The Messed Up Truth About Convicted Murderer Chris Watts

In 2018, all seemed well in the Watts family. Chris Watts and his wife were expecting another member of the family to add to their growing brood. The couple already had two girls: 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste. Though they seemed like a typical family from the outside, Chris and Shanann were having relationship issues that ultimately led to the murder of Shanann and her two girls.

The killings were brutal, and the details that were revealed after his arrest made the story even more troubling. Watts ultimately confessed, but not before twisting the truth and trying to lessen his accountability for the crimes. Since Chris' arrest, his case has been the subject of a number of TV shows and documentaries that delve into the events of that fateful night when the murders took place. Chris Watts is now serving a life sentence at a maximum security prison in Waupun, Wisconsin, according to People.

Shanann's close friend, Nickole Atkinson, immediately went to the Watts home on the morning of August 13, 2018, after not hearing from her friend. She knew something was wrong, as Shanann had a doctor's appointment that day and wasn't returning her calls, per The Denver Channel. At the Watts home, Nickole found Shanann's vehicle, but her friend was not there. Sensing something wasn't right, she called the police and Chris. Police interviewed Chris on Shanann's whereabouts, and he said that she was with friends, even inviting the police in their home to investigate the place.

Days later, Shanann and her children were still missing, and the case was covered by a local news station who interviewed Chris. In the interview, per News, Chris said "somebody has to come forward" if they know something. "I just want them to come back. And if they're not safe right now, that's what's tearing me apart," he said. Watts seemed calm and collected in the interview, which is more chilling now that he has confessed to being responsible for the murders.

Chris Watts had an affair with Nichol Kessinger at the time of the murders. According to Nichol, Chris told him at the start of their relationship in July that he was finalizing his divorce from Shanann. The truth, however, was that there was no ongoing divorce. It was not until Chris' arrest that Nichol found out about the lies. "When I read the news, I found out he was still married and his wife was 15 weeks pregnant," Nichol said in an interview with The Denver Post.

There's some controversy surrounding Kessinger, however, as investigations of her online search history goes against her claims. Per Medium, she did an online search of the names of Chris and Shanann as early as September 2017, almost a year before the crimes took place. Her search history also showed that she browsed wedding dresses for a couple of hours and even searched the phrase "marrying your mistress."

Nichol Kessinger contacted the police after finding out that Shanann and her children were missing. She claimed that she didn't know anything about Chris' crimes.

During Chris Watts' initial confession, he admitted to murdering Shanann but claimed that he only did so because his wife had killed his two children. According to The Wrap, Chris said that he told Shanann he wanted to separate, which angered Shanann and caused her to kill their kids. He reportedly used that story in his first confession to try to justify killing Shanann, but it was later revealed that Chris was responsible for all three murders.

In an interview, as reported by Oxygen, Watts claims that he only went with that narrative because it was mentioned by the police. "Honestly, I never even thought about that story until you guys mentioned it," he said. His attorneys were supposedly going to court with that story, but Watts eventually confessed to them and said that he was the one who killed his two girls. "They said they wouldn't judge me, so I told them, I told them everything that happened, and they appreciated it," he said.

Since Chris Watts' incarceration, he has been receiving plenty of fan mail and even love letters from both men and women, as reported by Crime Online. In some letters, fans confess their attraction to Watts, while others send photos and say that they want to be his friend. A few, though, are hate letters, and others want to know more of the story. As an investigator said, the letters came in as early as nine days after Watts was sent to prison. Watts now has pen pals that he corresponds with regularly, according to a source interviewed by People. "Many of them are from women who thought he was handsome and felt compassion for him," said the source.

Watts responds to some of the letters he receives, and in one letter that he wrote, he recalled the events leading up to the murder and even described Shanann and his two children in detail while he was murdering them, per The Daily Mail. In the past, Watts claimed that the murders happened in the spur of the moment, but the letter he sent states otherwise. "All the weeks of me thinking about killing her, and now I was faced with it," he wrote.

Despite getting some love from the outside world in the form of fan mail, Chris Watts is an outcast in prison, a source told People. "No one wants anything to do with him. He's on the lowest social tier of the entire prison," the source revealed, further noting that Chris is in protective custody as other inmates may harm him. Despite all being criminals, those in prison have a special hatred for anyone who kills children. Those types of criminals are usually harassed and beaten as they as seen as "dirty" criminals, per a report from Prison Insight.

Chris Watts was originally incarcerated in Colorado, but was transferred to a maximum security prison in Wisconsin due to security-related reasons that were not detailed. Since he is at the bottom of the prison's food chain with no one wanting to interact with him, he mostly spends his time writing to pen pals.