Carter Roy (4:47)

On August 13, 2018, 34 year old Shanann Watts and her daughters, 4 year old Bella and 3 year old CeCe, disappeared from their home in Frederick, Colorado. Shanann was 15 weeks pregnant at the time. The first person to raise the alarm was Shanann's friend, Nicole Atkinson. That morning, Shanann didn't respond to any of her texts. It was very unlike Shanann, who always had her phone in hand. It was especially strange because Shanann had a prenatal appointment scheduled for 10 o' clock that morning. She was supposed to hear her unborn son's heartbeat for the very first time. It was the kind of milestone she'd immediately want to share with her friend. So when the silence stretched on that morning long past when the appointment should have wrapped up, Atkinson felt a flutter of unease. She knew something was wrong. Atkinson drove over to the Watts house, searching for answers. She hoped Shanann was just caught up dealing with a tantrum or on a work call. But when Atkinson pulled up to the quiet suburban street, she saw no signs of Shanann or the girls. Atkinson knocked on the door, but no one answered. She tried calling out to Shanann, but still nothing. Nicole had that creeping gut feeling that every true friend recognizes when you just know something isn't right. She called Shanann's husband, 33 year old Chris Watts, who and told him he needed to come home immediately. He said he was at work, but she insisted. And then she called the police. Authorities arrived and waited for Chris. Once he finally returned. They searched the home with his permission. There were no broken windows, no overturned furniture, no obvious signs of a struggle. The only missing item they noticed was the top sheet from Chris and Shanann's bedroom. But more concerning wasn't what was missing, but what was left behind. Shanann's purse was sitting on the counter, her phone was on the couch, and her car was still in the garage. To Atkinson, this confirmed that someone had forced Shanann out of the house or abducted her and the girls. She would never go anywhere without her phone or medications. By the following morning, August 14, Shanann, Bella and Cece were were declared missing. That same day, police searched the Watts home for a second time. This time, they stepped up the intensity and brought canine units. Cadaver dogs are trained to pick up on the smallest traces of human remains. When a person dies, their body immediately begins to release a unique smell, a sort of chemical fingerprint. Even if a body has been removed, the odor lingers and the dogs can sense it. That's what authorities wanted to know. Had Shanann and the girls been killed inside the house? Or were they still alive when they left? While investigators combed through the interior, Chris stepped outside and gave an interview to the local ABC affiliate. Standing on his front porch, arms folded, he addressed the cameras. He admitted that he and Shanann had an emotional discussion right before her disappearance. He didn't go into detail, but he said he was worried and that he wanted nothing more than for his wife and daughters to come home. It was a plea heard across the state. But not everyone watching it believed it. Shanann's mom, Sandra rusc, sat some 1600 miles away in North Carolina, her phone clutched tight as she watched the news coverage. She studied Chris's face and listened to his words. Something about the way he spoke chilled her. There was a casualness to his voice. To Sandra, he didn't seem like he was truly worried about his missing family. Her suspicion only grew when she got him on the phone later and Chris said he couldn't talk because, quote, he had to get back to work. His wife, his daughters, and his unborn child were all missing. What kind of man would clock in for work under those circumstances? The only explanation that made sense to her was a terrifying one. That Chris had been involved in their disappearances and he needed to go back to the oil site to cover something up. Sandra called the police and shared her fears. She told them there'd been marital problems between Chris and Shanann all summer and that she believed her son in law was responsible for the disappearances. Investigators listened carefully. They already had their doubts about Chris. But now Shanann's own mother was saying she thought there was foul play involved. That put Chris even more firmly in their sights. So they decided to pull his phone records. The results were eye opening. There was an endless stream of late night phone calls, text messages and semi nude photos exchanged between Chris and his co worker, 30 year old Nicole Kessinger. It was clear that the two were having an affair. Just like that, Chris became their prime suspect. Investigators didn't have to hunt Nicole down to question her. Before they had the chance to reach out, Nicole called them. She'd seen the news and confronted Chris over the phone. And she didn't like his answers any more than Sandra had. He had lied to her about the state of his marriage. Now she was terrified he was lying about something far worse. She sat down with both state officials and FBI agents. They wanted to know about her relationship with Chris and whether it was possible that she and Chris had worked together to somehow get rid of his family. But her story never wavered. She thought Chris was a man she could build a life with until she found out the truth. Once she realized his pregnant wife and two daughters were missing, she wanted nothing to do with him and everything to do with helping the police. After hours of interrogation, Nicole was cleared of any involvement. But her testimony gave investigators exactly what they needed. A motive. Chris Watts wasn't just a husband in a troubled marriage. He was a man who wanted to start over with someone new. And in his mind, the only way to do that was to erase the family he already had. Sean Bean and Connie Nielsen star in Robin Hood. From Sherwood Forest to the Norman Court, a classic tale reborn for today. The story continues to unfold. New episodes Sundays on mgm.

