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Chris Watts' friends say they regret letting him stay at their place after family was reported missing

A couple who was close to Chris Watts said that they let him stay at their house after the family’s disappearance
UPDATED APR 9, 2020
Chris Watts (Source:Getty Images)
Chris Watts (Source:Getty Images)

Chris Watts was recently arrested for allegedly killing his wife and two daughters. Friends of the triple homicide suspect now say they are being haunted by their decision to let him sleep over in a bedroom across their five-year-old daughter.

In a conversation with Denver TV news station KUSA, Nick Thayer, a friend of Watts', said, “That’s something I’ll never forget, that we, we allowed this guy in our house. I mean, had we had any inclination that we thought he was involved at all, no way would I have let him in my house with my wife and kid.”

On Monday, Watts was charged with the murders of his 15-weeks-pregnant wife, Shanann, and their daughters, 3-year-old Celeste and 4-year-old Bella. According to an arrest affidavit obtained by People, he was also engaged in an alleged affair with a colleague. 


The 33-year-old, who made his first appearance in court Tuesday, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder with deliberation, two counts of first-degree murder of a child under the age of 12 by someone who is in a “position of trust” over them, one first-degree count of unlawful termination of pregnancy and three counts of tampering with a deceased body.

Chris was arrested Wednesday, one day before the bodies of his family members were found on the property of Anadarko, an oil-and-gas company where he worked before the incident. The Thayers were to host the Watts last weekend before their two girls were reported missing, according to Nick's wife, Amanda. “That would have been Emily’s first sleepover,” she said

However, the Thayers invited Chris into their home to stay overnight after the girls vanished and the father made public appeals for his wife's and daughters' safe return. They even defended him social media amidst growing speculation about his involvement in the crime.

The family revealed that they had let him sleep in a bedroom across from their daughter's room. “She came in [the next] morning and was like, ‘I saw Mr. Chris,’ you know, ’cause I mean their doors are right by each other,” said Nick Thayer. “It’s just a haunting memory at this point.”

Allegedly, they did not know of any troubles between the Watts. “Chris and I never talked about that kind of stuff anyway,” said Nick Thayer. Amanda Thayer said, “Shanann had jokingly mentioned it, but honestly she wasn’t worried. But you know when your husband doesn’t answer your text messages, as a woman, your thought process just goes to the wrong things. … It was never a serious concern of hers.”

Nick Thayer reached out to Shannan's family after the arrest of Chris Watts. “I apologized,” he said. In a conversation with Shannan's mother, he said, “I’m so sorry, like, we didn’t know. We thought we were doing the right thing” standing by Chris. Shannan's family responded to him over the phone, saying, “We get it, we don’t hold it against you.”

“That was a really big relief,” he said. “All I can do is say we’re sorry we defended him on social media. … We really had no idea that he was capable of something like this.”

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