Chris Watts tells the story of how he killed his two children and his pregnant wife to investigators.
Image from NBC News
Based on the Picture Perfect Happy Family on social media until now there is still one question: how was Chris Watts able to kill his wife Shanann Watts, 34 and his two children, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3.
He first said that he killed his wife, Shanann after she killed their two children by suffocation.
Only recently did Chris Watts change his testimony. He admitted that he also killed his two kids as well as his wife. He gave details to the police on how he did this horrific crime.
Chris Watts: He blacked out
In a 5 hour prison interview with the FBI, Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Frederick’s Police Department with Chris Watts on February 18th, Watts gave chilling details on how he brutally killed his children.
According to Chris Watts, he and his wife had had a rift and were drifting apart, which made his wife decide to take a vacation with their two children. While on vacation, Chris had an affair with a woman he met at his job. He followed them on this vacation, and came home with them, but when Shanann had to go on a business trip for another few days, he still saw his mistress.
When his wife arrived in the early morning of August 13, 2019, she asked him to have sex. Chris said he felt his wife trapped him because she knew.
They slept after having sex. When Chris woke up to go to work, he spoke to his wife. This is when Shanann said her suspicions that her husband had another woman.
Chris denied that he had a mistress, but admitted that he felt that he and his wife were no longer compatible.
Image from Insider
Shanann allegedly got angry with what she heard and threatened that he would never see his children again.
He said that because of what she said and he heard, he seemed to lose himself and strangled Shanann in the neck with his hands.
Chris Watts added that it seems that the idea of killing his wife had been “implanted” in his brain and he had no control over his actions.
He said his wife did not fight, nor struggle.
Chris Watts: The killing of his children
When Shanann was killed, Bella, 4, entered their room and asked, “What’s wrong with Mommy?”
“Mommy didn’t feel good,” he replied.
He allegedly wrapped his wife’s body in a blanket and loaded it onto his truck. Said her daughter Bella saw what he was doing and asked again, “Is mommy okay?” He just said that Shannan felt bad.
But, he knew his daughter was smart and she knew what was going on.
When he returned inside the house, his youngest daughter Celeste was also awake.
So he decided to take the two children and made them sit in the back of the truck with blankets and stuffed toy.
At that point Chris Watts seemed to have no control over himself.
He thought of putting a gas can in the back of his truck to burn himself at the oil site where he worked after disposing of his wife’s dead body.
But he did not pursue it because of the realization that more people might be affected.
Oil site image from Insider
On the way to the oil site, Bella and Celeste fell asleep.
He also remembers his daughter Bella speaking and saying, “Daddy, it smells.”
When they arrived at the oil site, Chris Watts immediately lowered Shannan’s body to the pit where she would be buried.
His two children saw it and asked, “What are you doing to Mommy?”
After burying his wife, he returned to the truck and then first suffocated Celeste with her blanket.
He said that Bella saw what he did and she was silent.
After Celeste was killed, he took her body to the oil talk and dropped it.
When investigators asked what he was thinking at the time, he replied, “I wasn’t. … If I was thinking, this wouldn’t have happened.”
When he got back in the truck, his daughter Bella asked him, “What happened to Cece? Is the same thing gonna happen to me as Cece?”
He could not remember if he answered her question but according to him, he used the same blanket used on Celeste to kill Bella as well.
Like Celeste, it also dropped the child’s body into another oil tank.
The last words he heard from Bella were “Daddy, no!” to this day every time he closes his eyes, this is what he hears.
Reasons for why Chris Watts killed his family
Image of Shannan, Celeste and Bella Watts from Insider
According to Chris Watts’ story, his anger towards his wife began because she created a quarrel between him and his family.
He added that his mother did not like his wife Shannan and he felt that his wife had taken him away from them.
Especially when they moved to Colorado. It may be that what happened is a way to end the long-running conflict between their families.
On November 19, Chris Watts was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences and was unlikely to be granted parole for pleading guilty to the murder of his pregnant wife and two children.
Their story is now on Netflix, “American Murder: The Family Next Door”.
Sources: This is Insider, NBC News, This is Insider
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