Watts family murders
| Murders of the Watts Family | |
|---|---|
The Watts Family nine months before the murders. Chris poses with his wife Shanann and their children Bella (standing) and Celeste. | |
| Location | Frederick, Colorado, U.S. |
| Date | August 13, 2018 |
Attack type | Familicide, mass murder, uxoricide, filicide, child murder, feticide |
| Victims | 4 |
| Perpetrator | Christopher Lee Watts |
| Motive | Resentment against his wife and children, infidelity |
| Verdict | Pleaded guilty |
| Convictions |
|
| Sentence | Three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus 84 years |
In the early hours of August 13, 2018, in Frederick, Colorado, Christopher Lee Watts murdered his pregnant wife Shanann (34) by strangulation, and their two children Bella (4) and Celeste (3) by suffocation. He buried Shanann in a shallow grave near an oil-storage facility, and forced his children's bodies into crude oil tanks, with the opening of the tanks only 8 inches in diameter.
Watts initially maintained his innocence in his family's disappearance, but was arrested on August 15, after confessing in an interview with detectives to murdering Shanann. Months later, he also admitted to murdering his children. On November 6, 2018, Watts pleaded guilty to multiple counts of first-degree murder as part of a plea deal when the death penalty (which was later abolished in Colorado in 2020) was removed from sentencing. He was sentenced to five life sentences without the possibility of parole, three to be served consecutively.