Colorado man jailed as wife’s body found, girls still missing
FREDERICK, Colo. — The body was found of a pregnant Colorado woman whose husband was arrested in the disappearance of her and her two young daughters, and investigators were trying to recover what they believe are the remains of the girls, authorities said yesterday.
Chris Watts, 33, was taken into custody Wednesday in the town of Frederick, about 28 miles north of Denver. His 34-year-old wife, Shanann Watts, and their two daughters, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste, were reported missing Monday by a family friend.
“As horrible as this outcome is, our role now is to do everything we can to determine exactly what occurred,” said John Camper, director of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Chris Watts was being held in jail and was to appear in court yesterday. He has not yet been charged, and it wasn’t known if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
Chris Watts spoke previously with Denver TV outlets about missing his family and his hopes for their safe return. He said his wife returned home about 2 a.m. Monday after a flight for a work trip was delayed.
He said the two had an “emotional conversation” before he left for work a few hours later and that he became concerned after she did not return his calls or texts or those of her friends. He said he came home to an empty house after a friend knocked on the door at noon and got no answer.
He told KMGH-TV about how traumatic it was to spend the night in the family’s unusually quiet home and missing telling his daughters to eat their dinner and turning on their bedroom monitors.
“Last night I had every light in the house on. I was hoping that I would just get ran over by the kids running in the door, just barrel-rushing me, but it didn’t happen,” he said.