Shanann Watts' brother says Netflix documentary 'American Murders' has given her 'a voice' with 'the truth'
The brother of Chris Watts' victim and slain wife Shanann Watts has spoken out about the popular Netflix documentary based on her tragic death and urged people to watch it. The documentary titled 'American Murders: The Family Next Door' covers details on the horrific killings of Shanann and her two little girls, Bella and Celeste.
Chris Watts, a 33-year-old Colorado oil worker, killed his wife, Shanann, who was 15 weeks pregnant, along with his two daughters aged three and four on August 13, 2018. Chris, who had initially reported them missing and had made a public plea for their return, was arrested after he admitted to killing them.
It was later discovered that Watts was having an affair with a fellow co-worker at the oil company. He dumped the bodies of his children in two oil tankers, where he worked. The bodies were found four days later. Shanann's body was recovered from a shallow grave near the tankers.
Shanann's younger brother, Frankie, in a statement on Facebook, praised the documentary for "giving her a voice" as he urged people to watch it if they wanted to know the true story behind his sister's death. "I highly recommend watching this. It's on Netflix. The director made sure we were a part of the whole process and we met the whole team personally," he wrote.
"They made sure we were okay with them making this before they even started, unlike Lifetime's horrible movie. This documentary gives my sister a voice and she speaks throughout it. It also shows what her life was like before he came along and how happy she was with her beautiful family until he cheated and turned into a different person and became that monster."
Frankie added: "How crazy that even Kylie Jenner watched it and shared this on her Instagram. My sister is an inspiration to millions of people all over the world and I'm honored to be her little brother. She's still changing lives and I couldn't be more proud."
The graphic autopsy reports, released by the Weld County Coroner, detailed the condition of all three bodies that were recovered from an oil site owned by Anadarko Petroleum. All three autopsies cite the cause of death as "asphyxiation due to manual strangulation by another individual. The manner of death is homicide." Shanann's autopsy, however, revealed a heartbreaking detail about the child she was carrying at the time of the murder.
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The autopsy states that the mother's internal genitalia was protruding and there was a tissue attached to it that had largely decomposed. After they probed it, they found it to be the fetus that had expelled out of her body post her death. The experts couldn't determine its gender given the condition of the fetus and it was given to the CBI for genetic analysis.
Although experts couldn't determine the gender of the baby, it is publicly known that the Watts were expecting a baby boy and had named him Niko. Chris had initially attempted to pin the murders of her children on his wife when he first confessed to murdering Shanann.
However, he had since pleaded guilty to killing his daughters and wife. Chris was formally charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder, one count of unlawful termination of a pregnancy and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body. However, he later entered a guilty plea in exchange for five life sentences without parole.