Murderous father Chris Watts secretly made a horrific excuse for the murder of his pregnant wife and two daughters, aged three and four, more than six years later.
Watts, 36, strangled his partner Shanann, who was 15 weeks pregnant with their son, in their five-bedroom family home in Frederick, Colorado, on August 13, 2018 after she returned from a business trip to Arizona.
The killer, who is serving more than five life sentences for his sick crimes, took her body in his truck with his two daughters, Bella, four, and Celeste, three, before smothering them both with a blanket. Watts buried his wife in a shallow grave and dumped his daughters’ bodies in oil storage tanks.
In recently revealed letters, seen by the New York PostHe said he sought refuge with his mistress Nichol Kessinger because she was “everything my wife wasn’t,” adding that pregnant Shanann was a “control freak.”
In handwritten notes to Dylan Tallman, a fellow inmate at Dodge Correctional Institution in Wisconsin, Watts wrote that his marriage was unsatisfactory because “she was so busy with work and everything that went with it.” He added that he was often the primary caregiver for his daughters.
Watts said he was tempted to end his marriage after meeting Nichol after losing some weight in 2017.
Chris Watts, 36, (pictured top left) strangled his partner Shanann (pictured bottom right), who was 15 weeks pregnant with their son, and strangled his daughters Bella, 4, (pictured top right) and Celeste, 3, (pictured bottom left)
Watts is serving more than five life sentences for his sick crimes
He had an affair with Nichol Kessinger, with whom he worked at the time
“She was just everything my wife wasn’t to me. She was just nice, and not a control freak. We could make decisions together.”
“We’d known each other for a while, but we didn’t start flirting until about six weeks before,” he continued. “I didn’t think about it. We were working together, we had chemistry, and I fell for it. She was the forbidden fruit.”
But he also blamed Nichol for being “the death of me.”
In a March 2020 letter, he wrote: “The words of a whore have humiliated me. Her flattering words were like drops of honey that pierced my heart and soul. I did not know that all her guests were in the chamber of death.”
Watts seems to have a tendency not to admit to his heinous crimes.
In the two days after he slaughtered his family, he claimed he had nothing to do with their disappearance, even appearing on television to beg them to come home.
In 2018, shortly after the murders, visitors came to the home to leave gifts and tributes for the murdered mother and daughters
Watts is pictured here at the front door of his old house
Police bodycam footage shows the interior of Watts’ home in 2018
In text messages to his mistress just hours after he murdered his pregnant wife and children, Watts denied any involvement in their disappearance, according to previously unreleased footage of the woman’s interrogation by police.
“I was still in my head. I was stressed,” Kessinger told authorities, according to footage posted March 2 by Frankie Rzucek, Jr., Shannan’s brother.
‘So I texted Chris one last time and I said to him, “If you’ve done something bad, you’re going to ruin your own life and you’re going to ruin my life. I promise you that.”
And he said, “I didn’t hurt my family, Nicky.” And that was the last text. I never said another word to him after that,” she said.
After his arrest, he initially claimed that Shanann had killed the girls after he told her he wanted a divorce, and that he had then strangled her out of anger.
At his trial, he pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty, which has since been abolished in Colorado.
He is serving five life sentences, plus 48 years without parole, at Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin.