Every Town - Frederick, CO - Chris Watts Family Annihilation - The Watts Family Murders Story

Episode Date: November 26, 2021

Chris Watts, inexplicably murdered his family in Colorado in 2018 in what is now infamously knows as the Watts Family Murders. It was  a shocking crime of family annihilation which is defined as the murder of an entire family, most of which are committed by white men in their 30s. 💥 Exclusive Content Here: https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries 💥 Scary Mysteries Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1235579💥 Scary Mysteries Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiE86yS_VM7qjiICqRPmwLQThis week’s featured story centers on the happy family of Chris and Shan’ann Watts – At least that’s how it was depicted on social media. , but it was thier crumbling marriage behind the scene led to a horrendous family murder. It gripped not only the small statutory town of Frederick in Colorado, but the rest of America too. What were the circumstances that perpetrated Chris Watts to murder his family? How did he fathom killing his innocent daughters, and his unborn son? This week’s podcast will provide you the answers and more. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Every town has a dark side. Today we head to Frederick, Colorado, which is in Welk County, where we check out the Watts family murders, a shocking crime of family annihilation. Any sort of murder tends to create shockwaves. But when the helpless victims involve a doting wife and pregnant mother and her three and four-year-old lovely daughters, then it tends to create anger. Even more, knowing that the culprit is someone very close to to home. The husband and father, who himself had been betraying his family by keeping a mistress, well then we begin to harbor rage. This is what happened in the controversial case of the Watts family from Frederick, Colorado in 2008. It was a shocking crime of family annihilation, which is defined as the

murder of an entire family, most of which are committed by white men in their 30s. High, I'm Andrew Fitzgerald, and you're tuned in to every town where we're here for another engrossing episode. This week's featured Story, centers on the happy family of Chris and Shanan Watt. At least, that's how it was depicted on social media. But it was their crumbling marriage behind the scenes that led to a horrendous family murder. It gripped not only the small town of Frederick and Colorado, but the rest of America as well. What were the circumstances that led Chris Watts to murder his family? And how could he fathom killing his innocent daughters and his unborn son?

This week's podcast will provide you with the answers to that and much more. Chris and Shanam Watts welcomed the summer of 2018 with the news of a forthcoming blessing. The 34-year-old wife and mother of two was now expecting a third child. In addition to their two princesses, four-year-old Bella Marie and three-year-old Celeste Catherine or Cece. They would finally have a baby boy in the family, which elicited a reaction of, That's Awesome, from the 33-year-old father. Their five-bedroom suburban home in Frederick, which is in Weld County, about 27 miles north of Denver and Colorado, would finally be the loving nest of a complete family upon their sons.

rival. They decided to name him, Nico Lee, who was expected to see the light of the world on January 31st, 2019. But that never happened before I get ahead into the gory details of this controversial story. Let me first trace how Chris and Shanan crossed paths and dreamt of building a happy family. Both were natives of North Carolina. Chris was from Spring Lake, while Shannon was from Aberdeen. Chris attended a school for mechanics before working for car dealerships, and they lived approximately 33 miles apart, but the two met in the virtual world via Facebook when Chris sent Shannon a friend request in 2010. She accepted it, thinking that they would never meet, but it actually opened the door to a romantic relationship. Shannan felt she had found the right

man in Chris who truly loved her despite her struggle with the autoimmune disease. Lupus. Chris moved to Colorado in 2012 and worked at Longmont, Ford, before switching to the oil and gas field. Wanting to start their own family, the two got married on November 13, 2012 in Charlotte, North Carolina. There they exchanged promises of eternal love, except that Chris's mother and sister weren't there to witness the moment because they didn't like the strong-willed, domineering bossy Shanan. It was a kink early on in their marriage, which escalated in the coming years.

The Watts couple decided to settle down in Frederick, Colorado, and build their dreams. Chris worked as an operator at Indarko Petroleum, a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration, while Shanam was an independent representative for the multi-level marketing company, Level. Selling a nutrition, supplement called Thrive. Shadhan's work had her extremely active and responsive on social media,

constantly reaching out and connecting to friends, posting about her life, family, and the products that she sold. In 2013, they purchased a five-bedroom house located at 2,800 Saratoga Trail, where they celebrated their first Christmas as a family. Their eldest daughter, Bella, was born on December 17th that year. The new mother, thanked God, and, and, and she was born on December 17th that year. The new mother thanked God every minute for the precious gift and loved and cherished Bella endlessly. Two years later, on July 17, Shannan gave birth to Cecee, which made her determined to stay healthy and win her fight against Lupus. With stable jobs, a nice abode, and a growing family, observers thought that the Watts family had Lady Luck smiling at them

