0:01

Due to the nature of

0:03

this case, listener discretion is

0:05

advised. This episode includes discussions

0:07

of violence, child abuse, child

0:09

death, and murder. Consider

0:11

this when deciding how and when you'll listen.

0:20

Officer Scott Coonrod circled the perimeter

0:22

of the Watts family home. He'd

0:25

been called to do a wellness check

0:27

on Shannon Watts, who wasn't answering any

0:29

calls or texts. Her car

0:31

was in the garage, but nobody was coming to

0:33

the door. Shannon

0:36

and her two children, 4-year-old

0:38

Bella and 3-year-old Cece, had

0:40

apparently disappeared. But

0:42

when her husband Chris parked in front of

0:45

the house and trotted up the driveway, Officer

0:48

Coonrod only felt more uneasy.

0:51

The man had just learned that

0:53

his pregnant wife and two young

0:55

kids were missing, but instead

0:57

of racing into the house to look

0:59

for them, he stopped to exchange pleasantries

1:02

with the officer. Once

1:04

inside, Chris seemed distracted. He kept

1:06

looking at his phone. He

1:08

didn't seem particularly invested in finding Shannon

1:11

and the children. The man

1:13

who lived next door offered to let the

1:15

investigator look at the footage from the security

1:17

camera in his driveway. The

1:20

video showed Chris's truck leaving for

1:22

work around 5.30 that morning. There

1:25

was no sign of Shannon leaving the

1:27

house or of anybody else arriving. The

1:30

video itself wasn't remarkable, but

1:33

Chris's reaction was. He

1:36

kept looking at his phone or up at

1:38

the ceiling. He was sweating. He seemed on

1:40

the verge of panic. Once

1:42

the video stopped, Chris hurried out of

1:44

the neighbor's house. The neighbor

1:47

turned to Officer Coonrod and said

1:49

what they were both thinking. He's

1:53

not acting right. I'm

1:57

Vanessa Richardson, and this is Serial

1:59

Killer. A Spotify podcast. You can

2:01

find us here every Monday. Be

2:04

sure to check us out on Instagram, at

2:06

Serial Killers Podcast. We'd love to hear from

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2:11

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2:15

Stay with us. This

2:19

episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Social

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or prevent any disease. Hey

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y'all, Marcy Martin here with a little

3:55

tan backstory. One time I went

3:57

on vacation in the Bahamas with some friends, and of

3:59

course I got my period. I

4:02

didn't want anything to stop me from living my best

4:04

life on my trip. So I was like, why not

4:06

be brave and try Tampax? Before that,

4:08

I really just thought tampons were for

4:10

adults, and I definitely thought they'd be

4:12

uncomfortable. Guess what, y'all? They really aren't.

4:15

It might take a few tries, but once it's

4:17

in right, you shouldn't feel it. Which is great.

4:20

For a better way to period, just add

4:22

Tampax. Tampax

4:24

is a good friend

4:27

of Tampax's. Late in the summer of 2018, Shanann

4:31

Watts worried that her marriage to Chris

4:33

Watts was irreparably damaged. She didn't know

4:35

for sure that Chris was having an

4:37

affair, but she felt that he'd been

4:39

pulling away from her for weeks. For

4:42

the sake of their family, she was desperate

4:44

to fix things. They had

4:47

two young children, four-year-old Bella

4:49

and three-year-old Cece. And

4:51

Shanann was 15 weeks pregnant

4:54

with their third. On

4:56

August 10th, Shanann left town for a

4:58

training event in Scottsdale, Arizona, hosted by

5:01

the direct sales company she worked for

5:03

as a sales rep. She

5:05

planned to return two nights later. Chris

5:08

and the children stayed at their home

5:10

in Frederick, Colorado. On the

5:12

afternoon of the 12th, Chris took the kids

5:14

to a family friend's birthday party. The

5:17

three of them seemed normal. At one

5:19

point, Cece fell off the swing set

5:21

and Chris ran to comfort her. The

5:24

party host noted how good he seemed with

5:26

the kids. Chris dutifully took pictures

5:28

of the girls having fun at the party

5:30

and texted them to Shanann. He

5:33

told her they were all having a good time. Shanann

5:35

responded, Good, I'm glad.

5:37

Okay, I love you. That

5:40

evening around 5pm, Chris and the

5:42

girls face-timed with Shanann to say

5:44

goodnight. About an hour

5:46

later, Shanann left her hotel for the

5:49

airport. She texted Chris that she

5:51

couldn't wait to be back home in bed.

