The Watts Family Tragedy *Includes Never-Before-Seen Footage* | Beyond The Headlines | Special | LMN — Transcript

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1. 0:01- I'm a busy mom of
2. 0:02- I don't think enough has been really said
3. 0:05about who she is, and how amazing she was.
4. 0:08It is hard to be in this world without her in it,
5. 0:11and we miss her greatly.
6. 0:13- The disappearance of a pregnant Frederick woman
7. 0:15and her two children has captured the nation's attention.
8. 0:18- I've heard a lot of stories, nothing quite like this.
9. 0:21- This husband has confessed to killing his family
10. 0:24and he is now detained.
11. 0:27- She was such a good person, and such a good wife to him.
12. 0:32- He is amazing.
13. 0:34I can't tell you how wonderful he is.
14. 0:36- How could he have done something like that to her?
15. 0:39(dramatic music)
16. 0:42She told me what if he has another woman?
17. 0:48- [Nichol] He didn't have a wedding ring on his finger
18. 0:50and every time I talked to him,
19. 0:51he didn't tell me that he was in a relationship.
20. 0:57- He said, "Well, I don't wanna get the police involved."
21. 0:59I said, "Get the police involved in what?"
22. 1:01(dramatic music)
23. 1:04- To me, this case was definitely one of the most
24. 1:07difficult cases I've ever worked.
25. 1:09I know you wanna tell us, I can see it in your face.
26. 1:12Right before the polygraph, I tell Chris,
27. 1:14right now, there's only one person in this room
28. 1:16that knows what the truth is,
29. 1:18and in about five minutes,
30. 1:19there's gonna be two of us.
31. 1:21- This was a family that did love each other.
32. 1:24It made everyone question, well, what about my family?
33. 1:26If this guy can do it, can my husband do it?
34. 1:29Can my boyfriend do it?
35. 1:31What does this mean?
36. 1:32- Do you truly know everybody
37. 1:34as well as you think you know them?
38. 1:42(upbeat music)
39. 1:45- Hi!
40. 1:47Been crazy today, I've been running around.
41. 1:48I've went to like five grocery stores,
42. 1:50'cause I like to bargain shop.
43. 1:52- Anybody that met her,
44. 1:54you couldn't help but to wanna be her friend.
45. 1:58- Bye bye. - Oh, look at this, okay.
46. 2:00(laughs)
47. 2:02- She just was a ball of love, I don't know.
48. 2:04It sounds like too good to be true, but she--
49. 2:05- I know, but it really was. - She really, yeah.
50. 2:10- I am Cassandra Rosenberg.
51. 2:12I am a close friend of Shan'ann.
52. 2:17- I am Cindy Derossett,
53. 2:19and I, also, am a personal friend of Shan'ann.
54. 2:23- For everyone that doesn't know Shan'ann,
55. 2:25tell us about you.
56. 2:27- I'm a busy mom of two.
57. 2:29(Shan'ann laughs)
58. 2:30- She was a go-getter.
59. 2:32She was determined to have the best life for her
60. 2:35and her family.
61. 2:37My name is Christina Meacham,
62. 2:38and I was one of Shan'ann's friends
63. 2:40for a little over 14 years.
64. 2:44(guitar music)
65. 2:51- What's up?
66. 2:52- Who's that? - Chris.
67. 2:54- Chris. (laughing)
68. 2:55- Those kids, I could talk about 'em for days.
69. 2:58- Shan taught those girls how to love.
70. 3:01- Yes! - Yeah.
71. 3:02- Yeah!
72. 3:03- You had Bella, which was the more nurturing,
73. 3:05motherly, taking care of, you know, you,
74. 3:09and checking on you. - Definite good big sister.
75. 3:10- Yeah, such a good big sister.
76. 3:13And then you have CeCe, the ball of joy.
77. 3:17The firecracker. - Oh, just firecracker.
78. 3:20(Bella shrieks)
79. 3:22- I'm Jennifer Kovaleski, I'm a reporter with Denver7.
80. 3:25I reported on this case until the very end.
81. 3:28Shan'ann Watts was a mom who very much lived on Facebook.
82. 3:31- Good morning, everybody.
83. 3:33Hey, guys, so it's not the best lighting.
84. 3:36So we'll see you guys soon, bye!
85. 3:38- You almost fell in love with Shan'ann.
