Watts case: Here's why investigators believe Chris killed his pregnant wife and two daughters
An affidavit that was made public on August 20 revealed the details of the police interviews with the alleged triple murderer, Chris Watts. The man has been accused of killing his pregnant wife and their two young daughters. Chris was charged on August 20 with three counts of first-degree murder and two additional first-degree murder charges of causing the death of a child below the age of 12.
Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke said that some of the other charges include three counts of tampering with a body and one count of first-degree unlawful termination of a pregnancy. Thirty-three-year-old Chris is currently being held without bond and his next appearance in court has been scheduled for Tuesday morning.
Aside from Chris claiming he strangled Shanann to death because he caught her strangling the children, as well as him having an affair with a coworker whose identity has still not been revealed, the affidavit had two other points of interest which seem highly suspicious.
This is what the unsealed affidavit said:
Chris said he went into a 'rage' and strangled his wife
The father-of-three said that he and Shanann had spoken about him wanting the separation after she got back from her trip early on August 13 morning but then he had allegedly "walked downstairs for a moment". According to the affidavit, he went back to the bedroom and he allegedly saw through the baby monitor that Bella was "sprawled" and "blue" on her bed while Shanann was allegedly "actively strangling Celeste".
It was at this point in the affidavit that Chris alleged that he "went into a rage and ultimately strangled Shanann to death" before he put "all three bodies onto the back seat of his work truck".
Chris had an affair with a coworker before the murders
Watts had been "actively involved in an affair with a co-worker" before he allegedly killed his pregnant wife and two daughters earlier last week, according to new allegations in court documents. The arrest affidavit showed that he told the authorities he did not have an affair. The police, however, said that they conducted a two-day investigation and have found out the identity of the woman Watts was having an affair with. The investigators are still being secretive about the identity of the coworker.
The identity of the woman has not been made public, as lines in the affidavit regarding the affair have been redacted. The news of the affair in the affidavit was one of the shocking moments from the trial after it was released to the public on August 20.
The authorities were allowed into the home
Nicole Utoft, a friend of Shanann, called 911 on August 13 at around 1.40 pm and Officer Coonrod had been dispatched to the home in Saratoga Trail. Utoft had said that she had dropped the mother off at her home at around 12.48 am after they returned from a work trip in Arizona. She told the dispatcher that Shanann was 15-weeks pregnant and had not been feeling well during the trip. Later that same morning, she said she had become worried because the mother was not answering calls or messages and that she had also missed a doctors appointment that had been scheduled for 10 am.
Utoft told the officer that she went to the home to check on her friend and had found Shanann's car with the toddler car seats still in it. The affidavit then states that she tried to open the front door but a latch on the inside prevented her from opening it more than 3 inches. She then called Chris and asked him to come back to the house immediately as she suspects something may have happened to Shanann.
Officer Coonrod reached the location and checked all the doors and windows but they were secured. He then contacted Chris and asked him to give the code for the garage door to which the man replied that it didn't work and that he was only five minutes away from the home. Chris arrived at the home and with his consent, Officer Coonrod entered the home to look for Shanann and the children. They were not to be found anywhere so the officer questioned Chris.
Chris said that his wife had reached home at around 2 am and he woke up at 5 am after which they spoke about the separation. He claimed that he loaded his tools in the truck at around 5.27 am and then left for work while Shanann went to bed. Video surveillance footage taken from a neighbors security camera recorded this event taking place. He claimed that Shanann had told him she was taking the kids and going to a friends house and that he did not know the name of the friend.
Officer Coonrod had requested Detective Baumhover to go to the location and when he arrived there at 2.35 pm, the affidavit stated that the authorities found Shanann's cell phone, purse, wallet, and medication inside the home. Chris gave his consent for the phone to be taken to the police department for further analysis. The detective also noted that when he entered the home, he found a suitcase at the bottom of the stairs and women's shoes near the front door. They also found the bedding in the master bedroom had been taken away but no foul play was detected.
The three bodies were buried in separate locations
Chris later admitted to the authorities that he had strangled his wife and put her body and the bodies of the children in the back seat of the truck. He then drove to the oil worksite and buried Shanann's body near two tanks. The affidavit also stated that he put the bodies of the two children into oil tanks. When the police took him to the site after he was arrested, he identified all the locations where he had put the bodies.
The authorities had used a drone and saw a bedsheet in the field close to the oil tank farm where the bodies were found. The sheet is said to have matched that of the same pattern on the pillowcases as well as the top sheet that was found in the trash at the home. This bedsheet in the field was located before Chris confessed to the police. The drone search was able to find what the authorities described as "fresh movement of dirt consistent with a clandestine grave near the oil tanks".
According to the court filings by the prosecutors, Shanann's body was found on August 16 in a "shallow grave near an oil tank" and the children were discovered "inside oil tanks located near the grave of their mother".