5:54

After a delay, she finally landed in

5:56

Denver at 1.30am. She

5:59

got a ride home from her friend

6:01

and fellow sales rep, Nikki Atkinson,

6:03

arriving at the house just before

6:06

2. Chris was asleep when she

6:08

got home, but he woke up when she

6:10

climbed into bed. He felt

6:12

her stirring. She seemed restless, unable

6:14

to fall asleep. Chris

6:16

said that Shanann began stroking his

6:19

chest. He turned to face

6:21

her, and they had sex. He

6:23

later said it felt strange, like it was

6:25

some kind of test. It was

6:27

as if Shanann wanted to know whether or not

6:30

they still had a functional marriage. It

6:32

felt wrong to Chris. He sensed that

6:34

Shanann knew about his affair, and he

6:37

would soon have to come clean. After

6:42

they had sex, Chris fell asleep but woke

6:45

up again not too long after, around 4

6:48

am. He got ready for work,

6:50

then woke Shanann up to talk. He

6:52

felt they had to have a discussion before he

6:55

left the house. He later said

6:57

he was worried that Shanann might be on

6:59

the verge of leaving him and taking the

7:01

kids with her. He didn't want

7:03

to go to work until they'd at least gotten

7:05

things out in the open. As

7:07

Chris sat on the bed looking down

7:09

at Shanann, he realized he didn't know

7:12

what he wanted to say. Did

7:14

he want to save his marriage, or

7:16

end it? He wasn't sure. He

7:19

wasn't even sure who he was anymore.

7:22

He didn't feel like a husband or a

7:24

father at that moment. He felt

7:26

like he was inhabited by a stranger.

7:29

The old Chris had spent his entire

7:31

life walking down a set path, one

7:34

where the road felt safe and familiar

7:36

beneath his feet. Now,

7:38

the stranger in his head was

7:40

beckoning him toward the darkness, and

7:43

suddenly he couldn't seem to find his

7:45

footing. Chris saw Shanann

7:48

was crying. She knew it was

7:50

over. The path was

7:52

in shambles. The old

7:54

Chris let the stranger take

7:56

over. He became a

7:58

new version of himself. And

8:01

this one was filled with

8:03

rage. As they

8:05

talked, Chris climbed on top of Shanann.

8:08

His legs straddled her body. She

8:11

told him to get off. He was hurting the baby.

8:13

But he didn't. He told her that he

8:15

didn't love her anymore. At some

8:17

point, according to Chris, she told him that

8:19

she was going to leave him and he'd

8:21

never see his kids again. In

8:28

2015, Professor of Criminology David

8:30

Wilson co-authored a study on

8:33

individuals who kill family members.

8:36

The study collected data on family killings between

8:38

1980 and 2012. Researchers

8:43

found that the threat of a family

8:45

breakup was a top motivator behind such

8:47

crimes. It was cited as the

8:49

precursor to violence in 66% of the cases.

8:53

Chris later said he wasn't sure if

8:56

he'd outright planned to kill his wife

8:58

or not. He said, It

9:00

felt like there was already something in my

9:02

mind that was implanted that I was going

9:04

to do it, and when I woke up

9:06

that morning, it was going to happen, and

9:09

I had no control over it. On

9:12

the morning of August 13, Chris

9:14

strangled Shanann. He

9:17

said she didn't fight back, and he didn't

9:19

know why. He thought maybe

9:22

she was praying. Moments

9:25

later, Chris said their 4-year-old daughter

9:27

Bella came into the room, dragging

9:29

her pink and blue blanket behind

9:31

her. She saw her

9:33

mother and asked Chris what happened. Chris

9:36

told her mommy didn't feel good. He

9:39

wrapped Shanann's body in a sheet and

9:41

brought her downstairs. Bella

9:43

cried. He removed Shanann's wedding ring

9:46

and left it on the kitchen counter. Then

9:48

he brought her into the garage. He

9:50

went out to the driveway, where his truck

9:53

was parked, and backed it part way into

9:55

the garage. He lay her on the

9:57

bench seat in the back of his truck. He

10:00

slipped a trash bag over

10:02

Shanann's head and another over

10:04

her feet, completely covering her.

10:07

When he got back to the house, three-year-old

10:09

Cece had also woken up and was out

10:12

of bed. Chris loaded

10:14

the two little girls into the truck.