86. 3:39I mean, she had such personality and she lived on Facebook
87. 3:42and shared her life.
88. 3:44- [Shan'ann] Bella, say hi to everybody.
89. 3:45- Hi!
90. 3:47- [Shan'ann] CeCe, say hi to everybody.
91. 3:48- Hi, everybody.
92. 3:49(Shan'ann laughs)
93. 3:50- Hi, everybody.
94. 3:51- [Cassandra] When she is posting on Facebook,
95. 3:54it was our joy to watch.
96. 3:55- [Cindy] Those are our memories too.
97. 3:57(Shan'ann laughs)
98. 3:58- Hey, guys!
99. 3:59Hey, guys, this is Shan'ann.
100. 4:00- She was captivating. - She was.
101. 4:02She would pour into every person.
102. 4:04I miss the text messages that I would get that'd say,
103. 4:07"Good morning, beautiful,"
104. 4:08and all of us would get those from her.
105. 4:10- Every morning. - Every morning.
106. 4:11- Her main job was a consultant
107. 4:13for the nutritional supplement that you put on as a patch.
108. 4:17Chris worked at Anadarko,
109. 4:19an oil and gas company here in Colorado.
110. 4:22- I've always known him to be a loving husband,
111. 4:28caring father. - Family man.
112. 4:30- [Cristina] Chris was very quiet.
113. 4:31He kept to himself a lot.
114. 4:34It was hard to completely connect
115. 4:37as a friend with him but she loved him.
116. 4:42- There was a video that she posted where she just said,
117. 4:44"Chris is the best thing that ever happened to me."
118. 4:47- We have two kids, we live in Colorado,
119. 4:49and he's the best thing that has ever happened to me.
120. 4:53(dramatic music)
121. 5:00- When she find out she was pregnant,
122. 5:03it was like a little miracle
123. 5:05'cause she didn't even know she was gonna have another child
124. 5:09and she was so excited.
125. 5:16(Chris laughs)
126. 5:21- She wanted everyone to know,
127. 5:22and not only to share it with Chris,
128. 5:24but to share it to the world.
129. 5:32(calm music)
130. 5:37- Shan'ann went back to North Carolina to visit her family
131. 5:40at the beginning of the summer.
132. 5:42She started noticing that there was a disconnection.
133. 5:44Chris wasn't communicating with her
134. 5:46like they normally would.
135. 5:48He was not responding to her messages or calls like normal.
136. 5:58(eerie music)
137. 6:06So Shan'ann was very excited to see him
138. 6:07when he arrived to North Carolina
139. 6:09and the kids run to him, hug him and kiss him.
140. 6:12And all she wanted was to give him
141. 6:14a big ole hug and kiss him,
142. 6:16but he really didn't seem interested on kissing her.
143. 6:25She sent me a picture, like, "This is how we are right now."
144. 6:30They were sitting in two different couches,
145. 6:32he was looking the other way and she was looking into him,
146. 6:36but in two different couches.
147. 6:39They were in the same room but communicating through text,
148. 6:43they were not talking with each other.
149. 6:47She told me, and was like,
150. 6:48"Cristina, what if he has another woman?"
151. 6:54And I told her, it's like, "Sweetheart, there is no way.
152. 6:58"That man loves you."
153. 7:02- Thank you so much
154. 7:03for coming out here with me, Christopher.
155. 7:06I'm having a wonderful time, you mean a lot to me.
156. 7:09(intense music)
157. 7:18- When Shan'ann and the girls were in North Carolina,
158. 7:20Chris was a bachelor,
159. 7:21he was spending all of his time with Kessinger,
160. 7:23he was spending almost every night at her house.
161. 7:26They were going down to the sand dunes,
162. 7:27they were having the time of their lives,
163. 7:29and he was a single guy even though he was married,
164. 7:33had two kids and a little boy on the way.
165. 7:43- So, Shan'ann, while she was in North Carolina,
166. 7:45was really trying to find a way
167. 7:46to figure it out what is going on
168. 7:49and what does he want out of the relationship.
169. 7:57Shan'ann loved Chris and loved her family,
170. 8:02and for that, she was willing to fight for her marriage,
171. 8:05she was willing to go to therapy if they had to,
172. 8:08she was willing to compromise.
173. 8:17- [Cindy] She was very distraught.
