it’s broken me along with my heart. I want to cry so badly.
he probably didn’t want another child on the way and two to deal with, he probably wanted to start over completely new. but i don’t EVER understand how people think they’ll get away with murder, because you almost always get caught. is it worth it after being in jail for the rest of your life?? probably not
Ppl tend to put all these happy family photos on social media. When the truth behind closed doors are ppl are fighting and unhappy with each other. Then when something like this happen ppl are shocked and surprised. There are so many ppl who want a fairytale life that they hide what’s really going on.
I remember seeing a photograph of the Watts family on the porch outside their house…..and did a double take at the caption… ”Watts arrested for killing his family”…. {We live in Europe}…he looked so ‘ordinary’… It was unbelievable…why not just leave, as many men and women do… deeply shocking.
All these so called experts cant seem to see the obvious. He killed his family becos his mistress did not like him having children and also wanted to give him his first son. She was hurrying him and throwing tantrums about him having to be with them ….. and so afraid of losing her, he wiped them out so that he could be hers immediately. Shanna’s family should file a civil law suit against NK to have her sued for damages. Dont understand why they have not done such an obvious thing yet ???
A similar case happened in my country, close to where I live. A man named Jonas Runnemark killed his wife and baby 4 years ago, and no one could really understand the reason either. He claimed to have heard voices in his head, but he was ruled to be sane. The reasons seem to be a mixture of him being depressed, wanting a divorce and having no empathy/psychopath (apparently he felt nothing when he killed them).
When my husband would strangle me, yell at our baby for crying all the time, and blame me when things went wrong, things I didn’t know about, were signs that this marriage was failing. He would get angry and throw out “divorce”, but never filed, never did anything, other than cheat. My ex had a lot of debt, enough where he considered filing bankruptcy, so I know now, that he financially relied on me and couldn’t afford divorce either. So I 100% believe similarly for Chris. I don’t think he looked forward to another child. We know he wanted to leave. I’m sure he was stressed out, already on the verge of snapping. When Shannan found out about the cheating, and possibly confronting him about it and leaving, he strangled her. If the kids cried, that too could have pissed him off more. There’s so much more and this story bothers me so much.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture of Chris with his family and an authentic smile on his face. The corners of his eyes are never turned up in his smiles, they just don’t look genuine to me. Especially the article of the pregnancy announcement. The only thing genuine in that article clip is when he says,”wow,” and it’s not a good wow! I’m surprised she posted it and couldn’t see it. He was NOT excited about it.
His demeanor and the way he acts tells me he’s not a dominant personality type, not one that can wake up one day and say I am divorcing you and leaving you… I believe the theory that he wanted a new life, he was trapped in his old life, but he’s a weak coward who couldn’t face his family and tell them i am leaving you… and couldn’t face his friends and community and say i am leaving my wife and kids… so instead he deluded himself into thinking he could just kill them, be the victim in people eyes, and get rid of his old life…
If Chris Wattts had divorced Shannan he would still have been involved with her, maintenance, picking the girls up, Christmas, Birthdays, holidays etc. Then there`s the expense…this way there was the life insurance to fund a comfortable life with his mistress an no-one to think about but her. Money was the motive. MONEY!!!
If he wanted to have his own life he could have just left her and said I don’t love you no more and still let her live with her kids. It doesn’t make sense to me why you do such a horrific thing like he’s a monster and like who could do that to their own family. Their own kids that he made it doesn’t make sense to me and it scares the hell out of me because they do look like the perfect family and shanann trusted him and his kids trusted him. I think he’s just a plain ride-out monster and I hope he rots in jail cuz that’s where he belongs and he belongs to Liz the rest of his life and behind bars and I hope someone takes that into consideration in jail. I hope people find out what he did in jail and that’s a promise not a threat
Maybe he killed them so he will not need to support them financially. He maybe thought that he will never get caught after killing them and he can start his new life with his girlfriend. I think he saw them as burdens or extra baggages and he doesn’t want that if he wants to start a new life with his gf. He maybe feel trapped with his family and killing them is the only way he can see to cut off his ties.
