Christopher Watts, the 33-year-old Frederick, Colorado husband and father who accepted a plea deal in November for killing his pregnant wife Shanann (34) and daughters Bella and Celeste was sentenced to multiple life sentences without parole in November. Family, friends and the public have been searching for answers of how and why he annihilated his family
In a meeting held on February 18th at a Wisconsin correctional facility with FBI Special Agent Graham Coder, CBI Agent Tammy Lee and Frederick Police Department Detective Dave Baumhover, Watts details the horrific way he murdered his family.
Watts was under suspicion almost immediately after his pregnant wife Shanann and daughters Bella age 4, and Celeste age 3, were reported missing on August 13, 2018. He did not act like a concerned husband or father. In media interviews he was seen smiling and laughing when discussing his family. He did not shed one tear over their disappearance.
It was Shanann’s good friend Nicole Atkinson who called Watts at his work site on Monday August 13th around noon. She was concerned after not being able to reach the pregnant mom and drove to her house. When she arrived, she tried ringing the doorbell, but no one answered. Nicole who was there with her son and daughter, looked into the garage and noticed Shanann’s car with the girls’ car seats was in the garage.
Nicole found out that Shanann did not show up to her doctor’s appointment that morning either. Beyond that, the girls had not been dropped off for their first day of school.
Very concerned, Nicole spoke with a couple of Shanann’s friends who suggested she call the police to perform a wellness check. Shanann, 15 weeks pregnant, had been on a work trip out of town with Nicole and had not been feeling well.
Upon calling Watts at his work site to let him know that Shanann was not answering the door, calls or texts, his response was shocking. He asked her friends not to call the police or get them involved. He advised Nicole that he and Shanann decided to separate, and she was at a friend’s house. He could not tell her who or why she would not have taken her car or dropped the kids off to school.
Nicole let him know she had called the police, and they were on the way. Chris took some time before arriving home. When he arrived, he acted very peculiar, he rushed around the house nervously. He rocked back and forth with his arms folded. When the neighbor said he had security camera footage of him backing his work truck up to the garage that morning, Watts watched nervously with his hands on the top of his head.
On August 14th, Watts was asked to report to the Frederick Police Department where he was questioned by FBI Special Agent Graham Coder for hours. Agent Coder suspected that Watts was lying about not knowing where his family was.
After being questioned for hours at the police station, Graham Coder asked Chris to take a polygraph the next morning. Chris agreed, and said he was picking his father, Ronnie Watts up at the airport in the morning. He agreed to return for the polygraph after picking up his father.
The next day, Chris and Ronnie Watts arrived at the Frederick Police Department. Ronnie Watts waited outside the interview room while Agent Tammy Lee conducted a polygraph on Chris. The results showed that Chris failed the test.
After giving him the results and letting Chris know they found he was having an affair with one of his Anadarko coworkers, Nichole Kessinger, they tried to get him to confess.
Chris admitted to the affair which he previous lied about. He asked investigators not to involve Nichole. After suggesting several theories for what happened, Chris asked to speak with his father.
In the interview room, Chris told his father that he strangled Shanann after she strangled their daughters. This was one of the theories that investigators put out there.
Watts said that after telling Shanann about the affair, she strangled their daughters, and he in turn, strangled her in a fit of rage. He told agents how he loaded their bodies in the back of his work truck, drove to Cervi-319 (work site) and buried Shanann in a shallow grave and put the girls into oil tank batteries.
Agents Lee and Graham did not believe that Shanann killed the girls and tried to get Chris to confess to all of the murders. When he did not, he was arrested and sent to the Weld County Jail.
In November, Chris accepted a plea deal and plead guilty to all three murders in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table. Frank and Sandra Rzucek (Shanann’s parents) did not feel that it was their choice to make in regard to the death penalty. Sandra Rzucek said: “I didn’t want death for you because that’s not my right. Your life is between you and God, and I pray he has mercy for you.”
In sharp contrast, Watts’ parents, Ronnie and Cindy went on media interviews stating they did not believe their son killed his daughters and felt he was railroaded into a plea deal. They accused Shanann of being abusive to their son during their marriage. These claims were not able to be substantiated by anything other than hearsay from Watts’ parents and sister.
On Februraly 18th, CBI Agent Tammy Lee, FBI Special Agent Graham Coder and Frederick Police Detective Dave Baumhover flew out to meet with Watts. He gave chilling new details about how he murdered his family. He now claims the girls were alive when leaving the house and they rode with him almost 50 minutes out to Cervi-319. He claims the girls sat without car seats on the back seat of the truck with their feet on their mother who was wrapped in a sheet and laying on the truck floor.
When they arrived at the site, Watts said he put Shanann’s body on the ground and strangled/smothered Celeste while Bella sat next to her watching. He then put Celeste into an oil tank battery and returned to the truck to murder Bella. Bella pleaded with her father not to do the same thing he did to CeCe. Watts said his daughter’s last words were, No Daddy!
The audio of his new confession is in 2 parts below: