Sword and Scale - Episode 131

Episode Date: February 11, 2019

Chris Watts is arrested and charged with murder on August 15th, 2018 in the disappearance of his pregnant wife Shanann and their two children, daughters Bella and Celeste.  The caring father and husband was the envy of those who followed their success live online for the world to see.  But behind the dramatic weight loss, the anticipated birth of their third child - a son, and Chris and Shanann’s thriving professional careers, a much darker truth remained.  Chris wanted a new beginning.  A new lease at life.  And he was willing to do anything for a fresh start with his new love.  He was a monster hiding in plain sight, and his actions horrified an entire nation, bringing new meaning to the classic marital vows, “til death, do us part.” (Part 2 of 2) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. This defendant took those little girls and put them through a hatch at the top of an oil tank 8 inches in diameter. sword and scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. Well we welcome you back. Thank you for joining us. There's a little confusion on the last episode about what's what and when's what and all that.

Here's the thing. The next plus episode is coming next week for all current supporters on Patreon. That's all you need to know for now. When there's news about a new platform, we'll let you know and give you plenty of time to migrate over and Maybe even give you a little reward along the way But for now, let's get back to this incredible heartbreaking

Disgusting story about a man who just wanted a little more in life a little more than everything he could have ever hoped for. The Lion Cheating and Disgustingly Narcissistic Christopher Lee Watts is fast running out of options, and time. The clues are all pointing to him as the one responsible for Shanan and the girl's mysterious disappearance. They hastily discarded bedding and marriage counseling book. The girl's medicine still neatly packed and left behind in the home. Only their blankies missing, and with no signs of forced entry or exit, the neighbor's surveillance camera, which clearly shows Chris discretely loading

three heavy objects in his work truck that morning. While the physical evidence begins to stack up, in a strange turn of events in the early hours of the investigation, other, less, explainable signs begin to appear as well. A shocking phone tip from psychic Diana Roberts in Massachusetts, who claims she had a vision of Shenan and Chris arguing sometime between 2 and 5 a.m. on day morning over an extra marital affair. She spoke of feeling both Shenan's jealousy and Chris's explosive rage, sharing with police that she felt Chris had strangled Shenan and then suffocated their two daughters, and that she was plagued with the inescapable feeling that the girls were in some type of bag or trapped under water, unable to breathe.

Also, the sixth sense premonition that Shannan's mother Sandy shared with police, indicating she felt very strongly that Chris would likely try to dispose of his wife and children by pouring oil over their dead bodies. And again, the neighbor's surveillance camera footage, a closer look revealing an eerie commercial for the American horror story of Pockelip series, showing in the seconds before neighbor Nathaniel Trinisich plays the footage in front of Chris Watts on Monday afternoon. The images unmistakably relevant. A fetus, alive, heart still beating in the womb. Overcome by darkness, a beating black heart set a fire.

Exploding oil tank batteries in a scene resembling the Stark Colorado desert, and a woman wearing a gas mask in purple silk pajamas lying in a shallow grave, which quickly fills with thick black oil, melting all of her skin away. Whether sheer coincidence or signs from Shenan herself coming from beyond the grave, queer coincidence or signs from Shenan herself coming from beyond the grave, Chris' clock was up. He is brought in for questioning by Frederick Police and FBI detectives on the evening of Tuesday, August 14, 2018, as suspicion turns towards him as the primary suspect. Of course, he denies everything.

To him, Monday morning was like any other workday. But to those around him, his behavior was anything, but ordinary. So first thing Monday we were working, we had uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, This is Supervisor Luke Eppel, an anodarko production foreman via telephone on Tuesday the 14th. My understanding is he was out there for you watch all day on what's called the Survee Ranch. Survee, is that his son? Yeah, it's C-E-R-V-I. Survee Ranch, okay. We have several walls out there and him and a few of my other guys were out there pretty much all day. It's the first potential major break in the case.

Loop describes in detail how all of Anadarko's work trucks are outfitted with GPS Geotab technology, and that they keep a running tracking log of the driver's wearabouts. A tracking log that is incapable of lying so readily and easily as human beings are. So when the ignition is basically when the key is turned on, the GPS is on. So whenever the vehicle is started, I mean it records, stops and starts and how long the trip was, how long they drove those sorts of things. Luke explains that Chris had quietly shared with him the week before that he and Shanaean were experiencing marital problems and planted his first convenient excuse for any GPS Trackings on his work truck that might otherwise seem unusual The officer inquires whether or not Luke was aware that Chris attended a Colorado Rockies

game on Saturday. Information they had obtained from friends of Shinnan after she had reportedly discovered a charge on their shared bank account of $62. Chris claims he had ordered Sam and Beer at the game, but Shinnan suspected he was having an affair. A suspicion that ultimately turned out to be true, because Chris wasn't at the game with his colleagues. He was outwining and dining his mistress and an adarco co-worker, Nicole Kessinger. He took her out for dinner and drinks at the Lazy Dog Bar in Iri Colorado.

He had a habit of hiding his tracks by purchasing he and Nicole's meals on company gift cards any time they went out in the months leading up to Shannan's disappearance. But for some reason, on Saturday, he was no longer concerned that Shannan might find out. Instead he used one of the couple's regular credit cards to pay for the meal No, I mean the way he described it to me so Luke it's like something out of I don't know if I can move here a TV show he said it all of her stuff is sold out The kids of stuff is sold out It's just like she disappeared

Her first is here I'd use here here, her car is here, the keys are here, the kids are mad at us and it's still here. She just disappeared. And then when I talked to him today, that was our conversation last night, when I talked to him today. Like I said, he's a bit of an introvert, he's tired, he doesn't want to talk to Chris was right. It was like something out of a movie, a murder mystery film, where clever detectives are closing in on their suspect. All of the excuses and lies folding over one by one, like limp wet noodles, leaving only the brutal naked truth remaining. Place had heard and seen enough. There were hints of premeditation and foul play just about everywhere. The brand-new marriage counseling book that Shenan had sent home from North Carolina for Christy Reed, for example, still in the original box when he haphazardly discarded it into the trash?

The Watts home, an electronically secured and sealed half million dollar fortress, locked from the inside with Shenan's luxury SUV still parked inside. The only remaining possibility was that Chris had done something terrible and was indeed loading their bodies into his work truck just after 5 o'clock on Monday morning. Three trips in, three trips out, three missing people. But where were the bodies? At least we're listening in on the call and immediately began working to retrieve and map the GPS coordinates to the Survee 319 Oilwell site described by Apple. Meanwhile, Watts' family, friends, and neighbors, Nick and Amanda Thayer, offered to bring Chris into their home for the night. They fed him dinner and described a man showing all the outward signs of the distressed husband

whose family had mysteriously disappeared. As they settle in for the evening, police call and request Chris come down for his first formal sit-down interview. Nick and Amanda agreed to drive him there and patiently wait outside while he talks with FBI Special Agent Graham Coder from between 730 to 11 p.m. If we wanted to bring a lot more people with a lot more tools and tricks to your house can we do that tonight? so if you

I'm asking if they have a friend's house and I'll allow them all to wait over there okay that's up to you. You're going to say go ahead and friend's house? that was okay if we were to get into your house without you there how would we do it? press the passcode in the front to create a okay, that's the garage. Passcode from the door. And if I take you to the latch, you're going to need for getting in.

I know, but if you don't latch it, it's not latched down yet. We might think about that. I think it's an idea. All right. What do you think? I was just going to go to a friend's house, because I could stay another.

I could stay the last night. I didn't sleep there. Who would frontize? Not Nick and Amanda. Oh, is that her friends or your friends? No, no, Barbara. Okay. I run with Nick.

Okay. And we say her, so they go, why, for that? Nick, what was it? Well, I was. Your wife's in the answer. Yeah. Nick and Amanda. I think they're waiting outside right now.

That's far ahead. Were they going to talk to you? More than likely. Okay. Well, Bob got a young kid with a brain ball cap. Yeah. Call him. I was going to say, yeah, okay. That's Nick. If you listen closely, a special agent coder accidentally slips up during his questioning and asks if Nick and Amanda are Shenan or Nicole's friends. At this point, the record does not indicate that the special agent knew of Chris's mistress, Nicole, though throughout the interview, he seems to be dropping very subtle clues

about the affair to see if Chris takes the bait and responds in any way. Yes, okay first. Okay. So both of our kids so they were just gonna be that because they're excited mothers. Yeah They're probably just gonna just hang out and you can't see each other. I know where they're though. Okay Who are you? Anybody that I know right now like if they you're not told me anything It's driving nuts. It's driving me nuts because like there's no way like the people that I know that have kids that could have helped her if she died from my house right now, they were happy to say something but with all the going on, there's no way they could have kept their mouth shut by now. So then who are you worried about? Honestly, I can't really say that I'm worried about anybody or how as far as any of your friends I know.

All of them are showing like they're deep concern about what's going on right now. And I think that deep concern that I can't face. So then who are you worried about? I asked somebody, I don't know, honestly. The only thing that I can think of is something somebody I don't know. Does your good tell you that she had the kids walked out, but they were together. Yes, the hours said they walked out.

Today I was said, only in the other direction. Special Agent Coder is obviously well-versed in forensic psychology and advanced interviewing techniques. He watches Chris like a hawk and sits comfortably in silence, staring him directly in the eyes while gently invading his personal space, and permitting Christ to talk on without an eruption after each pregnant pause. He looks for signs of deception, and he sees them, many of them. Christ routinely sighs while answering questions. His voice growing soft on occasion or cracking entirely. He shifts around uncomfortably in his chair when confronted or challenged directly. He

refers to Shinnan, Bella, and Celeste in the past tense as if they're already gone. And he knows it. He's exhibiting a variety of very subtle, tell-tale behavioral changes that indicate he is lying. He's leaning in towards the detective, holding both of his hands out, palms upwards, as if his mimicking hands will reassure the interrogator that he has nothing to hide. It's listening to you talk about your wife and your marriage and The day she goes missing is the day that you guys have marital disorder So you can understand I think about you. Yeah Nation's like must-on-the-con. So like I know that I talk to a few my friends like, you know, it's not the good on you. I'm like, I know. It's like, people that, if people knew that we were having narrow issues, they're going to look at me, especially with the way everything looks.

And honestly, it just makes me sick to my stomach because this is something that I would never do ever. I know, like, you have to look at every every bench point. This is something I would never do to my kids or my wife. I'm not sure like what I could do to like to make people believe that is because they didn't you have a marrow discord? They were not my automatically do me.

But there's no out of harm in you and I in my family. At all. I know there has a marrow discord, then we have that conversation that morning, and then we have no idea where she is or the kids. I promise you that's nothing nothing to do with any of us. Sometimes experienced criminal interrogators will introduce a photograph or personal possession of the victim to see if the suspect elicits any sort of emotional response or shows any signs of additional deception. Special agent Coder slides a photograph of Celeste across the table directly in front of Chris,

who immediately melts into a puddle, half collapsing on the table while whispering his responses. I feel it. Look at that picture. Celeste loves those shoes. We don't know they were my two shoes. They were my were winter shoes. They were winter shoes. Those are her boots aren't they?

So now I'm just gonna sell them off to like that Facebook marketplace and show them on the windowsill there. And when you have back in North Carolina, you can see she's all sitting over there. And she proceeded to take them back and wear them every day to sing up. It was 100 degrees outside her body, she loved those shoes. She always loved those shoes. In Bella. She always wore some footflops, she always wore jeans like she in the box. She always works in the box. She loves the dress. She loves the box.

She loves the dress. She likes the buttons on the back. Chris holds the photograph in both hands and stretches out across the table, staring at it intensely, likely thinking back to the good times spent with his daughters, remembering the sounds of their voices, their giggling laughter, and the way that their newly developing

personalities are only barely beginning to show themselves, reflecting upon how quickly everything changed Thank you daddy doing your hair trying to I got you do your hair hold the brush Right, did your hair what enough do I hold this gray? This is, this is epic. Alright now I'm confused what I gotta do, right? I just want to... Oh yeah, so CC, I might just have to comb over your hair like this and say hey, let me just lick it back a little fast

but it's not parted. We'll go a little Valqu vacuum or look from top gun. Yeah? Do it. A little hair. Ready? Set. Pee-pee.

What's that? Pee-pee. I am so sorry. Pee-pee-pee. So this is what happens when I go to Dallas. You're not gonna get your hair done. No, I'll brush it. I'll done. I'll brush it We'll do a little do mohops

After a few additional moments of reflection his eyes are still bone dry. He slides the photo back across the table and settles in for more questioning. Why I have to ask them, okay, and it's a hard job. It is a hard job. And I'm going to ask you one thing, and you're going to get me an answer, and I'm going to ask you, it's just a slightly different. And you're going to get me an answer, and then about 10 iterations of this might get annoyed, but I do have to make sure that we understand each other. Okay, so we have your daughter's limited edition. We have your wax-whos-mission, okay?

And that's the most important thing right now, okay? Do you agree with that? Yes, okay. So you've done a very good at talking to me about this really hard conversation you guys had, okay? Very good, that's sometimes hard. And I understand why sometimes someone in your position says, doesn't like talking about that. Because please go help me find my

kids and you don't need to know about my my marriage argument. Okay, so I got to say, I'm very good at that and I need you to keep doing that. So I need to ask you about your marriage and fidelity. Okay, tell me about it. I have never cheated on my wife. And I fully suspect she's never done that to me. I don't know. I can see that she's always been a trustworthy person.

I've always been a trustworthy person. I fully suspect if we ever thought about stringing another way that we would tell each other before it happened. I think that sounds ridiculous. Because in the history of the Earth, nobody ever guessed that. Okay. I just, that's what I would like to think.

I mean, I mean, I know what the state's happened. Sure. Yeah, but that's what I would, my head, that's what I would hope would happen. But now, even though I think that's Saturday's one of those, if I was in your shoes, I'd say the exact same thing. And I believe that. But I kind of don't. And you can imagine in my job, I'm going to be all kinds of people.

And you can imagine that there are people who have Saturdays with their girlfriends and Sundays with their wives. And they consider themselves to be very virtuous people. Saturdays with the girlfriend and Sundays with the wife, special agent, Coder drops a less than subtle cue to Chris, revealing that he knows precisely what he did this past weekend when Shannan was out of town. Having spent that Saturday with his mistress Nicole at the lazy dog bar at 144th and I-25 in Erie, Colorado, Chris clearly had no problem lying. And special agent Cotter knew it.

Chris' abnormal spending that Saturday didn't go unnoticed by Shenan, either, who immediately began sharing with close friends attending the same business conference in Phoenix that she believed Chris was having an affair. And that the warning signs were everywhere. So she's excited in me a lot that things have been not so good between her and Chris. Okay. Last night, we were, I'm sorry, night before last, it's all blurring to me because we've been traveling and I'm in different time zones. Right.

So forgive me, but it was, I think Saturday evening, Sunday evening. She expressed on Sunday night that she was concerned that he was having an affair. Okay. Was there a twist to you that she told that to? Me and Nikki and Cindy was there also. And we all kind of thought, no, you know, there's no way that Chris would do that. You know, they seemed like just such a perfect couple, but I also knew over the past couple of weeks, she's been really just trying to save her marriage because he's been saying things like he didn't want the baby. She had canceled their gender reveal party. They were, you know, getting a lot of friends together to reveal the gender of the baby and she canceled that because he was just not there. He just was not wanting a baby. I mean, these are all just red flags for me right now. Though Chris isn't aware in the moment, the FBI and Colorado Bureau of Investigations

had been working overnight to connect all the dots of his transgressions and infidelity, revealing early warning signs of a sadistic pattern of sexual exploitation and aggressive sexual fantasies that went even deeper than his mistress Nicole was likely aware. Ahead of her date with Chris on Saturday night, Nicole spent nearly 45 minutes searching Google on topics like how to prepare for anal sex and the anal sex guide. Her internet searches eventually progressing to Pornhub, where she settled in to watch interracial porn videos and three sums with double penetration. What some would consider a typical Saturday night. Perhaps she was intimately familiar with Chris' unusual sexual desires and was mentally

preparing herself for the type of aggressive sex that she knew he liked or wanted, or she wanted to do something special for Chris, taking their intimacy to the next level after a summer of secret camping trips and other dates to their regular spot at the lazy dog bar. But Nicole wasn't Chris's only clandestine sexual partner. It seems he wasn't even bigger asshole than even she or Shannon could have ever possibly imagined. This is like just in that one. And this was March of this year, this year of 2018, and you met on Tinder. So what's underused Tinder? Is there like an username or other than that word? Yeah, so it's just like a profile you create.

I've gotten back on there because you can deactivate it and reactivate it. It can't go off like your Facebook or Gmail or you can just make a whole new video account or something like that. And yeah, and so I went back and checked in his profile. I think they were saying this to delete it on him then. Okay, well this is a profile then. I don't remember. It was just said Chris. Yeah, like a picture of his head crest.

Mm-hmm. And the picture I remember, he posted for him. It was like, I guess, like a catfish thing, but he used to know that I was like a picture, it looked similar, and it was definitely not the guy in the picture when I met him. I said it was just like, like a one-time thing, like on the, I'm sorry, I'm running nervous.

You sort of got a close watch. I think I got nothing at all. I mean, it's just a little overwhelming, but you know, and it's humiliating on like my end and makes me feel, you know, come off as a forward. After seeing Chris's face plastered all over the media regarding Shannon's disappearance, Amanda McMahon contacted police to reveal a bizarre one-night stand she'd had with Chris back in March. She sat with Detective Dave Baumhover from the Frederick Police Department and gave the intimate

details of her evening spent with Mr. Fuckboy himself, Christopher Watts. You heard it right. Chris was out catfishing a random woman on Tinder over three months before he and Nicole began their relationship Meeting her in the Chick-fil-A parking lot just 37 miles from the home and life that he and Shannon had built together What a wonderful date the Chick-fil-A fucking parking lot That's a true Romeo right there. It seems she was meeting him there for the D. And I'm not talking about the spicy chicken deluxe either, which is delicious by the way. He was rough as an e-mail.

