Shannan Watts was initially declared missing. The woman was returning to her home in Fredercik on August 13 around 2.00 in the morning. She was dropped off by a friend – Nicole Atkinson. They had both been on a business trip the day before. The next day, Shannan had an appointment with a gynecologist – the woman was 4 months pregnant.
The very next day, Atkinson tried to contact her, but Shannan’s phone was switched off. The concerned woman informed her husband Chris Watts, who was at work, about the situation. She also notified the police. Then she learned that both Shannon and the couple’s two daughters – 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste had disappeared without a trace.
He murdered his pregnant wife and two little daughters. Then he claimed they were missing
During the search of the Watts’ house, the police did not find any disturbing traces. The missing person’s car was parked in front of the house. A day later, the media reported the official news of missing Shannan Watts and her two daughters. Colorado police conducted an intensive search. The first person questioned in the case was, of course, the aforementioned husband and father. Chris Watts argued that he did not know where his family might be.
Moreover, the cold-blooded man lied not only to the investigators, but also to all journalists with whom he spoke. He appeared in television interviews, and in one of them he almost cried, saying to the camera: “If anyone is keeping them, just bring them back to me. I need to see them all. I need to see them again.”
“We trusted you to take care of them and you murdered them”
Later, however, investigators discovered that Watts was having an affair with one of his co-workers. In addition, two days after his wife and daughters disappeared, he failed a polygraph test. Later that day – pressed against the wall by the police – he swore that he would reveal the truth if the police allowed him to talk to his father. And so it happened: Watts confessed that he had murdered his family. The bodies were taken to the premises of an oil production company. He buried his wife’s body in the ground. He hid the bodies of his daughters in oil tanks.
The discovery of the corpse, however, did not make the man stick to the truth. At first, he maneuvered his testimony and claimed that it was his wife who murdered Bella and Celeste – after she allegedly found out that Chris wanted to leave her. In retaliation, Watts was to murder her and, “being in shock”, take all the bodies to the oil extraction area.
The family of the tragically murdered Shannan also spoke to the media. Her father Frank Rzucek in a message addressed to the murderer said, among others:
We trusted you to take care of them, and you murdered them. I despise you
4-year-old Bella was fighting for her life
Three months later, Chris Watts completely changed his testimony. He confessed to all the charges against him. On the morning of August 14, he was to announce to Shannan that he wanted a divorce. There was a quarrel between the spouses and, consequently, a scuffle. Enraged, Watts lunged at the woman and strangled her. In the meantime, his daughters woke up. Bella and Celeste began to ask their father what was going on – they heard strange sounds as the man tried to carry the body of his murdered wife up the stairs.
Shannan hid the body in the trunk and told the children to get in the car. When he reached the oil field, he smothered both girls with a blanket. Autopsies of the children showed that 4-year-old Bella was fighting for her life and bit her tongue several times just before she died. Watts then placed the bodies of the murdered girls in oil tanks whose opening was 20 centimeters wide. The man received a total of five life sentences. He is currently serving his sentence in a maximum security facility in Wisconsin.
Sources: The New York Times/Nypost.com/DailyMail.co.uk
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
