CO - Shanann Watts (34, dec.), Celeste"Cece" (3) and Bella (4) - MEDIA, MAPS, TIMELINES - NO DISCUSS

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
CBI releases records from Chris Watts’ Feb. 18 post-conviction confession at Wisconsin prison
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation released this morning records pertaining to Chris Watts’ Feb. 18 confession to law enforcement about how and why he killed his pregnant wife, Shanann, and their two daughters, Bella and Celeste.

The records released at 8 a.m. include two audio files documenting Watts’ five-hour long interview with CBI, FBI and Frederick police, two images of Watts, one CBI report, and a letter from Colorado Department of Public Safety Executive Director Stan Hilkey.

The Tribune has accessed the records and reporters are reviewing them. Check back often to GreeleyTribune.com, as we will be updating this story throughout the day.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
Interview with Chris Watts, case documents released by CBI
Audio from five hours of interviews with Christopher Watts, who was sentenced to life in prison for killing his pregnant wife and two daughters, has been released by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

FOX31 and Channel 2 has a team in the newsroom reviewing everything that was released. We will be making careful decisions on what content we report on-air and online.

While the interview and documents are now public records, we are working to be thoughtful in our coverage and considerate to all those involved with and touched by this case.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
Chilling new confession: What man told police about killing pregnant wife, daughters
Chris Watts told investigators he put both of his hands around his wife Shanann Watts' neck and strangled her, according to the report.

"Every time I think about it, I’m just like, did I know I was going to do that before I got on top of her?” he told investigators, according to the report. "I don’t 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.”

He said his wife never fought back or screamed, according to the report.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
Dillon Thomas on Twitter
—NEW WATTS PHOTO— Included with the 5.5hr prison confession tape, was this photo. Courtesy CBI. Photo was taken from a prison in Winsconsin, four months after Watts was sentenced to life in prison. @CBSDenver #chriswatts

9:10 AM - 7 Mar 2019

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
Dillon Thomas on Twitter
In his hours-long confession...a sniffling (presumably crying) Chris Watts tells investigators, "I hear it every day, when Bella was talking to me....When she said, 'Daddy, no!' I'll have more from the #ChrisWatts confession on @CBSDenver at noon.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019 - 31 page CBI report included in the article
Christopher Watts confession details murders of Shanann Watts, daughters
The confession, made to investigators during a Feb. 18 prison interview and detailed in a report released Thursday by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, is the first time Watts has confessed publicly to killing his daughters. He said he smothered Celeste, 3, first and dumped her body in an oil tank while 4-year-old Bella watched. After watching what happened to her sister, Bella asked, “Is the same thing gonna happen to me as Cece?”

He then smothered Bella, who fought back.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
Christopher Watts admits to murders of daughters in CBI interview
Christopher Watts told agents he strangled Shanann while the two were in bed after she found out about his affair with a coworker and said she would leave with their children.

He told the agents he put both of his hands around her neck and strangled her, but said she never really fought back.

He then told agents Bella walked in to the bedroom and asked what was wrong with her mother. Watts said Bella saw him drag her body down the stairs, which also woke up Celeste.

Watts told agents he loaded Shanann's body, wrapped in a sheet, into the backseat floor of his pickup, then had his daughters get in the backseat before driving them out to an oil site.

He told agents once he arrived at the site, he unloaded Shanann's body on the ground as his daughters asked, "What are you doing to mommy?"

Watts told the agents he used a blanket to smother Celeste first as Bella sat right next to her. He told agents Bella asked, "Is the same thing gonna happen to me as Cece?"

He then said he used the same blanket to smother Bella, with her last words being "Daddy, no!"

Watts told agents he then buried Shanann's body and dumped his daughters into separate oil tanks. All three were later reported missing by a family friend.

Christopher Watts denied any involvement initially, but eventually told police that he killed his wife after she killed the couple's daughters.

In the prison interview, Watts said the idea of blaming the girls' deaths on Shanann came during an interrogation and he "just went with it."

