The murder of a pregnant woman and her two young girls at the hands of the man in charge of protecting them shocked the nation.
Nobody will ever know why Chris Watts had to take the lives of his family at their Colorado family home on August 13 but the 33-year-old, who is suspected of having another love interest at the time, has been described as disposing of his family “like garbage.”
Despite Watts never revealing any details of that fateful night, prosecutors have been able to determine some details from autopsy reports and the scene and it makes for very grim reading.
Prosecutors said Bella, his four-year-old daughter, showed signs that she had fought for her life as her own father smothered her.
Chris Watts, aged 33, has been found guilty of killing his daughters Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, on Aug. 13. He has also been convicted of killing their mother and his wife Shanann, 34, who was 15 weeks’ pregnant with a boy.
In sentencing Watts to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Judge Marcelo Kopcow called the murders in a north Denver suburb “the most inhumane and vicious crime that I have handled out of the thousands of cases that I have seen.”
Weld County prosecutor Michael Rourke told the court Watts smothered Bella as she tried to fight back.
“She fought back for her life as her father smothered her,” Rourke said. “Imagine the horror in Bella’s mind as her father took her last breaths away.”
Police said Watts killed his wife and their daughters inside their Denver home. The children were found inside an oil tank and Shanann was buried nearby.
New love interest
Rourke said Chris Watts’ motive for killing his entire family could have been another woman he had met at work.
“He had a desire for a fresh start, to begin a new relationship with a new love,” Rourke said. He then expressed confusion as to why he would kill his family instead of just getting a divorce.
“You don’t annihilate your family and throw them away like garbage,” he told the court. “Why did they have to lose their lives in order for him to get what he wanted?”
The morning after Watts killed the family, he texted his mistress about future plans, Rourke said, according to Fox10.
More details of this sickening case can be found in the video below. Despite his sentencing there are still so many questions that their grieving family have, which may never be answered.
[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syQwvoZZvGI” /]
May this innocent mother, her two daughters and the unborn child that was never given a chance, rest in peace.
Share this article to pay your respects to Shanann and her children and the family left heartbroken by such a horrific crime.
