A confession letter from Chris Watts in jail suggests his crimes were premeditated

He says he had thought about it for ‘weeks’

4 years ago

Netflix’s latest true crime documentary is American Murder: The Family Next Door. The film is about the Watts family killings – but one question it seems nobody will ever know is why Chris Watts did what he did. A letter from Chris Watts in prison reveals more about his confession, and suggests that what he did may have been more premeditated than he originally let on.

Chris Watts is currently serving five life sentences for killing his pregnant wife Shanann and their two young daughters, Bella and Celeste. On February 18th 2019, three investigators spoke to Watts and it was marked as the first time he fully told the truth about what he had done. He reportedly said he “snapped” and “didn’t know what he was doing”. But now, it looks as though he may have been thinking about committing the crimes for weeks beforehand.

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via Netflix

In a confession letter, Chris Watts has explained more about what happened on the day of his crimes

An author named Cherlyn Cadle wrote to Watts in prison, as documented in her upcoming book, Letters from Christopher. In a confession letter he sent to her, he shared what happened on August 13th 2018, the day he killed his pregnant wife Shanann and their two young daughters.

He says he had been thinking about killing his family for “weeks”, so that he could be with his girlfriend Nichol Kessinger forever. The letter, obtained by the Daily Mail, says that Chris claims he in fact tried to kill his young daughters a first time at home, but they “woke back up”.

The letter reportedly reads: “August 13th, morning of, I went to the girls’ room first, before Shanann and I had our argument. I went to Bella’s room, then Cece’s room and used a pillow from their bed. 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.

“After Shanann 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. That made the act that much worse knowing I went to their rooms first and knowing I still took their lives at the location.”

Later in the letter he is said to have written that on the night of August 12th he knew that would be the last night he tucked his daughters into bed. “I knew what was going to happen the day before and I did nothing to stop it. I was numb to the entire world” he wrote. The report also says that in the letter Chris said he gave Shanann the painkiller Oxycodone to induce a miscarriage as he “thought it would be easier to be with Nichol if Shanann wasn’t pregnant”.

In another letter it is said that Watts wrote: “All the weeks of me thinking about killing her [Shanann], and now I was faced with it.” The only reasoning he gave in the letters as to why he did what he did is because “she would keep me from Nikki” – Nikki being his mistress – Nichol Kessinger.

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