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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield
Investigators Dive Into a Mysterious True Crime Case Involving a Husband Murdering His Pregnant Wife and Two Young Daughters. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired October 24, 2018 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00]
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNNHN HOST: They were a family that seemed to have it all. The kind of neighbors you want to have next door, husband with a job
at the local oil company, a loving wife with a promising future, and two beautiful little girls with another baby on the way.
A family so picture perfect they were featured in a magazine, but that pristine imagine quickly unravels when pregnant Shanann Watts suddenly
disappears with those two adorable girls.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
CHRISTOPHER WATTS, MURDER SUSPECT: They`re doing their best right now to figure out like if they can get a scent to see where they went, if they
went on foot, if they went in a car, or they went somewhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On Monday night, Christopher Watts couldn`t sleep.
WATTS: I know I wasn`t going to kiss them to bed tonight I - that`s why last night was just horrible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His pregnant wife, Shanann, and two daughters Celeste and Bella, went missing early Monday morning after Shanann came home from a
business trip in Arizona.
WATTS: I left around 5:15, she was still here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Christopher tried calling her phone several times throughout the day with no answer, but when he got home on Monday, her
purse, keys, and phone was left in the house.
WATTS: She wasn`t here, the kids weren`t here, nobody was here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On Tuesday, investigators spent the day trying to find any type of lead of where Chris`s family may have gone. We asked Chris is
there was anything that could have happened where she could have left on her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you guys get into an argument before she left?
WATTS: It wasn`t like an argument. We had an emotional conversation, but I`ll leave it at that, but it`s - I just want them back. I just want them
to come back and if they`re not safe right now, that`s what`s tearing me apart because if they are safe they`re coming back but if they`re not, this
has got to stop like somebody has to come forward.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As of now, Christopher`s just looking for any way to speak to his wife and kids.
WATTS: If you`re out there, just come back like if somebody has her please bring her back. I need to see everybody again; this house is not complete
without anybody here. Please bring them back.
BANFIELD: So, Shanann Watts had just arrived home late, late at night - Sunday night, Monday morning and she`d been in a work trip - a work retreat
with a colleague of hers. She was 15 weeks pregnant and she was set in a couple weeks to have a big party to reveal to everyone the sex of the baby
boy that she was carrying.
SHANANN WATTS:, MURDER VICTIM Boy, boy Chris wants a boy. I hope it`s a boy for him, it`ll make him happy.
C. WATTS: We did it again. So pink means?
S. WATTS: That`s just the test.
C. WATTS: I know. The pink is going to be girls?
S. WATTS: I don`t know.
C. WATTS: I guess when you want to, it happens.
BANFIELD: Something was very wrong the morning after Shanann returned from her work trip. She wasn`t answering her phone when her friend was trying
to call repeatedly. She didn`t show up for her doctors appointment, and keep in mind this is a doctors appointment where she was set to hear the
heartbeat of that little baby growing inside of her.
S. WATTS: We go for our first ultrasound at 3:00ish, 3:15 and I`m kind of nervous because every time you go you`re like is there one? Is there two?
Is there three? Bella says there`s five and I seriously will have a heart attack.
BANFIELD: The friend who dropped her off the night before was so concerned when she couldn`t get a hold of Shanann the next day that she called Chris,
Shanann`s husband, of course that would the first phone call you would make. You call your friends husband. But what she says is the reaction is
not what she expected. Chris didn`t seem worried at all.
NICKOLE ATKINSON, FRIEND: She went inside, turned around and waved at me, and shut the door. He just kept saying he didn`t know where she was, that
she was on a play date but he couldn`t give us a name of the friend and there was no movement in between those times of me dropping her off, Chris
leaving, and then me coming back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What does that tell you?
ATKINSON: That there was something seriously wrong.
BANFIELD: Frederick, Colorado is not a big town and news, especially news like this, would spread like wild fire.
STEPHENIE KRIER, LOCAL RESIDENT: It`s so crazy and I was so scared for them. Just kind of blew my mind that this could happen in our
neighborhood.