He tried to fit in, stick it in like... but... not just here. Like, all in my hair, I'm putting his arms around my... now, it's like a rape fantasy thing. That's how I, you know, they describe it. I'm sort of like, you know, I mean, I was just remembered

thinking of my clip of the fuck when he left, like... I actually had to like push him when he laughs like, actually, I have to let you push your mouth and you have one point. Are you starting to hate this guy yet? Yeah, me too. I got to ask what's your name? I just want to have another one. I'm sure I'm sure.

OK. Would you tell me if you didn't death? So again, I highly trained investigator over here, right? I see pictures of you from a few years ago and I see you standing before me now. Okay. You've gotten pretty fit. You can imagine when guys start cheating or want to cheat, that's what happens. Yes. Tell me about it. I did not cheat my wife. Not thrived, helped me. I went from 245 pounds to about 240 pounds. I was 245 pounds.

I'm not ready man. Thank you. 185, 180 right now. And I've been eating clear, just trying to, the last little bit, thrived, told me a lot, but to maintain it and try to eat cleaner has really helped me as well. Okay. Can I have got to imagine that maybe there's a growing environment? No.

No. Okay. Why are you falling out of love? That was last five weeks, like being by myself and being able to be myself again. I couldn't be myself wrong today anymore. Why not? It was like I was walking just like like you know I walk on egg shells type thing. It's kind of like you don't feel like you're always doing something that's wrong. Walking on egg shells or Chick-fil-A sandwich wrappers. Either way, Chris boldly reasserts to special agent Coder that he is simply a virtuous man

whose heart grew further and further away from his wife's. Our conversation was the same. Like when we were hard, everything was just like, you know, short. It was just like, nothing's all right anymore. But the disconnection was there. And it never felt right anymore. But why? It wasn't better.

Like I didn't feel it like it was like I didn't have that passion anymore. Ah, yes. Not like the Passion One derives for meeting a total stranger in the Chick-fil-A parking lot before heading over to her place to Netflix and chill. You know, maybe throw in a little rape fantasy if you're feeling extra passionate. It seems his passion didn't end there. Though the details remained questionable, there was also at least one man who came forward

alleging he and Chris met for casual sex on more than one occasion, and that Watts paid him between 60 to $200 each time they met. The money, Trent Bolt claimed, was not for sex acts, but for his lip injections. He claims that each time they met Chris aggressively ripped his clothes off and the two performed oral sex on each other. Chris allegedly leaving in a frenzied panic each time minutes after they finished. How much more could this loving father of two, soon to be three, and husband, really have to hide? What do I do to help you walk out of this room and not look like the person who is responsible?

You have to trust me that when I tell you that these two beautiful girls right here, I did nothing to them and to my beautiful wife, I did nothing to her. Like you have to trust me and believe me. Like I know you don't know me as a person. You know me for like two and a half to three hours. And I don't know what your opinion is. But you have to realize that these two beautiful girls right here and my wife, I had nothing to do with the disappearance. Like they vanished. They were vanished, they were taken, someone has taken them, they're safe somewhere, we don't know. I had nothing to do with this act of evil cruelty, whatever has happened here. Because my love for these two girls and my wife, I don't want anything to happen to them.

I've never wanted anything to happen to them. No matter if I'm about me, my wife's that friend or not, or divorced or anything. I never wish harm on anybody, on a human being in general. Okay. Like, just seeing that picture, like, I want them to just run through that front door and just grab me, or just bear it's tackle, be not me to the floor, bust my head, I don't care. The amount of love I have for my family is actually going to, and I've never been in a diet, and they need, I want that back. I have to have the back.

Special Agent Coder released Chris back to his neighbors, Nick and Amanda Thayer, who waited in the parking lot forum for nearly four hours. But not before getting him to volunteer to come in for a polygraph test after picking his dad up from the airport the following morning. Nick and Amanda took him back to their house where he slept in a spare bedroom just a few feet from where their 5-year-old daughter lay her head down to rest at night. They could have never possibly imagined at the time that they had opened up their door to an absolute monster.

It's kind of hard for me to be at our house knowing he was there. You know what I mean? Like we weren't shy that we were kind of there with Chris trying to be some sort of support for him just thinking, I mean, in our mind, we just had, we had no reason to believe that he could do anything, so that's why we were there for him. I mean, I feel, I mean, bluntly, I just feel so stupid and so betrayed. It's just unreal, like. We even offered our house to him when we weren't there. Yeah, like he, when he left to go pick up his dad from the airport, I gave him our garage code. Like you guys are welcome here, if you need a place to be. We had no idea that

what he had done. investigation agent Tammy Lee was chosen to conduct the polygraph examination of Christopher Watts the following day on Wednesday, August 15th at 11 a.m. She had been on the scene at the Frederick Police Department since Tuesday and was intimately familiar with the case as well as Chris's growing web of lies. She was also familiar with the fact that Chris was a sociopathic charmer, and she gently stroked his ego to draw him out of a shell from the minute he walked in through the interviewing room door. Like a talented snake charmer, gently teasing the poisonous cobra, she plays to Chris' weaknesses, and even flirts a little, reassuring him

that it will all be over in just a few minutes. And then she lets him talk and dig his own grave. I know, I just like to say, you're a little bit, but you don't have to worry if it's not on or anything right now. It's not going to budge or anything. I've never talked before. I know a lot of people haven't had polygraphs before. It's not like a normal thing that people go through. A lot of people think, well, obviously in law enforcement, in places like that, they have to go through polygraphs for their job. But other than that, most people never take a polygraph in their entire life. Yes, I have no idea what to accept. that most people never take a polygraph in their entire life. They went to the other extreme. I just think like thick muscle like that's a bit of somebody has her or she's in trouble and the kittens are not safe.

Chris is obviously a bit nervous. His voice noticeably shaking, but he continues charming agently as if they are old friends and she's guiding him through his first high school driving lesson, providing careful direction about how they will proceed. There's actually only, you know, nervousness or anxiety cannot cut you to fail the polygraph. A lot of people think that too. And it's really nervous that it's possible to fail. If that were the case, no one would be allowed to take polygraphs because everything will burst into nervousness or anxious about taking the polygraphs.

