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Chris Watts' Prison Confession to His Best Friend Changes Everything — Transcript

by The Hidden True Crimes · 3,472 words · 520 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00You know, cross every base and talk to
0:02everybody that might have knowledge and
0:04that's what's led us here today.
0:05>> What was the What was the I can't
0:07remember what was on the chart, but what
0:09was they said on the news?
0:11>> Yeah.
0:13Yeah, children are missing, need
0:14medication, that sort of thing.
0:16>> Oh, okay.
0:16>> qualifies for that.
0:18>> Do you have any concerns that Chris
0:19could be involved?
0:20>> I really don't. I mean, you're not the
0:22first person who's said that cuz when we
0:24talk about this
0:25>> That's where everybody goes. I mean, you
0:27know, the people closest to home.
0:29>> Far as I feel in my heart, I know Chris
0:31pretty well. Like I said, he's the
0:32lowest guy I think I've ever met in my
0:34life.
0:35>> Let me ask you something.
0:37If your best friend called you late at
0:38night and told you his wife and kids
0:40were missing and you live 2 minutes
0:42away, would you go over?
0:45Of course you would. That is what
0:47friends do. Now, imagine you walk
0:49through that front door
0:51and your friend is standing in the
0:52kitchen, calm, composed,
0:55making a protein shake.
0:58His wife is dead. His daughters are
1:00gone. His unborn son is gone.
1:03And he is standing there making a
1:04protein shake and waiting for you to
1:07walk in.
1:08Would you feel something? Would your gut
1:10tell you something was wrong? Dave
1:12Kocien said no.
1:14He felt nothing. He sat with Chris Watts
1:17that night, looked him in the eye, and
1:19believed every word. And here is the
1:22thing that has stayed with me since I
1:23first read his interview. Dave Kocien is
1:26not a naive man. He is not someone who
1:28was easily fooled. He had known Chris
1:31Watts for years. He had been inside that
1:33house. He had sat at that kitchen
1:35counter. He knew that family. And Chris
1:38Watts fooled him completely. That is not
1:41a story about Dave Kocien's failure to
1:43read the room. That is a story about how
1:45extraordinary the mask was. Welcome
1:48back. Today we are talking about someone
1:50who barely gets mentioned. A man who has
1:52been sitting with the weight of this
1:54thing since August 2018. And most people
1:57following this case do not even know his
1:59name, Dave Kocevar, Chris Watts' closest
2:02friend, the man who was there that
2:04night. Let's get into it. Before we walk
2:06through these interviews, you need to
2:08understand who Dave Kocevar is and why
2:11his perspective matters in a way that
2:13most of the other voices in this case
2:15simply do not. Dave met Chris Watts
2:17through work. He ran his own business
2:20reconditioning cars, dent repair, paint,
2:23window tint, operating out of a Ford
2:25dealership in Longmont, Colorado. Chris
2:27was a mechanic at the same dealership.
2:30Two guys from the south who happened to
2:32land in the same building in Colorado
2:34and hit it off. They were neighbors,
2:35too, eventually. When Dave bought a
2:38house in the Frederick community, Chris
2:40and Shannan bought in the same
2:41neighborhood, 2 minutes away, just
2:43around the corner. Close enough that
2:45when something went wrong, you could
2:46just walk over. And that closeness is
2:49what makes Dave's perspective so
2:50significant. He was not a distant
2:53acquaintance being interviewed for
2:54background color. He was the man Chris
2:56called when he needed someone there. He
2:58was the person Chris trusted enough to
3:00let through the front door that night.