10:17

He began to drive. The

10:19

girls quickly fell asleep, leaning against

10:21

each other. Chris later

10:24

said his mind was empty. He

10:26

wasn't thinking about anything at all.

10:29

Chris drove to a remote oil site owned

10:32

by his employer. He was scheduled

10:34

to examine an oil leak on the site

10:36

that morning. When he got

10:38

there, around 6.30am, the field

10:40

was empty. Nobody else had

10:42

arrived yet. Chris took

10:44

out Shanann's body and laid it on

10:46

the ground. Then he returned

10:49

to his car. Chris

10:51

turned to the children in the back seat. First

10:54

he strangled Cece in the back of the

10:56

truck. The woman remained

10:59

in her seat, watching her own

11:01

father murder her sister. She

11:03

didn't say a word. At

11:05

the corner of the oil field, two

11:07

large tanks loomed over the site. Each

11:10

tank stored 400 barrels, or 16,800 gallons, of

11:12

crude oil. Chris

11:18

took Cece's body over to the tanks.

11:20

He carried her up a metal staircase

11:22

to the top. After

11:24

he opened the hatch, just a small

11:27

opening about 8 inches wide, Chris

11:30

dropped Cece's body inside.

11:33

He then returned to the truck

11:35

and strangled Bella before putting her

11:38

body in the same oil tank.

11:41

Chris returned to Shanann. He

11:43

dug out a shallow grave about 100

11:46

yards away from the oil tanks. He

11:48

put Shanann's body inside, then

11:51

covered her with dirt. After

11:56

the murders, Chris waited until his co-workers began

11:59

to shiver. show up at the site about

12:01

an hour later. He'd tried

12:03

to act normal. He'd hidden the bodies

12:05

in a location that was remote enough.

12:07

He thought it was unlikely that anybody

12:09

might stumble upon them. All

12:11

he had to do was act like

12:14

nothing was wrong while he tried to

12:16

figure out what to do next. But

12:19

Chris had no way of

12:22

knowing how quickly his coverup

12:24

would unravel. Hey,

12:28

y'all. Marci Martin here with a little

12:30

Tampax story. One time I went

12:32

on vacation in the Bahamas with some friends, and of

12:34

course I got my period. I

12:36

didn't want anything to stop me from living my best

12:38

life on my trip. So I was like, why not

12:40

be brave and try Tampax? Before that,

12:43

I really just thought tampons were for

12:45

adults, and I definitely thought they'd be

12:47

uncomfortable. Guess what, y'all? They really aren't.

12:49

It might take a few tries, but once it's

12:52

in right, you shouldn't feel it, which is great.

12:54

For a better way to period, just add

12:56

Tampax. In

12:59

the early morning hours of August 13th, 2018, Chris

13:04

Watts murdered his pregnant wife,

13:06

Shannon, and their two children,

13:08

Bella and Cece. Chris

13:11

went to work that morning at a

13:13

remote oil site near Rugg in Colorado.

13:15

His coworkers that day knew he'd been

13:17

first to arrive at the job site.

13:20

What they didn't know was that he

13:22

had hidden the bodies of his wife

13:24

and children there. Over

13:26

the course of that morning, Chris took

13:28

breaks from his work to make several

13:30

phone calls and texts. He

13:32

called his children's private school and told

13:34

them they would no longer be attending.

13:37

He also reached out to his realtor to

13:39

talk about selling his house. The

13:42

realtor and the preschool staffer both found

13:44

it strange that Chris called them. They

13:46

were used to speaking with Shannon. Some

13:49

of Chris's coworkers also noticed a few

13:51

details that stuck out as odd. Chris

13:55

had come to the site to inspect a

13:57

leak near the oil wellhead, but he had

13:59

parked his truck. truck next to the

14:01

tanks, nowhere near the leak. They

14:04

also noted that his boots and shirt

14:06

were shabbier than usual. After

14:08

the murders, Chris threw out the clothes he

14:11

was wearing and changed into an old set

14:13

of spare work clothes he kept in his

14:15

truck. According to a

14:17

work acquaintance, Chris also seemed rather

14:19

quiet. Then again, he normally

14:21

had a reserved demeanor, so his behavior

14:24

didn't seem that out of the ordinary.