Okay. So if that were the case, no one would be allowed to take polygraphs because everything will burst into nervousness or anxious about taking the polygraphs. Okay. So if that were the case, no one would be allowed to take polygraphs because everything will burst into nervousness or anxiousness about taking the polygraphs. Okay. So if that were the case, no one would be allowed to take polygraphs because everything will burst into nervousness or anxiousness about taking the polygraphs. Okay. So if that were the case, no one would be allowed to take polygraphs because everything will burst into nervousness or anxiousness about taking the polygraphs. Okay. So if that were the case, no one would be allowed to take polygraphs. No one would be allowed to take polygraphs.

No one would be allowed to take polygraphs. No one would be allowed to take polygraphs. No one would be allowed to take polygraphs. There's actually only two ways you can fail the polygraph. I thought it was not worth it. On nervousness. No, I wasn't. There's actually only two ways you can fail a polygraph. So the first way would be to fail the following instructions. I'm going to give you a lot of instructions today about how to sit still, how to answer questions, things like that. So if you fail the following instructions, you will not have to do a test. The second way would be to choose to lie to me today. Obviously this is about 100% truth. Even if there's something that you didn't tell

the investigators since Monday I guess is when you end up in the police report of all, if there's something that you didn't tell them since Monday, that is totally fine. I get it, people aren't going over everything to be until I'm telling them to come to someone. As long as you tell me what the truth is today, you will have no problem with passing, okay? I hope that comes to you. And obviously, I mean, I hope that, you know, if you did have something to do with their disappearance, it would be really stupid for you to come in and take a polygraph today, and do whatever you want. Right? Like, it would be really tough. Like, you should not be here right now sitting in this chair if you had anything to do with Chenan and the world's disappearance.

Okay. Before administering the test, Agent Lee asks Chris to tell her the story from the very beginning, as if she is new to the investigation. But she isn't. She has been involved from the initial stages and watched his interview via live broadcast in the very next room the evening before. She wants to hear for herself if the details he provides are consistent. So she gets in the bed, you feel her get into bed and then is there a conversation?

When she gets in the bed, no, like it's just, I wait until I get up. Okay, then you get up at a four. You're ready? Yeah, I just have to. And then what happens after that? That's when she told me that night before, like, you know, when I get home, I want to, I want to get up so I can get this airport off and take a shower, you know? Tell me what that means.

Well, I think if the airport offered me, you know, like, type of thing, like, she didn't want to just, you know, get in that light and top in the shower and stuff like that, so you just want to go to sleep. So like, she wanted to get up, like, when I got up, so she could take a shower. You want to get up in two hours? Well, not. She thought that like, she'd be home at 11, but that was in the case. Oh, so she didn't, did she tell you not, once you would be home at 11? Yeah. But did you think she still like that when she was supposed to be home in the lunch? But did you think she still, like, maybe she still wants to get up?

No, I just... If I assume, like, I know I'm just, you know, it's not true. It would be a trouble. So, why did you wake me up last Thursday? I've done that many times, and I learned that you have to just do it to a success. Okay. So, when it comes to that, because this is, I don't want a step. Okay, so how come it comes with that? Because this is, I don't know, a bigger man, so.

Chris gives detailed explanations for just about everything. The stripped bedding in the master bedroom, why he backed his truck into the garage and spent nearly 20 minutes loading it. And what he and Shenan talked about that morning before he left for work. All of it, just a little too convenient. So you load all that stuff up and then,

like, how long do you think that takes you to do that? Five to five minutes. OK. So you're in 515, the late 525 or so? OK. And are you actually backed into the garage or just in the driveway? Backed in the old lights, not really backed into the garage, because her car was sitting into the garage or just in the dry plane? Back to the old length not really back into the garage because her car was sitting in the garage

So how far in the garage do you think you were? Quarter the way. Quarter the way? Not according to my age of the way. Okay. Is it a big truck anyway? It's actually 50. Okay.

It won't fit in the garage because it's too long, so. Okay. So, okay. Do you let all that stuff up and then what do you do from there? Get in the truck and pull forward, pull the, or hit the button for the garage over the clothes and try it off. So how often do you actually take your tools out and put them in the garage or in the house or wherever you put them? I'll take that container out of you to do it like I once, like on the Friday, like I've

got everything done and like get it. Like, I once saw it on the Friday. Like, I got everything done. I'm like, get it in there, get it in there. So that normally you would take it out on Friday and then that Monday when you go to work, you would back to truck in and look to your stuff in. I mean, do that. That's pretty normal for me. That's a normal thing routine that you do.

Okay. The nervous laughter, the stuttering, the insistent that everything was like normal. Agent Lee doesn't acceptional job feigning ignorance, but she is acutely aware that it was not part of Chris's weekly routine to load and unload his truck in the driveway, and that the neighbor pulled Officer Kunra out aside to alert him just how uncharacteristic

that move of his actually was, because as others would eventually describe it, Chris never pulled his truck into the driveway for fear that it would inadvertently drip oil onto the clean white cement. A fear that, for whatever reason that morning, wasn't present, or perhaps didn't matter. Can you pass that? Yes, of course, yes. What do you think I mean by that when I'm asking you if you physically caused shin-y-yam to disappear? If I... Of course that means to you.

If you ask me that, like I select your asking me, did I have anything to do with it myself, or did I help somebody do it? And I had no part in any of that. I know it's totally awful to think about but what are ways because I need to make sure that you know what I'm talking about, what are ways that you can make someone disappear? I mean, I just did talk about what I've seen in my comic movies or like how people if you read about other people, I mean, you hire somebody. Like a hitman?

Yeah, I mean, that's, I'm just being a hud. That's what I want. That's what I want, because I want you to go through all of these scenarios being your head, because I want you to know for sure what I'm talking about when I say that asking you if you physically caused your disappearance. OK, like you hire somebody somebody or you have somebody

know that that would do it. I mean it's hard to have a question to answer. I didn't have nothing to do with this disappearance. I didn't want to think about if you were asking how I would do it, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would a staff and one student. I'm going to start with a staff and one student. I'm going to start with a staff and one student. I'm going to start with a staff and one student. I'm going to start with a staff and one student. I'm going to start with a staff and one student. I'm going to start with a staff and one student. I'm going to start with a staff and one student.

