Killer dad reveals sick details of how he murdered his family
Chris Watts’ has bared all the horrific details in new letters written from his prison cell.
They have resurfaced as a Netflix documentary reveals more details about the murders of his pregnant wife and two daughters.
Watts, 35, from the US state of Colorado, was jailed for murdering his pregnant wife, Shanann Watts, 34, and two daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, back in August 2018.
After killing his wife, Watts drove her body and his daughters to an oil worksite owned by a previous employer over 65 kilometres from the family home and smothered the girls with a blanket.
His letters have resurfaced after they were published last year in Letters From Christopher.
The book was written by Cheryln Cradle after she struck up correspondence with him while he began his life sentence.
In one of the letters shown to Daily Mail TV, Watts revealed the moments leading up to his family’s death.
“August 13th, morning of, I went to the girls’ room first, before Shanann and I had our argument,” he wrote.
“I went to Bella’s room, then Cece’s room and used a pillow from their bed (to kill them). That’s why the cause of death was smothering. After I left Cece’s room, then I climbed back in bed with Shanann and our argument ensued.
“After Shanann had passed, Bella and Cece woke back up. I’m not sure how they woke back up, but they did. Bella’s eyes were bruised and both girls looked like they had been through trauma.”
Following the deaths of his wife and children, Watts claimed he murdered his wife as revenge after she killed their two girls.
However, he later debunked his own story in the letters to Cradle and confessed he had been planning the murders.
It is believed he plotted the killings in order to be with his mistress Nichol Kessinger.
“August 12th when I finished putting the girls to bed, I walked away and said, ‘That’s the last time I’m going to be tucking my babies in’. I knew what was going to happen the day before and I did nothing to stop it,” he said.
According to Daily Mail TV, the convicted killer also admitted to giving Shanann Oxycodone.
He did it in an attempt to cause her to miscarriage.
In the moments before Watts killed his wife, he told her he did not love her anymore.
“Isn’t it weird how I look back and what I remember so much is her face getting all black with streaks of mascara?” he wrote in the letters.
“All the weeks of me thinking about killing her, and now I was faced with it. When she started to get drowsy, I somehow knew how to squeeze the jugular veins until it cut off the blood flow to her brain, and she passed out.
“I knew if I took my hands off of her, she would still keep me from Nikki. They asked me why she couldn't fight back, it's because she couldn't fight back. Her eyes filled with blood; as she looked at me and she died. I knew she was gone when she relieved herself.”
The new Netflix documentary, American Murder: The Family Next Door, revealed new CCTV footage.
It follows the tense moment Watts, his neighbour Nate Trinastich and a police officer look over CCTV to try and determine what happened on the night Shanann and her daughters disappeared.
Watts appears fidgety and nervous as the three men watch the footage together.
The CCTV which was recorded from Mr Trinastich’s driveway, shows Watts parking in a different spot to where he usually parked.
The footage also showed Watts backing into the driveway at 5.17 am and he then appears to load items into his car.
Watts explained in the moment that he normally parks outside on the street because it makes it easier “to lug everything with all the tools [he] had to bring in”.
He then went on to say that the reason he parked in a different spot is because he had issues with people trying to break in and steal stuff from his home.
Police now can confirm the footage shown in the documentary was actually the horrifying moment Watts loafed his family into the car.