"Mommy don't feel good," Chris Watts told his elder daughter when she walked in on him after he killed his wife.
Chris Watts is finally admitting to the killing of his two little girls, whose picture he has hung up in his prison cell.
In a newly released tape of his five-hour long confession to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Watts is shedding new light on the details surrounding the murder of his pregnant wife, Shan’ann, and his two daughters, Bella and Celeste.
“It just felt like there was already something in my mind that was implanted that I was going to do it and when I woke up that morning it was going to happen and I had no control over it,” Watts told investigators.
The interview was conducted at an undisclosed prison, which Watts told investigators he much preferred over Weld County Jail, where he was held during his trial.
Since he was transported to the prison, Watts said he’s received plenty of mail, including death threats and photos of women in bikinis. He said he has only responded to a few people he knew.
As for his late family, their memories are very much alive in his cell, where he keeps photos from happier times and speaks to them every morning and night, he said. Watts told investigators he even has a book in the cell he used to read to Celeste.
“Right now, I’d have a 5-year-old, a 3-year-old and more than likely, a 1-month old son and a beautiful wife,” Watts reflected. “Right now, it’s just me.”
He explained it all started that fateful Monday morning last August, when Shan’ann confronted him about the affair he was having with his co-worker.
“I just felt guilty, more guilty than before,” Watts said in the confession.
Watts had been straddling his wife in bed during the conversation, and when Shan’ann asked him to get off and threatened to take their daughters away, he said he began strangling her.
"It felt like time was standing still,” Watts said. “It was kind of like I just saw my life just disappearing before my eyes, but I just couldn't let go."
He said Shan’ann didn’t resist, fight back or scream. Instead, Watts believes she had been praying.
Their daughter Bella walked into their bedroom shortly later and asked what happened to their mom.
“Mommy don’t feel good,” Watts recalled telling their daughter, before wrapping Shan’ann in their bed sheet, dragging her down the stairs and putting her into their car with their two daughters in the backseat.
He then began driving to the oil site where their bodies were later found. Watts recalled Bella and Celeste falling asleep on each other’s shoulders during the journey.
With his girls still in the backseat, Watts buried Shan’ann before returning to the car.
“Cece was first,” he told investigators, recalling that he smothered his younger daughter before turning to Bella.
Watts recalled some of Bella’s last words: “Is the same thing going to happen to me as Cece?” and “Daddy, no!”
“Something inside me just triggered it and then it just like, all that pent up from the wedding and everything,” Watts said. “It’s like a long fuse that finally just went to its end.”
The 33-year-old is currently serving life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to the murders last year to avoid the death penalty.
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