Shanann Watts & Family

Case background and investigation

In the early hours of August 13, 2018, in the Denver suburb of Frederick, Colorado, Christopher Lee Watts murdered his family inside their home. His wife, 34-year-old Shanann Watts, was 15 weeks pregnant with a son the couple planned to name Nico. Their two daughters, Bella Marie, 4, and Celeste "CeCe" Cathryn, 3, were also killed. Shanann had returned from a work trip to Arizona around 2 a.m. that morning; within hours she and the children were dead. Watts strangled Shanann and smothered the two girls before transporting the bodies to a rural oil-and-gas site operated by Anadarko Petroleum, where he worked.

Shanann was reported missing later that day after she failed to appear at a scheduled obstetrics appointment and did not answer calls from a concerned friend, who requested a welfare check. Over the following two days, Watts publicly presented himself as a distraught husband and father searching for his family. On August 14 he gave televised interviews to Denver stations, including Denver7 and 9NEWS, standing outside the family home and appealing for their return: "Shanann, Bella, Celeste: If you're out there, just come back." The FBI and Colorado Bureau of Investigation joined the search as the case drew national attention.

The investigation quickly turned toward Watts himself. After failing a polygraph examination, he was interviewed by detectives and, on August 15, 2018, admitted involvement in the deaths and was arrested. He initially claimed he had killed Shanann in a rage after seeing her harm the children, but investigators rejected that account. Acting on information from Watts, authorities located the bodies at the Anadarko site: Shanann was buried in a shallow grave, while Bella and Celeste had been placed inside separate crude-oil storage tanks, each with an opening only about eight inches wide. Watts was fired from his job the same day and formally charged on August 20 with multiple counts of first-degree murder, unlawful termination of a pregnancy, and tampering with human remains.

On November 6, 2018, Christopher Watts pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder, one count of unlawful termination of a pregnancy, and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body. The plea agreement removed the death penalty from consideration, a resolution reached with the support of Shanann's family, who did not wish to pursue capital punishment. This is an established fact: Watts admitted guilt and was convicted.

On November 19, 2018, Weld County District Court Judge Marcelo Kopcow sentenced Watts to five life sentences without the possibility of parole, three of them to run consecutively, plus additional decades for the tampering and pregnancy-termination charges. In his statement to the court, Watts offered no clear explanation for the killings; investigators pointed to his relationship with a coworker and a desire to escape his marriage as apparent motives. Watts was transferred out of Colorado to a facility in Wisconsin for his safety. As of 2026 he remains incarcerated, serving his life sentences with no possibility of release.