"I never thought about that story... and, you know, that's what my attorneys were going with."

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
Chris Watts Confession: New Interview Clarifies The Night Of The Murder
The first topic of discussion between Watts and investigators with the FBI, CBI, and Frederick Police is Trent Bolte, a man who claimed to have had an affair with Watts. The investigators asked about the relationship between Watts and Bolte. Watts categorically denied any knowledge of the man, saying “I’ve never met the guy. I’ve never even been to Wyoming, let alone been up there to see somebody.” Watts continued by explaining that Bolte found him on the messaging app WhatsApp, and Watts said he didn’t have the app and hadn’t even heard of it.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
Chris Watts And Nichol Kessinger Relationship: New Details Out In Recordings
A large part of the early conversation centered around Watts’ relationship with Nichol Kessinger. Watts told investigators he met Kessinger at work after taking a dysfunctional gas meter to her to have it fixed.

They then ran into each other a few times around the office. Watts said the fourth time they met, he mentioned that “we moved (to Colorado) from North Carolina. She asked what he meant by “we,” and he showed her pictures of Bella and Celeste on his phone. She also saw a picture of Shanann on his lock screen.

Watts said Kessinger knew he was married, and claimed to investigators that she was trying to “save face” trying to “keep things together and control everything around her.”

He says he has not talked to Kessinger since his arrest, but he wishes he could just once to get closure and apologize for what she went through. She refused to speak to Watts’ attorney. He hopes that she has found normalcy.

Watts said he didn’t wear a ring at work because it was getting resized after he lost weight and it kept falling off.

After a while, texts between Watts and Kessinger “kinda went to a different level.” She talked about meeting up after a trip Watts took with Shanann to San Diego in June 2018. After that trip, the two met at a park in Thornton and continued to see each other through most of July.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
Chris Watts confesses killing daughters at oil site after strangling wife at home

[...]

Watts, while straddling Shanann as she laid on her back, said he asked whether they could cancel an upcoming trip to Aspen, Colorado, and if they could move to get away from their house.

Watts said Shanann then told him she knew he was having an affair with someone and started to cry, but Watts denied having an affair.

“I just felt guilty … more guilty than ever before,” Watts told investigators, according to documents released Thursday.

Watts told Shanann he didn’t think their marriage was going to work and that he didn’t love her, and Shanann responded, “You’re never gonna see the kids again … you’re never gonna see them again … get off me … don’t hurt the baby.”

Watts immediately put both hands around his wife's neck and strangled her.

“Every time I think about it, I’m just like, did I know I was going to do that before I got on top of her?” he told investigators.

“Everything that happened that morning I just don’t — I don’t know, … like, I try to go back in my head … I didn’t want to do this, but I did it … 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.”

[...]

“What’s wrong with Mommy?” he recalled Bella asking again as she began to cry.

He said Bella was smart and knew what was going on. Bella watched as he backed his truck into the garage and put Shanann's body in the back seat on the floorboards.

The noises from dragging his wife's body down the stairs woke their 3-year-old daughter, Celeste, who was starting to get out of bed when Watts came back inside.

Watts said he felt like someone else was in control of him as he put Bella and Celeste in the back of his truck on the bench seat.

Bella again asked if her mother was OK, and Watts told his daughters their mother would be fine.

[...]

Watts said when they arrived at the oil site 45 minutes from their Frederick, Colorado, home, he pulled Shanann's body out of the car with his daughters sitting on the back seat. They asked him what he was doing to their mother, and he said he doesn't recall what he told them.

Watts said he returned to the truck and “Cece was first.”

He put his daughter’s Yankees blanket over her head and strangled her in the back seat with Bella sitting beside her, Watts told investigators. Bella didn’t say anything while watching her father kill her sister.

“I wasn’t (thinking) … 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, then none of this would have happened … so I wasn’t thinking,” Watts said.