I'm going to start with a staff and one student. I'm going to start with a staff and one student. I'm going to start with a staff and one student. I'm going to start with a staff and one student. I'm going to start with a staff and one student. I'm going to start with a staff and one student. I'm going to start with a staff and one student. It's a little bit strange. It's a little bit strange. It's a little bit strange. It's a little bit strange. It's a little bit strange. It's a little bit strange.

It's a little bit strange. It's a little bit strange. It's a little bit strange. It's a little bit strange. It's a little bit strange. It's a little bit strange. It's a little bit strange. It's a little bit strange. Okay, pick up. As far as like, my lowerment to a trap, I guess. What do you mean what?

Like, you know, like, have somebody waiting, like, around the corner and like, you know, like, actually, they haven't picked up our route. I mean, something like that, I assume. Like, I don't want to say that. It's a bad thing, but... You get to kidnap them and take them and walk them up in a beach on somewhere. You know what I mean? They can still be alive, but you... You're torturing. I like to take them somewhere towards them and let them sit there without food or water. Agently, like most criminal interrogation experts,

is trained in the read technique, originally developed in 1947. The aim of this widely used and sometimes controversial interviewing approach is to develop appropriate, investigative, and background information prior to the meeting with the subject, followed by a non-accusatory interview prior to any interrogation or polygraph to develop a rapport with the subject. After rapport is established, the interrogator then begins systematically breaking down the inconsistencies in their story, observable behavior, and claims. Sometimes by asking them hypothetical questions about how

they would kill someone, or what should happen to the person who did. The aim is to get to know the accused, build their trust, identify key areas of deception, and then repeatedly break them down during the actual interrogation to solicit a confession. This explains why Chris spent nearly three and a half hours with Agent Lee before the polygraph even began. So obviously like I said, we kind of have to expect the worst and hope for the best. If we do end up finding your wife and your two girls murdered, what do you think should happen to that person that what it's done that?

The worst possible thing? Like what? Do they're going to be like, like, the prison or the death penalty, isn't it? That's the only two things you really can do. That's the only thing you really, is that the only time you have. Again, Chris positions himself as the distraught husband and father, who is nervous about his pregnant wife and children missing, and not someone nervous that he might get caught in a lie. is right now, there's only one person in the stream that knows what the truth is. And about five minutes, there's going to be two of us. So that's the coolest part, okay? And then I don't go share that with them out there, okay?

So do you, you don't have any other questions or anything? No. Perfect. Agently administers a series of brief calibration tests. And then, the polygraph. She asks Chris the same critical questions three different times in a slightly varied order and then they're done. That's it. It's over. Did you physically publish an end disappearance? No. Were you born in 1985?

Yes. Before 2018, did you ever say anything out of anger to the left one? No. Are you lying about the last time you saw Shanaan? No. Are you now in the state of Colorado? Yes. Before 2018, have you ever wanted to hurt someone to be even with them? No. to hurt someone to be even with them. No. Do you know where she is now? No. This portion of the test is complete.

Please ring still. I take the instrument out of operation. She's going to laugh. How do you feel? Poor. No. I'm just trying to look at something without nothing there. The chair thing? Yeah.

Yeah. And I'm just kind of weirdly. That's why I always tell people not to do that. I feel like I was just saying. I'll speak, trying to do everything still. You feel like you're in good position right now. Yes. I was sitting in the other side of the chair.

I feel like it's okay. Okay. Just like this. Agently begins removing the sensors from Chris's fingers, legs, and midsection. But before she can leave, he pulls up a picture of Bella and Celeste on his phone and shows it to her. As if to remind her again before she leaves the room to score his polygraph that he is the loving, caring, and kind father that he is so carefully and artfully portrayed in the media. I don't think they're bigger than I thought. I think I thought they sure were on the news and they were much tinier. Which is really family photo. Okay, that was, that was,

no, this is it, this is it. Oh, what? Yeah. It was so much smaller. The investigation into Shannan, Bella, Celeste, and the unborn child, Niko's disappearance up to this point has been running 24 hours a day since Nicole Atkinson first called for a welfare check on Shannon Monday afternoon. The dozens of field agents canvassing the neighborhoods, the forensic information technology experts carefully analyzing the phones, computers, and internet

search histories of Chris, Shenan, Nicole Kessinger, and close friends and family, carefully capturing and comparing the neighbor's security camera footage with the corporate server records, obtaining the surveillance video and witness statements from the lazy dog bar collecting all relevant bank phone and other records. And now the polygraph. All of the evidence helping to chip away at the hardened layers of deceit, revealing a truth that just about everyone else could already see, except for Chris himself. I didn't lie to you on that call, I grabbed my promise. Chris, I'm on our stealth. It's time. I just stealth and take a deep breath.

I don't want you to take a deep breath right now. There's a reason you feel sick through your stomach. When people hold stuff inside, it makes you physically ill. And I can just tell on your face, I can tell you, tell from the second you walked in, that you were wanting to just come clean and just be done with this. And I appreciate that because you knew sitting down in that chair that you weren't going to pass today, and you knew I was going to find out because I told you that and then you continued to say knowing that you could at the end say you know what, I just need to get this off

my chest like I'm just going to tell you what happened. We're not here to play games, we're not here to do any of that with you, we just want to know what happened. So can you start from the beginning to tell us what happened? Everything that I've told you, I've not learned polygraph. I don't know how much I could tell you right now. It's not an option right now. You did not pass the polygraph, so I know you were being accepted.

So that's not even an issue right now. The issue right now is what happened to Shenan, Bella, and Celeste. That's the issue right now. Okay. So let's talk about that. I know you want to tell us. I can see it in your face. Holding this lie in is going to do nothing for you.

I know that. I'm not like trying to like cover things up like. Yeah, but you kind of are because in normal, normal people would do that. Normal people that make them a safe and initially you're gonna go, I don't know what you're talking about, I didn't do anything, that's normal. I would expect that. It's just like if you asked your kid, you know, did you write on the wall and they go, no. you're like, you have marker on your hand. Like, I know you just put it on the wall and they're like, okay, that's a natural reaction that someone's

going to initially lie about something like that and then eventually tell the truth. So this is your eventually telling the truth time. Even after being confronted with his failing polygraph results, Chris continues with the Sharad. And I don't know, they're not coming back home. Christ, him and I are confused. And here's what we're confused about. I told you that we've done some work overnight. That's what we've got a lot of women. That wasn't why. Mother, we know a lot more than we think we did.