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Hi, I'm here to pick up my son, Milo.

Carter Roy (12:28)

There's no Milo here. Who picked up my son from school. Streaming only on Peacock. I'm going to need the name of everyone that could have a connection. You don't understand. It was just the five of us. So this was all planned?

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What are you going to do too?

Carter Roy (12:44)

I will do whatever it takes to get my son back. I honestly didn't see this coming. These nice people killing each other. All her fault. A new series streaming November 6th only on Peacock. On August 13, 2018, 34 year old Shanann Watts and her daughters, 4 year old Bella and 3 year old CeCe, disappeared. A day later they were officially declared missing. And just one day after that, authorities became convinced that Shanann's husband fell. 33 year old Chris Watts was responsible. Based on his phone records, detectives believed he wanted his family out of the picture so he could start fresh with his girlfriend, 30 year old Nicole Kessinger. But by August 15th, just two days after Shanann and the girls went missing, that fantasy was already crumbling. Nicole had come forward and told the police everything she knew. She clearly wanted to distance herself from a man she now considered unstable and possibly dangerous. Later that same day, investigators called Chris back down to the station. Under questioning, Chris swore up and down that he had nothing to do with his wife and daughter's disappearance. He insisted he wanted his wife and kids back as soon as possible, so detectives gave him an option. If he was innocent, if he truly had nothing to hide, then would he be willing to take a polygraph test? Chris agreed. What other choice did he have? The test took place in a small, nondescript interrogation room. Chris sat down across from Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Tammy Lee. She would be the one administering the polygraph. She was calm and approachable, dressed casually in a striped black and white sweater, her blonde hair cut into a short bob. She looked like a neighborhood mom and talked to Chris like they were old friends. She explained the process in simple terms, smiling and reassuring him that this was just a way to officially clear his name. Chris nodded along, trying to keep his composure. But then Agent Lee gave an ominous warning. She told him she expected the results would rule him out. After all, no one who was guilty would be stupid enough to agree to a polygraph test. So he must be innocent, right? That was when Chris's mask began to slip. He shifted in his chair, looking nervous. His breathing shifted like he was trying to hold his breath. But he couldn't walk away. Backing out would raise even more suspicion. So he remained seated and took the test. The questions were simple. Did you cause Shanann's disappearance? Did you lie about the last time you saw her? Do you know where she is now? Agent Lee reminded him to keep calm. Chris tried, but he stumbled over his answers and his breathing was uneven. He complained that it was hard to relax under the circumstances. Lee nodded, acting sympathetic. But inside, she knew what the machine was already telling her. Chris was lying, and not just fudging the truth here and there, but failing spectacularly. His results were among the worst Lee had ever seen. It wasn't looking good for Chris, and soon he'd be backed into a corner with no way out. While Chris sat in the interrogation room, authorities had been retracing his steps from the morning of August 13, when the day his family had vanished his work truck had a GPS installed to track its movements. Detectives followed the directions to the oil site where Chris worked. Investigators sent drones up into the sky, scanning for anything out of place. But the land stretched flat and barren in every direction. There