14:27

Shanann's silence, though, immediately caught

14:29

the attention of her friends

14:31

and family. Shanann

14:34

was an active Facebook user,

14:36

posting multiple times a day,

14:38

every day. Her friend

14:41

Nikki Atkinson noted Shanann's quiet

14:43

Facebook activity just a few

14:45

hours after her death. She

14:47

tried calling and texting Shanann to see

14:49

if she was okay and got no

14:52

response. It worried her enough that

14:54

she called the police and asked them to do

14:56

a wellness check around 9 am.

14:59

When they weren't able to send someone

15:01

right away, Nikki went to the Watts

15:03

house herself. She saw that

15:05

Shanann's car was still in the garage.

15:08

Nikki thought she must be home, but

15:11

no matter how hard she

15:13

knocked, nobody answered. Nikki

15:15

knew the code to the front

15:17

door's lock. However, she discovered that

15:19

the door was also locked from

15:22

the inside with a sliding safety

15:24

latch. Nikki called Chris

15:26

and told him she was worried that

15:28

something happened to Shanann. She thought

15:30

perhaps she'd gotten sick and passed out. Over

15:33

the phone, he tried to allay her fears.

15:35

He told her Shanann had taken the girls

15:37

on a play date. Nikki

15:40

wasn't convinced. This excuse didn't explain

15:42

why Shanann wasn't answering her texts.

15:44

And if Shanann had really taken

15:46

the girls out, why was her

15:49

car still there? She

15:51

had a gut feeling that something

15:53

horrible had happened. She called the

15:55

police again and then told Chris

15:57

they were on their way. Chris

16:00

quickly left work to come home.

16:02

He stopped at a construction dumpster on

16:04

the way back. He deposited the blanket

16:07

he'd used to cover the girls' heads

16:09

before strangling them. He

16:11

also threw away the clothes he'd been wearing

16:13

that morning. He texted his

16:16

girlfriend to tell her his family

16:18

had gone missing. Then

16:20

he went home to meet the police.

16:25

That afternoon, police officers questioned Chris

16:27

at the house. He told

16:29

them the same thing he'd told Nicky, that

16:32

Shanann had taken the girls on a play

16:34

date. He didn't know where they were. When

16:36

he left for work that morning, Shanann had

16:38

been home and the girls were asleep in

16:40

bed. He also told

16:42

them that he and Shanann had had

16:44

an emotional conversation that morning. They'd

16:47

discussed divorce. Chris

16:49

pretended to find Shanann's wedding ring in

16:51

the kitchen and showed it to the

16:54

police. He hoped to make it

16:56

look like she'd placed it there as a signal that

16:58

she was leaving him. Officers

17:00

probed Chris about the state of

17:02

his marriage. They asked about infidelity.

17:05

Chris lied, telling them that he

17:08

never cheated on Shanann. Instead,

17:10

he suggested Shanann might be

17:12

seeing someone else. Chris

17:15

gave police permission to search the

17:17

house. They found Shanann's

17:20

cell phone, wallet, purse,

17:22

and medication inside. It

17:24

seemed unlikely that she'd left the house

17:26

without any of these belongings. Chris's

17:29

story didn't seem to add up.

17:34

That evening, police canvassed the neighborhood and

17:36

put out a press release about the

17:38

missing woman and children. The

17:41

next day, the Colorado Bureau of

17:43

Investigation activated an endangered missing alert

17:45

for the family. They urged the

17:47

public to spread the message on

17:49

social media in the hopes that

17:51

someone might call in with a

17:53

lead. Chris

17:55

gave a television interview in which he

17:57

begged for his wife and children's safe

18:00

return. He talked about

18:02

how much he missed them. He

18:04

concluded, "'I need to see everybody.

18:06

I need to see everybody again.

18:09

This house is not complete without

18:11

anybody here.'" Many

18:13

watching found the interview odd. Although

18:16

the literal words themselves reflected

18:18

worry, Chris didn't show

18:20

any emotion when he spoke. Psychotherapist

18:23

Lena Derhalle was struck by how

18:25

indifferent he seemed when talking about

18:28

his family. Derhalle later

18:30

wrote a book about Chris and noted

18:32

that it was this initial interview that

18:34

first drew her attention to the case.

18:37

She described how, "'His voice

18:39

remained monotone, mixed with little

18:42

laughs and suppressed smirks.'