3:02He had been inside that house before
3:04under normal circumstances. He had been
3:07at their barbecues. His step daughter
3:09had baby sat Bella and Celeste. His wife
3:12was still friends with Shannan on
3:13Facebook. He was embedded in that world
3:15in the way that real friends are. Not
3:18dramatically, not constantly, but
3:20genuinely. The kind of friendship where
3:22you do not see each other every week,
3:24but when something happens, you are
3:25there within the hour. And that is
3:27exactly what Dave did on the night of
3:29August 13th, 2018. He showed up. Dave
3:33was home on Monday, his day off. He was
3:35painting something in the house when a
3:37text came in from a mutual friend named
3:39Jeremy, a manager from the Ford
3:42dealership. Jeremy said, "Hey, what's
3:45going on with Chris and Shannan? It's
3:47all over Facebook." Dave did not have
3:49Shannan on Facebook. He had no idea what
3:52Jeremy was talking about. He texted
3:54Chris, no reply. So he called him. Chris
3:58picked up and he said, "Shanann and the
4:01girls are gone. Their stuff is here. I
4:04don't know where they are." Dave's
4:06immediate reaction, by his own account,
4:08was somewhere between disbelief and
4:10concern, not alarm, not the gut drop
4:13feeling that something was genuinely
4:15catastrophically wrong. More like, "This
4:18is strange. Let me go see what's going
4:20on." He walked over, 2 minutes down the
4:23road. He walked through the front door
4:25and there was Chris
4:27in the kitchen making a protein shake.
4:30Now I want to pause right there because
4:32that detail, the protein shake, has come
4:35up repeatedly in coverage of this case
4:37and it always gets treated as a side
4:38note.
4:39Something slightly odd that people file
4:41away and move on from. But I do not
4:44think it deserves to be a side note. I
4:46think it deserves to sit in the center
4:47of what we are talking about today.
4:49Chris Watts, in the hours after
4:51murdering his wife and daughters,
4:53loading their bodies into a work truck
4:55and driving them to an oil field where
4:57he disposed of them, came home,
5:00got changed and when his best friend
5:02walked through the door, he was at the
5:03kitchen counter making a protein shake,
5:06not sitting on the couch with his head
5:07in his hands,
5:09not pacing, not visibly shaking, not in
5:12the kind of physical, visible state that
5:14people are in when they have just been
5:15told their family is missing, making a
5:18protein shake. Dave's reaction to this,
5:20by his own account, was essentially, his
5:22mind would need to be occupied. Totally
5:24understood that and I want to be fair to
5:27Dave here because there is actually a
5:28human logic to that interpretation. When
5:31people are in shock, they sometimes do
5:33mundane things. They make tea, they do
5:36dishes, they straighten cushions. The
5:38body keeps moving when the brain cannot
5:40process. That is real. That happens. But
5:44what Dave did not know was that Chris
5:46Watts was not in shock. Chris Watts knew
5:48exactly where his family was. He had put
5:50them there. And the protein shake was
5:52not a symptom of shock. It was a symptom
5:54of something else entirely. A man who
5:57had already decided what happened next.
5:59A man who was going to perform the role
6:01of worried husband for as long as it
6:03took. A man for whom the protein shake
6:06was not an unconscious coping mechanism,
6:08but a deliberate act of normalcy. Dave
6:11saw the protein shake and thought,
6:13"Grief." That is exactly what Chris
6:16needed him to think. I want your gut
6:18reaction in the comments right now. If
6:20you had walked into that kitchen that
6:22night, would anything have felt off to
6:24you? Type yes if your instincts would
6:27have picked up on something. Type NO if
6:29you think Chris was convincing enough to
6:31fool you, too. And if this channel's
6:33giving you something real, subscribe and
6:35hit the bell. New case every week. Dave
6:38sat with Chris for approximately an
6:39hour. Jeremy showed up about 30 minutes
6:42in. The three of them gathered in the
6:44kitchen and then drifted out to the
6:45driveway, the way people do when they
6:47are standing around trying to figure out
6:49what to do next. Chris talked. He told
6:52Dave that he and Shannan had been
6:53struggling in their marriage. That she
6:56had gone to North Carolina for 5 weeks,
6:58some kind of separation. That she came
7:01back and they tried to work things out.
7:03That that morning they had an argument
7:05and then she was gone. His theory, he
7:07said, was that she left with somebody.
7:10That she was hiding somewhere. Dave
7:12asked him, "Do you have exterior
7:14cameras? Do your neighbors have cameras?
7:16Because somebody did not just vanish."
