'She Didn’t Fight. I Don’t Know Why': Chris Watts Describes The Moments He Choked The Life Out Of Wife Shanann

Shanann Watts didn’t fight back as her husband Chris Watts sat on top of her, choking the life from her body. Instead she just cried and maybe, he would reflect later, prayed. 

“The scripture says, ‘Forgive these people for they do not know what they do.’ Maybe she was saying that,” he told investigators last month. “She didn’t fight. I don’t know why.”

Watts pleaded guilty last year to killing Shanann, who was pregnant, and their daughters, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The high-profile case is being reexamined in the season premiere of "Criminal Confessions," airing Saturday, Dec. 7 at 6pm ET/PT on Oxygen.

Chris sat down with investigators from the Frederick Police Department, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI on Feb. 18 to provide new details and insight into his crimes. Records of that five-hour interview were released Thursday.

Watts explained how he and Shanann had sex after she came home from a business trip around 2 a.m. on Aug. 13. Just a few hours later he'd wake her up, straddle her body and tell her they were no longer compatible and their relationship was over. During that argument, she accused him of cheating, which he was, with co-worker Nichol Kessinger. He remembered how Shanann was crying and her mascara was running as he told her he didn’t love her anymore. At that point, Watts said she told him to get off of her.

“I wish I could take it all back,” he said about that conversation.

Shanann told him he wouldn’t be able to see his kids again, according to Watts’ story.

What's when he started strangling her.

“I don’t even know what kind of force I was putting on her neck,” he said. Watts noted how in court, prosecutors estimated that it would take two to four minutes to choke someone to death, but he felt like time stood still while he was attacking Shanann.

Watts said she didn't so much as scratch him as he looked down on her while strangling her. When one of the investigators asked him why he thinks she didn't battle him - as he said his daughter Bella would later do as he smothered her - he offered the theory that Shanann was thinking of the Bible. He also questioned if he knew he was going to kill her before he started attacking her.

“Every time I think about it I wonder 'Did I know I was gonna do that when I got on top of her?” he said. “I didn’t want to do it but I did it.”

He said he felt like there was something implanted in his mind that he was going to do it and that he “had no control over it.” He questioned why he couldn’t stop choking her.

“I just wish I could have let go.”