wasn't much to see besides oil tanks and dirt roads. But then, at around 4:15pm one of the drone operators spotted something unusual. It looked like fabric blowing in the wind. When investigators approached from the ground, they realized it was a bedsheet. Later, they confirmed it was the missing bed sheet from the Watts master bedroom. That information made its way back to detectives at the station. And it wasn't the only damning new piece of evidence. Other authorities had uncovered some chilling details about Chris behavior on the morning Shanann and the girls disappeared. Apparently, he'd called his daughter's school to say they would not be enrolled for the upcoming year. Not only that, but he'd also reached out to a realtor about selling the family home for investigators. The pieces were falling into place. And back in the interrogation room, Chris was crumbling. Hours earlier, detectives had spoken gently, giving him space to tell his version of events. Now they were direct and accusatory. They told him straight out that he had failed the polygraph and that they knew he was lying through his teeth. And they pointed out that he had yet to shed a single tear for his missing daughters. Not exactly how an innocent man would act. Chris admitted to the affair. He didn't hedge or try to downplay it. He talked about Nicole like he was in a trance. He told investigators that she took his breath away. He said he'd never felt like this about anyone before. However, when it came to his wife and daughters, Chris stammered, deflected, and said he didn't know anything more than what he'd told them. But the detectives kept pressing. At one point, Agent Lee even offered him an out. She asked if Shanann had done something to the girls, and maybe he had reacted by doing something to Shanann. It was a lifeline, a way for Chris to admit guilt without carrying all the blame. That was when he finally started to crack, and he asked to see his dad. Chris's father, Ronnie Watts, had been waiting at the station for a chance to talk to his son. So when investigators asked, he readily agreed to go into the interrogation room. Authorities left the two men on their own, sitting across from each other, but their conversation, both the visual and audio, was recorded on camera. Chris's shoulders were slumped, his voice low. He told his dad he had failed the polygraph, and detectives weren't going to let him walk out of there. Ronnie asked gently if there was any reason why they shouldn't. Chris said he'd come clean about his affair, but Ronnie leaned forward and asked if there was anything else. Chris hesitated. Then, almost in a whisper, he said he was done protecting Shanann. He slowly told his dad a new, horrifying story, that Shanann had smothered Bella and CeCe after he told her he wanted a divorce. After that, he'd lost it and in a fit of rage, strangled Shanann for killing their babies. Ronnie was shocked. Nothing could have prepared him to hear a confession like that from his son. All he could think to do was reach across the table and take Chris hand. When detectives returned, Chris stuck by the story. He admitted to strangling Shanann, but insisted that he'd only snapped after discovering she'd killed their daughters. He claimed he'd seen her smothering CC on the baby monitor while Bella lay in her bed, already lifeless. He painted himself as a man reacting to trauma. Investigators listened, but they weren't convinced. They'd already seen enough. The polygraph, the gps, the bed sheet, his strange behavior, it all pointed to utter guilt. Despite his attempt to shift the blame, they believed Chris was responsible for all three murders. But even with half a confession now on the table, one question remained. Where were the bodies? Chris had to know. And one way or another, detectives were going to force it out of him.

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Carter Roy (23:56)

