Episode 168: The Watts Family Murders

 In this episode Janus and Joyous discuss the case of Christopher Watts and the murder of his family. This will be the first of two parts, as while on the surface it appears to be a fairly straight forward case, once you start to dig, there's a lot not being looked at.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Unsung Murder Ballads is a true crime podcast, and as such, we will be discussing topics that are disturbing, graphic, and often violent in nature. So this is not for children under the age of 13.

SPEAKER_03 0:12

But you know this because you did start playing this episode. So here are some things you might not know about us.

SPEAKER_04 0:18

We are going to be critical of mistakes made by both criminals and law enforcement.

SPEAKER_03 0:22

We're going to express our views on things that you might not always agree with.

SPEAKER_04 0:26

We will occasionally go on an off-topic tangent.

SPEAKER_03 0:29

And we're going to use dark humor to express ourselves now and then.

SPEAKER_04 0:33

So if you're easily triggered, this might not be the podcast for you.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

However, if this is your cup of tea, then raise your pinky finger while you sip and join us for this week's horrific case, you sick bastards.

SPEAKER_04 0:56

This is episode 168. I am Janice Dead. And I'm Joy Estad. And tonight we're going to do, I mean, I always say this, we're going to do something a little different, but this is part one of a two-parter kind of sorta. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:12

What does kind of sorta mean?

SPEAKER_04 1:13

So this is an enclosed case. Like we're going to, by the time we get to the end of this episode, we're going to get to the end of this case. But it offshoots into something else, which we'll cover next week. Alright. I'm interested. Yeah, we've done something like this once before, but that one was a lesser, like it didn't have the same connection. That was when we did the yogurt shop and the bowling alley cases. Right, right, right. But those were loosely connected. This is directly connected, but I don't want to give you any spoilers yet. Okay. I don't want. Now, there is a small chance, and I know it's a very small chance with you that you have seen the Netflix documentary about this case. So maybe you're that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

It's probably not that so unlikely, it's almost impossible.

SPEAKER_04 2:03

Hey, one it's happened once. You were like, wait, I kind of know this one. Um, I don't remember which one it was.

SPEAKER_03 2:09

I knew it, I knew it from like a YouTube video.

SPEAKER_04 2:11

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_03 2:12

Or like a song or something. No, you're right.

SPEAKER_04 2:14

It was Ed was Ed Gean. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

Yeah, it was Ed Gean. Yeah, I knew it from like a video essay talking about uh transphobia and pop culture.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

That's what it was, yep. So yeah, so you didn't know much, yes.

SPEAKER_03 2:25

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_04 2:27

All right, so we'll we'll start with the teaser and we'll go from there. Let's rock. So we are in Frederick, Colorado in 2018. And Shannon Watts's Facebook page was showing the world that they had everything. The American dream. She had a happy marriage, a beautiful home, beautiful kids, a successful career, both her and her husband. Her husband, Chris, was in the oil industry, and Shanan was worked for a multi-level marketing company, which we'll get into a little bit of a company.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

Oh, well, we know what that means.

SPEAKER_04 2:57

Yeah, we'll get into that a little bit too, but do you know which one? I do, but we'll get into it a little bit because I don't have it directly in the notes in front of me yet. Because I have to scroll through.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

Okay, fair.

SPEAKER_04 3:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

I have a little bit of a special interest in multi-level marketing schemes. Pyramid schemes.

SPEAKER_04 3:13

I don't I don't get them, but hey, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 3:16

They're just it's a just like it's just like cults. It's it's but they're not just like cults, but they're interesting in a similar way.

SPEAKER_04 3:23

Yes, I agree. I agree. So her Instagram showed that they were traveling. They went to San Diego and Las Vegas and Puerto Vall Villart Vellartra. Vallarta. Something like that, yeah. Their lives seemed idyllic. But as we all know, the truth and social media don't always line up.

SPEAKER_03 3:46

Well, yeah, if you're actually happy and having a great life, you don't have time to post about it, and you wouldn't feel the need to prove to people.

SPEAKER_04 3:52

Exactly. So the Watts family in 2018 was Chris, his wife Shannon, and their two daughters, Bella, who is four, and Cece, who is three. Now, it was Shannon's regular activity on social media that made this case that much more tragic. Oh no. Her posts allow anyone that wants to look into their life, even still to this day, a chance to go in and see more.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Oof.

SPEAKER_04 4:23

Or at least see.

SPEAKER_03 4:24

I'm surprised no one's locked that down.

SPEAKER_04 4:25

And who knows? I mean, it may happen someday, and I'm surprised I was still able to see a lot of it. But there's a lot out there. And again, keep in mind that this is what she wanted us to see. And that's true of what she wanted us to see of her kids, too. She controlled everything that was going up there.

SPEAKER_03 4:43

Oh no, I'm scared of where this is going.

SPEAKER_04 4:46

So looking back now and seeing these posts, watching videos that are still out there, as I just said, brings a deeper sadness when you know what's coming.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

Oh, I have a feeling I know what's coming.

SPEAKER_04 4:57

Well, this is the case of the Watts family. Do you want to take a guess at what's coming? I'm sure you'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

Well, yeah, it sounds like she's posted way too much information on social media and it's very public. And it sounds like some My guess is some fucker like got too much information about her children, came to her house, and murdered somebody.

SPEAKER_04 5:19

That's not it, but that's um you're right, that's a true danger right there.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Yeah, 100%. You gotta be careful what you post online. Public is public.

SPEAKER_04 5:29

And not just that, like, people are smart. There are armchair detectives, yes, that are helping people, but then there are stalkers who can get a lot of information.

SPEAKER_03 5:39

Yeah, from a little bit of information, you can get a lot. I've seen people do it.

SPEAKER_04 5:44

Yes. I remember a friend of mine posted a picture of her work, like outside of where she worked. And I was like, what are you doing? And she was like, Well, you can't tell which because she was she worked for a chain. She's like, You don't know which one I'm working at. I'm like, you can if you start looking at the buildings around it, and if you're really that motivated, you can narrow this down pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_03 6:06

Yeah, that's that's some basic, like any any teenage girl could figure out where you're working. Like seriously, like Facebook detectiving is practically a hobby.

SPEAKER_04 6:18

So Christopher Lee Watts was born on May 16th, 1985, and Shannan Catherine Rezek was born on January 10th, 1984. They were both from North Carolina, with Chris coming from Lake Spring Lake, and Shannan coming from Aberdeen. Uh, before I go any further, I do want to say that because of this case and everyone having the same last name, regardless of who the perpetrator is, I will for the most part use the individual's first name.

unknown 6:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 6:48

That's it. So with that said, they met in 2010 and they were married in Mecklenburg County on November 3rd, 2012. They again had two daughters. You had Bella Marie Watts, who was born on December 17th, 2013, and Chilesse C C Watts, who was born on July 17th, 2015.

SPEAKER_03 7:11

Oh, interesting. Never heard that name before.

SPEAKER_04 7:14

The Watts family lived in a five-bedroom home in Frederick, Colorado that they purchased in 2013. And it was estimated to be worth about $400,000. Now, you and I being from Massachusetts, a $400,000.

SPEAKER_03 7:30

Like, oh, that's a five bedroom? $400K?

SPEAKER_04 7:34

Exactly. There's a big difference between pricing here and pricing in Colorado.

unknown 7:39

Right?

SPEAKER_03 7:40

I'm pretty sure my four-bedroom apartment that I live to live in, if you if I rent, but if you were to buy it, it'd be something like two million dollars.

SPEAKER_04 7:48

Exactly. Yeah, you're not getting a four-bedroom anything here. You get a four-bedroom dilapidated place for 400k.

SPEAKER_03 7:56

Maybe, maybe, but it doesn't have heating and it like it's filled with asbestos.

unknown 8:01

Right.

SPEAKER_04 8:03

So Christopher Watts was employed by and then I had to re-check this because I I it's weird. The name of this company is weird, but it's Anna Darko Petroleum. And to me, Anna Darko sounds like a supervillain.

SPEAKER_03 8:19

Yeah, it does like Donnie Darko.

SPEAKER_04 8:21

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 8:22

And Shannan worked oil company? Mm-hmm. Kind of supervillain-y.

SPEAKER_04 8:26

Yeah, you know, you're not wrong.

SPEAKER_03 8:28

To be fair.

SPEAKER_04 8:29

And Shannan worked for a company that sold a product called Thrive. And the marketing company, the multi-level marketing company, was called Love Vell or Level. L-E-V-E-L. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:44

I don't know much about this one. That's absurd.

SPEAKER_04 8:47

I don't know anything about it, but I'm again again, pyramid schemes or pyramid schemes. Like they're pretty obvious.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

Yeah, I mean they're all pretty similar. They all sell Rive by Lovelle. I see it on Google. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 8:59

So in 2015, the company filed for bankruptcy because they were over $480,000 in debt. That's kind of crazy. In two years, they were able to what year was that? 2015. So in two years they bought the house, and in 2013, and two years later, they were in debt by more than the house is worth.

SPEAKER_03 9:22

Damn. And I'm sure that's from participation in the MLM.

unknown 9:27

Yeah, probably.

SPEAKER_03 9:29

Buying product and not being able to sell it.

SPEAKER_04 9:32

Oh, you know what? It's yeah, the whole house is just full of it. That's why they needed so many bedrooms.

SPEAKER_03 9:38

Yeah, quite literally. I'm not full of these packets of powder, looks like.

SPEAKER_04 9:43

Yeah, I'm not picking on anyone. I'm just saying that's really not the best way to go.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

You do any research, you release your cognitive dissonance, and you realize it's all a scam.

SPEAKER_04 9:53

Yep. So by 2018, Shannon was pregnant with their third child. And as one can imagine, this just increased the problems that they had in their marriage.

SPEAKER_03 10:04

Stress, debt, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 10:07

Now Chris's behavior wasn't abusive or violent, but he did become distant and cold towards Shannon. She actually texted a friend saying that she was angry and sad and scared at the idea of having a third baby with someone who seemed like he had no interest in having another kid.

SPEAKER_03 10:25

Oof. Yeah. He didn't that is scary.

