Chris Watts case: Prosecutors prepare to reveal why he killed his pregnant wife and two children
The motive for Chris Watts amurdering Shanann Watts and their two young daughters is set to be revealed today by the investigators. Thirty three-year-old Watts is scheduled to appear in court on Monday after being charged with the murders of his wife, who was 15-weeks pregnant with baby son Nico at the time she died, and two children, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste.
After he was arrested on August 15, his lawyer filed a motion requesting for DNA swabs to be taken from the necks of deceased daughters. It was then revealed on August 17 that the request had been refused by a judge who said he "won't tell experts how to do their job".
Watts was seen on TV last week as he cried and appealed for the return of Shanann and the children before he allegedly admitted to murdering them. The cause of their death has still not been made public.
The bodies were discovered on the property of Anadarko Petroleum, which is one of the largest oil and natural gas drilling companies in the state of Colorado. Watts worked at Anadarko Petroleum as an operator before he was fired. The court documents that were filed by James Merson, the defense lawyer, had said that the two daughters have been found immersed in crude oil after being there for four days, Mirror Online reported.
The lawyers said that the DNA taken from the children would be then tested by Richard Eikelenboom, a forensic expert who was also known for working on the JonBenet Ramsey trial. Megan Ring, Watts lawyer, said in a two-page filing to a Weld County, Colorado, court that a "coroner, pathologist, or anyone working on behalf of the prosecution team in autopsy" are not planning to take DNA swabs from the necks of the daughters.
The Prosecutors are also believed to be weighing whether or not they should ask for a death penalty, which is a rare case in Colorado, reports Dailymail.
Ring had also asked that Eikelenboom be allowed to do further testing on the samples because they believe that the DNA would still be there on the necks of the children "in spite of the fact that the remains were in oil for four days". It was also revealed on Monday that the police have kept the bodies in an unknown place. The post-mortem examinations were conducted on August 17 and an official cause of death has still not been revealed. It is believed that a request from the defense team of lawyers suggests that the victims had been strangled.
One body language expert studied the recordings of the interviews very closely and said last week that she believed it was obvious that the "killer" dad had been lying. Dr Lillian Glass told Hollywood Life in an interview that Watts spoke too much and had been giving out a lot of information.
Watts said at that time, "I have no inclination where they're at right now. I've exhausted every friend that I know of and every friend that I have, has called friends that Shanann has that maybe I didn't know about. ... Just vanished. When I got home yesterday it was like a ghost town. She wasn't here. The kids were here. I have no idea where they went."
Mary Ellen O'Toole, a former profiler with the FBI, also said that Watts showed arrogance and a lack of empathy in his interviews. She said, "When somebody kills their own family and then they go on TV to say 'But I didn't have anything to do with it,' that ability to be so very sure of your own interpersonal skills that you can attempt to fool a national and international audience is very unusual. That's a lot of arrogance and confidence that you could pull this off, and that's not typical." O'Toole said that Watts stressing that he did not know where his wife and children were showed an attempt on his part to nudge the investigation away from himself.
CBS local reported that the Weld County prosecutors said that Watts was in prison in protective custody and that the charges were expected to be formally filed on August 20.
A memorial of stuffed animals, balloons, flowers and messages were spotted outside the family's home in Frederick, Colorado. A candlelight vigil was held for the pregnant mother, the two girls and their unborn brother on August 17 and many people were in attendance. A friend of Shanann's, Ashley Bell, had revealed that her dead friend was going to reveal the gender of her baby on August 18.