Chris Watts was allegedly cheating on wife Shanann with coworker before murdering his family: Authorities
Chris Watts, the triple murder suspect from Colorado, 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. Watts was charged with the first-degree murder of his wife Shanann Watts, who was 15-weeks pregnant at the time of her death, and their two daughters, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste.
An 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. Watts is said to have allegedly confessed to murdering Shanann after he claimed that he "went into a rage" when he saw her strangling one of their daughters.
Aside from the murder, the prosecutors have charged the 33-year-old man with three counts of tampering with a dead body and unlawful termination of a pregnancy in the first degree. About twelve hours after Shanann and a friend had gotten back from a business trip, the friend reported her as missing.
Two days after that, on August 15 night, Chris was taken into police custody. PEOPLE reported that the bodies of the wife and children were found on August 16.
In the days that followed, the investigators started working on what was initially a missing person case and Chris had said in the beginning that he had spoken to his wife on August 13 after he woke up at around 5 am. He said that she had gone back to their home in Frederick, Colorado, at around 2 am. The arrest affidavit said that Chris allegedly told Shanann that he wanted to separate. The affidavit also states that Chris said he and Shanann "were emotional" but the conversation they had was "civil".
Chris spoke to the police later and told them that he had seen Shanann on August 13 but the one glaring difference was that he said he saw her at 4 am. The arrest affidavit then states that this time, he told the authorities that he had 'informed her he wanted to go through with a separation and they were both upset and crying".
In the end, in one more police interview that took place, investigators found out about the affair. Chris asked them if he could speak to his father and then he said he would "tell the truth".
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". He then allegedly took the bodies to an oil site that is owned by the company he worked for, Anadarko Petroleum, and then buried then buried Shanann in a shallow grave and put the bodies of the children into oil tanks where they remained for the next four days till they were found.
The causes of all the three deaths have still not been revealed and the authorities have yet to confirm the suspected motive behind the killings. Even though they charged him with murder in court, it became clear that they did not believe Chris' account of what transpired. He will be appearing in court again on Tuesday. He has still not entered his plea.
A friend of the Watts', Kris Landon, told the magazine, "It’s really sad. It’s beyond belief, really. And it makes you wonder about other people you know. If this couple who seemed so perfect was like this, what are the other couples like?"