![\"The](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/YdOCfB9D3aFOH7-l4uawCZDpZt4=\/1500x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(995x318:997x320):format(webp)\/chris-watts-family-main-081325-0e08a43c43f54d3ca80a4ff7eb743064.jpg\")
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Shanann Watts and her two daughters, Bella Watts and Celeste Watts, were reported missing in August 2018<\/p>\n
Two days later, Chris Watts was arrested and charged with murdering his wife and two daughters<\/p>\n
Though he initially only admitted to killing Shanann, he later pleaded guilty to all three murders and was sentenced to life in prison<\/p>\n
Chris Watts seemed to have it all: a happy marriage, two young daughters and a baby boy on the way.
\nBut in August 2018, the Colorado oil field operator murdered his pregnant wife, Shanann Watts, and their children, 4-year-old Bella Watts and 3-year-old Celeste Watts, before dumping their bodies at a remote oil site where he worked.
\nThough he pleaded for his family\u2019s safe return while speaking to the press, investigators soon uncovered a web of lies, including his affair with a co-worker and the couple\u2019s mounting marital strain. Within 48 hours of their disappearance, Chris confessed, first trying to pin the girls\u2019 deaths on Shanann before admitting he had killed all three.
\nIn November 2018, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
\nHere\u2019s a closer look at what happened to the Watts family, from the couple\u2019s first meeting to the chilling details of the crime and its aftermath.
\nIn 2010, a mutual contact sent Shanann a Facebook prompt that suggested she add Chris as a friend. She deleted it, but accepted Chris\u2019 friend request two months later, after she was diagnosed with lupus and amid one of the \u201cdarkest times\u201d in her life.
\n\u201cI was in a really, really, really bad place, and I got a friend request from Chris on Facebook,\u201d Shanann, who lived in North Carolina at the time, said in a May 2018 Facebook Live video. \u201cI was like, Oh, what the heck, I\u2019m never going to meet him. Accept.\u201d
\nShe went on to say that \u201cone thing led to another,\u201d and they eventually got married and moved to Colorado together in 2012, per The Denver Post. There, they had two children: Bella, born in December 2013, and Celeste, born in July 2015.
\nIn the Facebook clip, the 34-year-old mother described Chris as \u201cthe best thing that has ever happened to me.\u201d
\nThough the Watts appeared to be happy, a family friend told PEOPLE in August 2018 that Chris and Shanann had been having \u201cmarital problems.\u201d They also faced financial issues in the past \u2014 filing for bankruptcy in 2015 \u2014 but had seemingly returned to stability at the time of the murders.
\nBrian Spence, a contractor who worked with Chris for several years, told PEOPLE in October 2022 that he witnessed the Colorado father change over the summer of 2018.
\n\u201cI watched him get more and more unhappy with his life,\u201d Spence said. \u201cHe went from being a friendly guy to being withdrawn and angry. I saw him lose his temper over little workplace annoyances. He had an irritable side with the contractors. He could be combative.”
\nThe couple spent most of that apart, with Shanann and her daughter traveling to North Carolina for six weeks. In early August, days before her murder, she went on a trip to Arizona for the health supplements company she was a part of.<\/p>\n
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Shanann, Celeste and Bella were reported missing by a friend,\u00a0Nickole Atkinson,\u00a0at 1:40 p.m. on Aug 13, 2018, approximately 12 hours after Atkinson had given Shanann a ride home from the airport.
\nChris later told an ABC News affiliate that he\u2019d had an \u201cemotional conversation\u201d with his wife before her disappearance, but offered no further details.
\nIn an August 2018 interview with ABC News, Atkinson said that when she called Chris about her friend\u2019s whereabouts, he mentioned they had planned to separate \u2014 something Shanann had never shared with her.
\n\u201cShe very much loved her family and wanted to be a family,\u201d Atkinson told the outlet.
\nAt the time of her disappearance, Shanann was 15 weeks pregnant with a boy she had planned to name Niko.
\nThough Chris denied having any knowledge of his family\u2019s whereabouts, he eventually confessed to their murders two days after they were reported missing. The oil field operator then told Colorado Bureau of Investigation officials that he asked Shanann for a separation, hours after she returned home from the airport.
\nChris then claimed that she had killed their two daughters out of revenge, causing him to go into a \u201crage\u201d and strangle her. He then concealed their bodies at an oil work site. However, the evidence did not match his version of events, and eventually, Chris admitted the whole truth, telling investigators that after Shanann returned home from her trip, they fought.