MIKE HENDRICKSON, NEIGHBOR: It just doesn`t smell right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On August 13th at approximately 1:40 PM, Frederick officers responded to the residents of the 2800th block of Saratoga trail
in our town regarding a welfare check. A friend of the family had called, advising that they had not heard from Shanann Watts and was concerned.
After visiting the home, our agency began the investigation of the following missing persons, Shanann Watts age 34, Bella Marie, age four,
Celeste, who also goes by Cici, age three, Shanann`s two daughters.
[18:05:00]
BANFIELD: You know, we`re really used to families pleading with the media to help find their missing loved ones. But they typically have an air of
desperation and panic. C. WATTS (ph) had none of that.
C. WATTS (ph) seemed very odd. He talked about being lonely, and that the house wasn`t complete without them. That`s not the sort of things you
would say in the hours after your wife and children vanish.
There`d be more of a panic and a desperation in your voice. There were no tears, there did not seem to be any anguish, and there certainly didn`t
seem to be any fear. Instead he talked about the house being incomplete.
It was all very curious.
C. WATTS: I don`t know - I don`t know where my kids are, I don`t know where Shanann is. It`s - it`s not something I could ever - ever fathom
would happen in my lifetime and I have no inclination of where she is.
If you`re out there just come back, like if somebody has her, just please bring her back, I need to see everybody. I need to see everybody again.
This house is not complete with - without anybody here. Please bring her back.
She wasn`t here, the kids weren`t here, nobody was here, no I wasn`t going to kiss them to bed tonight. It was - I - that`s why last night was just
horrible.
BANFIELD: One of more curious mentions in Chris Watt`s multi-interview morning was that he suggested there had been some kind of a conversation or
argument and he called it emotional, but he wouldn`t give any further details.
Look, a husband who`s desperate to find his wife and kids, they typically don`t hide anything. I mean, open book, you are so desperate for anything
that will help bring your family back, the last thing you think to be is cagey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you guys get into an argument before she left?
C. WATTS: It wasn`t - it wasn`t like an argument, we had an emotional conversation but I`ll leave it at that. But it`s - I just want them back.
I just - I just want them to come back and if they`re not safe right now, that`s what`s - that`s what`s tearing me apart, because if they are safe,
they`re coming back.
But if they`re not, this has got to stop, like somebody has to come forward.
BANFIELD: If you look at the social media that Shanann Watts was regularly posting, this was the picture of the happiest woman alive. Husband
appreciation day, spouse appreciation day, happy birthday to the man who means everything, who changed my life, the best thing that ever happened to
me.
She couldn`t wait to get on social media and gush about how much this man meant to her, how much these children meant to her, how special and blessed
she was, how wonderful her life was.
S. WATTS: 2018 is my year, I`m claiming it, it is my year. Everything I want for my family is happening in 2018. I just feel blessed that we can
do that, we can travel the world. One day Chris can travel that long with us.
And I love the fact that I can be there for them. We go everywhere together and we do everything together.
BANFIELD: She went so far as to say she met Chris in the worst part of her life, during a terrible illness and that he was the one who brought her out
of her depths. He was the one that made her decide to have baby number three.
For all intense and purposes, he seemed like a super husband and a super father and really almost super man.
S. WATTS: My health challenges happened, I was diagnosed with some health challenges and then I met Chris. I met Chris because of those health
challenges and because of my health challenges, because I got so sick, I let him in.
And he only knew me at that time, he knew me at my worst and he accepted me. And, you know, through your vows, like through sickness and
everything, he`s been there and it`s hard for people to get.
It`s hard for me to understand. But he stuck around and he stuck around because he was the one for me and he is amazing. And I can`t tell you how
wonderful he is.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:10:00]
BANFIELD: He pleaded for help when his pregnant wife and two young daughters disappeared, begging for their return on the local news. But
days later, C. WATTS would soon find himself back on TV.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And empty house in
[18:15:00]
BANFIELD: An empty house and heavy hearts on Saratoga Trail in Frederick, Colorado; the search that started on Monday for a pregnant mother, Shannan
Watts, and her two daughters, Bella and Celeste, just three and four years old, now shifts a homicide investigation.