18:45

Although Chris's behavior struck some as

18:47

peculiar, the interview drew attention to

18:49

the case, widespread about

18:52

the disappearance of Shanann, Bella

18:54

and Cece." Chris's

18:56

girlfriend, 30-year-old Nicole Kessinger, read

18:59

more and more about the

19:01

case. Based on what Chris

19:03

had already told her, Nicole thought that Shanann

19:05

had left him and taken the kids with

19:07

her. But news reports contained

19:10

some details Chris hadn't shared, like

19:12

the fact that Shanann was 15

19:15

weeks pregnant. Nicole

19:17

was horrified. He'd told her that the

19:20

marriage was all but over and they

19:22

were no longer intimate, that they slept

19:24

in separate rooms, that they were

19:26

about to get a divorce. Clearly,

19:29

he lied. Now Nicole

19:31

wondered what else he might be lying

19:33

about. Chris

19:35

wasn't exactly playing the role of

19:37

a tormented husband and father concerned

19:39

for his missing children. The

19:41

night after the murders, he even

19:43

emailed his friends about their fantasy

19:46

football league. Later, he

19:48

went to the Frederick Police Department for

19:50

an interview with Special Agent Graham Coder

19:52

with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Chris

19:55

repeated the story he told the police. Shanann

19:58

said she was taken taking the girls on

20:01

a play date. Agent

20:03

Coder asked Chris if he would return

20:05

the following day to take a polygraph

20:07

exam. Chris agreed.

20:10

The next morning, August 15, Chris picked up

20:13

his father, Ronnie, from the airport. Together,

20:15

they went to the police station for

20:17

the polygraph. As

20:20

Chris drove to the station, he half

20:23

listened to his father chatting about sports.

20:25

He was struck by a strange feeling.

20:28

Right now, he was still a free

20:30

man. These were his

20:32

last moments of freedom. This

20:35

car ride, this conversation, this

20:37

was it. He knew

20:39

that his life was about to come

20:41

crashing down around him. Investigators

20:43

were already treating him like a

20:46

suspect, and now he was

20:48

on his way to take a polygraph test.

20:50

He had no way of passing. He

20:53

wondered how he was staying so calm

20:55

as he inched forward toward the end

20:57

of his life. He

20:59

didn't really feel afraid. In fact, he

21:01

couldn't seem to feel anything at all.

21:05

A week ago, it occurred to him that

21:07

he didn't really feel like a husband and

21:09

father anymore. He'd gotten so wrapped

21:11

up in an affair, he felt like

21:13

a different man. Now,

21:15

he wondered whether he was

21:17

even human. From

21:20

the same time he went to

21:22

take his polygraph test, his girlfriend

21:24

Nicole also contacted the police. Chris's

21:27

lies had made her so suspicious,

21:29

she couldn't let go of the

21:31

nagging feeling that something was horribly

21:34

wrong. She wanted to come

21:36

forward with everything she knew. In an

21:39

interview, she told them about her

21:41

affair with Chris, contradicting what he'd

21:43

told police two days before. Nicole's

21:46

statements were corroborated by emails

21:48

pulled from Chris's work account.

