Chris Watts murdered his pregnant wife Shanann and their two young daughters. Photo / Facebook
Chris Watts murdered his pregnant wife Shanann and their two young daughters. Photo / Facebook
The secret girlfriend of Chris Watts has revealed the brazen text message denial he sent her after his family's disappearance made the news.
Watts pleaded guilty to the murder of his 34-year-old wife Shanann Watts and daughters 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste, as well as the unlawful termination of a pregnancy in 2018.
He dumped the bodies of his pregnant wife and kids and is now serving multiple life sentences in a jail in the US state of Wisconsin.
In the lead-up to the murders Watts had been having an affair with Nichol Kessinger, with the father of two claiming to her he was separated and going through a divorce when he was in fact still with Shanann.
Kessinger is not suspected of any wrongdoing or involvement in the deaths of Shanann, Bella and Celeste.
Now a police interview in which Kessinger was grilled for several hours by authorities about her relationship with Watts at the time of the murders has emerged on a YouTube account.
Watts had been having an affair with Nichol Kessinger. Photo / Weld County District Attorney's office
It was shared by Shanann's family and it reveals a chilling new detail about the last text Watts ever sent his mistress.
When their disappearance hit the news in August 2018, Kessinger told police she had demanded answers from Watts.
"I kept asking him, 'What did you do, Chris? What did you do?'" she said.
"I asked, 'Where's your family?'"
Feeling "stressed out", Kessinger said she messaged Watts a final time before ceasing contact with him.
"So I texted Chris one last time, and I told him, 'If you did anything bad, you're going to ruin your life and you're going to ruin my life. I promise you that'," she said.
"And he responded, 'I didn't hurt my family, Nicky.' And that was the last text. I never said another word to him after that."
Chris Watts murdered his pregnant wife Shanann and their two young daughters. Photo / Facebook
Authorities were initially alerted to the disappearance of Shanann and the kids by a family friend, who asked police to perform a welfare check.
Watts initially denied any involvement in his family going missing, however, later admitted to his crimes to avoid the death penalty.
He strangled Shanann, who was carrying their unborn son Nico, before killing their two daughters.
Watts dumped his wife's body in a shallow grave 65km from their home while Bella and Celeste's bodies were found inside oil tanks.
Prior to Watts killing Shanann and their two daughters, Kessinger told police she had no reason to suspect that his story of splitting from his wife wasn't true.
"There were several discussions that we had about his current relationship and where it had gone," she said, according to People.
"He talked about his kids from time to time. But the thing was that he was never hostile. It was never anything aggressive. It was still very kind. He was just like, 'This is not working'."
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