'My daddy is a hero': Heart-wrenching words of Chris Watts' daughter Bella filmed just months before her murder
A toddler who was allegedly murdered by her father, alongside her three-year-old sister and their mother, is seen calling him a "hero" in a disturbing family video filmed two months before the incident took place.
According to police sources, 33-year-old Chris Watts allegedly murdered 4-year-old Bella, 3-year-old Celeste and his wife 33-year-old Shanann, before leaving their bodies at an oil field near their house. The girls were put in a full tank to avoid the stench.
In a new heartbreaking video, Bella is seen sitting in the back of a car singing a song praising her father. "My daddy is a hero, he helps me grow up strong," she tunes. "He reads my books, he ties me shoes, you're a hero, through and through. My daddy, daddy, I love you."
The footage surfaced after friends of the family reported financial troubles the couple had faced during their relationship. Some also suggested Chris could have been cheating, although others said their relationship had appeared strong. Two other videos show Shanann praising her husband as "the best thing that's ever happened" to her and telling him she was pregnant two months before he allegedly killed her and their two young girls.
Shanann revealed the pregnancy to her husband in a video posted on Facebook in June. He smiles after seeing the positive test and says, "I guess when you really want something it happens." Another video uploaded on her Facebook page, a month before, Shanann is seen speaking about how serious health problems had thrust her into the "darkest time of my life' before she met Chris, whom she called "wonderful."
In the pregnancy video, there's a clear visual of Chris walking through a doorway into the family's lounge room and he pauses for several seconds while looking at his wife's t-shirt bearing the words, "oops, we did it again."
He then walks slowly towards her and laughs before saying, "I like that shirt... really?" When Shanann says "yes" he replies, "That's awesome." He then questions if the pink color on the pregnancy tests means the baby will be a girl, to which she replies it doesn't. "That's awesome," he repeats before kissing her. "I guess when you really want something to happen, it happens." Shannon was 15-weeks pregnant with a boy when she died. The child was going to be called Nico.
The second video begins with Shanann telling her Facebook friends about the health problems she had faced before she met Chris, which forced her to quit her job of nine years.
"I thought my life was crumbling underneath me and I didn't have many friends, as those I did have I lost because they didn't understand that I looked fine but felt horrible inside," she says. "I felt a lot of discomforts, a lot of aches, a lot of bad moods." Shanann adds that she initially rejected a Facebook friend suggestion for Chris, but later changed her mind when he sent a request himself.
"I got a friend request from Chris on Facebook, I was in a really bad place and thought "what the heck, I'm never going to meet him" so accepted. "One thing led to another and eight years later we have two kids, we live in Colorado, and he's the best thing that has ever happened to me," she gleefully shares."Because of my health challenges, I let him in... he knew me at my worst and he accepted me. Through sickness and everything, he's been there. When I first met Chris I pushed him away, I gave every excuse for him to run, I gave him an out every single day... I tortured him... But he stuck around because he was the one for me, I can't tell you how wonderful he is," she adds.
Friends Nicholas and Amanda Thayer suggested that before her death Shanann thought Chris could have been unfaithful, telling CBS, "It came to her mind that possibly he could be cheating." However, others said they enjoyed a strong relationship, "I don't know why he would want to kill her, the wife and the two kids," Joe Beach, a neighbor of the family in Aberdeen, told ABC 11. "I'm still in complete shock about it," said Joe Duty, Watts former teacher. "Chris was one of the best students that I ever taught ... He was always punctual, did everything right."
In June, Shanann shared an ultrasound of their unborn third child on Facebook, calling Chris "the best dad us girls could ask for." Chris appeared in court for the first time on Thursday. He was denied bail. The suspect did not speak as he was escorted into the courtroom. He looked down for much of the hearing but made eye contact as the judge reviewed his rights.
Though formal charges have not yet been filed, he could face three charges of murder and three charges of tampering with evidence. Judge Marcelo Kopcow told prosecutors to file formal charges by Monday and set a Tuesday hearing to review them.
Kopcow approved a request by Chris' attorney that police preserve all written notes and notify the defense team before autopsies are performed. But the date for it hasn't been confirmed yet. Prosecutors say they believe Shanann and her children were killed in their home and the bodies later moved, but no cause of death has been made public.
Shanann went missing on Monday after returning from a business trip to Arizona at around 1 am. Her job was to promote weight loss supplements, for which she traveled the country to attend sales conferences. The children spent the weekend at home with their father while their mother was away working, police said.
Chris said the last time he saw his wife was at 5.15am on Monday when he left for work. He said that they had stayed up having an "emotional conversation" between her arrival at 1 am and his departure for work.
He said he became worried when she did not reply to his text messages later in the morning. Chris said he panicked when a friend arrived at the home at noon and there was no answer. The couple had previously faced financial difficulties and were due in court the following week to face a lawsuit from their homeowners' association, suing them for $1,500. They filed for bankruptcy in 2015 to escape crushing credit card debts and focus on paying off their mortgage.
Chris had got a job six months earlier as an operator for Anadarko, and paystubs indicate his annual salary was about $61,500. Shanann was working in a call center at a children's hospital at the time, earning about $18 an hour — more for evenings, weekends or extra shifts.
The couple had a combined income of $90,000 in 2014. But they also had tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, along with some student loans and medical bills — for a total of $70,000 in unsecured claims on top of a sizable mortgage. Chris was employed at Anadarko until word of his arrest on Wednesday.
Not much has been revealed about the case, even what prompted Chris to make his apparent confession. He did lead police to Shanann's body, police said, adding on Thursday that they also believe they known the location of the two girls' bodies. On Thursday, the DA said he hoped to share more details on Monday when he planned to lodge formal charges against Chris.