Chris Watts wanted to kill himself using a gas can after murdering family but decided against it as he didn't want to 'hurt others'

Chris Watts reportedly tried to kill himself using a gasoline can he brought to the oil field where he buried his wife and daughters after murdering them. However, he decided against it at the last moment allegedly worrying that he'd cause an explosion that would jeopardize the lives of others. 

Watts sat down with detectives on February 18 and gave a full confession to his crimes including disturbing new details about the Aug. 13, 2018, murders of his pregnant wife Shanann, 34, and their two daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, People reports.

The investigators from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation learned that on the morning of the murders, Chris engaged in sexual intercourse with Shanann upon her return from a business trip to Arizona. Just hours later, the couple had a heated argument during which Chris told Shanann he didn't love her and that he was having an affair with another woman. In response, Shanann threatened to leave and deny him custody of their children.

“You’re never gonna see the kids again, you’re never gonna see them again,” Shanann allegedly told him. Chris became violent and began straddling his wife, who yelled at him to get off as he might "hurt the baby" as she was pregnant. It was at that moment that Chris "immediately put both of his hands around Shanann’s neck and strangled her," per a CBI report obtained by People.

After Shanann stopped breathing, he placed his wife's body in the back of his truck and took their daughters along to a remote oil field that belonged to his employer. It was there that he buried Shanann and smothered daughters Celeste and Bella to death.

In a heartbreaking revelation, Watts said Bella had witnessed her sister's death and pleaded for her life to her father, asking him if she was about to suffer the same fate. The killer then told authorities that he also brought a gas can with him to the oil field, which he had planned to use in order to kill himself.  

“Being a dad was the best part of his life and he took it all away,” the CBI report reads. “He put a gas can in the back of his truck and felt like he could get rid of himself at the same time. He didn’t feel like he deserved to live or be on this earth after what had happened…he considered taking his own life as well.”

However, Watts didn't go through with it because he didn't want to "kill anyone else", per the CBI report.

“He did not commit suicide because he felt like if he did it out at the oil site, he may have ended up hurting more people than just himself,” the report states. “He knew there were other people in the area and didn’t want something to catch fire or blow up.” As he did not possess any weapons at home, Watts planned to end his life using the gas can, he told police. He pleaded guilty to all three murders in November last year and is currently serving five life sentences without the possibility of parole.

At the time of the murders, Watts was having an extramarital affair with a co-worker, with whom he had desired to start afresh. Now, the disgraced killer has told authorities he reads Bible verses on a daily basis and keeps pictures of his wife and two daughters in his jail cell. According to him, Bella's final words have haunted him every day since the killings. The four-year-old had allegedly screamed, "Daddy, no!" before being smothered by her own father.