Watts dumped his wife Shanann's body in a shallow grave and his two daughters in an oil tank. Photo / Supplied
Watts dumped his wife Shanann's body in a shallow grave and his two daughters in an oil tank. Photo / Supplied
Warning: Graphic content
Every time he closes his eyes, Chris Watts hears his daughter Bella screaming "Daddy, no!"
These were the last words the four-year-old spoke before her father suffocated her and disposed of her body in an oil tank.
Watts, who is serving three consecutive life sentences for the murder of his pregnant wife Shanaan, 34, and their daughters Bella, four, and Celseste, three in August 2018, made this chilling confession among others in a newly released report by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Chris Watts in his new mug shot booking photo after being convicted of murder.
The prison interview, held on February 18, is the first time Watts, 33, has publicly confessed to the killings.
IN HIS OWN WORDS
Watts told investigators on the morning of the murders, he and Shanann were having an argument in their bedroom, during which he admitted he had been having an affair. He said his wife had started crying and saying "I knew there was someone else" and "You're never gonna see the kids again."
That's when he said he "snapped" and put his hands around her neck and strangled her.
"I wish I could've let go," Watts told investigators.
"It just felt like there was already something in my mind that was implanted that I was gonna do it and when I woke up that morning it was gonna happen and I had no control over it."
Watts said he had wrapped Shanann's body in a bed sheet when Bella walked into their bedroom and asked what was wrong with mummy.
"Mommy don't feel good," he says he told her.
Watts dumped his wife Shanann's body in a shallow grave and his two daughters in an oil tank. Photo / Supplied
Watts said he tried to carry Shanann's lifeless body down the stairs but lost his grip and had to pull her down the stairs.
Bella, watching, began to cry. He believes the noise of Shanann's feet hitting the stairs as he dragged her down may have woken up Celeste, who came out of her room.
Watts said in the interview that he reversed his vehicle up near the front door, loaded in Shanaan's body, and ordered the girls to get in, too.
He also put a gas can in the back of his truck with the intention of killing himself at the oil site, but ultimately he didn't blow himself up, he said, because he thought an explosion might hurt other people or start a large fire.
Watts recalled that during the ride Bella and Celeste dozed on and off, held each other, and laid in each others laps.
He remembers at one point Bella said "Daddy it smells."
Chris Watts with his daughters, Celeste, left, and Bella, right.
In the most chilling part of the interview, Watts described the moment he, after removing Shanann's body from the car, suffocated his daughters one by one.
"What are you doing to mommy?" his daughters had asked.
He doesn't remember what he told them.
Celeste had a blue Yankees blanket, which he put over her head while he did it.
After Celeste was dead, he dumped her body in an oil tank.
Bella, fearful for her life after what had happened to her sister, said "Daddy no!" the last words she spoke before he suffocated her and disposed of her in a separate oil tank.
CREEPY DETAILS FROM KILLER DAD'S PRISON CELL
Watts admitted that every time after he closes his eyes he hears Bella's voice saying those words, "Daddy, no!"
Eerily and inexplicably, Watts said he mourns his dead wife and daughters daily.
He has pictures of them in his prison cell and claimed he talks to them every morning and night.
Chillingly, he has a children's book in his cell, the same book he used to read to Celeste, and he said he reads the book to his daughters, along with some scripture, every night.
Chris Watts confessed to killing wife Shanann and daughters Bella, four, and Celeste, three.
"Right now I'd have a five-year-old … a three-year-old … and more than likely, a one-month old son … and a beautiful wife … and right now it's just me," he said.
In December, Watts moved from a Colorado prison to Dodge Correctional Institution in Wisconsin.
Watts told investigators when he was in the Colorado jail, other inmates would constantly yell at him from their cells give him advice on how he could kill himself.
Other inmates would also call out to him describing ways they would harm him given the chance.
SEX WITH SHANAAN HOURS BEFORE HE KILLED HER
Watts and Shannan slept together just hours before he would put his hands around her neck and strangle her.
Watts told investigators when Shanaan arrived home from a work trip at 2AM the day he would murder her, he felt her get into bed and was stirring around.
He felt she knew he had an affair because he has used his credit card to go out to dinner with Nichol Kissinger, the co-worker he was having an affair with.
Chris Watts and Shanann Watts, who was pregnant with their third child when he killed her.
Watts said Shanann put her hand on his leg and they had began to have sexual intercourse in the missionary position. He remembered he felt "strange" and questioned who he was and what he had become.
"[The sex] was like a trigger point," he said in the interview, "like you hit the push button on a bomb and it just blows up."