SPEAKER_04 10:30

You know, you're either in or you're out. And she I not I'm not picking on, don't get me wrong, I'm not victim shaming, I'm not whatever it is, but pick aside. If your husband isn't doing these things with you, don't just just go. But I don't know what her situation was. I mean, obviously they're in a bad situation.

unknown 10:48

Right.

SPEAKER_03 10:48

So regardless. If she's doing MLM, she certainly can't pay.

SPEAKER_04 10:52

Right. And he wasn't going to like their ultrasound appointments. Like he was not invested. Oh, poor thing. Yeah. So by the end of June that same summer, Shannon took the girls on a trip back to North Carolina to visit family. She would spend the next six weeks there with her parents. While she was there, she confided in her mother about what was going on. Now she was buying self-help books for herself and for Chris. And she would mail them to him, but he would just throw them away. Oh. But even more telling were her text messages back to Chris, who was still in Colorado while she was in North Carolina, but he was back there living like the bachelor life.

SPEAKER_03 11:38

For six weeks, too, is crazy.

SPEAKER_04 11:41

Yeah, that's a long vacation. But I understand that she probably needed space at the same time.

SPEAKER_03 11:47

And support, probably.

SPEAKER_04 11:49

And I don't know how much we'll get into it later. I don't remember how I put my notes together, but he does go out to North Carolina at some point to spend a little bit of time with them, but then he also returns alone before the rest of the family comes back. We'll probably touch on it, but I don't know how deep we'll go into it.

SPEAKER_03 12:07

Alright.

SPEAKER_04 12:08

Again, we're talking about the fact that he's back there living this bachelor life, and she's sending some of some of these text messages to him. And this is one of the text messages that she sent. Quote, I try to give you space, but while you're working and living the bachelor life, I'm carrying our third and fighting with our two kids daily, trying to work and make money. It's hard not texting you that I love you and miss you. If you don't mean it, then I get it, but we need to talk.

SPEAKER_02 12:38

Oh, poor thing.

SPEAKER_04 12:40

It continues. I keep looking at my phone all night and no response from you. Like seriously, we didn't just start dating yesterday. We've been together for eight years and have two and a half kids together. Unquote.

SPEAKER_03 12:55

Oh, that's an awful situation to be in.

unknown 12:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:01

It's crazy. I mean, again, you're either in or you're out.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:06

But I'm sure by now you figured out where this is gonna go.

SPEAKER_03 13:10

Yep. Yep. He's gonna say, this is inconvenient. Why don't I just murder my whole family? And then I won't have to deal with this nagging woman anymore.

SPEAKER_04 13:18

They're the worst, aren't they? Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

Yeah, apparently.

SPEAKER_04 13:23

Apparently. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 13:25

God, it must be so hard to have a woman who loves you. Wow, it sounds really terrible.

SPEAKER_04 13:30

Just wants you, yeah, exactly. Just wants you to live up to your end of an agreement, jackass.

SPEAKER_03 13:35

Right?

SPEAKER_04 13:36

Anyway.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

I should be so lucky to have a nice woman who texts me she loves me. God.

SPEAKER_04 13:42

Right? That's willing to help you raise your children. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:46

Right?

SPEAKER_04 13:47

So after after Shannon got back from North Carolina, but before she had to leave on an upcoming work trip to Arizona, which would have been around August 7th or 8th, Shanan texted a friend of hers and said, quote, Chris told me last night he's scared to death about having a third baby. And he's happy with just Bella and Celeste, and he doesn't want another baby. Unquote. Now her friend responded, and she was trying to like comfort her a little bit, and her response was, he's just scared. Everything will be fine once the baby comes.

SPEAKER_03 14:25

And it is like normal to be like scared about adding another whole human being to your family.

SPEAKER_04 14:31

Like as someone who has a sister who has a lot of kids, I can tell you firsthand that each baby exponentially increases your stress. I believe it. Yeah, it's not just you have one and then you have two and it's just twice as hard. No, I think it's more than that.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

I believe it.

SPEAKER_04 14:50

I took three of her kids out to a movie once, and I told myself I would never take more than two out ever again. At the same time. It's crazy. So Shannon replied back to her friend saying, No, he's changed, and I don't know who he is. Oh. So at this point, the friend kind of suggested that maybe Chris was having an affair. But Shannon told this friend.

SPEAKER_03 15:15

I would expect to.

SPEAKER_04 15:16

But Shanan told this friend that she'd actually confronted Chris about this, and he absolutely denied it. Which we all know doesn't mean shit. Yeah.

unknown 15:25

Right.

SPEAKER_03 15:26

Well do you think he's gonna admit it?

SPEAKER_04 15:27

I mean, some people might.

SPEAKER_03 15:29

That's true, but I wouldn't expect them to.

SPEAKER_04 15:32

So then Shannon had to go to Arizona for that trip, and she was gone from August 10th through the 12th. And while she was gone, Chris was watching over the girls on his own. Shannon did start to have suspicions about her husband cheating on her as she was keeping an eye on the bank records, and she was surprised to see that while she was gone, there was a dinner charge at a restaurant called the Lazy Dog Bar and Grill on a Saturday night for $62.

SPEAKER_03 16:01

Now, with that's a bit much for one person.