all through the years. But within the confines of Chris and Shanaan's more private existence, they were dealing with looming financial troubles. They were burdened with a $3,000 a month mortgage and $600 a month in car payments that ate up a large portion of their $4,900 monthly expenses. Thus, they filed for bankruptcy in June of 2015. They were also sued for failing to pay their homeowners association fees, but Chris and Shannan seemed to have overcome the rough patches based on her frequent posts and video clips on Facebook. There, she shared snippets of happy moments at their home, especially with her daughters, and heaped praises for Chris for putting up with their stubbornness and for being a reliable husband.

But outside the four corners of the Watts' home, who else knew the cracks that would tear the family apart? A few of Shannan's friends had some inklings of trouble in paradise. which then went into full swing in 2018. Shadam was looking forward to spending the summer of 2018, and her Facebook post gave her followers an impression that she was seeing life through rose-colored lenses. In a lengthy Facebook live session in May of 2018, she said, I love waking up now on Saturdays and being able to enjoy my family.

I believe that everything in life happens for a reason, and I also believe people are placed in our life for a reason. And then, more than a month later, she surprised Chris about her pregnancy, as expressed on her shirt with the print, oops, we did it again. Chris seemed to positively welcome the news. In a sweet Father's Day post a week later, Shannan sang praises to her husband. Chris, we are so incredibly blessed to have you. You do so much every day for us and take such great care of us. You are the reason I was brave enough to agree to number three.

From laundry to kid showers, you are incredible and we are so lucky to have you in our life. Happy Father's Day. In the eyes of Shanan's Facebook followers, all's well with the wants. But behind her back, Chris had met someone at work. Nicole Kessinger, also known as Nikki, who was a 30-year-old, Colorado native, who worked as a contractor at Anadarko Petroleum's Environmental Department dealing with the operators, including Chris, with whom she struck a friendship. On June 27, Shanan took Bella and Cece to her parents in North Carolina for five weeks on a

vacation while Chris stayed behind because of work, but he would join them on July 31st. And while his family was away, Chris started an affair with Nikki by the last week of June. Being in your life is something I crave. He texted her on July 1st, shortly after they became physically intimate. According to Nikki, she didn't know Chris and Shanan were still married. Chris, whom Nikki described as soft-spoken and a good listener, told her that he was separated and nearing the end of divorce proceedings at the time they started dating. Chris had made her believe in late July that his divorce,

force had been finalized. Meanwhile, while on vacation in North Carolina, Shanaan texted friends about her troubled marriage telling them that she felt like she barely knew who Chris was anymore. Whenever she called him up, he would find excuses or prefer her working out rather than talking with her. He was unhappy about her pregnancy, and she worried that he wouldn't be able to handle a third child. Chris had reportedly told his wife that he didn't believe that they were edible anymore, and I refused to undergo couples' counseling. Despite that, Chris did join his family in North Carolina on July 31st. However, things between the couple didn't get any better. Shnan texted a friend that Chris had turned cold and uncharacteristically avoided physical intimacy

with her, deliberately or not. Compounding the situation was the tension that grew between her and Chris's parents, and they gave Cece some nuts. that triggered her allergy. This incident, likewise, caused an argument between the couple that prompted Shanan to send Chris a long text message, accusing him of not standing up for her. When they returned to Colorado, the expectant mom noticed that her husband was distant and cold still when she had an ultrasound. Thus, Shanan canceled the plan for a gender reveal party for the third baby.

Meanwhile, Chris told Nikki that he loved her. and that he was looking for a two-bedroom apartment for himself and his daughters as he had plans to sell the Watts home in Frederick. Just as Chris and Shinnom were reunited after five weeks of being away from each other, Shanom was booked for a four-day business trip to Arizona from August 9 to the 13th with her close friend and work colleague Nicole Atkinson. The beleaguered pregnant wife confided to a friend that she and Chris, Chris had their best talk yet before leaving for Arizona.

Shanan even left a heartfelt handwritten letter for Chris, telling him how much she loved him and that she would do everything to fight for their marriage. But the troubles and their unions seemed irreparable. On August 11th, Chris told Shanan he would go to a baseball game with his coworkers, so he hired a babysitter to look after their daughters. But he actually spent the night on a date with Nikki and the credit card record strengthened Shann's suspicion that her husband was finding love and passion with somebody else. She would have had the opportunity to find out the truth when she returned from

Arizona, but circumstances turned dark and twisted before she ever could. Shadon's return flight to Colorado from Arizona was delayed, so she got home at 148 in the morning on August 13, 2018, while Chris and their girls were asleep. Her friend Nicole, who was with her in Arizona on that business trip, brought her home, and it was captured by a neighbor's surveillance camera. The recorded footage turned out to be the last time Shanan was seen alive. She and her daughters, Bella and Cece, were discovered missing in the middle of the day through the initiatives of Nicole.