He carried Celeste from the truck to the oil tank and dropped her inside, then returned to his truck where Bella remained in the back seat.

[...]

“What happened to Cece?” Watts said Bella asked him. “Is the same thing gonna happen to me as Cece?”

He said he is not sure how he replied.

He “did the same thing” to Bella, and placed the Yankees blanket over her head, Watts told investigators.

“Daddy, no!” were Bella’s last words, Watts said, and he hears them every time he closes his eyes.

[...]

Watts said he killed his daughters out of anger with Shanann “that he took out on everyone in front of him that morning,” according to investigators.

“Right now I’d have a 5-year-old … a 3-year-old … and more than likely, a one-month-old son … and a beautiful wife … and right now it’s just me,” Watts told investigators.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
'Daddy, no:' Chilling new details emerge from Chris Watts prison interview tapes
As he drove to the oil site where he had worked, Watts told investigators his daughters dozed off and on and laid in each other's laps.

At the oil site, Watts told police he took Shanann's body out of the truck and laid her on the ground.

The girls then asked him: "What are you doing to mommy?"

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
In his own words: Chris Watts describes murders of his family in chilling detail
“I don’t 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,” Watts said of the strangulation death of his 34-year-old wife Shanann Watts.

[...]

Watts said he was shaking after he saw his wife die, and it felt like a “traumatic event.” His 4-year-old daughter Bella must have been awoken by the noise, Watts said, and came into the room holding a blanket.

[...]

Watts told investigators he wrapped his wife’s body into a sheet and loaded her into his truck. His 3-year-old daughter, Celeste, was also awoken by the noise, and he put his two girls into the backseat and drove to a rural Weld County oil field.

The report says Watts buried his wife while his two younger daughters were watching. He said he smothered Celeste first with a blue Yankees blanket and put her body into an oil well.

[...]

“Every time he closes his eyes, he hears Bella say ‘Daddy, no,’” the report says. “He hears it every day.”

Watts said he killed his daughters because he was “angry with Shanann” for separating him from his family and that he went “into a rage.”

“I don’t know if that had something to do with it,” Watts told investigators .”That something inside me just triggered and it then it just like, all that pent up from the wedding and everything … it’s like a long fuse that finally just went to its end.”

He claimed that Shanann and his mother never got along, and he was angry his wife told him his parents could never see their grandchildren again.

[...]

Watts said the Wisconsin prison is radically different than the Weld County jail, where he said inmates would yell at him at night and tell him all the ways he could take his own life in his cell. He said he prayed to God to leave Colorado.

Watts told investigators that he has pictures of his wife and daughters in his cell and that he “talks to them every morning and every night.”

During the interview, Watts claimed that he reads the “same book he used to read to Celeste” to “his daughters” every night.

“He wished it never happened and he never had a blinder over his eyes and could have seen what was going on,” according to the report.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
https://www.coloradoan.com/story/ne...-confession-killed-daughters-wife/3091194002/
[...]

Watts said Shanann then told him she knew he was having an affair with someone and started to cry, but Watts denied having an affair.

“I just felt guilty … more guilty than ever before,” Watts told investigators, according to documents released Thursday.

[...]

Watts said Bella’s head was twisting under the blanket while he smothered and strangled her, and when he heard the prosecutor say Bella bit her tongue repeatedly, “he wanted to bang his head up against the wall,” according to investigators.

He took Bella’s body to another oil tank and dropped her inside. Watts said he doesn’t know why he dumped his daughters in separate tanks.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
Chris Watts Says Pregnant Wife 'May Have Been' Praying as He Strangled Her to Death
[...]

Watts said in reading the Bible, he came across the prayer, “Forgive these people for they do not know what they do,” and said “maybe Shanann was saying that in her head at the time.”

[...]

He told detectives he has “pictures of his wife and daughters in his prison cell and he talks to them every morning and every night.”

Watts’ cell also contains a book he used to read to his youngest daughter.

