American Murder Delves Into The Horrifying Murders in a Colorado Suburb
We also have other details that were left out of the show
American Murder: The Family Next Door has caught the attention of true crime aficionados. It shares the details of the familicide committed by Chris Watts, who murdered his pregnant wife and two daughters. The story of American Murder documentary revolves around how Chris committed the murders on 13 August 2018, how he tried to cover up his crimes. The American Murder documentary uses content from Shanann’s Facebook page and police footage.
As shown in the American Murder documentary, it all began on the morning of 13 August, when Shanann missed scores of texts and calls. Her friend called the cops, and a search of Chris and Shanann’s home revealed that she and her kids were not at home.
Chris’ secret girlfriend, Nichol Kessinger also grew suspicious of him when he remained calm after knowing the disappearance of his family. She approached the police willingly and shared what she knew. She admitted that he had lied to her regarding getting a divorce from his wife when they first met.
In 2018, Kessinger said in a interview with the Denver Post, “It got to a point that he was telling me so many lies that I eventually told him that I did not want to speak to him again until his family was found.” She further added, “with a pregnant woman and two children missing, I was going to do anything that I could.”
Also in the American Murder documentary, after the police came to know about the secret affair, they questioned Chris again, and he denied. He consented to take a polygraph test and failed it as he had been lying about not knowing the whereabouts of his wife and kids. A few hours after that, he confessed to murders and stated how he strangled his 34-year-old pregnant wife when they argued about separating.
In November 2018, Chris Watts was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole. He also got 36 years for three charges of tampering with evidence and 48 for unlawful termination of pregnancy. As he pleaded guilty, he was not given a death penalty. According to People, Chris Watts is aware of the American Murder documentary on Netflix but says that he is too ashamed to watch his heinous crimes.
If you are feeling pity for the murderer because his actions were released via the American Murder documentary on Netflix, let us remind you that his actions were not spontaneous. He had been thinking of killing his wife and kids the night before it happened. He wrote a few letters to an author Cherlyn Cadle, who collated them and created a 2019 book Letters from Christopher: The Tragic Confessions of the Watts Family Murders.
In one of the letters to Cadle, Chris has clearly written that night before the killings, when he put his daughters to bed, he walked away and said “That’s the last time I’m going to be tucking my babies.'” He also added, “I knew what was going to happen the day before and I did nothing to stop it. I was numb to the entire world,” A copy of the letter was shared by The Daily Mail.
In another letter obtained by the media outlet, he confessed that he was thinking of killing her for weeks. He wrote, “All the weeks of me thinking about killing her, and now I was faced with it.”
It was also revealed that he attempted to kill his daughters Bella and Celeste, aged 4 and 3, at home. When he failed, he drove to his worksite, an oil storage facility, with his daughters and his wife’s dead body. He buried Shanann in a shallow grave and then smothered his daughters and shoved the bodies through a hole in a huge oil tank. While talking to the police, Chris also lied that he killed Shanann as she had killed their daughters, but his lie was detected early on.
The only justification he offered for killing his family is not shared in the American Murders documentary by Netflix but was unveiled via his letters. He assumed that killing his family was the only way to be with his secret girlfriend and colleague Nichol Kessinger. He thought that his wife would not let him be with Nikki. He wrote, “I knew if I took my hands off of her, she would still keep me from Nikki.”
Chris Watts also revealed that he slipped Oxycodone to Shanann to make sure she would miscarry their kid. She was 15 weeks pregnant at the time of her death. He wrote, “I thought it would be easier to be with Nichol if Shanann wasn’t pregnant.”
American Murder: The Family Next Door on Netflix did a commendable job of delving into the truth and sharing it to the world but many aspects of the crime case were left out. They were only shared when the real story was unveiled through Chris’ letters.
The American Murder documentary might be a bit uncomfortable to watch for some people or the letters could seem horrible, but still, they share some hard truths about society and how selfish one man can be. We hope the Chris’ story will serve as a lesson to society and let people realize that murdering is never the answer to problems. You need to face them head-on!