She'd been texting Shanan many times about the pregnant mom's scheduled visit to her OBGYN. But the latter failed to reply. After Shannan missed a business meeting, Nicole went to the Watts's home at about 12.10 p.m. When the doorbell and Knox went unanswered, she notified Chris, who was at work, and called the Frederick Police Department. An officer conducted a welfare check at about 1.40 p.m. Chris arrived home and talked with that officer about ways to locate his missing family. According to him, Shannan said she was going to a friend's house. with the kids, and that's the last thing I heard. And that was it.

It was very vague. During the welfare check, he gave the police officer permission to search the house, but there was no sign of Shanan nor the daughters. But Shanan left her purrs containing her phone and keys. Her car, which had the children's car seats, was still in the garage. Her wedding ring was also found near the couple's bed. The following day, Chris gave interviews to Denver TV stations pleading for his family's return. Shanaan, Bella, Celeste, if you're out there, just come back.

If somebody has her, just bring her back. I need to see everybody. I need to see everybody again. This house is not complete without anybody here. Please bring them back, he appealed to media and the viewers. A joint investigation from the FBI and the Colorado, Bureau of Investigations also commenced. They again searched the property with cadaver and search dogs, but found nothing substantial.

In his first interviews with the authorities, Chris claimed that he knew nothing about his family's whereabouts. For hours, he declined any involvement in their disappearance and said he only wanted them to come home. He explained he missed reading books with his daughters before bed and that it was hard to stay in the family's Frederick home. Moreover, he told investigators that the family had more than $8,000 in credit card debt and were three months behind on their mortgage payment.

Confident that he had nothing to hide, Chris agreed to undergo a polygraph test on August 15th. The interviewer asked him three things. If he physically caused Shannan to disappear, if he was lying about the last time he saw her, and whether he knew where Shannan was. Chris said no to each of the questions, but the polygraph indicated that he lied. After that, he admitted his affair with co-worker Nikki, which investigators had already known. When Chris was pressured to tell the truth about what happened to his family, he then asked to speak to his father Ronnie, leaning his head against his hands in a stark interview room.

Chris quietly confessed to his dad how he killed Shannan while putting the blame on her. He said that in the early morning of August 13th, he was downstairs when he saw Shannon through a video monitor, attempting to smother Cece, while Bella was already dead. She hurt them, and then I freaked out and hurt her, Chris told his father. Afterward, he repeated his confession with additional details to the detectives who had been interviewing him for hours. In his initial declaration of how he killed his wife and children, Chris Watts tried to pin down Shanan, whose actions triggered him to commit the crimes. He awoke at 4 a.m. on August 13th, admitted to his wife about his extramarital affair, and talked about their separation. It was an emotional conversation, and Shanan expectedly reacted negatively to the idea of ending their marriage. She told Chris he'd never see their children again, and perhaps in retaliation to his divorce plan,

Chenon strangled their girls. So, in a fit of rage, the husband likewise strangled a death his wife on their matrimonial bed. He then transported the three bodies to a remote oil storage site where he worked. When pressured about the exact location where he hid the bodies, Chris said he buried his wife in a grave, at a Weld County oil site and dumped the girls' bodies in oil storage tanks nearby, then went to his work nearby hours after. Police arrested Chris shortly after the interview, and he was fired by Anadarko Petroleum on the same day.

The next day, August 16th, the bodies of Shanan, Bella, and Cici were located by the police. Using an aerial map, Chris led investigators to Shannon's shallow grave at Anadarko's tank battery, while Bella and Sisi were found submerged in crude oil inside two tanks 100 feet away from their mother's grave. That same day, Chris appeared in Weld County Court for a bond hearing, but he was denied. Then his mistress, Nikki, broke her silence and talked to the police about her relationship with Chris after he acted strange and avoided her questions about his family's disappearance. Nikki told authorities that her being in his life may have accelerated the process of his crimes, but said she didn't believe Chris snapped.

She thought that the family's financial situation was the biggest factor why Chris killed his family. She told police, I legitimately think his cheese was sliding off his cracker long before he met me. On August 21st, 2018, Chris Watts was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, which included an additional one count per child cited as death of a child who had not yet attained 12 years of age and the defendant was in a position of trust. He was also charged with unlawful termination of a pregnancy and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body.

