Chris Watts' Mugshoto Photos Revealed — And They're Chilling
They are chilling.
Radaronline Chris Watts, the Colorado man who killed his pregnant wife and two young daughters has been moved from a prison in Colorado to one in Wisconsin due to security concerns. Chris Watts has been moved to Dodge Correctional Institution, a facility known for housing notorious killers. When Watts was transferred he was required to take new mugshots. In the Chris Watts' mugshot photos, the 33-year-old murderer is wearing a green prison jumpsuit, no glasses, and shows absolutely no emotion. Watts has been sentenced to five life sentences with no possibility of parole for brutally murdering his wife Shannan and their two daughters, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste. He killed them by strangling and suffocating them.
1. New video surfaced
Newly released video surfaced recently that shows the moment that Watts' alibi didn't hold up. Security cameras at his neighbors house captured the moment that Watts carried the dead bodies of his wife and daughters out of his house and loaded them into his car. The video of Watts pacing nervously at his neighbor Nathaniel Trinastich's house was captured by police bodycam. Watts told the police that his wife ran off with their daughters while he was at work, but the footage from the neighbor's security camera only shows Watts leaving the house during that time. In the newly released video, Watts can be seen watching himself on the screen and anxiously explaining his every move. He told then he was just loading tools for work. He was just taking his lunch box out to the car. Shortly after, Watts left the house, Trinastich expressed his doubts to the police. He said, "I just don't understand why he keeps explaining himself over and over. He doesn't look worried. He looks like he's trying to cover his tracks. He also told the police about Watts' relationship with his wife saying, "I've heard them full out screaming at each other at the top of their lungs, and he gets crazy."
2. "It was like he had nothing to hide"
A police interview with Watts' mistress Nichol Kessinger also shows how his behavior changed in the days leading up to the murder. During the police's investigation, they discovered that Watts was having an affair with one of his coworkers. Kessinger told the police about her relationship with Watts. She believed that she was in the process of divorcing his wife. Kessinger told police he paid for dates with gift cards — ostensibly so that his wife couldn't track his spending. "He always paid with those. Always," Kessinger said. Kessinger's last date with Watts was on the night of August 11th. That night, instead of paying with a gift card, he paid with a personal credit card. "It was like he had nothing to hide. Or nothing to lose," Kessinger said.
3. Odd exchange with co-worker
According to Watts' co-worker Kodi Roberts, something was a bit off with Chris Watts on August 13th. At the time, he could not imagine that it was because he had killed his wife and daughters and dumped their bodies. Just days after Shannan Watts and her daughters Bella and Celeste were reported missing — but before their bodies were found — the police interviewed a number of Watts' co-workers at Anadarko Petroleum, including Roberts, who helped police create a timeline of Watts' movements in the hours surrounding his family's disappearance. On Sunday, August 12th just after 5pm, Watts called and texted Roberts to tell him he had plans to check out a specific oil well site the next morning. This was a few hours before Shanann returned from a trip to Arizona. Watts strangled her to death the next morning, after he smothered his daughters. Roberts said the fact that Watts called him on a Sunday was unusual. Roberts told police that Watts was at a well at 6:30am Monday and would have been alone. That's where police eventually found the bodies of his daughters stuffed into oil wells and submerged in crude oil. Shanann and her unborn baby were found nearby in a shallow grave. Roberts saw Watts later that day and said, "He seemed like something may have been bothering him." Roberts also said that Watts never told him or anyone else at work that Shanann was pregnant.
4. The love letters
Once the police investigation into the disappearance and murders of Shanann, Bella and Celeste Watts was over, the district attorney released thousands of pages of documents related to the case in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Most of it was pretty standard stuff: photos of the crime scenes interviews with witnesses and copies of text messages. The documents also including a bunch of love letters to Watts while he was in jail awaiting trial. “I want to get to know you soooo bad its not even funny. Literally your (sic) on my mind almost every single day since you were in the news," a 39-year-old woman from Colorado wrote to him. She also said she would be “the happiest girl alive” if Watts wrote her back. She signed the letter with the hashtags "#TEAMCHRIS, #CHRISISINNOCENT, #LOVEHIM and #SOOOOCUTE." This is just one of the bundle of love letters women sent to Chris Watts after he brutally murdered his family.
Amy Lamare is a Los Angeles based freelance writer covering entertainment, pop culture, beauty, fashion, fitness, technology, and the intersection of technology, business, and philanthropy. She is deeply devoted to her chocolate Labrador and an avid long distance runner. You can find her on Instagram and Facebook.