ASHLEY BELL, SHANNAN`S FRIEND: Everybody`s like, "Well, what about the husband, what about he husband, what about the husband?" And I`m like,
"No, like he wouldn`t do anything." And then I seen his interview, and I was like, "Oh my God, like something`s not right."
BANFIELD: Police say efforts to find the missing family alive and did around 11:30, Wednesday night, when Shannan`s husband, C. WATTS, was
arrested. He`s now in jail on first degree murder charges. The man you see here in court at a bond hearing is the same person who stood on his
driveway, two days ago, and said this to my camera.
C. WATTS: It`s not something I could ever, ever fathom would happen in my lifetime, and I have no inclination of where she is.
BANFIELD: In a post on Facebook, Shannan`s brother wrote, "May he rot in hell. He killed my pregnant sister and my two nieces. Her husband, C.
WATTS, admitted to murdering my family. We just found out she was pregnant with a baby boy, and his name was going to be Niko."
Now people say they found Shannan`s body on Anadarko property where Chris works, but prosecutors believe all three victims were killed inside the
family home. As the investigation continues -
BELL: I`m at a complete loss for words.
BANFIELD: - so does the grief. Flowers, candles and teddy bears all placed outside the family home, most by strangers, but others, close
friends who just can`t wrap their head around it all.
BELL: They were always so happy and always so - I never thought he would do anything to her.
BANFIELD: It wouldn`t be long before we would get the details that made sense, at least made sense for the arrest of Chris Watts. They found the
bodies, but it was very vague at the beginning. They found who they believe to be Shannan, and they were pretty sure that they found the bodies
of her daughters nearby.
But that sort of lent more questions than answers.
JOHN CAMPER, CBI DIRECTOR: At this point, we have been able to recover the body that we`re quite certain is Shannan Watts body. We have strong reason
to believe that we know where the bodies of the children are, and recovery efforts are in process on that.
BANFIELD: You know, while we were all trying to figure out, "Why was Chris Watts arrested? What could he possibly have had to do with all of this?"
It seemed that Shannan`s family had an inclination. Just look at her brother`s Facebook post; it was clear and to the point, "Piece of shit," he
confessed.
NICHOLAS THAYER, WATT`S NEIGHBOR: It was Tuesday afternoon, and it was - it was just kind of two, I thought, two easily ways of knowing where she
could`ve been. And he didn`t seem all that eager to look into it. I look at my little girl, and I don`t know how anybody could do that. There`s no
reason.
BANFIELD: Eventually, those details, as grizzly as they are, became very public, that Shannan had been buried in a shallow grave, and her daughters
haven`t been afforded that kind of dignity.
Instead, they had been dropped into tanks of oil; their little blond pigtails submerging into vats of black grease. Whoever did this to them;
if it`s C. WATTS, that was the last vision that they had of those two little girls.
MICHAEL ROURKE, WELD COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: This afternoon, my office formal charges against Christopher Lee Watts. The charges that we filed
are as follows; three counts of murder in the first degree, after the liberation, one count naming Shannan Watts, one count naming Bella, one
count naming Celeste.
Each of those is as class one felony. We also filed two counts of first degree murder of a child under the age of 12 by a person in a position of
trust. Obviously, you can tell, based upon the elements of those and the description, that those counts name Bella and Celeste and victims. Those
are both also class one felonies.
We filed one count of unlawful tampering - excuse me - unlawful discrimination of a pregnancy in the first degree, which is a class two
felony, as a result of Shannan being pregnant at the time of her death.
We filed three counts of tampering with a deceased human body, each of which is a class three felony, each of which count, obviously, names,
Shannan, Bella and Celeste, as victims.
BANFIELD: But it all started to make sense, right, because C. WATTS worked for an oil and gas company, C. WATTS was an operator in an oil field, C.
