Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Murdered woman’s kin wish for good
Funeral remembrances don’t mention husband
PINEHURST, N.C. — Shanann Watts will be remembered as a “woman of love” and her two young two daughters as being filled with life and joy, a priest said Saturday during a funeral service for the slain Colorado family found at an oil worksite.
The hourlong service included no reference to 33-year-old Christopher Watts, the husband and father charged in the killings.
Police say he killed his 34-year-old pregnant wife and their daughters, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste, inside the family’s suburban Denver home then dumped their bodies on his former employer’s property.
During the funeral at a Catholic church, the Rev. John Forbes read comments aloud from Shanann Watts’ father, mother and brother.
Watts is from North Carolina; the couple moved to Colorado shortly after they married about six years ago.
Forbes said the victim’s mother described Shanann as a “fireball” and asked God to “give all our love” to her daughter and grandchildren.
Forbes said Shanann Watts’ family would like to see good come from the tragedy, including a law to recognize the lives of unborn children.
Relatives said Shanann Watts was pregnant with a boy whom she planned to name Nico.
Colorado is one of 12 states without a law broadly allowing for homicide charges in the violent death of fetuses.
Prosecutors have charged Christopher Watts with murder and other crimes, including unlawful termination of a pregnancy, a felony.
A friend asked police on Aug. 13 to check on Shanann Watts and her children after she could not reach them via text or phone.
Police searched the family’s home in Frederick and found Shanann Watts’ purse and phone.
Christopher Watts remains in a Colorado jail without bail. During interviews with television stations before his arrest, he spoke about missing his family.
Prosecutors have said the girls’ bodies were submerged for days in a tank holding crude oil and their mother was buried in a shallow grave.