SPEAKER_04 16:05

Thank you. I wasn't sure if you were gonna catch that because again, we live in places like Boston where these are kind of expensive places, so you could spend sixty-two dollars on a single person, but that's not what's happening.

SPEAKER_03 16:16

Yeah, you could sixty-two dollars and two drinks, yeah. That's a single place.

SPEAKER_04 16:20

Yeah, but not in Colorado.

SPEAKER_03 16:23

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:24

Or at least not that part of Colorado, let's be honest. I'm sure there are very expensive places in Colorado.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

True.

SPEAKER_04 16:32

I've been, I've just never been to a really expensive place in Colorado.

SPEAKER_03 16:36

I think it's it's probably all the ski resorts. That's where this, that's where all the money is.

SPEAKER_04 16:40

Yeah, most likely, yeah. So when she asked Chris about that bill, he said that he had left the girls with a babysitter, and that he had gone to a Colorado Rockies game with some friends, and that they had all gone out for dinner afterwards, and he got a salmon dish, an entree, and a beer, which is why it was so expensive. Convenient answer, but I still a beer and salmon. No, I don't buy it.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

Yeah, also like you gotta when you're lying, you gotta be careful with that, because she can Google the menu.

SPEAKER_04 17:11

That's true. This is 2018. This isn't, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:14

Guys, like, come on. Say I got an appetite you got an appetizer.

SPEAKER_04 17:19

Say anything. At this point, just be like, you know what? I bought all the guys around to drinks. Covered. Boom, done. Yep. So the next day, and this is Sunday, August 12th, Shannon was due to arrive home very late that night from her trip. After Chris put the girls to bed, he said that Bella came out of her bedroom twice looking for Shannon, but she hadn't gotten back yet, and he had to tuck her back into bed each time, telling her that she would see her mother when she woke up. Shenan ended up returning to Colorado in the very early morning hours of the 13th. Now a friend of Shannon's, a woman named Nicole Atkinson, dropped her off at her house around 1.40 in the morning, and that would be the last time anyone would ever see Shanan alive. Oh no. The next morning was like any other morning for everyone around Chris Watts. Chris went to work. He acted completely normal. No alarm bells or red flags at all. However, Shanan had an ultrasound appointment that morning, and she didn't show up for it. And that that set off alarms in the minds of all of her friends.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:36

That morning, that same friend Nicole who had dropped Shannon off just hours before was really concerned when Shannon wasn't answering her text. And more so when she found out that she didn't show up for that ultrasound appointment and that Shannon had missed a business meeting.

SPEAKER_03 18:53

Yeah, all very uncharacteristic things of her, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_04 18:57

Yes. So by 1210 that afternoon, Nicole went to Shannon's home and knocked on the door, she rang the doorbell, there was no answer.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

I wish in more of the cases we talked about, there were friends this good who immediately noticed something was wrong.

SPEAKER_04 19:11

Yes, agreed. But unfortunately great friends. Yes. And another thing that this woman, Nicole, noticed, was that there was no commotion happening inside the house. So even if Shannon had slept in or missed her appointments, or maybe wasn't feeling so good, she would still have to be home because their two daughters would certainly be in there running around.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 19:35

Yet the house was completely silent. Oh no. So she immediately called Chris and then the Frederick Police Department, who dispatched an officer to do a welfare check at 1.40 in the afternoon. After the police arrived, Chris was not far behind them, and he gave them permission to go in and search the house. There was no sign of Shannon or the two little girls.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 20:04

What was left behind, though, was Shannon's purse, her phone, her keys, her car with the children's car seats still inside it. Hmm.

SPEAKER_03 20:17

That doesn't bode well.

SPEAKER_04 20:18

No, it does not. All of this was strange since Chris said that Shannon's plans were to take the girls out to a play date that day. And he and basically had they left and maybe come back and let you know that's why all their stuff was there. Was it possible that they returned and something happened then? But there's no answers there at this point.

SPEAKER_03 20:41

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 20:43

So when police did search the house, it wasn't what was left behind that they found the most disturbing. It was something that was missing. It was the bed sheets from Chris's and Shannon's bed. It had been completely stripped, and some of the sheets were found in the trash.

SPEAKER_03 21:02

Oh yeah, that's uh he couldn't have just put them in the wash, what a dumbass.

SPEAKER_04 21:08

Just wait. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 21:12

The next day is normal for a bed to be stripped and the sheets be in the wash. My god.

SPEAKER_04 21:16

True. True. The next day on August 14th, the CBI, which is the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, joined in on the case. And Chris got in front of local news cameras and pled for his family's safe return. And he would he would do this numerous times. We're gonna go into some of what he said in a bit, but like literally, there's one time that while he's out there talking, he's rocking back and forth almost like a drug addict waiting for a fix. It's super weird. That one particular one.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Very weird.

SPEAKER_04 21:51

Yeah. Now Chris is up there and he's doing the standard I just want my family back BS in front of the entire world. And he essentially Recounts all the things he remembers about the previous day's events. When one of the reporters tells him that people are wondering if he had anything to do with their disappearances, he said, and keep in mind this is me editing his words so that we don't have too many ums and repeated words over and over again, like he's stuttering. But he said, quote, everyone's going to have their own opinion on anything like this. I just want them people to know that I want my family back. I want them safe. I want them here. I can't really stay in this house again with nobody here. Unquote.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

Perfectly reasonable thing to say if your family's missing.