174. 8:18- She was, she was. - She was not herself
175. 8:20and she was very tired and confused.
176. 8:24- She talked with us in the hotel room
177. 8:27and she wanted to maybe do like marriage counseling.
178. 8:40Well, she got the message about it
179. 8:43and she didn't understand why it was so much.
180. 8:48- This was
181. 8:51so confusing and off.
182. 8:55- So when I parted with her, I gave her just a huge hug.
183. 8:59- We took pictures. - Mm-hm.
184. 9:01It's the last photo that I have from that trip.
185. 9:08That's the last photo that I have with her.
186. 9:13- Dropping them off at the airport,
187. 9:16I was hugging her and I was feeling her arm
188. 9:18and her arm was so soft and I was like hugging her arm.
189. 9:22I was like, "I don't wanna let you go,"
190. 9:23you know, and never thinking ever
191. 9:28that that would be the last time I saw her.
192. 9:37(eerie music)
193. 9:44- Shan'ann was coming home late in the evening,
194. 9:47her friend Nicole had just dropped her off.
195. 9:49- Nicole Atkinson was also a very good friend of Shan'ann.
196. 9:53- There's video of her on the doorbell camera walking up
197. 9:57which is kinda really an eerie video now.
198. 10:01She walks into the house
199. 10:03and that is when everything changes.
200. 10:12- My name is Michael Rourke,
201. 10:13I'm the District Attorney here in Weld County, Colorado.
202. 10:16Chris Watts had to be at a job site
203. 10:17at a specific timeframe in the morning,
204. 10:19so he goes to the location where he's supposed to be.
205. 10:22And by all accounts, his colleagues say
206. 10:24that morning, he was normal.
207. 10:28- I woke up that morning and I was supposed to hear from her
208. 10:32and we weren't able to get a hold of her.
209. 10:34And I'm like, "Okay, well, maybe she's busy."
210. 10:36- She had a 9:30 appointment with her OB to check the baby
211. 10:39and it would have to take an act of God
212. 10:41to keep her from going to-- - Oh, yeah, she would not.
213. 10:43- I mean, it had to be a hurricane for her not to go.
214. 10:46- Nicki called me to ask me
215. 10:48if I have heard from Shan'ann that morning,
216. 10:51and I said, "No, I haven't."
217. 10:54She, at that point, decided to go by her house
218. 10:57because we couldn't get a hold of her.
219. 10:59- That was what a really good friend does.
220. 11:00A really good friend knows something's wrong and does that.
221. 11:04- She got there and there was no answer.
222. 11:07So I texted Chris, and I said,
223. 11:08"Hey, we can't get a hold of her, it's really strange."
224. 11:11He said, "Yeah, she's fine.
225. 11:14"She was gonna go take the girls to a friend's house."
226. 11:17- Which doesn't make any sense to any of us at all.
227. 11:19- [Cassandra] Doesn't make any sense at all.
228. 11:20- Like, what friend, what?
229. 11:21- So it just didn't seem right.
230. 11:24- Nothing did right away. - Nothing did.
231. 11:25- Right away. - Nothing did.
232. 11:27So I messaged him, I said, "We're gonna call the police.
233. 11:30"You need to give them permission to bust down your door,
234. 11:32"something is wrong."
235. 11:34So then he called me and he said,
236. 11:36"Well, I don't wanna get the police involved."
237. 11:38And I said, "Get the police involved in what?"
238. 11:52- How y'all doing? - I can't get a hold of her.
239. 11:53I've called, I've texted.
240. 11:55Her car is in the garage,
241. 11:57her shoes she wears single day are right in the front door.
242. 11:59- So the video is very telling.
243. 12:02You see Nicole, this is a concerned friend.
244. 12:05Well, then we do see Chris show up.
245. 12:07- How are you doing? - How's it going?
246. 12:09- [Officer Coonrod] So this is the only vehicle
247. 12:10she would have?
248. 12:11- [Chris] The only one that--
249. 12:13- [Officer Coonrod] She would drive, okay.
250. 12:14- We see Chris' initial demeanor,
251. 12:16we see his initial response and we see the contrast
252. 12:19between how he's dealing with the situation
253. 12:22and the level of concern that Nicole has
254. 12:25and it's pretty striking.
255. 12:27- Mind if I come in, Chris? - Oh, yeah.
