Colorado well site where Chris Watts dumped bodies of pregnant wife and children finally destroyed
FREDERICK, COLORADO: The oil field where Chris Watts dumped the bodies of his pregnant wife and their two children has reportedly been demolished. The well site Cervi 319 near Frederick in Colorado was reportedly "scheduled to be decommissioned before" Watts left the remains of his victims back in 2018.
Internet sleuths later reported that the site had finally been destroyed years after the grisly murders. Watts, 38, an oil field operator, killed his wife Shanann, 34, and their daughters Bella, four, and Celeste, three, on August 13, 2018, by smothering them. He later dumped their bodies at the site.
READ MORE
Chris Watts’ coworker reveals the change that came over him before he killed wife and 2 daughters
The family annihilator originally claimed he had no idea about his family's whereabouts and allowed police to investigate their home while giving teary-eyed interviews to news outlets and begging the public for any information about his then-missing wife and daughters. However, just two days after the murders, Watts confessed to police that he was responsible for the death of his wife. He later admitted to the murder of his two daughters as well. Their remains were found at the Anadarko Petroleum site, where Watts worked at the time, a day after he was arrested.
Remains found in oil field
Shanann's body was found in a shallow grave, curled up in a "fetal position" with her knees "pulled up to her chest" and facing "down into the ground," while Bella and Celeste's remains were found at the bottom of oil tanks at the same site, police reports revealed. Watts ultimately pleaded guilty to all three murders and was handed five life sentences for the crimes. He was also sentenced to a further 48 years without the possibility of parole for the unlawful termination of his wife's pregnancy, and 36 years for three counts of tampering with a deceased human body.
"Upon the completion of emptying the east tank, a juvenile female victim, believed to be Celeste Watts, was found buried in crude oil sludge at the bottom of the east tank," a crime scene report read. "After the recovery of the victim from the east tank, the west tank was drained under the same procedural guidelines. Again, found in the bottom of the tank, in the crude oil sludge was the second juvenile female victim believed to be Bella Watts."
Both daughters were barefoot, while Shanann was dressed in a "t-shirt, bra, and panties." The autopsies of the mother and daughters were subsequently conducted at a Colorado medical center and based on the analyses, all three bodies were in an “advanced state of decomposition." The reports were released by the Weld County District Attorney's Office, as part of more than 2,000 pages of documents. The last photos of Shanann, Bella, and Celeste, taken just hours before Watts murdered them, were also published.
Well site demolished
A YouTube video, which has since been taken down, showed drone footage of the abandoned well site, with commenters wondering whether or not it had been decommissioned and demolished. One Redditor claimed the "installation" had been removed. "Yes – the installation has been removed," they responded in a thread about Cervi 319. "Last production information is December 2019 and the well records show it as plugged and abandoned. It was 21 years old and a low producing well before the Watts tragedy."