21:50

But investigators played it cool

21:52

when they dealt with Chris

21:54

later on. They simply administered

21:56

the polygraph test, only

21:59

after it was over. Did they tell him

22:01

it was clear he wasn't being truthful? CBI

22:04

agents began an interrogation trying

22:06

to elicit a confession Chris

22:09

finally admitted to his affair, but

22:12

he still insisted he had no

22:14

idea what happened to his wife

22:16

or children When

22:18

they pressed him he asked to speak to his

22:20

father The agents

22:22

let Ronnie into the room When

22:25

they were alone Chris told him that he was

22:28

in trouble He concocted a

22:30

story based on half truths He

22:32

said that he and Shanann had an

22:35

argument the morning of the 13th. They

22:37

discussed separating Then Chris

22:39

claimed that Shanann had attacked and

22:41

killed the girls Chris

22:43

caught her in the act and was

22:45

so enraged that he murdered her. He

22:48

said he panicked and hid the bodies

22:51

Ronnie was horrified Chris's

22:54

family had always been at odds with

22:56

Shanann But he still struggled to believe

22:58

that she would hurt those two girls

23:01

on the other hand He couldn't believe his

23:03

son was capable of hurting them either So

23:06

he accepted Chris's story that Shanann

23:09

had killed the children and Chris

23:13

Retaliated he reportedly told

23:15

Chris well We need

23:17

to find a good lawyer and see what the hell they

23:19

can do When the

23:21

CBI agents returned to the room Chris

23:24

told them what he told Ronnie that

23:26

his wife and children were dead He

23:29

also told them where the bodies were located

23:31

at the oil field They

23:34

placed Chris Watts under arrest

23:39

That afternoon investigators flew drones over

23:41

the oil field They

23:43

captured photos of a bed sheet and

23:45

two plastic garbage bags tangled in the

23:47

grass These were the

23:49

items Chris used to wrap up Shanann's

23:52

body Officers gathered

23:54

at the field to excavate Shanann's

23:56

makeshift gravesite. They recovered her body

23:58

just after after midnight on August

24:01

16th. The

24:03

following afternoon, the oil tanks were

24:06

drained. The bodies of

24:08

Cece and Bella were removed and

24:10

taken to a medical center in

24:12

Loveland, Colorado. Days

24:14

later, Chris was arraigned and formally

24:17

charged three counts of first degree

24:19

murder for the deaths of Shanann,

24:21

Bella, and Cece, plus an extra

24:24

count for each of the children.

24:27

The affidavit also included counts

24:29

of unlawfully terminating a pregnancy

24:32

and tampering with a deceased body.

24:35

In the first week of September 2018, Shanann

24:39

and the children were laid to rest

24:41

in a funeral service in North Carolina.

24:44

While Shanann's relatives celebrated their

24:47

lives, Chris's parents did

24:49

not attend. And of course,

24:51

Chris was in jail. He was

24:53

being held without bond and

24:55

facing a potential death sentence

24:57

for massacring his family. In

25:05

the late summer of 2018, Chris

25:07

Watts was arrested and charged for

25:10

the murders of his pregnant wife,

25:12

Shanann, and their two children, Bella

25:14

and Cece. When it

25:16

was clear that police suspected foul play,

25:18

Chris tried to pin the girls' murders

25:20

on Shanann. He said he

25:22

caught his wife strangling them, and then

25:25

he lost his mind and killed Shanann

25:27

when he found his daughter's dead. But

25:30

it wasn't long before he dropped this

25:32

argument. Chris came to trust

25:34

the public defenders appointed to his case.

25:37

A few weeks after his arrest, he

25:39

confessed everything to them. He

25:41

killed the girls. He told

25:43

them that he didn't wanna fight the charges

25:45

in a long, drawn-out case. In

25:48

exchange for pleading guilty, Chris would

25:50

face a life sentence in prison

25:52

rather than the death penalty. On

25:55

November 6th, 2018, Chris

25:58

Watts entered a guilty... plea to

26:01

all the charges. His

26:03

decision to plead guilty was a

26:05

relief for most of the horrified

26:07

residents of Frederick, Colorado, still reeling

26:09

from the death of a young

26:11

mother and her children. But

26:15

not everyone was satisfied. Even

26:17

after Chris agreed to a plea

26:19

deal, his parents still seemed to

26:21

cling to his original story, that

26:24

he had only murdered Shanann after

26:26

witnessing her killing the children. They

26:28

felt he should have fought the murder charges

26:31

against him. Chris's parents

26:33

sat for an interview a few days

26:35

after he entered his guilty plea. His

26:37

mother insisted, he's not

26:39

a sociopath. He's not a

26:42

psychopath. She added, I

26:44

just want him to fight. I don't want

26:47

him to take this plea deal. I want

26:49

him to plead not guilty to the children.