WATTS, of anybody, would know a thing or two about he mechanics of oil rigs and oil rigging and oil equipment.
ROURKE: The possible date - date range for the death of Bella and Celeste is -it happened between and including August 12 through the 13th.
[18:20:00]
We know that on the 13th Shanann had returned from her work trip and had been seen alive.
BANFIELD: So that picture perfect image that we had from social media began to get some cracks by way of interviewing friends and family. And it
turns out, some documents at least, shed some light on their financial picture and it was not rosy. They had a bankruptcy filing in 2015, they
had $70,000 in debt, they only combined together to make $91,000 back in 2014. They were spending more money than they made and it was right there,
listed in black and white on the documents.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We had no idea that they were financially (ph) -- until we spoke with Chris on Monday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He mentioned putting the house up for sale.
BANFIELD: Between the two of them had two savings accounts. One of them was less than $10. And the other one, while more, certainly not much.
Less than $900. They had pretty big payments. $3,000 a month mortgage, $500 or so dollars for the car. That doesn`t even bring in food, clothing,
credit card bills. Things were mounting and the pressure might have been tough on them.
S. WATTS: I -- I feel really blessed this summer. I`m going to San Diego with Chris. We`re going June 22nd through the 26th. No, the 26th we come
home. At 1:30 in the morning. And then the 26th, that afternoon at 5:30 at night, Bella, Cici -- Bella, Cici and I and my dad are flying back to
North Carolina for six weeks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:25:00]
BANFIELD: It`s a case that rocked a small Colorado community. A mom and her two young daughters murdered. The man believed to be responsible was
the last person anyone would suspect. And the details coming out are about to get a lot worse.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WATTS: It was just like, I miss them.
BANFIELD: From a slightly distraught husband in an interview with Denver 7 to an accused killer in an orange jumpsuit, all eyes were on C. WATTS as he
appeared in court for a bond hearing. Meanwhile investigators would find his dead wife`s body and their unborn child.
CAMPER: We`ve been able to uncover a body that we`re quite certain is Shanann Watts` body.
BANFIELD: Her body was found in an open field owned by Anadarko petroleum, the company her husband worked for. Prosecutors believe she and her two
girls were killed inside their home. But the details as to how and why are sealed in court documents. And not long after that, the bodies of the
couple`s two young daughters, 4 year old Bella and 3 year old Celeste, were found in close proximity, according to investigators, to Shanann`s body.
SGT. IAN ALBERT, FREDERICK POLICE DEPARTMENT: The manner of death would be -- would undetermined at this time. We don`t want to speculate anything or
rule anything out.
BANFIELD: Prosecutors could consider the death penalty.
ROURKE: Communication and collaboration, discussion with her family, law enforcement, members of my office, members of other offices who have been
sought whether successfully or unsuccessfully, the death penalty in other cases.
BANFIELD: Meanwhile, the community and Shanann`s family raises money to help lay them to rest.
CAMPER: In expressing our sorrow for the loss of Shanann Watts, Bella and Celeste, this is absolutely the worst possible outcome that any of us could
imagine. And I think our hearts are broken for the town of Frederick as much as anybody`s.
BANFIELD: It didn`t take long before stories of infidelity started to bubble up beneath the surface of this extremely happy family. Friends of
theirs suggested that Shanann had floated a concern that Chris maybe had been cheating. But then brushed it off suggesting, he doesn`t have game
for that.
AMANDA THAYER, WATTS` NEIGHBOR: She said it came to her mind that possibly he could be cheating. But at the same time, she was like, you know, he --
he has no game.
S. WATTS: How are you watching and you`re sitting right here?
C. WATTS: I`m right here.
S. WATTS: Weirdo. So Chris has lost a significant amount of weight since you started Thrive. How much?
C. WATTS: 50 pounds. He`s in a medium. He went from a 2X to a medium.
BANFIELD: It turns out, during the summer, Shanann and the kids went back to see their family for six weeks. Chris was there for part of it, and the
whole family had stopped in to visit Shanann`s mom at the salon where she worked. And one of those colleagues of Shanann`s mom said the plan was
always they were going to separate; definitely, they were going to separate.