7:19Chris told him he did not have exterior
7:21cameras. Did not know if the neighbors
7:23did. Now, I want to sit in that for a
7:25moment. Because Chris Watts knew exactly
7:27who had cameras in that neighborhood. He
7:29had planned around those cameras. He
7:32knew which angles were covered and which
7:34were not. He knew about the doorbell
7:36camera at the neighbor's house that
7:37captured him loading Shannan's body into
7:40his truck that morning. He knew all of
7:42it and he stood in that driveway with
7:44his best friend and told him he had no
7:46idea whether there were any cameras in
7:48the area. Dave heard that and filed it
7:50as a man who was worried about his
7:52missing family and trying to think
7:54through where they could have gone.
7:55Chris knew it was a calculated
7:57deflection. Dave also asked him
7:59point-blank about foul play, whether he
8:01thought something bad might have
8:02happened. Dave's account is that it was
8:05discussed, not that Chris brought it up,
8:07but that the three of them talked
8:08through possibilities the way you do
8:10when you are genuinely trying to make
8:11sense of something, process of
8:13elimination. What Chris never
8:15volunteered, not once, was the truth. He
8:18never said, "I'm scared they're hurt."
8:20He never said, "I'm afraid something
8:22happened to them." He never broke. He
8:25never slipped. He never showed Dave
8:27anything that a man who has just
8:28murdered his family would logically be
8:30expected to show. He showed him a
8:32worried father, a confused husband, a
8:35man who did not know where his family
8:37was and Dave believed every word.
8:40Two days after Shannan disappeared,
8:42Chris has not been arrested yet.
8:44CBI agents, the Colorado Bureau of
8:47Investigation, working alongside
8:49Frederick PD, bring Dave in for a formal
8:51interview.
8:52At this point, Dave is still loyal,
8:55still defending Chris, still operating
8:57from the framework that his friend is an
8:59innocent man whose family has vanished.
9:01The interview covers everything. How
9:04Dave met Chris.
9:05The timeline of the night. What Chris
9:08said. What the house looked like. What
9:10Dave had read on the Watts marriage was
9:12and throughout all of it, Dave is
9:14cooperative, detailed and completely
9:16sincere in his belief that Chris had
9:18nothing to do with what happened. He
9:20describes Chris as the most
9:21non-confrontational guy he has ever met.
9:24Low-key, easy-going, goes with the flow.
9:28Damas damas namas. He says he never saw
9:31Chris get angry, not once in the years
9:34he had known him. He says the marriage
9:36looked happy from the outside. Happy as
9:38a tick on a dog's back. His words. He
9:41described Shannan as a little
9:42overbearing, running things, but genuine
9:45and warm. He says he was thoroughly
9:47surprised when he heard the marriage had
9:49been struggling. He is describing a
9:51version of Chris Watts that existed for
9:54everyone who knew him on a surface
9:55level. The mild-mannered husband, the
9:57quiet neighbor, the easy-going friend.
10:00And then comes the moment the detective
10:02asks the question directly. Do you have
10:04any concern that Chris could be
10:05involved? Dave's answer.
10:07I really don't. I mean, you're not the
10:09first person who said that, because when
10:11we talk about this, that's where
10:12everybody goes. You know, other people
10:14closest to home. As far as I feel in my
10:17heart, I know Chris pretty well. He's
10:19the lowest key guy the first thing I've
10:20ever met in my life. He adds, "Nothing
10:23can be ruled out." But as far as Chris,
10:25in my heart, no. I don't think he had
10:28anything to do with anything. That is
10:30Dave Kocien. Two days after the murders,
10:33defending the man who committed them.
10:35Not because Dave was foolish. Not
10:37because he was willfully blind. But
10:39because Chris Watts had spent years
10:41building a version of himself so
10:42consistent, so mild, so utterly
10:45unremarkable, that the people closest to
10:47him could not conceive of him as capable
10:49of this. The mask held even after the
10:52bodies were found. Even after the
10:54arrest. Even after the confession. The
10:56mask held until the very moment it no
10:58longer had to.
