Chris Watts and his wife Shanann were like any other suburban couple before violence wrecked their seemingly happy relationship.
Chris and Shanann had been married for eight years in 2018. The couple were parents to two girls, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste. Shanann was pregnant with their third child, a baby boy, when things went wrong.
The heartbreaking story is the focus of a new Netflix documentary, American Murder: The Family Next Door. The documentary shows bodycam footage of the day Shanann was discovered to be missing. Further video shows Chris acting suspiciously as police look into how Shanann and their two daughters disappeared.
At the center of the documentary are Shanann's texts. She talks to friends about concerns that Chris is cheating. She says that he was distant in a way he'd never been before. Texts between Chris and Shanann also appear in the documentary, including the final exchange between the pair before Chris killed her in their Colorado home. Later, he'd confess to killing their two daughters as well.
It's been nearly two years since Shanann Watts and her two daughters, Bella and Celeste disappeared. Just over a week later, Shanann's husband, Chris Watts, confessed to killing the three. The heartbreaking story was, for many, reminiscent of the tragic death of Laci Peterson.
A new Netflix documentary examines the mind-boggling case as it unfolded. American Murder: The Family Next Door shows police bodycam footage from the initial visit to the house after Shanann's friend, Nickole Atkinson, was concerned for her well-being. Nickole had dropped Shanann off in the early hours of the morning of August 13, 2008. The two were returning from a business trip.
Nickole knew that Shanann, who was pregnant with her third child, had a doctor's appointment at 9 a.m. Shanann didn't answer calls or texts about the appointment and apparently hadn't shown up. Chris was called to the home before police entered to begin their investigation.
Police couldn't have known the real issues at play upon first look. There was an immaculate house, a husband who seemed concerned for his wife and kids, and no signs of struggle or foul play. However, Nickole, as well as a neighbor who provided the police footage from his street-facing cameras, both noted that Chris wasn't acting right.
Shanann's friends knew the couple was having problems. Shanann had spent six weeks in North Carolina before her business trip. Most of that time was spent visiting family with their daughters. Chris didn't join them until later, at which point Shanann was already lamenting the disconnect in their relationship.
The documentary reveals heartbreaking texts that show Shanann was concerned primarily with fixing her marriage.
"He has changed. I don't know who he is," one text read.
"He hasn't touched me all week, kissed me, talked to me except for when I'm trying to figure out what is wrong," she wrote in another. "I just want to cry."
Shanann worried Chris was cheating on her, though he denied it. He was, in fact, cheating on her with Nichol Kessinger, a woman he met at work. Chris spent most of that six-week period with Nichol, who was under the impression that Chris and Shanann were already divorced.
Until Shanann's story gained traction, Nichol had no idea. Once she knew, she questioned Chris on her own. Then, she went to the police.
"It got to a point that he was telling me so many lies that I eventually told him that I did not want to speak to him again until his family was found," she told The Denver Post. "I just wanted to help. With a pregnant woman and two children missing, I was going to do anything that I could."
Before her business trip, Shanann was hoping they were getting closer to a place of reconciliation. She left Chris a handwritten letter.
"I can't even explain how hard this pain hurts," she wrote. "The last 5 weeks have been so hard. I missed everything about you. I missed your morning breath, your touch, your lips against mine, I miss holding you. I missed smelling you in the sheets. I missed talking to you in person."
She continued: "I missed watching you laugh and play with the kids. I love seeing their smile with you. I missed seeing you naked and on top of me making love. OMG I missed having you around when I felt alone and upset. I just flat out missed the hell out of you."
"I can't and won't lose you without fighting for 'us!'" she continued.
"I will always fight for our marriage and you. This is the hardest thing I have ever gone through but you are worth it. Tell me what you need."
The documentary also shares the last text exchange between Chris and Shanann. Before she boarded her flight back from Arizona, she texted Chris about dinner.
"What kind of vegetables do you want with dinner tonight?" she asked.
"Broccoli works," Chris replied. "Green beans work, too."
"Ok I will get them when I go to Costco tomorrow. Anything else you want me to get besides salad and spinach," she wrote.
"That's it. Plane take off yet?" he asked.
"Finally on plane and about to take off. Thank God! Prayers for safe flight! Love you ."
A few hours after Shanann returned home that night, Chris woke her while he was getting ready for work. He told her about his affair and said the marriage was over. She told him he would never see their kids again, and then he strangled her to death.
Bella walked into the room and asked what was wrong with her mom. Chris put the girls in the car, wrapped Shanann's body in a blanket and carried her to his truck. He drove to his worksite, where he smothered Celeste to death in the car. Bella asked Chris if he's going to do that to her next. She reportedly fought back before she was killed.
Shanann's body was buried in a shallow grave. Bella and Celeste were each disposed of in a 20-foot oil tank.
Sources tell People that Chris is "triggered" that all of these details are coming out now. He's currently in Dodge Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison, in Waupun, Wisconsin. He's serving five life sentences — three consecutive and two concurrent — without the possibility of parole.
"He can't see it, and he'll probably never see it," the source says.
"He's curious about it, but he hates even knowing that his texts are out there for the public to read. It brings back awful memories of 2018 for him," the source added. "There's a lot of curiosity about him in prison. He's the most high-profile inmate and what he did is incomprehensible, so everyone wants to know more about the case."
The source concluded: "Chris knows that every part of his life is out there for public consumption. He hates it. It makes him feel a lot of shame. But he also knows that he brought it upon himself."