[18:30:00]
DARNELL SEARCH: She was definitely one of those people that when she walked in the room it was just like sunshine. Chris was very standoffish,
he didn`t really say anything -- I said hi to him, he kept his head down. She mentioned, you know, about them having problems -- Shanann (ph) and
Chris --
BANFIELD: And you said it was out they were going to separate?
SEARCH: That was the plan. That was definitely the plan.
HARTUNG: It was as though a waterfall of information started tumbling out of this case, all while we were actually live on the air. Is that Chris
Watts told multiple versions of his story to authorities.
At first he feigned ignorance for what could have possibly happened to his wife and his two daughters as he continued to speak with investigators
though, details began to seep out.
First there was the admission that he and his wife had had an emotional conversation when she`d come back in the early morning hours, Monday
morning from a work trip.
Then the admission to authorities that he was having an extramarital affair with one of his co-workers. In the final version of the story that he
gives, actually very descript details of a discussion between he and Shanann where he told her, he wanted a separation.
He then made his way downstairs, gave her a moment to herself -- he says when he came back upstairs, I want to read this from the affidavit he says
when he, "returned upstairs to speak with Shanann again after telling her he wanted a separation, he saw via the baby monitor located on her
nightstand, their daughter Bella sprawled out on her bed and blue. Shanann meanwhile actively strangling their other daughter Celeste."
Chris claims he went in to a rage seeing his wife perform such actions, and he then strangled her.
BANFIELD: What happened after that is perhaps even more curious. He then says he loaded their bodies, instead of calling the police -- he loaded
their bodies in to his truck and took them to his worksite, an oil field, and disposed of them like trash.
THAYER: He just didn`t seem like the type of guy to injure a fly, let alone his entire family.
NICHOLAS THAYER, WATTS` NEIGHBOR: I mean we -- we were hoping for the best.
BANFIELD: So let`s just list out the lies, OK? By his own admission to the police, he lied to his family because he was cheating with a co-worker.
By the second admission to the police, he lied to them because they asked him about an affair which he denied and ultimately copped to (ph).
He also lied to the public, "help me find my missing family" -- not very well, but it was clear and it was repeated several times in several
interviews. And then if what the police are saying is true, he lied to them as well about his poor, dead, murdered wife actually being a double
child killer.
So after all of those lies, are we really to believe that it was Shanann who killed the two children she couldn`t have loved more? Or is that just
another wicked whopper?
[18:35:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Shanann Watts and her unborn baby were found buried in a shallow grave with her daughters, little Cici and Bella, just 3 and 4 years old,
found submerged in some tanks of black oil nearby. But what really happened?
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ROURKE: This afternoon my office filed formal charges against Christopher Lee Watts. The charges that we filed are as followed, three counts of
murder in the first degree after deliberation. One count naming Shanann Watts, one count naming Bella, one count naming Celeste, each of those is a
class one felony.
We also filed two counts of first degree murder of a child under the age of 12 by a person in a position of trust, obviously you can tell based upon
the elements of those in the description, that those counts name Bella and Celeste as victims. Those are both also class one felony.
We filed one count of unlawful tampering - excuse me, unlawful termination of a pregnancy in the first degree, which is a class two felony as a result
of Shanann being pregnant at the time of her death.
We filed three counts of tampering with a deceased human body, each of which is a class three felony. Each of which counts obviously names
Shanann, Bella, and Celeste as victims.
BANFIELD: You could`ve heard a pin drop when that man walked across the court room. The daggers, the eyes that bore down into him, everybody`s
staring at that face to figure out how could this have happened? Did you do it? You admitted to killing Shanann but did you kill those little
girls, too? And how could you drop their bodies into vats of oil?
That`s the kind of look that usually, makes a defendant hang his head. Not in this case, C. WATTS stared straight ahead. He didn`t seem to have any
remorse in that court room, he didn`t seem to have anything - no emotion at all.