11:00Then Chris Watts gets arrested. And Dave
11:03Kocien sits with that. He had looked
11:05this man in the eye in that kitchen. He
11:07had defended him to law enforcement. He
11:09had told detectives that in his heart,
11:11he did not believe Chris had anything to
11:13do with it.
11:15And now he is watching news coverage of
11:17a man he called his closest friend being
11:19walked to a patrol car in handcuffs.
11:22Then comes the confession.
11:24And then the fuller picture of what
11:26happened. Including the detail that
11:28Chris knew the whole time. That he had
11:30gone to bed that night after deciding
11:32what the morning would bring, that his
11:34daughters were already gone before any
11:36argument took place, that he loaded his
11:39family into a work truck while his
11:40neighbor's doorbell camera recorded him
11:42from across the street. The gap between
11:45who Dave thought Chris was and who Chris
11:47actually was, that gap becomes a chasm.
11:50And Gabe has to sit inside it. So, he
11:53does something that I think tells you
11:54everything you need to know about Dave
11:56Koshien as a person. He writes a letter.
11:58He contacts the Weld County Sheriff and
12:01asks to be put on the visitor list at
12:03the jail. He wants to sit across from
12:05Chris Watts face-to-face and ask him the
12:07questions that have been pulling at him
12:08since the arrest. Why didn't you call
12:11me? I would have helped you. Why did you
12:13lie to my face? Why did you kill them?
12:16That is not the response of a man who
12:18has decided to walk away. That is the
12:20response of someone who genuinely cannot
12:22close the chapter without understanding
12:24what happened. Not for Chris's sake, but
12:27for his own. Dave flew to North Carolina
12:29for Shannan, Bella, Celeste, and Nico's
12:33funeral. He and his wife went to pay
12:35their respects to the family that his
12:36friend destroyed. He found some closure
12:39there, he said, but not all of it. The
12:41rest of it was still sitting in a prison
12:43cell in Weld County. After the letter is
12:46sent, Frederick PD gets wind of it. The
12:49lead detective, Detective Dave Bowman,
12:51calls Dave to follow up. The second
12:54interview is quieter than the first.
12:56There are no CBI agents present. It is
12:59just Bowman on the phone going through
13:00some things he noticed in the CBI report
13:03and in the letter, clearing up what he
13:05calls inconsistencies.
13:07But buried inside this second interview
13:09is a detail that I think completely
13:11reframes how we understand the night of
13:13August 13th. Dave is talking about why
13:16he wanted to visit Chris in prison. He
13:18is explaining the confusion he has been
13:20carrying. And almost in passing, he says
13:23this, "My daughter baby sat those
13:25babies." Let that land. Dave's
13:28stepdaughter babysat Bella and Celeste.
13:30She was in that house. She knew those
13:33little girls. She had put them to bed,
13:35fed them, looked after them the way a
13:37babysitter does. And the man who
13:39murdered those children while they were
13:41sleeping in their own beds, using
13:43pillows from their own beds, was Dave's
13:45closest friend. That is not an abstract
13:48horror. That is a personal one. Dave is
13:50not just processing the loss of a friend
13:53through a crime. He is processing the
13:55fact that the person he trusted enough
13:57to have his daughter spend time with
13:59those children alone in that house is
14:02the person who killed them. That
14:04realization is why the weight of this
14:06thing has never fully left Dave. It is
14:08not just grief. It is not just betrayal.
14:11It is something more specific. A kind of
14:14retroactive terror at how close
14:16everything was, how ordinary it all
14:18seemed, how completely nothing in that
14:20house on those normal evenings ever
14:23suggested what was underneath. His son
14:25used to ride his bicycle past Chris's
14:27house, would stop and talk to him. Chris
14:30and my son used to chat a lot, Dave
14:32says. All of it normal, all of it
14:35safe-seeming, all of it now permanently
14:37shadowed by what Dave knows happened in
14:39that house.