26:53

Despite her objections, the plea deal

26:55

moved forward. On November

26:57

19th, Chris Watts appeared at his

27:00

sentencing hearing, where he was sentenced

27:02

to five life terms. After

27:05

the hearing, Chris returned to the Weld

27:07

County Jail, and he was eventually transferred

27:09

to a prison in Wisconsin. But

27:12

the case did not quickly

27:14

fade from public consciousness. People

27:17

remained fascinated. Some even

27:19

tried to capitalize on the case's notoriety

27:21

to boost their own public profile. A

27:24

few individuals, including a man from

27:26

Glen Rock, Wyoming, and a woman

27:28

from Greeley, Colorado, claimed they had

27:30

met Chris through dating apps, and

27:33

had sexual encounters with him prior to

27:35

the murders. These claims

27:37

had little credibility, but they revealed

27:39

how deeply people connected to the

27:41

Watts story. Just

27:46

because their lives seemed to be

27:48

an open book, Shanann's Facebook profile

27:50

was public. She gave everyone a

27:52

window into their world. Even

27:54

people who never met her felt like

27:56

they knew her. It seemed

27:58

unthinkable that this person could be a

28:00

person. perfect family met such a horrifying

28:03

end. Beyond Shanann's

28:05

social media presence, the Colorado

28:07

Bureau of Investigation was remarkably

28:09

transparent about their work on

28:11

the matter. Just a

28:13

few days after Chris's sentencing, the

28:15

Bureau released its case file to

28:17

the public over 2,000 pages

28:20

of detailed notes, reports, and

28:22

interviews relating to the murders.

28:25

For true crime fans, it was

28:27

a goldmine of information. For

28:29

some, Chris Watts emerged as

28:32

a sympathetic figure, while they viewed

28:34

Shanann as the villain. Some

28:37

felt Chris was telling the truth in his

28:39

first confession. They believed Shanann

28:41

had killed Bella and Cece, and

28:43

not their father. They

28:45

felt Chris suffered from post-traumatic

28:47

stress disorder, caused by prolonged

28:50

emotional abuse from his marriage

28:52

to Shanann. They circulated

28:54

conspiracy theories, questioning Shanann's character,

28:56

digging for evidence that she

28:58

was a liar and a

29:00

criminal. This kind of

29:03

victim-blaming is not uncommon after a

29:05

tragedy. Sheri

29:08

Hamby, a professor of psychology

29:10

and founding editor of the

29:13

Psychology of Violence journal, relates

29:15

victim-blaming to the just-world hypothesis.

29:18

She explained, It's this idea

29:20

that people deserve what happens to

29:22

them. There's just a really strong

29:24

need to believe that we all

29:26

deserve our outcomes and consequences. Those

29:30

who blamed Shanann for her own

29:32

murder targeted her family for abuse.

29:35

Her father, Frank Russek, released a

29:37

statement saying, Our

29:39

family, including Shanann and

29:41

her children, have been

29:44

ridiculed, demeaned, slandered, mocked

29:46

in the most vicious ways you can

29:48

imagine. We have been

29:51

subject to false accusations, fake

29:53

Facebook accounts, hate speeches, and

29:55

a constant stream of ugly,

29:58

evil insults and attacks. Every

30:01

time we turn around there's someone

30:03

trying to capitalize on our tragedy

30:05

by spreading false rumors and outright

30:08

lies about Shenan and

30:10

our grandchildren. The

30:13

abuse was heartbreaking for a

30:15

family already in mourning. Others

30:20

theorized that he wasn't himself at the time

30:22

of the murders. They suggested

30:24

that vitamin supplements and energy

30:26

merchandise had pushed Chris over

30:28

the edge. He frequently

30:30

used products that Shenan sold for

30:33

her direct sales job. He'd appeared

30:35

in dozens of her promotional social

30:37

media videos, but he later said

30:39

they had negative side effects, including

30:42

insomnia. At one point

30:44

he talked to investigators about using a

30:46

patch for weight loss, stating, I

30:48

just know I felt different. I could

30:50

go longer and longer each day, and

30:52

that was probably a bad thing. I

30:54

don't think I was probably sleeping more

30:56

than three hours a night. Chris

31:00

also said his parents had received

31:02

letters from people all over the

31:04

world, claiming that the products were

31:06

not FDA approved, and

31:08

that they could contain stimulants that

31:10

could have mind-altering properties. Internet

31:13

commenters and bloggers seemed obsessed with

31:15

the idea of finding some excuse

31:18

that could explain Chris's behavior. It

31:20

didn't seem possible that Chris could

31:23

have gone from the typical family

31:25

man to a cold-blooded killer overnight.

31:28

But even though Chris's actions seem

31:30

to defy explanation, in some ways

31:33

they fit a disturbing pattern. In

31:36

many ways he seems to match

31:38

the profile of the family annihilator,

31:40

a type of murderer who kills

31:42

close family members in quick succession.

31:45

Neil Webbsdale, the director of the

31:47

Family Violence Institute at Northern Arizona

31:50

University, spoke about the Watts

31:52

case in an interview with Rolling Stone

31:54

magazine. He said

31:56

that while some cases involved perpetrators who

31:58

are regularly controlling... controlling and violent up

32:01

until the time of the killing, at

32:04

the other end of the continuum,

32:06

quote, you're looking at more controlled,

32:08

repressed, depressed individuals who may be

32:11

on the edge of a psychotic

32:13

break. But this

32:15

sudden break isn't necessarily spontaneous.