\nDuring the argument, he confessed to having an affair and said he didn\u2019t love her anymore. When she threatened to leave him and take the children, he jumped on top of Shanann in their bed and strangled her.
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t want to do this, but I did it,\u201d Chris can be heard saying in an audio recording of his confession. \u201cI don\u2019t even want to say it felt like I had to, it just felt like there was already something in my mind that was implanted that I was gonna do it, and when I woke up that morning, it was gonna happen, and I had no control over it.\u201d
\nAfter killing Shanann, he loaded her body into the bed of his truck and drove with their girls to a remote oil field where he buried her in a shallow grave. Chris then smothered Celeste and Bella and placed their bodies in oil tanks.
\nPolice found their remains on Aug. 17, 2018.
\nAfter Shanann and the girls disappeared, investigators discovered that Chris was having an affair with a co-worker named Nichol Kessinger. She told The Denver Post in November 2018 that she believed he was finalizing a mutual divorce.
\nAccording to Kessinger, the affair started in early July, and they saw each other multiple times a week. Days before the triple homicide, Chris allegedly told her that his divorce was final and he needed help finding an apartment to share with his daughters.
\n\u201cHe made me believe that he was doing all of the things that a rational man and good father would do,\u201d she told the outlet.
\nChris Watts: Inside Case of Man Who Killed Pregnant Wife, 2 Daughters
\nSecret Mistress Comes Clean & Abandoned Bed Sheet Spotted from the Sky: How Chris Watts Was Caught
\nKessinger only learned that Chris was still married when she read the news of his family\u2019s disappearance. When she confronted him about it, she said he denied hurting his family but \u201cseemed off.\u201d
\nShanann was reportedly suspicious of Chris\u2019 behavior before her murder. One of her friends, Amanda Thayer, told CBS News in August 2018 that the mother of two had wondered if her husband \u201ccould be cheating.\u201d
\nTwo days after Shanann, Bella and Celeste were reported missing, Chris was arrested and charged with three counts of murder in the first degree and three counts of tampering with physical evidence.
\nHe was later charged with two counts of first-degree murder of a child under the age of 12 by someone who is in a \u201cposition of trust\u201d over them, and one count of unlawful termination of a pregnancy in the first degree.
\nIn November 2018, Chris pleaded guilty to the nine charges in exchange for being spared a possible death sentence, per The New York Times. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
\nAt his sentencing hearing, prosecutor Michael Rourke said Chris\u2019 motive for murder was \u201csimple,\u201d and that he \u201chad a desire for a fresh start, to begin a new relationship with a new love.\u201d
\n\u201cNone of this answers the question of why, however,\u201d he said. \u201cIf [Chris] was this unhappy and wanted a new start, get a divorce. You don\u2019t annihilate your family and throw them away like garbage.\u201d
\nAfter his sentencing, Chris was transferred from Colorado to a maximum-security prison in Waupun, Wis., for security purposes, according to KKTV. He\u2019s remained at that facility since 2018.
\nThe convicted murderer has received two conduct reports throughout his sentencing and spends his days working as a custodian. A source told PEOPLE in November 2022 that Chris also corresponds with \u201ca lot of women\u201d who \u201cthink he\u2019s handsome and misunderstood.\u201d
\n\u201cHe’s got nothing else to do,” said the source. “So he feeds his ego in that way. Because he’s not popular at all in prison. He’s in protective custody. The only outlet he has is with these letters.”
\nDuring his sentencing hearing, Shanann\u2019s parents, Frank and Sandra Rzucek, told Chris that they \u201cloved him like a son\u201d and couldn\u2019t fathom why he would murder their daughter and grandchildren.
\n\u201cShanann put a crown on your head, but unfortunately, the day that you took their life, God removed that crown,\u201d Sandra said. \u201cWe trusted you, your faithful wife trusted you, your children adored you, and they also trusted you … I have no idea who gave you the right to take their lives, but I know God and his mighty angels were there in that moment to bring them home to paradise.\u201d
\nIn a December 2018 interview with 20\/20, the couple said Shanann was confident, resolute and \u201cfull of life.\u201d And when it came to her kids, she would do whatever it took to make sure they \u201chad everything they ever needed.\u201d
\n\u201cShe would do anything for her children,\u201d Frank said. \u201cShe just loved her children, and she wanted them to have everything growing up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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