256. 12:29- [Steven] When the police finally got into the house,
257. 12:31when Chris let 'em in.
258. 12:37- [Steven] One of the first things they noticed
259. 12:38was there were no sheets on the bed.
260. 12:43- What you see from Nicole,
261. 12:45as she's walking through the house,
262. 12:47is somebody who doesn't wanna believe
263. 12:49that Chris had something to do with this.
264. 12:51But deep down, she knows that something is wrong,
265. 12:54and I think that moment that you really see that
266. 12:57is when they find Shan'ann's phone.
267. 13:06- Oh, from home? - She works,
268. 13:09- I was on the phone with Nicki at that time
269. 13:12and I remember having the phone on speaker
270. 13:16'cause I'm hysterical.
271. 13:27- Shan'ann was always with her phone.
272. 13:29She always had it with her.
273. 13:31He means that something happened to her,
274. 13:33we just didn't know what.
275. 13:40- I think he honestly thought
276. 13:41he was going to get away with this.
277. 13:43I think that the one thing he didn't factor in
278. 13:45was Nicole Atkinson.
279. 13:56- When Nicki said that Sha'ann's purse was in the house
280. 14:00and the medication of the kids were still in the house,
281. 14:04my heart sank.
282. 14:08That's how I felt.
283. 14:09- Had she not intervened,
284. 14:11he would have been able to go home at the end of his shift,
285. 14:13he could have gotten rid of her purse, her medication,
286. 14:17her cell phone to make it look like she just disappeared.
287. 14:30- So we see in the video,
288. 14:31from the neighbor's surveillance camera,
289. 14:33that Chris leaves very early that morning.
290. 14:40- [Jennifer] We can see the garage door open,
291. 14:42there's some kind of movement that can be seen.
292. 14:49- Watching his reaction when everybody is watching this
293. 14:53and then turn and look at him,
294. 14:55his demeanor changes almost immediately,
295. 14:57his mannerisms all of a sudden cry out
296. 14:59this is something really making him nervous.
297. 15:04- [Chris] Yeah.
298. 15:08- And everybody who's watching that is thinking
299. 15:11what is it about what we're seeing
300. 15:13that's causing him this type of a reaction,
301. 15:15that was a big red flag very, very early on.
302. 15:25- [Cassandra] A lot of us were ready to go--
303. 15:27- We were ready to go-- - And start searching.
304. 15:28- Yeah, we were and we were told by Chris
305. 15:30that he didn't need us to be there.
306. 15:32We knew that we were gonna get bad news.
307. 15:37We just had no idea the gravity of what was about to unfold.
308. 15:46(dramatic music)
309. 15:54My name is Tammy Lee,
310. 15:55I'm an agent with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
311. 15:58My boss came to me, and said,
312. 16:00"Y'all need to pack up and head to Frederick.
313. 16:02"We need to find Shan'ann and her daughters."
314. 16:08With any missing person investigation,
315. 16:10my wheels just start going like,
316. 16:12"Okay, did this person walk away on her own?
317. 16:15"Did something happen to them?"
318. 16:17I'm just kinda going through all the scenarios,
319. 16:18thinking what is this one gonna be like?
320. 16:25- [Officer Lines] Officer Lines
321. 16:26with the Frederick Police Department.
322. 16:27Have you seen this lady?
323. 16:28- Oh my gosh, no.
324. 16:29- Very quiet family.
325. 16:33- I'll be on the lookout.
326. 16:35- I became involved on Tuesday morning, the 14th.
327. 16:39It was still a missing person's investigation at that time.
328. 16:42- You guys seen anything unusual?
329. 16:45- Like there were certainly a lot facts
330. 16:47that were suggesting that it might had the direction
331. 16:49of a homicide investigation.
332. 16:51(eerie music)
333. 16:57- [Officer Lines] We brung in some extra sources
334. 16:59to try to locate your family.
335. 17:00- Okay.
336. 17:01- [Michael] Boulder Police Department
337. 17:03had brought their cadaver dogs to do sniffs.
338. 17:11- Mm-hm.
339. 17:18- It's amazingly clean.
340. 17:27- [Reporter] All right, we're done in there.
341. 17:31- We were in the command post when they told us that Chris
342. 17:35had just interviewed with the media,
343. 17:37so we actually all watched it together.