[18:40:00]
Even if his story is true, that he watched his wife kill his daughters, and then in a rage killed her -- he didn`t seem to show much of anything about
it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: August 13, 2018. Christopher Lee Watts, unlawfully, feloniously, after deliberation, after the intent of cause of death of a
person other than himself -- caused a death of Shanann Watts and that crime is classified as murder in first degree, a class one felony. Do you
understand?
C. WATTS: Yes sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Count two alleges the murder in the first degree, also a class one felony -- caused the death of Bella Watts and count three
alleges murder in the first degree -- caused the death of Celeste Watts. Count four alleges murder in the first degree -- a class one felony.
Christopher Lee Watts unlawfully, feloniously, and knowingly caused the death of Bella Watts -- a child who had not yet attained 12 years of age,
and the defendant was in a position of trust with respect to the victim.
Count five alleges murder in the first degree, a class one felony -- Christopher Lee Watts unlawfully, feloniously and knowingly caused the
death of Celeste Watts a child who had not yet attained 12 years of age, and the defendant was in a position of trust with respect to the victim --
with regard to these first five counts, the minimum sentence could impose if convicted is lifetime imprisonment in the Colorado Department of
Corrections, and the maximum death. Your sentence is death, do you understand?
BANFIELD: And that`s in stark contrast to what Shanann`s father displayed. That man is broken, that man is ruined. That man wore his heart on his
sleeve and on his face. And even before we get to the jury, the police aren`t buying it. They didn`t just charge him with three counts of first
degree murder, they threw the book at him.
They charged him with three counts of first degree murder, two counts for killing someone who trusts you and then they threw in the idea of
terminating a pregnancy unlawfully for good measure.
Because that little baby had a name planned, it was Niko (ph), and it was a boy -- and they didn`t even get to reveal that gender publically because
she was murdered before the party.
FRANK RZUCEK, FATHER OF SHANANN WATTS: Good afternoon everybody. I am Shanann`s dad. This is her brother. We`d like to thank everyone and the
federal police department and all the agencies involved for working so hard to find my daughter, granddaughters and Niko (ph).
Thank you everyone for coming out to the candlelight vigil and saying all your prayers, they are greatly appreciated. And keep the prayers coming
for our family. Thank you very much.
BANFIELD: Despite everything that he told the police, and everything they laid out in that arrest affidavit they believe he did it. And they are not
buying his whopper of a story that he watched his wife kill his kids and then in a rage killed her, then secretly buried them and begged the rest of
us to help find them -- they`re not believing it.
And there`s a good reason for that, it isn`t reasonable -- it doesn`t sound reasonable. And guess who else is going to have to make the judgment on
whether it`s reasonable? A jury. Because reasonable doubt is what they`re going to be asked to weigh, and if he lied all those other times why might
he not have lied with the big whopper that his wife killed the kids?
LAUREN NAUMANN, FORMER BABYSITTER: I wanted to defend him from what people were claiming he did, before he confessed. Because I didn`t want to
believe it was him, nobody that knew him wanted to believe that it was him. We didn`t want to believe that he was capable of anything that -- he`s a
monster. And he`s a monster who let us comfort him and felt absolutely no remorse for what he`s done.
BANFIELD: So those are the most serious charges you can possibly face on this planet, OK? And it takes a lot to get jurors to look across a
courtroom at a person, a real, living, breathing person and decide, "I think he should die." That is a very difficult decision, but the fact
pattern in this case might not make it so difficult.
When there are allegations that are so heinous and when an accused defendant tells lies that are so painful, it generates a lot of hate. And
it generates a lot of vengeance -- and don`t think for a minute that jurors might not feel that vengeance. Who knows, maybe Colorado will actually
execute one of the first people in decades?
NAUMANN: How do you tell a 5-year-old that her best friend`s gone? I was like, we didn`t even want to believe it when we heard it.
[18:45:00]
You`re like, "They can`t be gone. They can`t be. Shannan was too young; those girls were way too young."
