A gripping Fox Nation documentary delves into the chilling case of Chris Watts and his calculated plan to murder his expecting wife and their young daughters. This special aims to shed light on the disturbing details of the crime.
Viewers can catch this compelling feature on Fox One starting March 16.
In November 2018, Chris Watts received a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the heinous murders of his wife, Shanann Watts, aged 34, and their daughters Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3.
At the age of 33, Watts admitted to the charges as part of a plea deal, which allowed him to avoid the death penalty, according to the Weld County District Attorney’s office.
The Watts family, captured in happier times. (Facebook)
When the crime was first discovered in August 2018, Watts misled officers from the Frederick Police Department in Colorado by claiming that his wife and daughters had mysteriously disappeared.
“My kids are my life,” he told KMGH. “I mean, those smiles light up my life. When I came home and then walked in the house, nothing. Vanished. Nothing was here.”
Chris Watts was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his pregnant wife and daughters. (RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
Within days of the disappearance, Chris Watts was arrested and the bodies of his pregnant wife and children were found.
A break in the case came after a neighbor provided home security video showing Chris backing up his truck into the driveway early in the morning the day Shanann and the children disappeared. The video did not show Shanann or the children leaving.
Along with the video, authorities also tracked Watts’ digital footprint, including his cell phone data and GPS tracking data.
According to court documents, Shanann Watts’ body was found in a shallow grave near this oil tank on August 21, 2018, near Roggen, Colorado. Both of her daughter’s bodies, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste, were submerged for days in the same oil tanks in rural eastern Colorado, prosecutors said. (RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
After failing a polygraph on August 15, 2018, he confessed during an interview. He led investigators to an oil and gas site operated by Anadarko Petroleum near Roggen, Colorado, where the bodies were recovered.
Shanann Watts, who was approximately 15 weeks pregnant at the time, was found in a shallow grave.
Bella and Celeste were found, authorities said, inside separate crude oil storage tanks at the same site. Their bodies were recovered after the tanks were drained.
The body of Shanann Watts, 34, was found in a shallow grave near an oil tank on property owned by the oil and gas company where her husband had worked. (Colorado Bureau of Investigation)
Watts confessed that he strangled Shanann in their bed after he told her their marriage was over, and she said he would never see their children again. Watts said his wife correctly suspected that he was having an affair, but he did not tell her about his ongoing relationship with a co-worker before killing Shanann.
Authorities have speculated that Watts wanted a chance to start over with the woman. Watts told investigators that the woman “never asked him to get rid of his family” but their relationship may have “contributed” to his actions.
After he strangled Shanann, Watts said Bella came into their bedroom clutching a blanket and asked what was wrong with her mother. Watts claimed his wife wasn’t feeling well. Their daughter continued watching as Watts wrapped the body in a bedsheet and began crying when he pulled it down the stairs of their home, he said.
Watts said he put her body on the floor of his truck’s back seat. When he went inside, Celeste was also awake.
According to Watts, he put the girls into the backseat of the truck, where they occasionally napped on each other’s laps as he drove.
A photograph of Shanann Watts and her daughters, Bella, 4, left, and Celeste, 3, is shown at a makeshift memorial in Frederick, Colorado. (AP Photo)
Watts claimed he had no plan for his daughters but drove to an oil work site about 40 miles east of the family’s home. He worked there as an operator for an oil and gas producer. He told police he pulled Shanann’s body from the truck as the girls asked, “What are you doing to mommy?”
Watts confessed he went back to the truck and used Celeste’s blanket to smother her as Bella watched from a seat beside her sister. He then put Celeste’s body inside an oil tank before returning to the truck and smothering Bella using the same blanket. Her last words were, “Daddy, no!” he told police, adding that Bella struggled under the blanket. He said he put her body inside another oil tank and buried Shanann’s body nearby.
Watts insisted that he did not plan to kill his wife or children.
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