344. 17:40- Police looking for pregnant Frederick woman
345. 17:42and her two children who have seemingly vanished
346. 17:44without a trace.
347. 17:46- Denver7's Thomas Hoppough spoke with the woman's husband.
348. 17:50- It wasn't like an argument,
349. 17:52we had an emotional conversation but I'll leave it at that.
350. 17:54But it's...
351. 17:56I just want them back.
352. 17:58- I turned around actually, and said, "Oh, (bleep)"
353. 18:01As soon as I saw it.
354. 18:02- Shan'ann, Bella, Celeste, if you're out there,
355. 18:07just come back.
356. 18:09If somebody has her, just please bring her back.
357. 18:11- In my opinion, he showed no urgency,
358. 18:14there was no emotion behind what he was saying.
359. 18:18- I need to see everybody, I need to see everybody again.
360. 18:20This house is not complete without anybody here.
361. 18:24Please bring 'em back.
362. 18:27- I don't know about you but I was a little disgusted,
363. 18:29actually, watching the interviews that he was doing.
364. 18:34- Oh, yeah.
365. 18:35- Because of his nonchalance.
366. 18:39- None of that is evidence, but at the same time,
367. 18:42it's very strange to investigators.
368. 18:50So we just started interviewing people,
369. 18:52we went pretty late into the night.
370. 18:54And that's when Special Agent Coder
371. 18:56conducted his first interview with Chris Watts.
372. 18:59- [Special Agent Coder] This is the preamble
373. 19:00for a consensual recording at the police station
374. 19:02with Chris Watts.
375. 19:04- He created a bond with Chris very quickly
376. 19:07that he knew Chris would not want to
377. 19:09disappoint him in anyway.
378. 19:11- [Special Agent Coder] What do you think happened?
379. 19:20- We were getting flooded with tips of sightings
380. 19:22of Shan'ann and the girls.
381. 19:24And so, we were bringing those in to Chris, and saying,
382. 19:26"Hey, does this look like your wife and your children?"
383. 19:35- Okay.
384. 19:36- We are trying.
385. 19:37- So I do feel like he felt like he was part of our team.
386. 19:40- [Interviewer] Was that a mind game?
387. 19:42- I'm not gonna talk about that.
388. 19:44(Tammy laughs)
389. 20:05- The interview was by and large a lie from start to finish.
390. 20:19- And so, as our prosecutorial law enforcement wheels
391. 20:22were starting to spend and think,
392. 20:24we probably have the right guy,
393. 20:25now how do we start poking holes
394. 20:27in some of the things that are coming out of his mouth?
395. 20:58- I don't know even if I should say this, but...
396. 20:59(Tammy laughs)
397. 21:01Chris, while he was talking to Special Agent Coder,
398. 21:06made a lot of movements towards his neck area.
399. 21:10(eerie music)
400. 21:20Special Agent Coder actually came out of the room,
401. 21:24and he said, "He may have strangled her."
402. 21:31- At that point,
403. 21:32I kinda knew Shan'ann must have happened something to her
404. 21:36but I had hopes that kids were somewhere
405. 21:41and they needed to find them.
406. 21:44- Anxiety, tears, worry,
407. 21:48the desire to be there and help in some way to find them.
408. 21:51- Calling the detectives.
409. 21:53I think that there was a lot of things that they knew
410. 21:55that they weren't able to--
411. 21:57- Say. - Divulge yet.
412. 22:14- They had made arrangements for him to come back
413. 22:16the next morning and submit to a polygraphic exam,
414. 22:21but we didn't know if that was gonna happen.
415. 22:25- It would be very reasonable for him to conclude
416. 22:27that he was a suspect.
417. 22:32(dramatic music)
418. 22:36- Legally, we can't hold him.
419. 22:38We didn't know if the girls were alive or dead,
420. 22:41we didn't know specifics that would lead us to say,
421. 22:44we have probable cause to arrest him, put handcuffs on him.
422. 22:48- Most certainly, I rolled the dice
423. 22:50that we had no choice but to...
424. 22:59- Chris picked his father up from the airport
425. 23:02and drove straight to Frederick PD.
426. 23:09- We had to set up the polygraph and we talked about
427. 23:12what was going to happen, whether Chris passed,
428. 23:15whether Chris failed, what was our strategy?
429. 23:21I conduct all my polygraphs the same, I'm very bubbly.
