Chance encounter | NC mom meets "perfect" family from CO just weeks before mom, daughters killed
Friends and neighbors described the Watts family as "perfect," but after the 33-year-old husband was arrested on suspicion of killing his wife and two young children, the nation is asking one question: Why?
Monday will mark two weeks since the tragic murders of 34-year-old Shanann Watts and her two children, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, allegedly at the hands of her husband, Christopher.
Friends and neighbors described the Watts family as perfect," but after the 33-year-old husband was arrested on suspicion of killing his wife and two young children, the nation is asking one question: why?
"He's the best thing that ever happened to me."
They met through a mutual friend in North Carolina. Two years later, Chris and Shanann were married.
It was your typical 21st-century love story. They met on Facebook, according to a post from Shanann in May of this year. Just two years later, they were married on November 3, 2012, in Mecklenburg County. In that same video, Shanann said she was going through a health crisis when Chris entered her life.
"I met Chris because of those health challenges," she said. "Because I got so sick, I let him in.
"He's the best thing that has ever happened to me."
Shanann's friends in the Charlotte area — she lived in Belmont before moving to Colorado — described her as a happy person and a good friend. A quick look at her Facebook profile offered no hints of trouble at home. Instead, it was a stream of smiling faces and videos of the young and loving family.
"[Celeste] loved playing with kids and you could tell especially in pictures and stuff," said longtime friend Laura Arnold. "You could see that she loves being around people."
Her older sister couldn't wait to have a little brother.
"Bella was excited about having a baby so she was constantly rubbing her stomach and talking to her stomach while Cece's like climbing on chairs and pulling stuff down," Arnold said.
News of her murder shocked her friends in the Carolinas.
"I am sick over it, honestly," said Arie King, whose brother-in-law was previously married to Watts. "Any family she has here in North Carolina, we are heartbroken."
In June, she surprised Chris, again on Facebook, by revealing she was pregnant with the couple's third child. She was wearing a shirt that said, "Oops, we did it again." The video was seen nearly 12 million times as it was revealed Shanann was carrying their first son.
"It wasn't just somebody I was reading about on the news"
Just days before her death, Shanann met a North Carolina mom while in Myrtle Beach. Her photos of the Watts family have since gone viral.
Michele Greer of Fayetteville said she met Watts while in Myrtle Beach in early August. While their children played on a trampoline, Greer said she talked to Watts and she was beaming with joy over her unborn son.
"She was wonderful with the girls," Greer said. "She told me she was expecting; she was very happy. She was very engaged with her little girls."
However, Chris seemed standoffish to Michelle, who said he was "just kind of standing there" while the kids played. The photos were taken on August 2, less than two weeks before the news hit that Shanann and the girls were murdered.
"I was heartbroken because I had just spoken to her two weeks ago," she said. "It wasn't just somebody I was reading about on the news, it was somebody I was engaging in a conversation with, someone I met, I had met her children. It hit hard."
A mountain of debt
While things appeared perfect for the Watts, court documents show their finances were anything but.
The couple purchased their home in Frederick, Colorado for nearly $400,000 in 2013, shortly after Shanann left North Carolina. In 2015, Chris started a job at Anadarko Petroleum. In June of that year, the couple sought Chapter 7 bankruptcy with less than $10 in their savings accounts, according to court documents.
They amassed more than $70,000 of debt for unpaid credit cards, medical bills and students loans. Most of that debt stemmed from credit card purchases at stores like Furniture Row, Sears, and Toys R Us. In August of 2015, a federal judge agreed to discharge most of their debt.
The Watts were also being sued by their homeowners association, Wyndham Hill Masters Association Inc., for $1,533.80 and they were due for a court appearance on August 24.
A friend's concern triggered the investigation
Shanann didn't answer her phone after saying she didn't feel well. Worried, her neighbor called police to check on her.
Shanann Watts returned home from a business trip in Arizona around 2 a.m. on August 13. When her friend dropped her off at home, Watts, who was 15 weeks pregnant, said she didn't feel well on the trip. About 12 hours later, the kids were reported missing, so her friend went to their home to check on her.
She discovered Shanann's car in the garage and was unable to get in the front door. She called Chris Watts and asked him to come home, fearing Shanann suffered a medical emergency, according to the affidavit. She also called the police. According to the affidavit, Chris said his wife had come home around 2 a.m. and about three hours later, he "began talking to Shanann about marital separation and informed her he wanted to initiate the separation."
The affidavit went on to say that Chris said the couple "were not arguing but were emotional." It also revealed that Chris Watts was "actively involved in an affair with a co-worker."
Watts also allegedly told the officer that Shanann told him she and the girls were going to a friend's house later. Detectives were suspicious of that claim from the start due to the fact that her phone, purse, wallet and medication were all in the house, according to the affidavit.
A couple of days later, Chris asked to speak with his father. He allegedly told detectives he'd tell them the truth afterward.
Warrantless arrest affidavit in Chris Watts case by 9news on Scribd
"He went into a fit of rage"
Chris told detectives he killed his wife after seeing her strangle one of their daughters. Detectives don't believe him.
After telling detectives he'd be truthful about what happened to his family, the affidavit said Chris Watts claimed he killed Shanann after she killed their daughters. He told investigators that he looked a baby monitor and saw Bell "sprawled" out on her bed and that she was blue and that he saw his wife strangling Celeste, the affidavit says.
He then told detectives that he loaded the bodies into the backseat of his work truck and took them to a work site belonging to Anadarko, his employer. The affidavit says he buried Shanann's body and dumped the girls' bodies into oil tanks. A drone search of the area found a bed sheet that matched a pillowcase and another sheet found in a trash can at the couple's home.
Weld Country District Attorney Michael Rourke charged Chris Watts with nine separate felony counts:
-Five counts of first-degree murder. Three of the counts allege that he killed his wife and two daughters. The other two counts allege that he killed each of his daughters, that each were under the age of 12, and that he was in a position of trust.
-One count of unlawful termination of pregnancy.
-Three counts of tampering with a deceased human body
Not only was Watts charged with all three murders, the criminal complaint suggests that the girls may have been killed as early as August 12 while Shanann was still away on business and Chris was home with his daughters.
If convicted of any of the first-degree murder charges, Chris Watts faces a minimum of life in prison and a maximum sentence of death.
On Monday, Rourke was asked if he'd seek the death penalty in the case. He declined to answer, saying it was, "way too early to have that conversation."
"We didn't know. We thought we were doing the right thing."
After Shanann and the kids were reported missing, neighbors took Chris in, trying to help. Little did they know they were harboring an accused killer.
Hours after Chris reported Shanann and his two daughters missing, Nick and Amanda Thayer welcomed him into their home while authorities searched for the trio. They never suspected a thing.
"Had we had any inclination that we thought he was involved at all — no way I would have let him in my house with my wife and kid," said Nick Thayer.
The Thayers now have the unenviable task of telling their own 5-year-old daughter that her friends are no longer here.
"How do I tell you that your best friend's gone? Like, I don't know," said Nick, wiping away tears.
The couple is also caring for the family's dog, Deeter.
"Shanann's mom called me this morning [Thursday] to make sure we had Deeter and she wanted our word that we were going to take good care of him because Deeter is the last thing they have — and they want to take him home," Thayer explained.
For now, all they can do is offer an apology and question how the man they knew so well could be capable of such heinous crimes.
"I'm so sorry. We didn't know, we thought we were doing the right thing," Nick Thayer said. "It's all we can do is say we're sorry that we defended him on social media, we really had no idea that he was capable of doing something like we've...I hate it. I hate all of this."