Chris Watts makes gruesome admission of his crimes in detailed letters written from prison

A former prison pen pal has shared letters sent between herself and Chris Watts, in which he shared a gruesome admission of the crimes he committed. He explained in detail what happened on the day he killed his family.

In 2018, a pregnant Shanann Watts and her two young daughters, four-year-old Bella and three-year-old Celeste, went missing from their family home. A friend informed police, and they were all reported as missing. In the days following, Chris Watts appeared to be a loving father and husband who just wanted to know what had happened to his family.

But, he had killed his pregnant wife, and both of their children. He had been having an affair, and it’s been theorised his motivation was a want to start a new life.

The children’s bodies were found in oil tanks and their mother buried in a shallow grave. He ultimately pled guilty, and Watts was handed five life sentences with no possibility of parole.

*This article contains details that may be upsetting*. 

via Netflix

Author Cheryln Cadle went on to publish Letters from Christopher: The Tragic Confessions of the Watts Family Murders, a book about exchanging letters with the killer, and visiting him in prison. After she first visited, Cherlyn said Watts told her he wanted to tell her his confession over letters, as he believed their prison conversations were being recorded.

In the letters, Chris Watts revealed horrific details about the murders, and said he had been “thinking about killing” his family for a number of weeks before he did.

“August 13, morning of, I went to the girls’ room first, before Shanann and I had our argument,” he said. “I went to Bella’s room, then Cece’s room and used a pillow from their bed (to kill them). That’s why the cause of death was smothering. After I left Cece’s room, then I climbed back in bed with Shanann and our argument ensued.”

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In a letter, Watts recalled watching Shanann’s eyes fill with blood, and mascara streaking down her face as he strangled her. “Isn’t it weird how I look back and what I remember so much is her face getting all black with streaks of mascara,” he wrote in it. “All the weeks of me thinking about killing her, and now I was faced with it.”

Chris Watts also said he’d attempted to smother his daughters Bella and Cece with a pillow before killing Shannan, but said his daughters “woke back up” after Shannan had died.

“After Shannan had passed, Bella and Cece woke back up. I’m not sure how they woke back up, but they did. Bella’s eyes were bruised and both girls looked like they had been through trauma,” he wrote. “That made the act that much worse knowing I went to their rooms first and knowing I still took their lives at the location of the batteries.”

via Netflix

He added: “I realise now the girls getting up and walking around may have been God’s third attempt to stop what I was doing.” But, Watts recalled he was “so mad they were still alive”.

Chris Watts also seemingly confirmed his affair with Nichol Kessinger had been his motive. “I knew if I took my hands off of her, she would still keep me from Nikki,” he wrote in one letter. “They asked me why she couldn’t fight back, it’s because she couldn’t fight back.”

The chilling story of Watts’ crimes was told in American Murder: The Family Next Door, which first aired on Netflix in 2020.

American Murder: The Family Next Door is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.