The killer husband father was denied bail at his first court appearance. At a later hearing, his bail was set at $5 million, which required him to put down 15%. sent to be released. On September 1st, Chris posted $750,000 and was released pending legal proceedings while his wife and daughters were laid to rest at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Pinehurst, North Carolina. During the 90-minute ceremony, Chris was never mentioned. He finally pleaded guilty for the nine criminal charges on November 6th, but he was spared from the death penalty upon the request of Shannan's family who didn't want another death and accepted willingly the plea deal.

Two weeks later, Chris was sentenced to five-life sentences, three consecutive and two concurrent, without the possibility of parole. He received an additional 48 years for the unlawful termination of his wife's pregnancy, and 36 years for three charges of tampering with a deceased body. After this, he had his $5 million. bail revoked, was immediately incarcerated. Coinciding with his sentencing, Chris faced a wrongful death lawsuit from Shann's family to prevent him from profiting off the deaths of his wife and daughters, perhaps through selling

their story rights for a book, film, or TV show. Shadon's family wanted to make sure any money Chris made would help cover funeral expenses and the loss of Shannan's income and compensate for the family's permanent, and to make sure permanent and continuing emotional distress due to the murders. The lawsuit would also prevent Chris from keeping any money out of selling their Frederick home. Instead, that money would be used to create a charity which would immortalize the memories of Shann, Bella, and Sisi. And just when everyone thought the Watts family annihilation had been justly settled,

Chris Watts made a more detailed and honest five-hour tell-all interview while in prison on February 18, 2019. He made the chilling confession that rectified the lies he told the investigators in August of 2018 so that Shanan's family will finally have some much-deserved closure. When Shanan came home in the early morning on August 13th from her Arizona business engagement, Chris said they engaged in sex. In his mind, he knew his wife had an idea about his extramarital affair. Having sex with Shanaan may have been a trigger point, or like you hit the push button on a bomb and it just blows up, he said.

When they woke up a few hours later, Shanaan told Chris she knew that there was someone else and started crying. Chris told her he didn't think their marriage would work. When he told her he no longer loved her, Shanaan allegedly threatened to keep Bella and Sisi away from him. Chris quoted, his late wife is saying, you're never going to see the kids again, you're never going to see them again. Get off me, don't hurt the baby. In a spontaneous reaction, Chris strangled Shanan, but she never screamed or fought back. He believed she may have been praying while he took her life.

Then Bella walked into the master bedroom and asked what was wrong with her mother. Chris told his eldest daughter that mummy wasn't feeling good. then he wrapped Shannon's body face down in a bed sheet. As Bella watched her mother being dragged down the stairs, she began to cry. What's wrong with Mommy? She asked again. Then Chris drove his dead wife and their two daughters to the Anandarko Petroleum Site. Bella and Cece dozed on and off during the ride,

holding each other in their sleep while lying in each other's laps. Upon reaching the tank battery at the site, Chris removed Shannon's body from the truck and dragged her over to where he buried her. Back in the truck, Chris covered Cece's head with a blanket, then strangled her as Bella sat at her side without uttering a word. He told investigators he wasn't thinking as he killed his daughter. If I was thinking this wouldn't have happened, or any partial hint of what I feel for those girls and what I feel for my wife, and none of this would have happened, so I wasn't thinking. He then carried and dropped the lifeless C.C. into an oil tank.

When he returned to the truck, Bella asked him, is the same thing going to happen to me as C.C.? As Chris covered Bella's head with the same blanket, the innocent girl cried, Daddy, no. They were the last words that Bella had said, which will forever haunt the evil father. Bella put up a fight for her life and Chris said he could hear her grunting as she tried to breathe in her head twisted back and forth under the blanket. Autopsy results showed she bit through her tongue multiple times as she struggled against her father.

Bella, like Cece, was also dropped inside a second tank. After disposing of his daughters, Chris then buried Shinnon in a shallow grave, telling truth may have set Chris free from deep guilt, but justice is holding him accountable for his despicable crimes. During Chris's sentencing, Shanaan's father, Frank, told the heartless criminal, I trusted you to take care of them, not kill them. They also trusted you, the heartless monster, and then you take them out like trash. Today, Chris says that he's found God, and he admits that he's haunted by what he did, and that he can't shake off the memories of his family.

So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. Tune in next week for another one filled with scary, strange, mysterious stories, and who knows, maybe your town will be next.