I’ll still always wonder if Bella and Cece were alive when he dropped them in the tanks. I know he smothered them but I still wonder if they were half alive. I’m sure the discovery would mention if anything was in their lungs but it still haunts me. Also, I hate how often they reflect on the fact there was no prior domestic abuse in the home. What they should say is, “none reported.” A lot of couples mentally and physically abuse each other and their kids without ever having the authorities involved.
I disagree with that it was psychological why he separated them. He knew what that oil would do over time to a body and he knew he can fit the girls in but not Shsnann so he had to put her elsewhere. He also thought he would have more time to clean his crime scene up, he did not think that Nichole would chek mate him by being onto him straigh away.
Shouting is a form of domestic violence for me. It wrecks household peace and words can wound greater than thrown objects. Sure all couples argue but “neighbour Nate” told police that Chris and Shanann often had slanging matches. “I’ve heard them flat-out screaming at each other”, he said to the first police officer on the scene. Then he clarified, “him to her.” That’s a form of abuse. It’s a shame the kids had to hear that, then play nice on social media. I’m sure there were great times too. Most of the time, on camera at least, the kids looked happy. Sometimes they looked anxious. Bella in particular frequently looked sullen. One thing another poster noticed was that Chris never seemed to spontaneously cuddle or kiss his daughters. I know that Shanann “directed” most of the clips and he reluctantly played ball. But I’ve watched enough of the clips to recognise the less structured moments. I’ve seen Shanann clearly enjoying having her kids close to her body; dozing together etc. Chris didn’t seem to have that tenderness you see fathers exhibiting towards their babies. I understand that many feel that, despite the fact that he is a cold, calculating murderer, he was belittled by Shanann and driven to it. I disagree with the “driven to it” bit. Driven to an affair? Possibly. To murder: No way. I do however, think she belittled him online. I really don’t think he had it in him to feel for his children. I just think he’s wired wrong. That’s why he jammed his little girls into oil containers.
Chris killed them for the life insurance money. He pre-planned it but the kids weren’t supposed to be killed. Shan grave was pre-dug but the hole was only dug deep enough for one person. Chris arrived at Cervi at 6:53am and got a message from a coworker at 6:59am, only six minutes later that he was on his way out to Cervi. Chris didn’t have time to dig the hole deeper so the kids end up in the tanks. Each tank has a level sensor so he was afraid putting both kids in one tank would trigger a sensor so each kid ended up in one tank. Chris now says he killed then kids and they came back to life while he was killing Shan. No, Chris used a chemical on the kids to knock them out but he didn’t use enough and they woke up. This is why Chris stayed on Shan for 15 minutes, to make sure she was dead. The house was locked up tight from the inside, including the patio door which was security barred locked. Chris was locking the kids in the house and they weren’t supposed to die. Chris also worked Saturday August 11 while Shan was in AZ. Chris locked the kids in the house alone while he was at work. This was his trial run to see if locking the kids in the house alone would work. No one knows this part of the story except for me. Chris signed and dated the pipes he inspected on August 11.
This case has effected me, as there seems to be, no rhyme or reason, for why, he annihilated his beautiful family ! He could have just left. Packed his bags and gone to a flat. I think he loved this new woman more, than his daughters. To sit on his pregnant wife and not only kill her, but also baby Niko, is unthinkable !I Can’t imagine the horrors of what the firefighters saw. Hope he rots in hell !!!
I can never ever get over this! I remember perusal this in 2019. Then i came back when netflix released the documentary.. then again, i am revisiting because I remembered this again! May be because there was never a closure to this? Still it is not clear why this happened, or what led to it to happen? What was Shannan’s emotions when there were talking? I will never ever get closure!! I dont even know them, yet emotionally i am involved!
It’s very simple, he knew that if they divorced he would be paying alimony and child support for 3 kids for the next 18 years not to mention all the other expenses that come with kids and he wouldn’t have been able to give the girlfriend the life that he wanted too. And what if he had more kids with the girlfriend or another woman if that relationship didn’t work out then he would be paying for another kid.
He didn’t want to pay child support for 3 children and have to deal with Shanann, or with her and his mother’s relationship. He wanted to be free and start over, the narcissistic, selfish, evil infantile idiot. He let it get so bad, financially, too, and let Shanann run the show. A stunted, weak SOB, no doubt in part because of being Cindy’s little boy. IMO
He’s a covert narcissist who was married to a woman who had chronic health issues. He was getting narcissistic supply from her, by caring for her & as a result, he felt “needed”. Shannan’s health issues had recently been getting better, & he stopped getting his supply from her. So, he found a new supply. From another woman. Since he’s also a sociopath, he chose to kill his family. They were just things to him; he’s one of the worst.
