A chilling remark Chris Watts made to his mother about his pregnant wife before the murders of his family has resurfaced online.
Watts is serving multiple life sentences after admitting to killing his wife, Shanann, and their daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, in 2018.
Public attention has returned to the case following reports about a jailhouse interview in which he claimed he keeps photos of Shanann and the children in his cell and says he “talks to every morning and night”.
Alongside that renewed interest, an older TV interview with his mother has been recirculating, showing her becoming emotional as she said she “doesn’t know how to get through it”.
In the 2018 9News interview, recorded about a week after Watts pleaded guilty, his mother Cindy Watts reflected on his upbringing and insisted he had always seemed like “a good kid”.
“I would never in a million years have thought something like this would happen,” she said. “He was quiet and he got along with people. He was a perfect teenager to tell you the truth,” she said.
During the same conversation, Cindy said she had only limited insight into the couple’s relationship and any problems they were facing.
Shanann was pregnant at the time she was killed, and Cindy claimed in the interview that her son “wasn’t excited” about the pregnancy.
“I think it was a shock to him,” she said. “And he said that they had been talking about divorce,” she revealed. “That they were not compatible anymore, and he was not happy anymore.
“And I finally thought, he’s finally seen the light.”
Watts was charged in 2018 with the murders of Shanann and their two daughters. Before confessing, he had claimed Shanann killed one of the children and attempted to kill the other after he told her he was having an affair.
At the time, Watts was involved with Nichol Kessinger, a woman he met through his job.
Investigators later concluded Watts strangled Shanann after telling her he no longer loved her and wanted to separate. Shanann confronted him about an affair and, according to accounts of the case, told him he would not see the children again before she was killed.
After Shanann’s death, Watts placed her body in his truck and drove to a remote oil field connected to his worksite, bringing Bella and Celeste with him. He then smothered the girls and disposed of their bodies in an oil tank.
He pleaded guilty on November 6, 2018.
In 2020, Netflix released the documentary American Murder: The Family Next Door, which compiled texts, videos, and other firsthand materials related to the case.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact GrieveWell on (734) 975-0238, or email [email protected].