until he Murdered them all...
They seemed to be the perfect family… So what went wrong?
Shanann described Christopher as ‘ the best dad us girls could ask for’
To her friends on social media, it appeared that Shanann Watts was very much in love.
Gushing posts described her hubby Christopher as: the best thing that ever happened to me, and the best dad us girls could ask for.
Shanann, 34, and Christopher, 33, were parents to two adorable girls, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3.
They seemed to be a perfect young family.
But soon, those same photographs would appear on newspaper front pages, and the world would learn that, for the Watts, life wasn’t all it seemed.
On 13 August 2018, Shanann, who worked in sales, returned home from a business trip, no doubt looking forward to seeing her husband and giving her sleeping children a goodnight kiss.
At 2am, her colleague Nickole gave her a lift from the airport to the home she shared with Chris and their kids.
But when Shanann, who was 15 weeks pregnant, missed a doctor’s appointment that morning and didn’t answer any work calls, her friend returned to the house to check on her shortly after midday.
No-one appeared to be home, but Shanann’s car – along with the girls’ car seats – was parked in the garage. Alarm bells rang. It wasn’t like Shanann to miss appointments, leave calls unanswered.
Nickole called Chris, who said he didn’t know where she was and that he and Shanann were planning to separate.
That morning they’d had a difficult conversation, he said. He’d called and texted her multiple times, too, with no response.
But for Nickole, one of Shanann’s close friends, it was the first she’d heard of any problems in their relationship.
They were a seemingly happy family, Shanann pregnant with the couple’s third child – a boy she’d already named Nico.
Nickole asked Chris to come home, check inside the house.
Shanann had an autoimmune disease and might have passed out.
Just to be safe, she called the police, too.
And at Nickole’s request, Chris returned home.
With Chris’ permission, police searched the house, and found Shanann’s purse, phone and keys.
But there was no sign of Shanann or her daughters.
The next day, Chris stood outside the family home, putting out an emotional plea across news networks, begging for his wife and kids’ safe return.
‘Shanann, Bella, Celeste, if you’re out there, just come back,’ he said, seemingly concerned about his family.
But as the hours passed, his behaviour became increasingly strange, as he appeared relaxed, laughing as the cameras rolled.
With police investigations underway, Chris was arrested, questioned.
In 48 hours, the desperate husband and father became the prime suspect.
Shanann was dead, he admitted, and he was the one who’d killed her.
According to the arrest documents, Watts had been cheating on his wife of nearly six years with a colleague.
He claimed that, on the morning of her disappearance, he’d asked Shanann for a separation.
Emotional, she lost control, Chris claimed, and strangled their girls.
Through the baby monitor, he’d seen Bella, blue and sprawled out on her bed. Then, he said, he saw Shanann strangle Celeste. Watching his wife kill their children pushed him over the edge, he told police. Watts saw red, flew into a rage, strangling his wife. He told police he piled the bodies into the back seat of his truck, dumping them on an oil site where he’d worked.
But police believed he’d killed them all. The next day, Shanann’s body was found in a shallow grave on the oil site. Her daughters lay nearby in oil barrels, reportedly to disguise the smell. According to court reports, the girls were likely killed before their mother, between 12 and 13 August, and had been submerged in crude oil for four days by the time they were found. They may even have been dead by the time Shanann came home from her work trip. Her family couldn’t
Rumours swirled of multiple affairs and violent fantasies
contain their grief, and Shanann’s younger brother Frankie, her only sibling, took to social media to vent his anger.
I just want 30 seconds alone with that heartless psychopath, he wrote. May Satan have mercy on his soul.
On 21 August, Watts appeared in court, shackled hand and foot, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit.
Shanann’s heartbroken mother Sandra, father Frank, and Frankie, looked on.
Frank was inconsolable, sobbing bitterly as each count against his son-in-law was read out: five counts of first-degree murder – two additional counts given because the children were under 12 – three counts of tampering with a deceased body, and one count of unlawful termination of a baby.
Watts sat with his head bowed, simply answering ‘yes’ to each count, failing to enter a plea.
On 6 November, Watts, wearing a bulletproof vest over his jumpsuit, appeared in court, weeping as the counts against him were read out again.
His voice trembling, he pleaded guilty to them all.
The plea came after he was offered a deal by Shanann’s family, allowing him to dodge the death penalty.
It was clear he’d lied about the events of 13 August – and, without a trial, the details would never come to light.
But prosecutors didn’t believe, even if the case did go to trial, Watts would ever tell the whole truth.
And Shanann’s family, knowing the case could take years to resolve if they sought the death penalty, wanted justice and closure on their living nightmare.
‘He made the choice to take those lives. I do not want to be in a position of making the choice to take his,’ Sandra said.
A brave stance for a woman who’d just lost her only daughter and her grandchildren.
The question on everyone’s lips remained the same.
How could a man, with a seemingly happy life, a beautiful wife, two gorgeous children and a third child on the way, carry out such a sickening crime?
Rumours swirled in the media of Watts having multiple affairs, with men as well as women. One alleged mistress claimed that he’d liked choking during sex and had violent rape fantasies.
Finally, on 19 November, Christopher Watts was given three consecutive sentences of life in prison with no possibility for parole. He was also sentenced to 48 years for the unlawful termination of pregnancy, to run consecutively.
Watts will serve two additional life sentences for firstdegree murder of a child under the age of 12, and 36 years to run consecutively for three charges of tampering with a deceased body.
During the sentencing, further details were released.
The court heard how he smothered Bella and Celeste, and strangled Shanann with his bare hands, viciously, for at least two minutes.
An autopsy showed Bella had struggled as she fought to survive, found with several cuts in her mouth and bites on her tongue.
Why? It emerged that the couple were in fact having problems, with Shanann giving her husband books on relationship counselling.
‘He had a desire for a fresh start,’ District Attorney Michael Rourke told the court. ‘To begin a relationship with a new love that overpowered all decency and feelings for his wife, his daughters and his unborn son.’
Handing Watts his punishment, Judge Marcelo A Kopcow said, ‘This is perhaps the most inhumane and vicious crime out of the thousands of cases I have seen.’
Why Watts needed to end four lives in order to live his, rather than divorce Shanann, is something any right thinking person will never understand.