Its not an excuse or good reason at all but often times this is because of the 60% child support. If he got a divorce there is a high likely hood he would be paying 60% of his income to his ex wife. When it hits you that because you can’t get along with your wife the court see fit that you pay all your bills on only 40% of your income . for a lot of men this means going from living a nice life to living in poverty for 18 to 24 years all of the sudden prison seems like a better option. Yes its crazy !! However its a real problem happening everyday. Imagine making say 600 $ weekly but after child support and taxes you get a direct deposit of 165$ for a lot of men that means homeless. I worked with a guy once who lived at a campground in a tent while his ex wife had a nice 4 bedroom home with almost brand new SUV in the garage and she only worked a part time job at subway. I could never do what this man did however I can see where it can lead if someone is already unstable. The guy I worked with thought and spoke often of suicide or homicide to get out of the situation .
I think the hard part is that relationship can only be questioned in one direction…. what happened to the wife and babies is monstrous…. no one disputes that. However, I think one key thing one isn’t allowed to question is perhaps the relationship being equally abusive. Or the woman being abusive and the man lashing out. As a domestic violence advocate I saw this time and time again …. and we literally were socially not allowed to question it. As if questioning it some how made it excusable. Or as if questioning it some how made us less sympathetic. I cannot tell you how many times I saw this in our cases. Men snapping after being ….. verbally and physically and emotionally abused and those feelings being undeltwith and disregarded. And addressing those occurances does not negate the wrong in their lashing out, but to try to understand a complex situation like that with a flat out refusal to acknowledge it is a huge huge huge problem makes no sense. It’s like trying to reach a solution to a problem with half the data being excluded. We can honor the woman while understanding the core issues. It’s not exclusive. It isn’t all or nothing. If we d9nt start changing and acknowledging this type of thing we will truthfully only see more of the same. Typically when it’s a situation that’s spun wildly out of control with zero prior clue. Like a dog that’s been kicked or poked for years but doesn’t bite back…. when it does finally break, it is off the charts …. like men who have zero priors or indicators.
Makes me sick. It’s but for the Grace of God that my Narcissist, Sociopath ex wife didn’t murder me and my son’s when she found someone else. I only dare post this because it’s the truth and I thank God everyday for His protection at that time. She’d have gotten away w it. She was much more detail oriented Than this guy.
A divorce would mean child support and possibly alimony for many years to come. He’d be broke and probably figured no woman would want that kind of baggage (at least not the ones he would be attracted to anyway). He and Shannan were already in financial trouble before the murders occurred. Pure evil this man.
He was going to say that Shan was killed and the killer kidnapped the girls. He figured the bodies would dissolve before they suspected him. No evidence of physical abuse, but there are signs of psychological abuse and there is family of origin history of violence . People neglect fam of origin which actually provides developmental continuity to an offenders behavior.
In my opinion, he was so vain that he couldn’t live with the idea that people would see him as someone who had a separated family. Both of them were so mindlessly obsessed with public opinion and how people saw them. Everything they had was name brand. Everything they did was put on display. They didn’t allow a bit of privacy in their lives, except all the negative which was clearly there. I think he was so obsessed with how people saw him that he wanted them dead or in the publics eye just gone out of thin air so instead of people seeing a divorce and a broken home, they’d feel sorry for him instead. He was also so self-absorbed that the idea of his family moving on without him didn’t even come into the picture and become a reality. People really overuse the term narcissism that it’s almost a joke these days for something that’s pretty rare, but he definitely had it at the highest level. Sometimes there’s just not some crazy conspiracy or theory, sometimes a person is just awful and has zero empathy or morals when it comes to what they want and how to get it. Ultimately, I think he was just incredibly stupid and naive. He acted on pure impulse one night on something he had been thinking about for awhile. No great secret. Just human beings at their worst.
I still truly believe there is more to this… I think many things have been overlooked & not investigated enough Nicole kessinger is a prime example of this?! She was not investigated more thoroughly I believe she has played a part in this in some shape or form it does not take a professional in criminology to see this just my opinion.