Yeah. Special Agent Coder reminds Chris that he is a good father, that everyone speaks highly of, that he can name without hesitation what he fed Bella and Celeste for lunch, what book he read them before putting them to sleep, and what shoes or sandals are their favorites. By playing to Chris's self-absorbed Colorado Rocky Mountain-sized ego, he slowly begins to chip away at his defensiveness. I don't think I can have something out of her. But I did. I know. Keep going.

She accused me of it. I was delighted. I actually just honored to have so horrible for it. She was pregnant. And it was... I don't want to. I didn't hurt her. I actually did't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt her emotionally. I can't hurt Where special agent Coder presses Chris and Inch, he retreats a mile, continuing to lie about having anything to do with Shannon or the girls to disappear.

It becomes very obvious, very quickly that Chris is beginning to lose control of his stories, of the lies, of the secrets. Chris, right now you're down to outside. He threw a cross to the country to hell now. The Secrets. I want to find them. I've told you over and over. I want to find them. Can we go back to that night? Yeah. Do you know that we have texts? Do we have a virus that elects in your house? And you know that those are trained to record distress. You know that we know the content of Nicki's text messages and York

text messages and shenanite messages. Okay. I don't know yours. Thank you all I'm told. I'm not crying out for them. Okay. Tell us about that night again. Please tell the truth as well. The lies continue until the agents permit Chris's father Ronnie to come into the room. He has just flown into Colorado from North Carolina earlier in the morning. They leave Chris alone with him, and he begins to talk. Barely whispering loud enough for the digital recorder on the table to pick up. We have that conversation and more. You know, emotional ones, total vocation and everything I've got.

Small and relevant. Time they help us downstairs. I don't want to protect her. It's worth, I don't want to protect her. You don't want what that's for sure. Chris Pounds his fists on the table, mumbling the words. She strangled them. And then I killed her. Chris claims that Janan killed Bella and Celeste out of spite because he had requested a separation. After talking with her in bed, Chris alleges he went downstairs to get his things ready for work.

When he heard a commotion and returned back upstairs to investigate. Shenan was no longer in the master bedroom, but there on the baby monitor. He saw her straddling baby C.C. Strangling heard a death. By the time he got into her bedroom to intervene, he claims it was too late. C.C. was blue and cold to the touch, and in a fit of rage he wrapped his hands around Shanann's neck and strangled her, in the same way she allegedly did to their two daughters.

The man claiming for three days to be the distraught, disheveled father, and husband longing for the return of his wife and their precious babies showed absolutely no emotion. No emotion that is until he began to think about how others would perceive him, now that he had confessed to killing Shenan. And they're gonna say this, you're like, what the fuck did you do, brisk? It was, like, why don't you just go to the classroom and do it? Well, they were on YouTube, they don't know. They were living in LA. They told me, but still, it's like, you know what I mean? I can't deny it like, like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't deny it like, I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. If you believe anything this pile of shit is saying, well, I've got a bridge for sale

in Boston right next to the Chick-fil-A. Because just as quickly and abruptly as Chris finally found his emotions, after allegedly suffering a tragedy no father should ever have to bear, he calmly describes where he hid the bodies. And it is unforgivingly gruesome. The VRC is everything. Okay. What are about this? Just an an in the growth?

I'll hold it this way here. Today? I'll hold it this way. Okay, can you move your gun for me? Do that as for a shenan. Okay, no more of the girl left. There it is. In these? So which one is the other one?

Are they in the tanks? Can somebody who doesn't know what they're doing open ones? Okay, do you need to open them? It's in the tanks. So a mixture of oil and water. Frederick police, CBI and FBI agents had already spent a good part of the day out at the survey ranch at work site number 319. And we're still there when Chris confessed to Shannan's murder.

Agents Lee and Coder sent over an aerial photograph of the site, taken earlier that day by remote control drone, with the initials of Shenan, Bella, and Celeste scribbled on locations where Chris hid their bodies. He buried Shenan and her unborn son, Nico, in a shallow grave. The missing top sheet of their master bedroom was blown into the wind when police arrived at the scene. It was covered in blood from the apparent miscarriage that occurred immediately after Shenan's death. under third. How did you take that? It's like a work shell on the back of my truck. It's like a work shell on the back of my truck.

It's like a work shell on the back of my truck. It's like a work shell on the back of my truck. It's like a work shell on the back of my truck. It's like a work shell on the back of my truck. It's like a work, on the shirt, on the underwear. I'm sure it was in a black or gray on the warehouse pipe, blue. When her body was exhumed, forensic evidence technicians collected shenan's purple-grade t-shirt, a black bra, and the blue thong underwear she was wearing. Shnan's amniotic sack was protruding from her vagina. Baby Niko had been expelled prematurely from the apparent trauma Shnan suffered in death.

His tiny prematurely aborted body was bagged and tagged into evidence, along with shenan's clothing. During the autopsy, it was revealed that her hyoid bone was not broken, and there was only slight bruising to the muscles and tissues in shenan's neck, suggesting that Chris had likely strangled her to death while she slept, as there were no obvious signs of struggle. Clear indications that his story was entirely fabricated and that he viciously attacked his wife of five years as she dreamt of something early Monday morning Which I'm asking for you about that this like Are you 100% of positive that Bella and Celeste are in these things? How did you get them in the case?

The hatch how do you access that and then let? So they were saying like super early fit in our Through that it's probably Because that's what we gave thanks So you think it's about like Just like a pot or a setting on like Street like a manhole car Okay, a living. Was it hard to get them in there? Did you have to push or anything?

Or was it? Okay. We're sure you're sure. Like we're going to bring these tanks, it's going to be kind of a mess. So I just want to make sure that you're being truthful about that. And because she's here because you couldn't like, could you not lift her all the way up there?