32:18

Agent Garrett said that family

32:20

annihilator crimes are often premeditated,

32:23

the anger leading up to the

32:25

murders builds up for weeks or

32:27

months beforehand. But

32:30

while these individuals may spend many

32:32

hours contemplating murder, they usually don't

32:34

put a lot of careful planning

32:36

into their crimes. They don't

32:38

often think of future consequences when they carry

32:41

out the murders. They focus

32:43

on, as Agent Garrett said, the

32:45

immediate need and gain of the

32:47

moment. These men

32:49

often confess after the crime, but

32:52

sometimes create an alternate version of

32:54

what happened, as Chris did. Eventually,

32:58

however, Chris repudiated his former

33:00

lies. In

33:03

February of 2019, he sat down

33:05

for an interview with the investigators

33:07

who handled his case. In

33:09

the interview, he gave a full confession

33:11

to the murders. He emphasized

33:14

that Shanann was a good mother

33:16

who had never hurt her children.

33:19

He told investigators he didn't want

33:21

anyone to bash Shanann's memory. He

33:24

wanted to clear her name and

33:26

give her parents closure by speaking

33:28

out. Chris

33:31

spoke until his throat was dry.

33:33

He talked for hours. It

33:36

wasn't something he wanted to do, but felt

33:38

he had to. Perhaps

33:40

his confession would put an end to

33:42

all the speculation and gossip. Maybe

33:45

then the fervor would finally

33:47

go away and his family

33:49

could stop reliving this hell.

33:52

Chris spoke flatly about that last morning

33:54

with Shanann and the girls. He

33:57

heard his own voice recounting the

33:59

whole- horrors, but his mind

34:02

and body felt somewhere else. He

34:04

still couldn't feel the weight of it

34:07

all, even after months of prison. He

34:09

wondered if it would ever fully hit him,

34:12

or if he would remain like this

34:14

forever, detached from

34:16

reality. Perhaps he

34:19

had permanently destroyed the part of

34:21

himself that was capable of confronting

34:23

the truth. Perhaps he

34:25

was better off without it. In

34:29

his confession, Chris expressed his regret.

34:31

He told investigators he kept pictures

34:33

of his children on the wall

34:35

of his prison cell. He

34:37

said he talked to them every night.

34:40

Even so he expressed very

34:43

little emotion when discussing the

34:45

brutal crimes. He didn't seem

34:47

to show remorse or grief

34:49

or anguish, only confusion.

34:51

He said, I

34:53

don't see how this could happen. Every

34:56

time I see pictures of them now,

34:58

I don't know how this could happen.

35:00

This question is the only one that

35:02

continues to drive obsession with the case.

35:05

Chris Watts ostensibly had everything he

35:07

needed to enjoy a happy life.

35:11

For Chris, it wasn't enough. He

35:13

is still reckoning with that fact.

35:16

In February 2019, he

35:19

told his interviewers, right now

35:21

I'd have a five-year-old, a

35:23

three-year-old, and more than likely

35:25

a one-month-old son and

35:28

a beautiful wife. And

35:30

right now, it's

35:32

just me. Thanks

35:39

for listening to Serial Killers, a Spotify

35:42

podcast. We're here with a new episode

35:44

every Monday. Be sure to check us

35:46

out on Instagram, at Serial Killers Podcast.

35:48

And we'd love to hear from you,

35:50

so if you're listening on the Spotify

35:52

app, swipe up and give us your

35:55

thoughts. Amongst the many

35:57

sources we used, we found the

35:59

book My Daddy is a a

36:01

hero, how Chris Watts went from

36:03

family man to family killer by

36:05

Lena Derhalle. Extremely helpful to our

36:07

research. Stay safe

36:10

out there. This

36:13

episode was written by Christina Pammies

36:15

with writing assistance by Abigail Cannon,

36:18

fact-checked by Cheyenne Lopez, researched by

36:20

Mickey Taylor and Chelsea Wood, and

36:22

sound designed by Alex Button. Our

36:25

head of programming is Julian Barro.

36:27

Our head of production is Nick

36:30

Johnson and Spencer Howard is our

36:32

post-production supervisor. I'm your host, Vanessa

36:34

Richardson.