430. 23:28- I find it very easy to maintain rapport with someone.
431. 23:40I need Chris to know that I was his friend,
432. 23:43I was there to listen and I was there to hear his story.
433. 23:46(Tammy speaking indistinctly)
434. 23:49- [Chris] Yeah, like she had a couple different ones.
435. 23:51- Wednesday, we stopped hearing from him,
436. 23:52so we knew that he was in interrogation.
437. 23:55- [Cassandra] Yeah.
438. 24:05- So right before the polygraph, I tell Chris...
439. 24:15We call it snapping a knot in their ass,
440. 24:18'cause that's what we do right before the polygraph
441. 24:19'cause we want them to know it's over.
442. 24:22Like, whatever you're saying is,
443. 24:24you better be truthful or we're gonna find out.
444. 24:43- The type of testing format that I used,
445. 24:46we would consider someone to be deceptive
446. 24:48if they were a negative four and below.
447. 24:54Chris Watts scored negative 18.
448. 25:01- Immediately, I started thinking about
449. 25:03how we're gonna get him to confess to this.
450. 25:06'Cause at that point, I knew he had done it.
451. 25:11(suspenseful music)
452. 25:13Special Agent Coder and I both wanted to go back in there
453. 25:17and confront him with his deception.
454. 25:32We had an opportunity
455. 25:33to look through text messages ahead of time
456. 25:35and I felt like he was very submissive to females,
457. 25:38so I felt like I'm gonna use that to my advantage.
458. 25:45It felt good to finally be able to say,
459. 25:47"Chris, we don't believe you and you need to come clean."
460. 25:57- He said I had an affair.
461. 25:58I felt like he was,
462. 26:00oh, maybe this piece of information will appease them.
463. 26:11- We actually had to refocus him
464. 26:14back on his missing wife and children.
465. 26:43- We were throwing out different things to him about what could've happened
466. 26:51I had mentioned that maybe Shan'ann had done something
467. 26:54to the girls and his eyes immediately lit up,
468. 26:58and I thought to myself,
469. 26:59I'm like, this is the one he wants to go with.
470. 27:01And it was very shortly after that that he said,
471. 27:03"I wanna talk to my dad."
472. 27:08- [Chris] Cool.
473. 27:09- There was certainly a concern
474. 27:11that if we let dad come in to that interview room,
475. 27:14he would say, "Hey, it's time for you to get an attorney."
476. 27:17- We were very concerned, but at that point,
477. 27:20it was really a judgment call.
478. 27:28- Ronnie was wearing a polo, I can still see it to this day,
479. 27:32it was embroidered, it said Papa Ronnie.
480. 27:34That's what his grandkids called him.
481. 27:52- There was a very big sense of relief,
482. 27:54but at the same time,
483. 27:55I'm like he went with the theme that I had given him
484. 27:57about Shan'ann doing something to the girls.
485. 28:08- Probably one of the most ridiculous things
486. 28:09I had ever heard in my life.
487. 28:10- He was lying because nothing could happen to those kids
488. 28:16if she was alive.
489. 28:18- We needed to try and get him to actually tell us
490. 28:20what really happened.
491. 28:31(somber music)
492. 28:37- So about that same time,
493. 28:39the police department was sending their drone up
494. 28:42over the oil battery and spotted some disturbed dirt,
495. 28:49as well as, ultimately,
496. 28:51finding the sheet that had been missing from the house.
497. 28:54And that was key information.
498. 28:58(eerie music)
499. 29:01- We brought that drone picture into the room with us.
500. 29:39- [Officer] I'm gonna have you face that wall for a minute.
501. 29:43Just face it.
502. 29:49- I was grateful
503. 29:50that we able to locate Shan'ann and the girls.
504. 29:54Obviously knowing what happened to them,
505. 29:56made it even more horrible.
506. 30:03I did not believe for one second
507. 30:05that Shan'ann had done something to her girls.
508. 30:07In a way, I felt like I failed,
509. 30:09because we didn't actually get to the actual truth that day.
510. 30:14(suspenseful music)
511. 30:19- [Reporter] From father and husband,
512. 30:21to triple murder suspect, arrested overnight,
513. 30:23Chris Watts is accused of killing his pregnant wife,
514. 30:26Shan'ann, and their two daughters,
515. 30:29three-year-old Celeste and four-year-old Bella.
