The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Man given life for killing his family
Colorado father wanted ‘fresh start’ with new girlfriend.
A Colorado father was sentenced to three consecutive lifetimes in prison after a prosecutor detailed for the first time how Christopher Watts planned the August murders of his pregnant wife and two young daughters — apparently in the hope of starting a new life with his girlfriend.
But neither prosecutors nor the surviving relatives of Shanann, Bella and Celeste Watts — each of whom spoke at Monday’s hearing — expected to ever under- stand how “a seemingly nor- mal person (could) annihilate his entire family,” as Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke put it, and then methodically cover his tracks.
“You buried my daughter Shanann in a shallow grave and then you put Bella and Celeste in huge containers with crude oil, you heartless monster,” Frank Rzucek told the court, as his son-inlaw sat behind him clenching and unclenching his jaw, having already pleaded guilty to the murders. “I hope you see that every time you close your eyes at night.”
Three months earlier, Watts at first seemed as much a victim as anyone when his wife and daughters — 3 and 4 years old — disappeared Aug. 13.
From his doorstep in Fred- erick that afternoon, the 33-year-old oil field operator told reporters that he had rushed home from work upon hearing that Shanann’s friends couldn’t find her or reach her. “In my heart, I believe she is somewhere, and I hope she is safe,” he told Fox 31 as police searched the house behind him.
The illusion held up for a day or so, at least on TV. A neighbor down the street recalled how Watts used to play with his girls in a wagon, and his social media feeds were full of love odes to his family and the “little peanut” growing in Shanann’s womb, to be named Nico.
But investigators were immediately suspicious after finding Shanann’s wallet and keys still in the house.
A day after the disappear- ance, a woman named Nichol Kessinger contacted the sher- iff ’s office after seeing Watts on the news, The Denver Post reported. She told investiga- tors that she had been dating him for several weeks, under the impression that he was in the process of final- izing a divorce and moving out with his daughters.
“He lied about everything,” Kessinger later told the Denver Post.
At Monday’s hearing, the district attorney alleged that Shanann Watts had been try- ing to save the marriage for weeks — texting her husband and buying self-help books, even as he shopped for jewelry and vacation spots to take his “new love.”
“His motive was simple, your honor,” Rourke said. “He had a desire for a fresh start.”
Police arrested Watts after interviewing Kessinger, and soon announced that he had confessed to killing Shanann in “a rage” — claiming he had walked in on his wife as she was strangling their two girls, too late to save them.
An investigation proved this a lie, too, Rourke said. “The man seated to my right smothered his daughters,” he said, as Watts looked down at his handcuffs, one leg occasionally shaking beneath the table. An autopsy found a cut in Bella’s mouth, he said, suggesting that “she fought back for her life” and bit her tongue before she died.
Watts had been watching the girls while Shanann was out of town that weekend, and killed his wife shortly after she returned from the airport early in the morning on Aug. 13.