The Murder of Chris Watts
On August 13, 2018, thirty-three-year-old Chris Watts strangled his pregnant wife Shanann and then smothered their two young daughters — three-year-old Bella and four-year-old Celeste — at their home in Frederick, Colorado. He then drove to his oil company worksite, buried Shanann's body in a shallow grave, and submerged his daughters in separate oil tanks on the property. When Shanann's friend reported her missing after she failed to show up to a playdate, police arrived at the home, and Watts gave an emotional television interview pleading for his family's safe return — even as investigators were already analyzing surveillance footage and building a case against him.
Watts was arrested on August 15, 2018, just two days after the murders. Under initial questioning he claimed to have strangled Shanann in a fit of rage after she killed their daughters — an account that investigators quickly disproved through evidence and witness testimony. He was having an affair with a co-worker, was deeply in debt, and had been planning to leave his marriage. Shanann had been fifteen weeks pregnant. Watts pleaded guilty in November 2018 to avoid the death penalty, receiving five consecutive life sentences plus additional terms — a total that ensured he would die in prison.
The case became a true crime phenomenon amplified by social media, partly because Shanann Watts had been a prolific Facebook user who documented her family life extensively, creating a haunting archive of happiness that contrasted grotesquely with the murders. Netflix released a documentary, "American Murder: The Family Next Door," in 2020 using that footage alongside police body cameras and investigative materials. The film attracted massive viewership and renewed scrutiny of domestic violence warning signs.
Watts later gave jailhouse interviews in which he provided a revised and more detailed account of the murders, including that he had killed Bella and Celeste first and then Shanann — contradicting his earlier claim. The case prompted significant discussion about intimate partner violence, the role of financial pressure and affairs in family annihilations, and the extent to which social media documents both family life and the signs that precede tragedy. Chris Watts remains incarcerated at a federal facility in Wisconsin.