516. 30:32- I was angry.
517. 30:37I felt that it was a part of my heart
518. 30:40that has just completely gone.
519. 30:42(Cristina sobs)
520. 30:44- It was not a surprise that he was arrested.
521. 30:46I think we were more focused on the recovery of them.
522. 30:50- [Cassandra] Mm=hm.
523. 30:51- Here's what we've confirmed,
524. 30:52the two young girls bodies were found
525. 30:54inside an oil and gas tank.
526. 30:57- This couldn't get any more horrific, but it would.
527. 30:59- The motive was likely two-fold,
528. 31:01hide the bodies and disguise the scent.
529. 31:04- The circumstances under which
530. 31:06their bodies were disposed of,
531. 31:07led to the conclusion that he deliberately
532. 31:10and intentionally killed his family.
533. 31:12If this was some kind of a rage,
534. 31:14some kind of a self-defense murder,
535. 31:16you don't dump your children into oil tanks,
536. 31:18you don't dump your pregnant wife's deceased body
537. 31:20into a shallow grave and leave the bed sheet there.
538. 31:29- This case, it took a toll on all of us.
539. 31:33It was just one thing after another.
540. 31:35So I got home that Friday and I kissed my kids,
541. 31:38I walked upstairs, kissed my husband
542. 31:42and I just collapsed on the floor.
543. 31:45And I just started crying and I cried and cried and cried
544. 31:48and I have never done that before.
545. 31:51And I couldn't stop.
546. 31:56- In the next four hours,
547. 31:57a judge will sentence the Frederick man
548. 31:59who pleaded guilty to killing his pregnant wife
549. 32:01and their two daughters.
550. 32:11- The feeling that I had, sitting in the courtroom,
551. 32:15when they brought him in, I think that was it for me.
552. 32:17I was done.
553. 32:19I just started sobbing.
554. 32:20- You buried my daughter Shan'amn and Nico
555. 32:24in a shallow grave and then you put Bella and Celeste
556. 32:27in huge containers of crude oil, you heartless monster.
557. 32:30- It's one thing to, if it was a horrific event,
558. 32:33like a car accident or something like that,
559. 32:35but then to have it be from an evil act like that.
560. 32:40- Well, and somebody that you called family.
561. 32:41- And somebody that you called...
562. 32:43- [Both] Son.
563. 32:44- The defendant coldly and deliberately ended four lives.
564. 32:48Not in a fit of rage, not by way of accident,
565. 32:52but in a calculated and sickening manner.
566. 32:54As I stood there
567. 32:56and I was making my sentencing argument to the judge,
568. 32:57what I could not get away from
569. 32:59was the faces of those little girls.
570. 33:03- Even the judge said that,
571. 33:05"I've never seen anything like this before.
572. 33:07- This is, perhaps,
573. 33:08the most inhumane and vicious crime that I have handled
574. 33:13out of the thousands of cases that I have seen.
575. 33:18(somber music)
576. 33:39- She claims that, you know,
577. 33:40she had nothing to do with this,
578. 33:42she was just a woman caught in the middle.
579. 33:53- There was never a point in time, I think,
580. 33:55any of us thought that she had a hand in what happened
581. 33:58to Shan'ann and the girls.
582. 34:00She may have very well have been the motive
583. 34:02in the defendant's mind, but she had no role.
584. 34:18(somber music)
585. 34:22- It was so important for us to get some closure,
586. 34:24for all of us, family, investigators,
587. 34:28everyone involved.
588. 34:29We needed the truth to come out
589. 34:31and we felt like we had left Chris with such a good rapport,
590. 34:34that we felt like he would talk to us again.
591. 34:39Hey, Chris.
592. 34:40- [Special Agent Coder] Chris.
593. 34:47- This iteration was
594. 34:49that Shan'ann had come home,
595. 34:51they had this emotional conversation,
596. 34:53at which point he disclosed for the first time to her,
597. 34:56that he was having an affair.
598. 35:13- What he told us in Wisconsin
599. 35:15was actually way more horrific
600. 35:18than I had even let my brain imagine.
601. 35:38- None of us had allowed our brains
602. 35:40to even think of the possibility that, oh my gosh,
603. 35:43the girls were alive, you know,
604. 35:45sitting next to their deceased mother in the backseat.
605. 35:48And you watched them hug each other
606. 35:51and then you murdered one of them in front of the other one.
