For almost eight years, Amanda McMahon appeared in the Chris Watts case file as little more than a footnote. In police records, she described her connection to Watts as a short-lived fling, and detectives appeared to leave it at that.
Now, however, McMahon is offering a far more troubling account.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail+, McMahon said the affair continued for months rather than days. She also described unsettling details about Watts’ conduct that, in hindsight, she believes may have hinted at the violence to come — the murders of his pregnant wife, Shanann Watts, and their two young daughters.
In the latest episode of Daily Mail’s award-winning Trial USA podcast, host Kayla Brantley is joined by investigative reporter Luke Kenton to examine his revealing interview with McMahon, one of multiple women Watts secretly pursued before he killed his pregnant wife and children.
The installment launches an exclusive four-part series timed to the eighth anniversary of the 2018 murders, a case that horrified the country and remains one of America’s most notorious family killings.
Reporter Luke Kenton discusses his interview with Amanda McMahon (pictured), one of several women Chris Watts pursued before murdering his wife and children.
Watts strangled 34-year-old Shanann Watts inside their Colorado home on August 13, 2018. He then drove their daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, to a remote oil field, where he smothered them and hid their bodies in oil tanks. Shanann was buried in a shallow grave nearby.
As detectives pieced together the timeline, they uncovered the extent of Watts’ double life.
His coworker, Nichol Kessinger revealed she was having an affair with him in the weeks leading up to the murders. Prosecutors argued he murdered his family to start a new life unburdened by his wife and children. Watts is now serving a life sentence.
After Watts’ arrest, McMahon told investigators she had a ‘fast and furious’ one time fling with Watts in the spring of 2018. However, she has now revealed that wasn’t strictly true, telling Kenton that the pair had actually carried out an eight months-long affair, beginning with a Tinder swipe in April or May 2017.
McMahon told Kenton that things turned unsettling almost from the outset of her physical relationship with Watts. During their first encounter, she said he became ‘extremely rough’ and didn’t ask before choking her.
She told Kenton that Watts falsely claimed he had separated from Shanann and referred to her only as his ‘baby mama,’ and recalled the several times Watts vilified his wife, calling her a ‘gold digger,’ ‘psycho,’ and blaming her for making his life miserable.
McMahon revealed to the Daily Mail that Watts frequently vilified Shanann (right) and only referred to her as his ‘baby mama’
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Kenton’s exclusive interview features throughout the episode as McMahon recounted how Watts became ‘extremely rough’ during their first sexual encounter, choking her without warning and displaying what she described as an ‘animalistic’ change in demeanor.
Kenton explained on the podcast that a recurring theme throughout the interview was Watts’s apparent ‘lust for violence,’ with McMahon later wondering whether he was directing toward her the anger he harbored for Shanann.
McMahon also described to Kenton the harrowing moment she realized she had been sleeping with a killer, months after their affair had fizzled out.
Catch the full interview with McMahon, plus analysis from Daily Mail’s premier crime reporters, by searching for Trial USA wherever you get your podcasts
All four episodes are available to Crime Desk subscribers today. Non-subscribers can listen to episode one now, with new episodes each week. Start a subscription with a free 7-day trial at thecrimedesk.com