I think the public interest is due to what was captured on camera. The cctv footage watched by CW in Nates house was horrific to watch- it unfolded right infront of millions of people. I don’t understand his motive and why he didn’t just leave, I wonder if there was domestic abuse that we don’t know about…DA is not always visible. It’s all very odd, its a shame the investigators didnt get a confession from him, I didnt like the way they played it. There is more to this case than meets the eye.
It does say something how he separated all of them from each other. He put them in separate tanks. Weird. I do believe there is a reason why he did that. He kept the girls away from their mother then from each other. He knew how close the girls were. I believe he hated them and was jealous of them. Maybe that is why he separated them. To hurt them even in death.
He murdered for Lust, not love! This man was and is incapable of love. He’s an evil freak! He’s not sorry so he hasn’t found God, he hasn’t told the truth about what happened and who was the accomplice who got him the drugs to try and get Shannan to miscarry! If the person didn’t know what he was going to use it for……why take their name to the grave? Easy to find out if it was prescribed, this is baffling.
I don’t live in America, just been perusal this for a week am watched hundreds if articles an evidence thru the police. An they protecting this nk. Why?????. A person framed an I believe was involved in the murders that is clear as day. Still can’t understand why the cops are keeping nk out of this an don’t charge her.
BAH!!! WHEN THE CHRIS WATTS articleS SLOW DOWN TO 2 MONTHS AGO… 3 MONTHS AGO.. NO MORE 1 DAY AGO! I used to get abit of a weird buzz coming to learn more about this case now its just getting forgotten about.. A woman was murdered 2 or 3 streets away from me 3 days ago.. And I’m less interested in that than I am shanann and these poor babies. Shanann was such a beautiful soul she embraced us without even knowing her shes a true angel and so are her babies.. Chris didn’t know what he had but did her a favour because she was too good for this cruel world. They all where.
Separated bc there were more than one perp, and to destroy evidence. Very possibly more than a solo killer. Those facts abs inconsistencies confuse ppl especially in times where too many are conditioned to thinking something is either/or, choosing polar opposite and ignoring the swath a grey. With that being said, none of that negates his guilt. Ppl need to go back to relying on that blind sense of intuition, experience, that has ensured survival for centuries, not what they see, think they see, or emotional thinking. This case is more complex and diabolical than meets the eye. Two adults with everyone in their marriage but them, no family bonds, no truths exercised, self discipline that lived so many lies til it cost them everything, but worse yet, are the innocent children who weren’t considered or ever placed first or top priority.
Although I did enjoy this show when I saw it, I don’t think they provided any new evidence. I do think NK might have been involved but I will no longer be accusing people of things unless there is proof. It’s not nice to do. Look at the Shane Carey, and Heidi case. Her bff did it. So sad….. but So many people were saying he totally looked guilty. All week long. article after article. Poor guy was not either. Or we have no proof of any wrong doing by him. So I really think we need to start being more conscious of how we talk about people. I am starting today. And it feels beyond amazing! I said sorry to Shane. And I’m sure he’ll never see or care. But I feel better. How would I feel if it were me?? We have to put ourselves in others shoes. Anyways I love to ramble on akd on but I did enjoy this oxygen show. And So anyways yes some people are gonna get my views talking about NK and I am intrigued. But I will never say for a fact “she did it!” She’s guilty” unless it’s proven! Can they do that on tv?? No, they would get sued! So why are we allowed to do it all over YouTube. Just my random thoughts for tonight! This case has made such an explosion of crazy true crime nuts. I enjoy perusal about it. I will no longer accuse. Ever!
He is a cold killer a person who kill 2 inocents girls is a cold person they were little, not strong to figth back, they were beautiful they love Chris, not reason to kill them! only becouse you want to be free to go with his mistress! Oh god I hope that somebody in jail figth with him and make him paid for his crime!
Nichol Kessinger got away with murder – she definitely had a part in these killings and she’s being protected. WHY?? Kessinger needs to be brought out of hiding and properly investigated. She’s as sociopathic and evil as her boyfriend who’s now in prison. As for why he didn’t put Shannan in the oil tank, it would have been way too difficult to carry her up to the top – carrying the little girls was much easier.