SPEAKER_04 22:41

Well, here's the funny thing. One, I mean, we're gonna get into exactly what he said and some of the shit that he meant realistically, but um one thing that was real interesting about this interview while he's up there talking, he's not wearing his wedding ring.

SPEAKER_03 22:56

Uh that's weird.

SPEAKER_04 22:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 22:58

That's a red flag.

SPEAKER_04 23:00

And Shannon also had lupus. And Chris normally wore a bracelet in support of that, and that wasn't on his wrist anymore either.

SPEAKER_03 23:10

That's extremely sus.

SPEAKER_04 23:13

There was someone, one of the, I don't know if it was a researcher or whatever, a psychologist, but someone kind of broke down what he actually said, like what his words meant. And they broke it down like this. They said that he was probably speaking truthful statements. When he said those things, he was realizing the extent of what he had done, and he probably regretted killing everybody. Oh, spoiler. Well, you knew it was coming. Yeah, I did. But his statements also show how self-centered he was. He's not saying I miss them. He's saying he's lonely. Right. You know, it it's crazy. He's saying I don't want to stay in that house without them. It's not I miss it. You know what I mean? It's so fucked. It's all about him. It's so weird. So during this interview, police were still searching inside the house with cadaver dogs. But they noticed that in the early morning hours after Shannon had arrived home, Chris could be seen on their video doorbell system, like their door cam.

SPEAKER_03 24:23

Damn, those things catching everybody at their crime.

SPEAKER_04 24:26

Yeah, and they're so cheap and they're everywhere now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 24:31

So on this door cam, he's seen backing his truck into the garage where it sat for quite a while, and then eventually he came out, but you know, got in and drove away. So you can't see the back of his vehicle.

SPEAKER_03 24:46

But you can see that he did that, and I'm sure he'd hadn't given an excuse for why he had been doing that.

SPEAKER_04 24:52

Well, we'll get into all of that briefly or soon. So police decided they need to know where Chris went that night slash early morning. By using the GPS on his truck, they recreated the path he took on August 13th, and it took them to his work site, which was a large site owned by Anna Darko Petroleum, where he was the field coordinator. So not really strange, but this isn't the investigators like, you know, first time around the block. Yep. So they searched the place by foot, by air, and with drones. Wow. And with those drones, they spot something that is all too familiar to police investigators. Fresh dirt. Not just that, but sticking out of the dirt was a piece of a bed sheet that matched the set found at the Watts home in their trash. You know, that same set that should have been on their bed. Yep. So just as they're finding that, thinking that they got their first real break, they bring Chris in for questioning, and that's when they would get another huge break in the case. Oh shit. Yeah. So a couple things I want to throw out there that will be less revel relevant in this episode than it will be in next week's episode. But before Chris is brought in by police, uh one of the detectives was trying to call him. And like he would connect, but there would be dead air. And so he hang out, he would hang up. And then Chris would call him back, but there'd be dead air again. And this went on for several minutes where they're trying to basically play phone tag, but couldn't connect and talk to each other before Chris eventually calls him on his work phone and has like an 11-minute conversation with the detective before agreeing to go in to have this conversation. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 26:54

Okay, this is all this is all pretty weird.

SPEAKER_04 26:56

It's weird. And unfortunately for you this week, you're not gonna get an answer to what that was all about. That's gonna be next week's.

SPEAKER_03 27:04

God damn.

SPEAKER_04 27:05

I know. You know, I know you hate me. It's all good.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

Oh, whatever. I'll just wait a week. I'll survive, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 27:12

So, with all this said, I just mentioned that they got a huge break. Well, a woman came forward to police saying that she was Chris Watts' girlfriend.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Uh oh.

SPEAKER_04 27:25

This woman was named Nicole Kessinger, and she came forward to police and told them that she had been a co-worker of Chris's and that they had been dating all summer long.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

Yikes, Queen.

SPEAKER_04 27:39

She said that Chris told her about his family, but that he also said that he and Shannon were separated and he was living in the basement until they would get a divorce. As Chris is being interrogated by police, they're slowly uncovering details of this affair from Nicole. Oh dear. Although she would later tell the media that she barely knew Chris and the two had just started dating and were taking things slow, her internet search history and her text messages, which by the way, that she deleted before coming to the police, would tell a different story.

SPEAKER_03 28:19

Oh dear, is everyone stupid here?

SPEAKER_04 28:22

Everyone's stupid here. Um on July 24th, Nicole was doing Google searches for the phrase, quote, man I'm having an affair with says he will leave his wife, unquote.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

Oh, Queen, that belongs in a therapist's office, not Google.

SPEAKER_04 28:45

I I guess, I mean, I think I would have started that question with something like, how many married men leave their wife for their mistress?

SPEAKER_03 28:54

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 28:56

So it's just fun. Anyway, so on August 4th, she was searching the internet for over two hours looking at wedding dresses. And on August 8th, she was doing a Google search for topics related to men marrying their mistresses.

