Where is Nichol Kessinger now? Killer Chris Watts' mistress who came forward with affair was crucial to case
Chris Watts had a mistress in the weeks before he had murdered his 15 weeks pregnant wife Shanann Watts and their two young daughters. Watts' mistress, Nichol Kessinger had been crucial in the murder investigation and had come forward with her affair with Watts before he had admitted to being in an extra-marital relationship. A new Netflix documentary titled 'American Murder: The Family Next Door' details the sequence of events leading up to the murder and delves into the gruesome case.
The documentary also features complete footage from the investigation, social media posts, news reports from the time, as well as text messages from parties involved. Kessinger is seen very briefly in the documentary, Bustle reports.
During interviews with investigators, Kessinger had claimed that Watts had told her that he and his wife had been in the process of getting a divorce. She also claimed she had no knowledge whatsoever that Watts had been intending to murder his whole family.
She revealed that she had only learned of his crimes after they had been reported on social media and had no idea that Shanann had been pregnant when she was murdered. Ever since the case went public and Watts was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without parole, Kessinger has disappeared with her whereabouts currently unknown.
It is said that Kessinger had allegedly begun a relationship with a geologist, Jim Gutoski, though there is no proof of this whatsoever. According to a CrimeOnline report, Kessinger had reportedly given an interview to CBI agents and been hesitant and reluctant to provide them with contact information on Gutoski.
She had allegedly told CBI agents, "Leave Jim alone. Leave Jim alone. Jim doesn’t need to be wrapped up in this," as per the interview audio seen by CrimeOnline. A Daily Mail report from 2018 claimed that Kessinger had allegedly been put into a witness protection program by the American government given the amount of hatred she had received. However, there is no proof that this happened either.
According to Bustle, there is also a strong possibility that Kessinger has allegedly maintained contact with Watts. The author of a book titled 'Letters from Christopher', Cheryln Cadle, had engaged in ongoing correspondence with Watts while he was in prison.
During his incarceration, Watts had received a number of letters and postcards signed by various names that he believes are actually from Kessinger. Cadle has reportedly claimed that Watts still refers to Kessinger as his 'soulmate'.
Some of the documents that were examined by Crime Online had a 'phone data review' which included recovered phone data and entries which had been deleted from her search history. The search history had allegedly shown that Kessinger had done some online searches for the names Shanann Watts and Chris Watts as far back as 2017.
We had earlier reported that the Netflix documentary also revealed the final text messages between Chris Watts and his pregnant wife Shanann before he murdered her and their two young daughters. Chris had strangled Shanann and then smothered 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste on August 13, 2018.
In the text messages, Shanann had asked Chris, "What kind of vegetables do you want with dinner tonight?" to which he had responded saying, "Broccoli works, Green beans work too." Shanann then said, "Ok I will get them when I go to Costco tomorrow. Anything else you want me to get besides salad and spinach." Chris asked his wife, "That's it. Plane take off yet?" after which his wife answered, "Finally on a plane and about to take off. Thank God! Prayers for a safe flight! Love you [kiss emojis]."