Netflix viewers spot 'creepy' moment Shanann Watts sent police 'message about her murder from beyond the grave'

Netflix viewers believe a murdered wife sent police a clue from beyond the grave after spotting something "creepy" in the doco about her brutal murder at the hands of her cheating husband.

Chris Watts strangled and smothered his pregnant wife Shanann, 34, to death, before strangling their daughters Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, with a blanket in 2018.

He buried his wife – who was carrying their unborn son, Nico – in a shallow grave on a remote oilfield that was owned by his employer at the time and dumped his daughter's bodies in an oil tank.

But new Netflix documentary American Murder: The Family Next Door has revealed new details about the killer dad – and sparked a theory Shanann was trying to communicate with police after her and her daughter's deaths.

On Facebook, viewers believe an image of a foetus, followed by a skull "floating in oil appeared" on a TV screen being shown to police the morning after the family had gone missing.

Viewers of the Netflix doco about the murders have spotted a 'creepy' detail in the footage, believing Shanann sent cops a 'message from grave'. Photo / Facebook

The widely shared video was taken on a police body cam and shows Watts asking a neighbour to share his CCTV footage with him and police.

As the neighbour turns the CCTV off, the images believed to be a foetus and a skull appear on the screen.

"If you believe in paranormal stuff, was it Shanann giving the cops a clue?" someone wrote on Facebook, along with two screenshots from the documentary.

"Or was this just one big coincidence? Kinda creepy either way you think about it."

The post quickly gathered attention and currently it has more than 43,000 comments and 97,000 shares.

Many agreed it was a "sign" from the murdered wife.

"I'm in shock. Wow", said one while another replied: "That is weird and I never noticed it. I'm sure it was a sign!"

However, others were quick to point out the images were a series of advertisements aired on the National Geographic channel.

While the "eerie coincidence" has left many shocked, the rumour isn't actually new. It first originated on YouTube in January 2019 in a video titled "A Sign From Shanann?"

Chris Watts, 35, is currently serving five life sentences in a Wisconsin prison for the murders.

Chris Watts with his daughters, Bella and Celeste, before he murdered them in 2018. Photo / Supplied

Watts initially denied any wrong doing, even going on live TV shortly after burying their bodies, begging anyone with information to come forward.

After admitting to the murders, Watts claimed had it not been for his mistress Nichol "Nikki" Kessinger – a fellow employee at his work – he would not have killed his family.

But the killer has recently revealed grisly new details of the murders in a bombshell prison letter, according to reports.

In the handwritten note he sent to author Cheryln Cadle, which was obtained by the Daily Mail, he admitted he'd thought about killing his pregnant wife for "weeks" in the lead-up to her death.

"I thought it would be easier to be with Nichol if Shanann wasn't pregnant," he reportedly told Cadle.

Describing her death, Watts wrote: "When she started to get drowsy, I somehow knew how to squeeze the jugular veins until it cut off the blood flow to her brain, and she passed out.

"I knew if I took my hands off of her, she would still keep me from Nikki. They asked me why she couldn't fight back, it's because she couldn't fight back.

"All the weeks of me thinking about killing her, and now I was faced with it."

Cadle has published Watts' correspondence in her book Letters From Christopher, which was released last year.