It kinds of feels surreal, like it doesn`t - it feels like some nightmare that we can just wake up from, but we can`t. What`s done is done, and he
needs to face the consequences now.
BANFIELD: When tragedy befalls a community, a community comes together. And I think that`s best evidenced by what`s happening on the front lawn of
the home where no one is likely to ever return. And that is a vigil and shrine to the loss of to the loss of a woman and her two beautiful children
and the senselessness of that kind of violence.
And everyday, it gets bigger and bigger. And when those teddy bears start to fray and the flowers die and the candles burn out, it certainly doesn`t
mean that they`re gone and forgotten from all of our minds. The justice system doesn`t wither and it doesn`t it.
HERERRA: I empathize with him, and then to have the that, you know, that it had is just so sad and, you know, just little babies and a momma to be
in. I`m expecting, so it kind of just hits close to home.
BANFIELD: It seems like once in a decade, a Scott Peterson comes along, a Casey Anthony comes along, a Jodi Arias comes along, an O.J. comes along,
and they captivate the nation.
And it goes back to Lizzie Borden and the Lindbergh baby; there`s a collective consciousness in this country. When one of the flock goes so
far astray, we all stare in disbelief, and we all want to know why. How? Maybe it`s for self-preservation, maybe it`s because we want to know so we
can stop it from ever happening to the rest of us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:50:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
S. WATTS: I am super, super pumped about 2018.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On the surface, Chris and Shanann Watts had it all. Successful careers, a nice house in a tidy
suburb, and two healthy kids with a third one on the way.
S. WATTS: Are you guys excited?
CELESTE WATTS, MURDERED DAUGHTER: Yes.
BELLA WATTS, MURDERED DAUGHTER: Yes.
S. WATTS: Yes, are you really excited? Oh my goodness.
MCLEAN: It`s that fact that makes what happened inside their Frederick, Colorado home so stunning and so hard to understand.
ROURKE: This afternoon my office filed formal charges against Christopher Lee Watts.
MCLEAN: The only person who truly knows what happened is Chris Watts, now behind bars facing murder charges for the deaths of his pregnant wife and
young daughters.
CELESTE WATTS: My daddy is a hero. He helps me grow up strong.
MCLEAN: Shanann Watts was first reported missing on August 13th by a friend who had dropped her off here at home after a business trip late the
night before. The next day she had missed a doctor`s appointment and then wasn`t answering her phone.
When police showed up to look for Shanann, there was no sign of her or the girls, but no sign of a crime either. That next day C. WATTS spoke to
local media pleading for his families return.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you guys get into an argument before she left?
WATTS: It wasn`t like an argument, we had an emotional conversation but I`ll leave it at that but it`s - I just want them back.
BELL: Everybody`s like well what about the husband - what about the husband - what about the husband? And I`m like no he wouldn`t do anything
and I then I seen his interview and I was like oh, my god. Like something`s not right.
WATTS: If somebody has her please just bring her back.
MCLEAN: Watts told police that early that morning that he told Shanann he wants to separate, but afterwards he says he went to work like any other
day. Shanann stayed in bed. Friends never imagined Chris could be involved in the disappearance.
Amanda and Nicholas Thayer even took Watts in after his family was reported missing.
A. THAYER: He stayed the night at our house across the hall from our 5 year old.
N. THAYER: That`ll haunt me.
A. THAYER: He just didn`t seem like the type of guy to injury a fly, let alone his entire family.
MCLEAN: According to the arrest affidavit, two days later police had discovered Watts had left out a key detail, an extramarital affair with a
colleague. A possibility, Shanann`s friend Nicole Atkinson told ABC news that she had privately considered.
ATKINSON: He wasn`t being the loving Chris that he normally was. He wasn`t touching or hugging or doing stuff like that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did she suspect he might have been cheated?
ATKINSON: I know she entertained the idea, yes.
[18:55:00]
THAYER: She said that it came to her mind, that possibly he could be cheating, but at the same time, she was like, "He - he has no game."