SPEAKER_03 29:15

So at this point, this isn't it's not incriminating, it's just embarrassing.

SPEAKER_04 29:19

Exactly. And the problem was she's trying to downplay their relationship because she said they were just starting and taking things slow. But right.

SPEAKER_03 29:28

I mean, listen, I have been just starting things and gotten a little bit psycho and Googled wedding rings. Like, uh I have to say the female mind. Maybe not all of them, but mine works in that kind of way. I get daydreamy, and two weeks after meeting somebody, and I'm looking at wedding dresses, and I'm thinking about what I'm gonna say for my vows because I'm psychotic.

SPEAKER_04 29:52

But um I mean, I'm not that way, but that's what makes the world go round, right? We need different folks.

SPEAKER_03 30:01

Takes all kinds. You know I am a very um emotionally driven person.

SPEAKER_04 30:06

So after the murders came out, there were hours of searching being done by Nicole. Where she searched for Shannon's name, and quote, can cops trace text messages? Unquote.

SPEAKER_03 30:25

Still not that incriminating, because it's like maybe she's just like I I look suspicious now because this man's wife is missing and I've been having an affair with him.

SPEAKER_04 30:34

And that's pretty much where what everyone thinks, right? I mean, that's what I would think. That's what anyone thinks. Because Right.

SPEAKER_03 30:40

It's it's one of those things that's just like it's not be a reasonable doubt will tell you that, yeah, of course you're gonna Google that.

SPEAKER_04 30:45

Yeah, I mean, if you're if you're finding out a guy you're having an affair with, or a guy that you're sleeping with, you find out that not only is his wife missing but now dead, you can sort of see where you're like, oh shit, is this going to come out?

SPEAKER_03 30:59

Right. What you should really be worrying about is if she's gonna get murdered next.

SPEAKER_04 31:03

Right. Well, the cops didn't need any of these text messages after all. They had Chris's own handwriting. Because on July 3rd, he gave Nicole a birthday card where he wrote, quote, and this is a little long, there's a couple of them here. Um, quote, big things will happen this year, dreams will come true. That smile, that stare, that laugh, that giggle gets me every time. You are truly an amazing, inspirational, and eclectic woman that takes my breath away every time I see you. You are wonderful, don't ever stop being you, unquote. Yeah. With that said, I'm not gonna bother to read the second one, which is even longer, but needless to say, Chris Watts really tries to be a romantic for Nicole Kessinger.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

He's really into her, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:57

Yeah, very much so. So you can sort of see where she truly believed he was gonna leave his wife and maybe marry her.

SPEAKER_03 32:04

Right, because at first she was told like he had already kind of left her, was just living in the basement.

SPEAKER_04 32:09

Right. So even as he's being interviewed by police, Chris can't deny the strain that was on his marriage. Back at his work site, however, the search concentrated around that bed sheet. And it didn't take long before searchers found what they were looking for, which was Shannon, Bella, and Cece. Oh this part isn't gonna be the worst part of this entire episode, but for anyone who cannot handle the talk of things happening to children, you might want to skip ahead maybe 30 seconds. Alright. Okay. So, Bella and Cece had been dumped inside oil tanks. Oh. Their bodies had been placed through a hatch and in the top of it that was only eight inches in diameter. What the fuck? And Bella, who was the older of the two, had scratches all over her body from being shoved through that hatch. Oh. She even had a tuft of hair that had been ripped from her head that was stuck in that hatch as he pushed her in there.

SPEAKER_02 33:23

Oh, what a fucking monster, his own child.

SPEAKER_04 33:28

Now Shannon was found further away from the oil tanks, buried in a shallow grave, which is why the bed sheet was sticking out.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 33:39

I assume that he probably considered trying to get her into the oil tank, but then realized he would probably have to carry her over there, and then of course she probably wasn't gonna fit in an eight-inch hole.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

Yeah, like only a tiny child. Well, oh, that's so awful.

SPEAKER_04 33:56

So Shannon had been strangled, but there was almost no sign of a struggle. Just finger-shaped bruises around her neck.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 34:08

It's believed that she was either asleep or unconscious somehow when she was attacked, mainly because of how long it takes some to actually strangle somebody. Um and there we'll talk next week about the fact that she may have also been sedated.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

Yeah, it makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 34:25

Now the girls, on the other hand, were smothered by their killer's bare hands. Oh. Cece, like her mother, looked as though she had not put up any fight at all, but Bella had signs of a struggle as she fought for her life.

unknown 34:44

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 34:44

Believe it or not, we're gonna get into more detail on that a little later, but um, yeah. Poor sweet babies. So at 11 02 that night, approximately 69 hours after Shannon returned home, Chris was arrested on suspicion of him of murdering his entire family. After his arrest, Chris asked to speak with his father. And he said he would only speak to him, but that he would then tell the truth. So police allowed his father to come in. Obviously, they're recording the entire thing.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

Yeah, naturally. I mean, they have to know that.