14:40Asterisk the babysitter detail. That is
14:43the one that never leaves me with this
14:45interview. If this channel is giving you
14:47something you cannot find anywhere else,
14:49subscribe. Drop a comment. What is the
14:52detail in Dave's interview that hits
14:54hardest for you? I read everyone. There
14:57is a version of these interviews that
14:59treats Dave as a background witness,
15:01someone who provides logistical color
15:03about the timeline, and then fades out
15:05of the story. I think that misses what
15:07Dave Coachin actually represents in this
15:09case. Dave Coachin is the closest thing
15:12we have to a window into what Chris
15:14Watts looked like to the people who knew
15:16him best, not the investigators, not the
15:19prosecutors,
15:20not the camera, his friend. The who sat
15:23at his kitchen counter and felt nothing.
15:26And what Dave describes across both of
15:28these interviews is a portrait of
15:29organized, controlled detachment, so
15:32complete that it functioned invisibly
15:34for years inside a close personal
15:36friendship. Dave never saw Chris angry,
15:39not once in years of friendship,
15:41neighborhood proximity, shared
15:43barbecues, phone calls, chance
15:46encounters at the mailbox. Not once did
15:48Chris Watts show him anything that
15:50registered as threatening or unstable or
15:52even particularly troubled. He described
15:55Chris as someone who went along with
15:56things, who let Shannan run the
15:58household, who was mild and easygoing
16:01and non-confrontational, who presented a
16:03face of contentment so consistent that
16:05Dave assumed the marriage was happy, the
16:07finances were fine, and the family was
16:10doing exactly what it looked like it was
16:11doing on Facebook, which is exactly what
16:14Chris needed everyone to believe. Chris
16:16Watts was not a man who barely held
16:18himself together. He was not a man whose
16:20rage was building toward explosion. He
16:22was a man who had learned to contain
16:24everything he actually felt behind a
16:25surface so smooth and so consistent that
16:28the people who loved him never found a
16:29seam. Dave Kok and spent years looking
16:32for a seam. He never found one because
16:34there was not one on the outside.
16:36Everything was on the inside, and the
16:38inside is where those four people were
16:40killed.
16:41Before we close, I want to spend a
16:43moment here, not on Chris, not on Dave,
16:46on them. Shannan Watts was 34 years old.
16:49She was 15 weeks pregnant. She worked
16:52hard, posted constantly, wore her love
16:55for her family on every surface she
16:56could find. Dave described her as a
16:59little overbearing and said it with
17:01genuine affection, the way you describe
17:03someone whose energy you found
17:05overwhelming but whose heart you never
17:07doubted. She loved those girls. She
17:10loved that life. She was building toward
17:12something she believed in. Bella was 4
17:14years old. Celeste was 3. Baby Nico
17:17never took a single breath outside his
17:19mother's body. Dave flew to North
17:21Carolina for their funeral. He sat in a
17:23room with the people who loved them and
17:25tried to find some version of
17:27understanding that would make it
17:28possible to go on. He found some of it
17:31there, he said. He is still looking for
17:33the rest. That is what this case does to
17:35the people inside it. Not just the
17:37obvious players. The Dave Kocians, the
17:40neighbors, the friends, the people who
17:43walked through a front door in good
17:44faith, who sat in a kitchen and felt
17:46nothing wrong, and who have spent years
17:48living with the weight of what that
17:50normal looking night was actually
17:51covering. Drop a comment below. Not a
17:54theory. Just their names.
17:57Shanann,
17:58Bella, Celeste, baby Nico. They deserved
18:02so much more. Dave Kocian wrote Chris
18:05Watts a letter asking for closure.
18:08He flew to a funeral in North Carolina.
18:11He sat in a second interview with a
18:13detective and described the confusion
18:15that has been pulling at him for years.
18:17He is still trying to understand how the
18:20man he knew and the man who did this
18:22were the same person. Most of us will
18:24never fully understand that either. But
18:26these interviews are as close as we can
18:28get because they are the closest account
18:30we have of what Chris Watts looked like
18:32from the inside of a genuine friendship.
18:35Drop their names in the comments.
18:37Shanann,
18:38Bella, Celeste, Nico, and tell me what
18:42detail from Dave's interview hit you
18:44hardest. I'll be in the comments reading
18:47everyone. I'll see you in the next one.

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