Chris Watts claims he's a changed man in letter to his mom ahead of slain daughter's 4th birthday: 'I’m still a dad! I’m still a son!'
In November 2018, Chris Watts pleaded guilty to the August 13, 2018, murders of his pregnant wife and their two very young daughters. Today, however, he claims to be a changed man, with a newfound relationship with God. His mother, Cindy Watts, was recently interviewed for a new special on HLN, titled 'Killer Dad: Chris Watts Speaks', and the show entails her reading out a letter she received from her son, where Chris made those proclamations.
Watts, who murdered his 34-year-old pregnant wife, Shanann and the couple's two daughters, four-year-old Bella and three-year-old Celeste, is a Colorado man. He wrote in the chilling jailhouse letter to his mother: "I'm still a Dad! I'm still a son! No matter what."
"Now, I can add servant of God to that mix! He has shown me peace, love, and forgiveness, and that’s how I live every day," wrote the 33-year-old Watts, who is now serving multiple life sentences for the despicable crime.
The news comes right before the birthday of his younger daughter, Celeste, who would have turned four on July 17. Chris dumped Celeste and her sister Bella's bodies in large oil tanks in the same remote oil field where he buried Shanann. Their bodies were found three days later.
The murders happened after Chris began an affair with his coworker Nichol Kessinger. She revealed to the police that Chris had claimed to have separated from his wife. The HLN special will document the affair and detail how Chris and Nichol exchanged photos using an app that Chris had kept hidden and passcode protected in his phone. The photos also included a set of snaps taken from during a secret trip that Chris and Nichol took to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.
In an inside prison interview from February 18 of this year, Watts provided the Colorado Bureau of Investigation chilling details of the triple murders. He revealed that his wife Shanann "may have been" praying while he strangled her to death. He drove her body, along with their two daughters who were still alive, to his job site, where he buried Shanann in a shallow grave.
All this while his daughters waited in the car before he smothered them too. Speaking about it, he claimed every time he closes his eyes, he can hear his older daughter's final words: "Daddy, no!" the four-year-old Bella had screamed as Chris had proceeded to smother her with the same blanket he had used to smother her little sister, Celeste, just moments ago. "I hear it every day when Bella was talking to me," Watts told the police in his confession. "When she said, 'Daddy, no!'"
Watts is currently on 23-hour lockdown at a Wisconsin prison. Inside his cell, he is allowed to read his Bible with not much more to do. He claims he speaks to the photos of his family, and reads a book out loud to his daughters' photos. Watts' sentence orders him to spend the rest of his life in the Wisconsin prison system. He is not eligible for parole.
The upcoming HLN special will showcase never before seen photos and evidence from the case, once its premieres on Saturday, July 13, at 8 pm ET.