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Chris Watts Claims He Killed Wife In Rage After She Strangled Their Daughters, Affidavit Reveals
Chris Watts told police he caught his pregnant wife Shanann murdering their daughters on a baby monitor after telling her he wanted a separation.
Chris Watts told police that he strangled his pregnant wife Shanann in a fit of rage last week immediately after she killed their two daughters, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste, inside their Frederick, Colorado home, according to an affidavit released late Monday.
According to the arrest affidavit obtained by Oxygen.com, Watts, 33, told police he was having an affair with a coworker. He only admitted the affair during his third interview with police. At 4 a.m. Monday, about two hours after Shanann, 34, arrived home from a business trip, Watts said he told her he wanted to “go through with a separation.” After the discussion, which Watts characterized as “emotional,” he claimed he walked downstairs for a moment and then returned to the couple’s bedroom to talk further.
"While in the bedroom, via baby monitor located on Shanann's right stand, he observed Bella 'sprawled' out on her bed and blue and Shanann actively strangling Celeste,” the affidavit states. “Chris said he went into a rage and ultimately strangled Shanann to death."
From there, he told police that he put all three bodies in the back of his truck, and drove them to an oil work site.
Last Thursday, Shanann’s body was found buried in a shallow grave on a property owned by Anadarko Petroleum, where Watts worked as an operator. The bodies of his two children were discovered nearby, submerged in crude oil, according to the Associated Press.
But, prosecutors paint a different picture. On Monday, Watts was charged with nine felonies, including five counts of first-degree murder, according to the criminal complaint and information make public by a Colorado court. Watts also faces one count of first-degree unlawful termination of a pregnancy, and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body, according to the filings.
He is due back in court next Tuesday to learn his formal charges. Until then, he’s being held without bail.
Last Tuesday, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation issued a missing-endangered alert for the three, all while Watts pleaded for his family’s return on television.
Last week, KMGH in Denver reported that Shanann confided in a friend that she was worried that Watts may have been unfaithful.
[Photos: Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Facebook]