MCLEAN: After the cheating revelation, Watts changed his story, dramatically; telling people that, after he told Shannan he wanted to
separate, he went downstairs momentarily, when he came back up, he saw, through a baby monitor in the bedroom, his 4-year-old daughter, Bella,
sprawled out on her bed in blue, and Shannan actively strangling Celeste, just three years old.
Chris said he went into a rage and ultimately, strangled Shannan to death, according to that police affidavit.
BELL: They were always so happy and always so - I never thought he would do anything to her.
MCLEAN: Watts told police he loaded the three bodies into the backseat of his truck and drove 45 minutes to this secluded worksite on a private
ranch, accessible only by a maze of winding dirt roads. He dug a shallow grave for his wife and dumped the bodies of his daughters, Bella and
Celeste, into an oil storage tank, where they sat four days.
Drone search spotted a bed sheet that matched a set found in Chris Watts` kitchen trashcan.
JEREMY LINDSTROM, FRIEND OF C. WATTS: The hardest part about it all is when your closer with the family, it`s the why, the why gets bigger. We`re
dumbfounded; we don`t get it, lost.
MCLEAN: Watts` defense team requested, in court, to have their own DNA expert swab Shannan`s finger nails, presumably to prove her involvement,
but the judge denied that request.
JOSEPH SCOTT MORGAN, CERTIFIED DEATH INVESTIGATOR: I can see how they would want to go down that road. From a evidentiary standpoint, I think
that it`s going to be very difficult, though, if - if these children had been submerged in oil, that you would be able to recover anything that`s
usable, from out of that environment.
MCLEAN: Watts` initial denial is vaguely similar to the Scott Peterson case, the man convicted in California of killing is pregnant wife, after
joining efforts for her body, 15 years ago. A detective who worked on that investigation says Watts` story doesn`t add up.
JOHN BUEHLER: To think that a wife would kill her children, after her husband said that he wants to leave, is pretty far-out. I could her
wanting to kill him, though.
MCLEAN: Beneath the surface, cracks in the perfectly curated Facebook image of the family started to appear years earlier. They went through
bankruptcy in 2015 and were sued by their homeowner`s association for $1,500.
A. THAYER: We had no idea that they were financially - until we spoke with Chris on Monday.
N. THAYER: He mentioned putting their house up for sale.
MCLEAN: Watts has been fired from his job in the oil industry, but back in 2012, he may have had other aspirations. For one semester, he took classes
at a North Carolina community college and posted this video of his apparent assignment, a presentation about relationship deterioration and repair.
WATTS: Always disclose your feelings; don`t keep things bottled up, because it will later come back to bite you. And in conclusion, I`d say
that relationships are hard, but they`re worth in the end.
MCLEAN: Somehow, six years after lecturing about the value of relationships, C. WATTS sat emotionless in a courtroom in an orange
jumpsuit, shackled at the hands and feet, while the judge red the nine felony charges against him, for murdering his entire family, tampering with
their bodies and terminating his wife`s pregnancy with the baby boy they had already named Niko.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The minimum sentence that the court could impose if convicted is life imprisonment in a Colorado department of corrections and
the maximum could be death, if the sentence is death. Do you understand?
WATTS: Yes, sir.
MCLEAN: In the front row, Shannan`s father, Frank, sat, audibly weeping. Back at the now empty Watts home, there is still a steady trickle of
friends, neighbors and complete strangers coming to pay their respect to a family that could`ve been anyone`s.
ARIANNA CHAVEZ, VISTOR PAYING RESPECTS: It`s just sad; daddy-daughter relationships are something very special, so that`s just really
heartbreaking.
MCLEAN: Scott McLean, CNN, Colorado.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: There are more questions than answers in the Watts family murders, but none more puzzling than why. The image of that beautiful
family just doesn`t add up with the gruesome details that are coming out of this case.
You`ve heard that saying, "Things aren`t always as they seem," well, this case just might be living proof of that. C. WATTS will have his day in
court, and for Shannan and Bella and Cici, there is hope for justice. I`m Ashley Banfield, thanks so much for watching.
END