607. 35:54- My first reaction was one of absolute horror.
608. 35:56I couldn't wrap my brain around what I'd just heard.
609. 36:00- How could he?
610. 36:05(Cristina sobs)
611. 36:06She was such a good person and such a good wife to him
612. 36:12and such a good mother to her kids.
613. 36:15How could he have done something like that to her?
614. 36:23(somber music)
615. 36:28(Cristina sobs)
616. 36:30I know you guys didn't know them
617. 36:32when they were full of life.
618. 36:37I miss her.
619. 36:40Shan'ann's essence has been kind of lost in all the tragedy.
620. 36:47Shan'ann was a good person, a good mom,
621. 36:51a good wife, a good daughter and sister.
622. 36:54And she was just full of love and happiness.
623. 36:59We have so many memories together.
624. 37:04That was the last trip I saw her on.
625. 37:09We always had fun.
626. 37:12(Cristina sobs)
627. 37:26- We're such a phenomenon, I mean, even to this day,
628. 37:28if I go on Facebook right now,
629. 37:30there's probably six new posts in every Facebook group
630. 37:33about Chris Watts and this case.
631. 37:39There's YouTubers, everybody's got a podcast about this,
632. 37:42everybody has their two cents about this, it's insane.
633. 37:46The type of attention or publicity it has gotten
634. 37:51has been overwhelming.
635. 37:54Women have gone out and bought the cardigan I was wearing.
636. 37:59It's all been very surreal to say the least.
637. 38:03- Taking both our kids, after a long day, dinner,
638. 38:06and then some splash pads/outdoor concert.
639. 38:08- People will say things behind a computer screen
640. 38:11they will never say to your face.
641. 38:12And there were a lot of really hateful things
642. 38:15that were being said online.
643. 38:18People were quick to judge Shan'ann
644. 38:20because there was so
645. 38:20much out there to judge.
646. 38:22I mean, there were more videos
647. 38:24than you could watch in a day.
648. 38:29- I mean, yeah, you kinda know
649. 38:30that the world is a little ugly out there,
650. 38:33but I have never met so much
651. 38:38darkness and hate.
652. 38:42- You know, some of our close friends
653. 38:44have been attacked so much, her family.
654. 38:46It's just...
655. 38:49It's sad.
656. 38:51It's disgusting.
657. 38:52- Our family, including Shan'ann and her children,
658. 38:55and our grandchildren, have been ridiculed, demeaned,
659. 39:00slandered, mocked in the most vicious ways you can imagine.
660. 39:06- Her dad had to get in front of a camera
661. 39:08and ask people to just please stop.
662. 39:11There's not even anything to describe
663. 39:13what this has done to their family.
664. 39:15- It is cruel, it it heartless and it's flat wrong.
665. 39:19(laughs)
666. 39:22- So.
667. 39:23- But the other side of it is so much bigger
668. 39:26than the hard stuff that we have dealt with.
669. 39:29The love and support and the prayers
670. 39:31and the messages from strangers
671. 39:33that we would get
672. 39:34in our inboxes.
673. 39:36From women who said,
674. 39:40"This made me finally leave my abusive partner."
675. 39:44And then they'll say things like,
676. 39:45"Doing this for Shan'ann and Bella, CeCe and Nico.
677. 39:48"I'm doing this for them and I'm doing it for my children."
678. 39:55- I think this is a case that just sticks with you.
679. 40:02- I can't drive by an oil site
680. 40:04without thinking about Shan'ann and the girls.
681. 40:07I'll never forget about this one.
682. 40:11- That's the million dollar question.
683. 40:12Why did Chris Watts not just divorce his wife
684. 40:15and move on with his girlfriend and have his own life?
685. 40:21I've learned in this job,
686. 40:22that you can't quantify or qualify evil.
687. 40:25I can't make sense of something that doesn't make sense.
688. 40:29This was a family that did love each other,
689. 40:32and how they could get to this point,
690. 40:35it made everyone question,
691. 40:36well, what about my family?
692. 40:38If this guy can do it, can my husband do it?
693. 40:42Can my boyfriend do it?
694. 40:45What does this mean?
695. 40:46- I mean, it rocks your world.
696. 40:48It makes you think do you truly know everybody
697. 40:54as well as you think you know them?
698. 40:59(eerie music)