SPEAKER_04 35:24

And what they heard was shocking as much as it was disgusting. Chris tells his father, and would later tell police, that when Shannon got home that night, he told her he wanted them to separate. And that she was really upset. And he said that he went down to the basement for a moment, but just a moment, whatever the length of a moment is to an asshole like this, right? And when he came back upstairs, he was went into their room, she wasn't there. And he looks at the baby monitor, and on the baby monitor, he can see one of his daughters laying on her bed, and she had already turned blue from being strangled. And that when he toggled to the next room, he saw Shanan smothering their other daughter.

unknown 36:14

What the fuck?

SPEAKER_04 36:16

He said that by the time he got into that room, his other daughter was already dead, and he freaked out and killed Shanan. That's his story.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

I don't believe that.

SPEAKER_04 36:30

No one should.

SPEAKER_03 36:32

Right, because strangul a moment, strangulation doesn't happen that fast. We just talked about that.

SPEAKER_04 36:36

Yep. Now, Chris stuck to the story for a long time, but by early November of that year, in order to avoid the death penalty, Chris pled guilty to killing his two daughters and his wife and their unborn son, who Shannon had planned to name Nico. Here are the exact details of what he did. And again, trigger warning, if you need to skip ahead a little bit, do so. Sorry to you, Joyce, that you have to suffer through it.

SPEAKER_03 37:07

This is this is what I it's my cross the bear, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 37:11

So Watts told investigators that he had put both hands around Shannon's neck and strangled her in their home. He said his wife never fought back or screamed, which again leads me to believe that she may have been drugged, but who knows?

SPEAKER_00 37:24

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 37:25

He then stated that his four-year-old Bella walked into the bedroom holding her blanket and asked what was wrong with mommy. Oh. He told her that Shannan didn't feel well. He then wrapped his wife in the bed sheet and tried to carry her down the stairs, but lost his grip and ended up pulling her down the stairs.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 37:50

Bella watched her father drag her mother down the stairs and began to cry, asking, What's wrong with mommy? Oh. Watts then backed his truck into the driveway and put his wife's body into the back seat on the floorboard, and he came back inside and grabbed his two daughters, and he brought them out and put them in the back seat on the bench seat. And he and Bella's asking, Is Mommy okay? Oh now Bella and Cece each had a blanket with them, and Cece had a stuffed animal. Watts then started to drive to the oil site where he had worked, and during the ride his daughters had both fallen asleep on each other's laps.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

Of course, they're not in the car seats. Great fat great parenting. I mean I know he's about to kill them, but also.

SPEAKER_04 38:38

True. At the oil site, Watts told police he took Shannon's body out of the truck and laid it on the ground near where he would ultimately bury her. Bella and Cece, who were in the truck, asked him, What are you doing to mommy? But he claimed he didn't remember what he told them in response.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 38:59

Now this is the most heartbreaking part. So again, for those that need the trigger warning, skip ahead like thirty seconds. Watts told police that he took Cece's blue blanket, put it over her head, and strangled her in the back seat.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

Next to her sister?

SPEAKER_04 39:16

Bella was sitting there the whole time, but didn't say anything, according to Watts.

SPEAKER_02 39:23

Watts told She doesn't understand what's happening.

SPEAKER_04 39:26

Watts told police that he took the three-year-old's body to the oil tanks and dropped her inside. When he returned to the truck, Bella asked him in a soft voice, Is the same thing gonna happen to me as CeCe? Oh. He then told investigators that he strangled his four-year-old daughter with the same blanket, but Bella fought back the best she could, her last words being, Daddy, no.

SPEAKER_00 39:55

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 39:57

Fucking monster.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

Worst kind of fucking monster.

SPEAKER_04 40:03

Watts told police that he dropped Bella's body into a separate oil tank before burying his wife. He also took off Shannon's wedding ring and left it on the counter in their home to make it look like she had left and didn't want to fix their marriage.

SPEAKER_02 40:17

Fucking monster.

SPEAKER_04 40:18

What a this fucking guy deserves everything he gets in prison. Just saying.

SPEAKER_03 40:25

Deserves the just the absolute fucking worst of everything.

SPEAKER_04 40:29

So thanks to his confession, there wasn't really much of a trial. On November 19th, he was sentenced to five life sentences, three consecutive and two concurrent, without the possibility of parole. Good. He received an additional forty-eight years for unlawful termination of a pregnancy and thirty-six years for three charges of tampering with a deceased body.

SPEAKER_03 40:53

On December All the years. Forever.

SPEAKER_04 40:56

Yeah, fuck this guy. Put his body up on the on fucking what are they doing, Game of Thrones? Put their heads on a spike and leave him there for the rest of the December 3rd, 2018, Christopher Watts was moved to an out-of-state location due to security concerns, which fuck that. He should have been allowed to suffer.

SPEAKER_03 41:15

Oh, security concerns mean that he's like getting beaten up?

SPEAKER_04 41:19

Something like that. Or maybe he was trying to escape, but I think it was more the other way. I think they're doing this for his protection. Yeah. On December 5th, he arrived at Dodge Correctional Institution, a maximum security prison in Wampin, Wisconsin, to continue serving his life sentences. If you can believe this shit, Chris Watts has been getting love letters from women.

SPEAKER_03 41:44

That's fucking disgusting.

SPEAKER_04 41:47

He's literally in constant contact with multiple women. He has written to them saying, quote, God had a plan for me. He wants me in prison. This is his will, just like it was his will for Jesus to die for us. Unquote.