On August 15, 2018, three days after his family went missing, 33 year old Chris Watts confessed to killing his wife, 34 year old Shanann. But he didn't admit to murdering the other two members of his family. Instead, he told detectives he'd killed Shanann in a fit of rage after she had allegedly smothered their two daughters, four year old Bella and three year old CeCe. It was a chilling story, one that painted Shanann as the villain and Chris as a man reacting to extreme trauma. But detectives didn't buy it. Shanann's friends and family had told them how caring she was. She put her girls before everything else and would have gone to the ends of the earth for them. Nothing about what Chris said matched the reality. Still, no matter how many times investigators pressed him, Chris stuck to his story. Even when they asked him repeatedly if he was okay with the public knowing that Shanann had killed her daughters. He said he was, since it was the truth. But then Chris dropped another bomb. Although Shanann was the one who'd killed the girls, he disposed of the bodies. When detectives asked where they were, Chris avoided the question. He seemed too emotional to give them an answer. Frustrated, investigators finally left him alone with his father again. And it was in that moment, away from the detectives, that Ronnie Watts coaxed it out of him. Chris admitted that he'd buried Shanann and that he'd stuffed the bodies of his daughters Bella and Cece into an oil tank at his work. Ronnie was heartbroken. Chris was his son, but those girls were his granddaughters. Outside the interrogation room, watching the camera feed, detectives were stunned. They had suspected Chris almost since the beginning. But to hear him admit to disposing of the bodies still sent a chill down their spines. Now they needed to get the details. Investigators walked back into the interrogation room and slid an aerial photograph of Chris's work site across the table. They asked him to point out where he had dumped the bodies. Chris hesitated, then finally pointed to two areas. One where he'd left Shanann, the other where he'd hidden his daughters. Despite Chris's claims that his wife had killed the girls, detectives had zero reason to believe him. Chris had the motive. He wanted to start a life with his mistress without his family involved. And he'd failed the polygraph test which showed he concealing guilt. All of this led investigators to the conclusion that he had killed all of them. Around 11pm that night, August 15, detectives arrested 33 year old Chris for murdering his pregnant wife, their unborn son, and their two daughters. Overnight and into the next morning, Colorado authorities carried out the grim task of recovering Chris family. Shanann's body was found in a shallow grave near the oil site. Bella and Cece were discovered inside the oil tanks. Chris had indicated he'd forced their small bodies through an opening just 8 inches wide. @ the mouth of the tank. Investigators found a tuft of blonde hair that had gotten caught that day. News of Chris's arrest spread across local news stations and papers. The horror of the discovery reverberated through the community. Neighbors, friends and strangers all across the state grieved for Shanann and her daughters. The following week, prosecutors announced the charges. Chris faced nine criminal counts, five counts of first degree murder, two for each daughter because they were under the age of 12. He was also charged with unlawful termination, termination of a pregnancy, and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body. In the aftermath of the murders, as Shanann's family tried to process their grief, something cruel and shocking began to unfold online. A vocal corner of the Internet turned on Shanann because of her active social media presence. There were hundreds of Facebook posts, videos, and live streams documenting her life, and people felt entitled to dissect it and point fingers. They judged her personality, they nitpicked her parenting, and some even went further, throwing out vicious insults and labeling her as controlling, manipulative and narcissistic. Strangers who'd never met Shanann felt free to blame her for her own death. The harassment spread to the rest of Shanann's family. Her grieving parents and brothers were forced to endure endless speculation, name calling, and conspiracy theories at the same time that they were mourning the loss of their daughter and granddaughters. The cruelty lasted months until finally Chris agreed to a plea deal. On November 6, Chris pleaded guilty to all nine counts against him, including the murders of Shanann, Bella, and cece. At that point, he still hadn't confessed to killing his daughters. But pleading guilty to every count was part of the agreement with prosecutors, who agreed not to pursue the death penalty if he consented to all charges. That decision came down in large part to Shanann's family. They made it clear they didn't want another death resulting from this tragedy. Shanann's mother said that while Chris had taken so much from them, she did not believe the state should take his life in return. In court, Chris sat silent as the judge read the charges aloud. Prosecutors didn't require him to speak. They didn't want him spinning the same false story about Shanann harming her children. They wanted the