Or you couldn't, what you've been too big to fit in that hole? Did you know that already? Just for the more people to feel that, that is a... Okay. Just to move more into all the buildings. And then, and then, and then, okay? One at a time. Chris carried Bella and Celeste's lifeless bodies, two stories up a large set of industrial steel stairs in the early morning twilight, forcing each one of them through

retractable steel feeder caps that were only 8 inches in diameter. Just let that sink in for a minute. 8 inches in diameter. About the size of a standard paper plate, two beautiful little girls, aged three and four. The broadest width on either one of their tiny bodies measuring only 9.5 inches across, according to the Medical Examiner's report,

brutally forced through this indescribably tiny opening and dropped approximately 20 feet into a toxic oil and water sludge. And then, as if throwing out the morning newspaper with a trash, slamming the heavy metal caps shut again and proceeding on with work throughout the morning as if nothing had happened. By the time investigators had received the appropriate approvals and safety clearances to retrieve Bella and Celeste's bodies, the morning of Thursday, August 16th, an entire army of investigators, agents, fire and public utility employees,

and a dark owe representatives and emotional support personnel had gathered for what proved to be an incredibly complex and grizzly task. Northern Plains trucking brought tanker trucks on site and began methodically pumping the crude oil sludge out of the tanks. The oil was first drained into a small metal pool so that technicians could examine any materials or debris coming out before then pumping it along into the trucks. Anodarco representative Jeff Jones was present, constantly monitoring the air around the pool so that they could stop work in the event the air became too toxic or flammable.

Once the first tank was nearly empty, technicians opened the man-way hatch on the bottom while Sergeant Armstrong with the Frederick Police Department peered into the tank from the feeder caps above. He observed would appear to be a small child's body laying face down on the south side of the tank. Troopers donned full hazmat gear and entered the tank to retrieve the body. It was little Celeste. As they passed her body through the hatch to other technicians waiting on the outside,

her left hand was completely degloved in the process. Finger nails and all. The oil sludge creating tremendous skin slippage to the point that easily tore wherever they held onto her. Her degloved hands and fingernails were carefully bagged and tagged in the evidence chain of custody log, along with her missing blankie and clothing. Troopers repeated the process on the second tank, identifying four-year-old Bella's body floating face up at the bottom. During the extraction, Troopers noted significant skin slippage wherever they touched her body, and passing her

out where others were waiting to carefully remove as much oil sludge as possible before turning her over to the corner. The injuries to Bella and Celeste revealed a much darker truth than Chris had confessed to. Some 40 miles south of Survey 319 and a warm, well lit interrogation room. You're on our understand very clearly, Bella fought back for her life. The Frenulum, the connective tissue between her upper lip and her gum had an inch and a half, excuse me, a centimeter and a half, lasteration. She bit her tongue multiple times before she died. She fought back for her life as her father smothered her.

So last had no such injuries. In fact, she had no external injuries at all. But according to the medical examiner, she was smothered nonetheless. The defendant then methodically and calmly loaded their bodies into his work truck, not in a hasty or disorganized way. He was seen from the neighbor's doorbell camera, backing his truck into the driveway, going back

and forth into the house, and back out to the truck three different times, one time for each of their bodies. He then drove them away from their family home one final time, intent on hiding any evidence of the crimes that he had just committed. In one final measure of disrespect for the family he once had, he ensured that they would not be together, even in death, or he so he thought. He disposed of them in different locations. He buried Shenan and Niko in a shallow grave away from the oil tanks.

Bella and Celeste were thrown away in the oil tanks at this facility. Different tanks so these little girls wouldn't be together in death. Imagine this, Your Honor. This defendant took those little girls and put them through a hatch at the top of an oil tank, eight inches in diameter. Bella had scratches on her left buttocks from being shoved through this hole. A tough of blonde hair was found on the edge of one of these hatches. The defendant told investigators that Bella's tank seemed emptier than C.C.'s because of the sound that the splashes made. These were his daughters. You buried my daughter Shannon and Niko in a shallow grave,

and then you put Bella and Celeste and used containers of crude oil. You heartless monster. You have to live with this vision every day of your life, and I hope you see that every time you close your eyes at night. Why did this have to happen? His motive was simple, Your Honor. He had a desire for a fresh start. To begin a relationship with a new love that overpowered all decency and feelings for his wife, his daughters, and unborn son.

While Shenan texted the defendant over and over again in the days and weeks leading up to her death attempting to save her marriage, the defendant secreted pictures of his girlfriend into his phone and searched and texted, excuse me, texted her at all hours of the night. Now to that stunning turn and that breaking new, neck case of a missing mother and her two young daughters, their father pleading for their safe return but this morning he's the one in custody. Christopher Lee Watts pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other charges for killing Shenan, Bella and Celeste as part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty. The prosecution sought life in prison over the death penalty.

At the special request of Shenan's mother Sandra, who said, he made the choice to take those lives. I do not want to be put in the position of making the choice whether or not to take his. Chris also pled guilty to the unlawful termination of a pregnancy for his role in the murder of their unborn son. Colorado still does not have a fetal homicide law in effect. One of at least eight states that do not permit the separate criminal prosecution of those responsible for the intentional murder of an unborn child.

This case has since spurred a petition on change.org, which to date has gathered over 100,000 signatures in support of Colorado adopting a fetal homicide law, though additional charges can never fully replace lives lost at the guilty hands of Chris Watts. He will spend the rest of his life in prison. In November of 2018, he received five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. And in an ironic turn of events, Chris was transferred to a Wisconsin prison in December of 2018 out of an abundance of caution for his safety. As if that weren't enough, Colorado taxpayers were left to foot the bill for his transport to the tune of just over $12,500, the costs of which detailed staffing meals, hotels, and mileage in a recent public records request.

Though we cannot be sure, I'm guessing the prison transport team didn't make any stops at Chick-fil-A along the way. Beware the quiet man, Christopher Lee Watts. For while others spoke, he watched. And while others acted, he planned. And when Shenan, Bella, and Celeste finally lay their heads down to rest. He struck, holding true to the vows he so firmly cemented at the altar, till death do us part. Like I said, marriage can be pretty fucked up. Until next time, stay safe. you