“He reads the book to his daughters, along with some scripture, every night,” the report reads. “He wished it never happened and he never had a blinder over his eyes and could have seen what was going on.”

[...]

Each of the girls had their own blanket, he said, and Celeste brought a stuffed animal — a barking dog — along for the trip.

“During the ride, the girls were dozing on and off, held each other, and laid in each other’s laps,” the report reads.

[...]

Before burying Shanann in a shallow grave, Watts said he smothered Celeste, who went by CeCe, in the backseat, inches from Bella. After dumping Celeste’s body in an old field, he returned to smother Bella, who begged for her life.

[...]

Watts was having an affair with a co-worker at the time of the killings. Authorities have cited his desire for a “fresh start” with his mistress as his motive.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
Chris Watts Jail Interview Part One

Chris Watts Prison Interview Part Two

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
Interview with Chris Watts, case documents released by CBI
Audio from five hours of interviews with Christopher Watts, who was sentenced to life in prison for killing his pregnant wife and two daughters, has been released by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

FOX31 and Channel 2 has a team in the newsroom reviewing everything that was released. We will be making careful decisions on what content we report on-air and online.

While the interview and documents are now public records, we are working to be thoughtful in our coverage and considerate to all those involved with and touched by this case.

AUDIO FILES:

Chris Watts interview Part 1

Chris Watts interview Part 2

WRITTEN REPORT:

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
What Chris Watts told investigators about his murders of his family
[...]
CREATING AN ALIBI
After murdering his family and disposing of their bodies, Watts told investigators that he went back to his home and tried to make it look as if Shanann had taken their children and left him. According to Watts, he took Shanann's wedding ring and left it on a counter so it would appear as if she wanted to divorce him. He also said he tossed a book on therapy in the garbage to make it seem like Shanann thought their marriage couldn't be saved, the documents state.

WHY WATTS PLEADED GUILTY
After doing interviews with the media begging for his wife and daughters safe return, Watts told investigators that he confessed and pled guilty so things would not drag out in court for years.

"I didn't want my attorneys to lie for me for two to four years ... They would've done anything I told them to do," he said. A few weeks after his arrest, Watts said he confessed to his attorneys that he killed his family. Watts told investigators he doesn't regret taking a plea deal, but had not thought he would be in prison for the rest of his life.

HIS MISTRESS KNEW HE WAS MARRIED
According to Watts, Nichol Kessinger knew he was married with children — something Kessinger denied. Watts told investigators that in June 2018, shortly after they met, he showed Kessinger a cellphone picture of Bella and Celeste, and Kessinger also saw a photo of Shanann on the lock screen of his phone. Watts said Kessinger denied knowing he was married to try and "save face."

Watts also told investigators that although Kessinger would get "pissed" when he would leave her to go back home, she never asked him to do anything to harm his family.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019

In an interview from prison, Chris Watts talks about his experience in jail and prison so far

Chris Watts describes his affair: "“I didn’t take control of the situation"

 

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MAR 7, 2019

Chris Watts Prison Interview Part Three

Chris Watts Prison Interview Part Four

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2019
Chris Watts Gives Chilling New Details About Killing His Wife and Daughters

Christopher Watts, the Colorado man who is serving a life sentence for killing his pregnant wife and two daughters, confessed in a prison interview that his daughters were still alive when he put his dead wife’s body in his truck and drove his family to the oil field where all three bodies were found, according to an investigative report and audio recording of the interview released on Thursday.

During a nearly five-hour interview with investigators last month, Mr. Watts, 33, revealed that he killed his family over a longer period of time in August than was previously reported and painted a disturbing picture of his daughters’ final moments.

He said that he strangled his wife, Shanann Watts, after a fight at their home in Frederick, Colo., and that his 4-year-old daughter, Bella, witnessed him dragging the body down the stairs.

[...]

Mr. Watts, who the authorities found had been having an affair with a co-worker, initially sought to pin the blame on his wife, who he said was upset after he told her he wanted to separate, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.