record clear. Shanann had been a victim, not a perpetrator. Two weeks later, a judge handed Chris three consecutive life sentences, plus another two to be served concurrently, all without the possibility of parole. And then, even though Chris would never see the outside of a prison again, the judge added an additional 48 years for the unlawful termination of Shanann's pregnancy and 36 years for tampering with the bodies. By the standards of most high profile murder cases, it was an incredibly quick resolution. Within just three months of the crime, the case had been moved from disappearance to arrest to conviction. But the story wasn't finished yet. Although they got the verdict they wanted, they were still in the dark about what actually happened. That fateful August morning In February of 2019, investigators visited Chris in prison for a follow up interview. They wanted to get his full confession, the one he'd refused to give three months earlier. The interview lasted five hours. But slowly, piece by piece, the truth came out. Chris said Shanann had returned from her business trip around 2am and he suspected she knew about the affair. He hadn't exactly been careful. He'd used their joint credit card to take Nicole out to dinner while Shanann was away. But when Shanann came home, she didn't say anything about it. She was still trying to make things work between the two of them. So she climbed into bed with him, hoping to repair what was broken. Hours later, when Chris woke up around 5am, he told her he wanted a divorce. Blindsided, Shanann finally asked if there was someone else. It turned out Shanann still wasn't certain that he was cheating. That surprised Chris. He thought the mutual knowledge of his infidelity would make their separation a no brainer. But now it was going to be much more difficult. Long and drawn out. The complete opposite of what he'd hoped for. He refused to answer her question directly, only saying that he didn't love her anymore. The argument escalated and Shanann told him that if he left her, he would never see his daughters again. That was when Chris put his hands around her neck. He strangled her until she lay lifeless on the bed. And then came the part that investigators, and later the world, found almost unbearable to hear. Bella walked into the room clutching her pink blanket. She saw her mother lying still on the bed and asked, what's wrong with mommy? Chris told her everything would be okay, but it wouldn't be. Chris carried Shanann's body to the garage and loaded her into the backseat of his truck. He told be Bella and CeCe to climb in too. Their mother's body lay at their feet as he drove them more than 45 minutes to the oil field where he worked. Along the way, the girls asked again and again if their mom was okay. He told them she would be fine. But once they arrived, Chris killed his daughters too. He smothered Cece first, then Bella. According to Chris, in Bella's final moments, she begged him to stop saying Daddy no. Those were her last words. Afterward, he buried Shanann in the shallow grave, then forced Bella and CeCe's small bodies into the oil tanks. Chris's confession was made public the following month. In March 2019, it finally confirmed what investigators had believed all along. Shanann had never harmed her daughters. She had been a devoted mother, a loving wife, and a woman trying to hold her family together until her husband chose to destroy it. Shanann, Bella, cece, and the unborn baby boy they planned on naming Niko had their lives cut short far too soon. But their story shouldn't be defined by the brutality of how it ended. Shanann lived with energy and determination, always chasing dreams for her family. Bella was gentle and kind, Cece was bold and spirited, and Nico was already deeply loved, even before he was born. Though their lives ended in tragedy, they should be remembered for who they were, for the love, laughter and light they brought into the world. That is the legacy that lasts. Thanks so much. Thanks for listening. I'm Carter Roy and this is True Crime Stories. Come back next week for the story of a new murder and all the people it affected. True Crime Stories is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow Murder True Crime Stories Wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your Murder True Crime Stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad free and instead of having to wait for each episode of a two part series, you'll get access to both at once plus exciting bonus content. We'll be back on Tuesday. True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertzovsky, Rachel Engelman, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Alex Burns, Hania Saeed, Russell Nash and Spencer Howard, thank you for joining us. Looking for your next crime House? Listen, don't miss Crimes of with Sabrina Deanna Roga and Corinne Vien. Crimes of is a weekly series that explores a new theme each season from Crimes of the Paranormal, unsolved murders, mysterious disappearances, and more. Their first season is Crimes of Infamy, the true stories behind Hollywood's most iconic horror villains. And coming up next is Crimes of Paranormal, real life cases where the line between the living and dead gets seriously blurry. Listen to Crimes of every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts.