[chris]

Christopher Lee Watts, 33, pleaded guilty on November 6, 2018, to murdering his pregnant wife, Shanann Cathryn Watts, 34, and their daughters Bella Marie, 4, and Celeste Cathryn, 3, at the family home in Frederick, Colorado, in the early hours of August 13, 2018. On November 19, 2018, he was sentenced to five life terms without parole, three of them consecutive, plus 48 years for the unlawful termination of Shanann's pregnancy and 36 years for tampering with the bodies.

Shanann was 15 weeks pregnant with a boy the couple had named Nico. At about 12:10 p.m. on August 13, her friend Nicole Atkinson called police after Shanann missed a doctor's appointment and business meetings. Officers arrived at the house at about 1:40 p.m. Watts would not let them search until he got home, and he was interviewed there on camera.

On August 15, 2018, Watts took a polygraph examination and failed it. In the interview that followed, he first said Shanann had smothered the girls and that he had killed her in a rage after finding Bella dead and Shanann strangling Celeste. Later that evening, he admitted killing his wife.

At about 11 p.m. that night, the bodies were found at an Anadarko Petroleum site where he worked. Bella and Celeste had been pushed through the 8-inch openings of two crude-oil tanks, while Shanann was in a shallow grave nearby. Watts was arrested that night.

On August 21, 2018, he was charged with three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of murder of a child under 12 by a person in a position of trust, unlawful termination of a pregnancy and three counts of tampering with a body. He was moved to the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin, on December 5, 2018.

In letters to a pen pal made public in June 2021, Watts said he had planned the killings for weeks, had given Shanann oxycodone to end the pregnancy, and had first tried to smother the girls in their beds at home.

The video is part one of JCS - Criminal Psychology's three-part narrated analysis and runs about 21 minutes. It covers the missing-persons report, the first police visit to the house and Watts's early interviews before the polygraph, with narration about his behavior and the officers' approach over body-camera and interview-room footage. It is not raw footage, and parts two and three follow as replies in this thread.

[chris]

Chris Watts admitted that he had killed his wife, Shanann, during an interview after failing a polygraph examination at the Frederick police station on August 15, 2018.

Watts agreed to the examination two days after his wife and daughters were reported missing. The examiner conducted the standard pre-test interview and the test itself, then told him he had failed.

The result led directly into an interview in which Watts abandoned his account that Shanann had left the house with the girls. He first blamed her for their deaths, then admitted killing her.

The video is part two of JCS - Criminal Psychology's three-part narrated analysis and runs about 24 minutes. It covers the August 15, 2018, polygraph examination, from the pre-test questions through the examiner's verdict, with commentary on the technique and Watts's responses. It is not raw footage.

[chris]

Chris Watts pleaded guilty to all charges on November 6, 2018, and was sentenced on November 19 to five life terms without parole after admitting during an interview that he had killed his wife.

After failing the polygraph on August 15, 2018, Watts asked to speak to his father, Ronnie, who had flown in that morning and had waited in another room during the examination. Watts confessed to him first, then to investigators from the Frederick police, the FBI and the CBI.

He first claimed Shanann had smothered Bella and Celeste and that he had strangled her in a rage on finding them. Later in the interview, he admitted killing his wife and led investigators to the Anadarko site, where the bodies were found that night.

In 2021 letters, Watts admitted the killings had been planned and that he had killed the girls himself.

The video is part three of JCS - Criminal Psychology's three-part narrated analysis and runs about 22 minutes. It covers the August 15, 2018, confession interview, with commentary on the interviewers' persuasion techniques and the shifts in Watts's story. It is not raw footage.