SPEAKER_03 42:09

Ew. Oh, fuck this guy.

SPEAKER_04 42:14

So that's what Chris Watts wrote in uh 2025 2025 when he was 40, and he wrote this to a woman that was only identified as Deborah.

SPEAKER_03 42:24

He continues saying, Hey Deborah, go fuck yourself.

SPEAKER_04 42:27

He continues saying, quote, I will never fully understand what Christ went through when he was crucified, but my trials have given me a glimpse of it, unquote.

SPEAKER_03 42:38

Oh, shut the fuck up. Oh, I hope he gets stabbed in prison.

SPEAKER_04 42:42

He deserves all the torture. I'm 100% with you.

SPEAKER_03 42:46

Literally, some people deserve torture.

SPEAKER_04 42:48

So Deborah, who first reached out to him in 2022, is just one of many women that Watts has maintained a relationship with in prison. These women write nasty. They write to him saying that they just want to get to know him. One of them said to him that he's been on her mind every day since he was in the news. And many of these women send photos of themselves.

SPEAKER_03 43:16

Oh, what is wrong with people?

SPEAKER_04 43:21

You know, and I've said this before, it's your gender that does it more than mine does.

SPEAKER_03 43:26

Reaching out to fucking because your gender does the murdering. There's less people to reach out to, honey.

SPEAKER_04 43:32

Fair, fair. But there are they're not the only ones. Like I've done research as I had to find ways to write people in prison when we started this. And I've discovered there's a whole dating network for convicts. Men and women.

SPEAKER_03 43:45

Oh, I know about that. It's weird.

SPEAKER_04 43:48

It's fucked up.

SPEAKER_03 43:50

So for better or for worse, the prisons are more full of men than women.

SPEAKER_04 43:54

Agreed. Agreed. But I don't know. I just think that I've only I've only met a handful of women who've written prisoners. And I've never met a single guy who's written a prisoner. So there's that.

SPEAKER_03 44:05

Yeah, I mean, what what's the use of a of a for to a man of a woman he can't actually have sex with?

SPEAKER_04 44:10

True, true. But I don't know. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 44:14

But you're right. You only hear about it, you only hear about it with women, but I don't know if that's circumstantial. It might be circumstantial. Or I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 44:24

I wouldn't say that. I'm sure Jody Arias has gotten quite a few letters from men over the years.

SPEAKER_01 44:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:31

So that is the case of the Watts family murder. And while that is pretty straightforward and kind of short for what we typically do, it doesn't fully end there. Because next week.

SPEAKER_03 44:43

Oh no, is it the girlfriend?

SPEAKER_04 44:45

Next week we're doing a follow-up episode because there is a player in this that we only touched upon, which you just guessed, is Nicole Kessinger.

SPEAKER_03 44:55

Oh dear. And something about her name does ring a bell for me, which is weird.

SPEAKER_04 45:01

Well, she vanished from the public eye after all this went down. And a privacy expert named Alec Harris, he told the Daily Mail in a report published on February 12th, I'm not sure exactly which year, but regardless, quote, it's no small task to disappear oneself nowadays and to do it successfully, and for as long as she has, for someone who doesn't have professional help or experience, how to make yourself unfindable, this can be very, very hard. Yeah. Yet somehow she's not there anymore.

SPEAKER_03 45:38

You have to assume that, you know, she hired someone.

SPEAKER_04 45:42

Well, according to some reports, she's now living under the name Nicole Miller. And basically, despite multiple online groups trying to find her, she continues to live in hiding. Wow. I didn't.

SPEAKER_03 45:58

Why are we trying to find I'm assuming she did another crime? Because I'm also like, why are why are we trying to find this woman?

SPEAKER_04 46:05

Well, that's what we're all gonna talk about next week, because it is circumstantial, but it is it blew me away when I dug deep. So that's fascinating. So that's where we're gonna pick it up next week, discussing what Nicole Kessinger knew or didn't know, did or didn't do. It's fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_03 46:28

Wild.

SPEAKER_04 46:28

Yeah, so that's your that's a teaser for next week.

SPEAKER_03 46:32

Well, damn, consider me teased.

SPEAKER_04 46:36

Yes, it's um it's definitely I I'm gonna say like I'm really looking forward to your reactions next week.

SPEAKER_01 46:44

Because fascinating.

SPEAKER_04 46:45

The fact that despite her potential role, the fact that she was literally really only two sentences in this blew my mind. Blows my mind. And to be honest, she's not touched upon in most mainstream media at all. She's there.

SPEAKER_02 47:01

Interesting.

SPEAKER_04 47:02

She's there to supply information about him, and then she disappears.

SPEAKER_03 47:06

Right, which seems like a logical portion, but I'm sure what you'll tell me next week is uh some crazy shit.

SPEAKER_04 47:12

It's awesome. It's gonna be a good time.

SPEAKER_03 47:16

A good time? I don't know about that, but we'll see.

SPEAKER_04 47:18

Probably not. So thank you everyone for joining us. Once again, I'm Janice Dead.

SPEAKER_03 47:22

And I'm Joyce Dead.

SPEAKER_04 47:24

And we'll see you next week. Bye.