One year after Chris Watts murdered wife Shanann and their two girls, 'it's all her family thinks about', says insider
Exactly a year ago, Chris Watts killed his entire family, including his pregnant 34-year-old wife, Shanann, and their two daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, on August 13, 2018.
Now, a year after the tragedy, friends and family are still mourning the disturbing killings as they remember the vibrant young mother and her two beloved daughters who were snatched from them too soon.
The family is set to spend the one-year anniversary in "reflection" of Shanann and the girls, a family source told People.
“It’s all the family thinks about,” they said. “This has changed their lives forever.”
Chris Watts is currently serving life in prison without parole at a Wisconsin jail after pleading guilty to murdering his pregnant wife and two daughters.
During interrogation on February 18 this year, Watts gave investigators chilling new details about the murders.
According to him, he and Shanann had sex after she returned from a business trip to Arizona.
Just a couple of hours later, he engaged in a fight with his wife after telling her he didn't love her anymore, prompting Shanann to threaten to leave him and take custody of the children.
It was at that moment Watts said he "snapped" and lost control.
The deranged husband and father proceeded to strangle Shanann to death and drove her corpse to a remote oil field with his daughters still alive in the backseat.
Watts revealed he smothered Celeste in the backseat, right next to her sister, before burying Shanann in a shallow grave.
In yet another disturbing revelation, Watts said he dumped Celeste's body in an oil tank before returning to smother Bella, who begged her father for her life.
The killer was having an affair with a coworker Nichol Kessinger at the time of the murders.
While talking to authorities, Kessinger claimed she thought Watts was separated.
Nonetheless, Shanann would have now been a 35-year-old mother of three if she was still alive.
Family members say she was grateful to become a mother especially after suffering from a series of health issues.
“Closets were full before she was even pregnant,” Shanann’s brother, Frankie Rzucek Jr., said at his sister’s funeral. “She couldn’t wait.”
The embattled mother was unsure she would have another child after giving birth to Bella, but was soon blessed with Celeste.
“Oh how Shanann was so excited to be able to have another child because of her battle with Lupus,” Shanann’s family wrote in her obituary. “She was determined to stay healthy — and with her love for her Celeste, every moment with her was a blessing.”
When her husband killed her, Shanann was pregnant and expecting her third child.
“It’ll be a tough day for Shanann’s family,” the insider told People. “But they’ll get through it together. What’s important is that they’re never forgotten."