The Watts Family Tragedy: Chris Watts Sentencing -"The Family Annihilator"

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In the early hours of August 13, 2018, in Frederick, Colorado, Christopher Watts, an American oil field operator born May 16, 1985, committed a horrific crime. Watts murdered his pregnant wife, Shanann, by strangulation and suffocated their two young daughters, Bella (4) and Celeste (3). Shanann was 15 weeks pregnant with their son, Nico, whom they planned to name. After the murders, Watts buried Shanann in a shallow grave near an oil storage facility where he worked and disposed of the girls' bodies in crude oil tanks.The tragedy unfolded when Shanann returned from a business trip to Arizona early on August 13. Her friend, Nikole Atkinson, reported her missing after Shanann missed an OBGYN appointment and failed to respond to texts. Atkinson went to the Watts home at around 12:10 p.m., but when no one answered, she contacted Christopher, who was at work, prompting a welfare check by the Frederick Police Department.During the welfare check, police found no sign of the family, but discovered the family dog unharmed, Shanann's purse with her keys and medicine, her phone between the couch cushions, and the girls' car seats still in the garage. Shanann's wedding ring was found on the bedside table. Christopher initially claimed he hadn’t seen Shanann since 5:15 a.m. that day and expressed concern to the media about their disappearance.However, on August 15, after the FBI joined the investigation and Watts failed a polygraph test, he confessed to the murders. Watts initially falsely claimed that Shanann had smothered the children, prompting him to strangle her in a fit of rage. He led investigators to the oil field where he worked, marking the locations of the bodies on a photograph. The girls' bodies were found in crude oil tanks, each pushed through a hatch with a diameter of just 8 inches, showing signs of being forcefully shoved through. Bella had scratches from the ordeal, and a tuft of her blonde hair was found on the edge of one of the hatches. Shanann's body was recovered from the shallow grave.Christopher Watts pleaded guilty to multiple counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to five life sentences without the possibility of parole on November 6, 2018, as part of a plea deal that removed the death penalty from consideration.