The five bedroom home where notorious family annihilator Chris Watts brutally slaughtered his pregnant wife and two children has been listed for sale.
The property was only built back in 2013 when it was purchased by newly married couple Chris and Shanann Watts, who went on to build a life in the home with their two girls Bella and Celeste.
The impressive interiors featured heavily on Shanann’s social media, in various photos and video clips she shared extensively with her loyal followers for her work as a brand ambassador.
But the loving and happy home that the 34-year-old mother had always dreamt of would sadly be the place where she would lose her life at the hands of her evil husband.
Now the ‘murder home’, located in Frederick, Colorado, is up for sale over six years since the grisly crime shocked the world.
Reported missing
In the early morning hours of August 13, 2018, Shanann Watts was caught on her doorbell camera returning home from a business trip to Arizona.
It was the last time she would ever be seen alive.
The next morning when she missed an important obstetric appointment, her best friend Nickole Atikinson just knew something was not quite right.
She was also not responding to any calls or texts, which was extremely unusual for the mother. When she went over to the house, there was no answer.
Concerned, she decided to contact the police.
“We were out of town for a business trip this weekend,” Nickole explained to officers at the front of the Watts house.
“I dropped her off at 2am. She had a doctor’s appointment this morning at 9am and she didn’t go to that appointment.”
After gaining access to the home, it was discovered that Shanann’s car and important belongings were still there, including vital medicines for her and her daughters, her mobile phone, handbag, purse and wedding ring.
The family’s sausage dog, Dieter, was found safe and well inside the home, but there was still no sign of Shanann or the girls.
Chris claimed that he and his wife had an “emotional conversation” the night before but was adamant that he last saw her when he left for work at 5am that morning.
In an eerie interview with multiple local media outlets, he gave a chilling plea asking for his wife and daughters to come home.
“I just want them back,” he said, arms crossed as he awkwardly laughed.
“And if they’re not safe right now that’s what’s tearing me apart. If they are safe they’re coming back but if they’re not this has got to stop.
“Like somebody has to come forward.”
From dream home to crime scene
On August 15, 2018, the FBI joined the frantic search for Shanann and the two girls.
As in any missing person case, the partner is one of the most likely suspects and needs to be ruled out before the investigation can continue.
Chris underwent a polygraph lie detector test where he was asked direct questions about whether he was involved in Shanann’s and his daughters’ disappearance.
They asked if he had “physically caused Shanann to disappear,”, if he was “lying about the last time he saw her,” and “whether he knew where Shanann was.”
Chris answered “no” to all three of these questions. The test indicated he was lying all three times.
Although there is much debate about the reliability of polygraph tests, they do hold some value. In this case, Chris not only failed the test, but got one of the lowest scores possible.
Generally, a score of -4 is considering failing a polygraph. Chris scored a -18.
Upon hearing that he had failed, Chris ‘confessed’ to the crime. But not completely.
He falsely claimed that strangled Shanann in a “fit of rage” after he said he discovered Bella’s dead body and caught his wife in the act of killing Celeste.
But this was a fabricated story and Chris eventually confessed the entire truth.
He had been having an affair with a woman he had met at work, Nichol Kessinger. While his wife and children were interstate visiting family, he spent most of his time with Nichol.
Chris said he fell out of love with Shanann and was waiting for the right time to tell her.
After his pregnant wife returned home, the pair had sex at around 2:30am. They both fell asleep.
When he woke up in that morning to get ready for work, he decided he needed to talk to her about how he felt. He woke her up to chat and began straddling his wife.
She told him that he might be hurting their unborn son, Nico, but the pair continued to talk for 15 – 20 minutes.
Shanann told him she knew that he was having an affair, but he denied it. Instead, he just told her that he did not think their marriage was going to work and that he did not love her anymore.
In response, Shanann told him to get off her and said that he was never going to see his children again.
He immediately put both of his hands around his wife’s neck and strangled her to death.
“I told her I didn’t love her anymore. That’s when it happened,” he told investigators.
“She told me to get off her, and I put my hands around her. Why couldn’t I just let go?”
“What’s wrong with mummy?”
After killing his wife, little Bella walked into their bedroom holding her pink blanket and asked what was going on. Chris told her that mum was “sick”.
“I put Shanann in that sheet, carried her downstairs and pulled the truck up,” he said
He attempted to carry his wife’s dead body down the stairs, but lost his grip and dragged her instead. He believes the thud of Shanann’s feet hitting the stairs woke up Celeste.
Chris then grabbed the two girls and put them in the back of the truck, their mother’s body laying just below their feet.
“[The girls] were sitting in the back, [Shanann] was below them on the floor of the truck,” he continued.
“They asked what was wrong with Mummy, I told them that she didn’t feel good.”
With Shanann’s body and his two little girls in the car, he drove an hour out to the oil site where he worked for Anadarko Petroleum Company.
During the ride, Bella reportedly said to her dad that it “smelt bad” inside the car.
Reaching the remote destination, Chris pulled Shanann’s body out of the car and coldly buried her in a shallow grave.
Then, he turned on his daughters.
Covering Celeste’s face with her little blue blanket, he strangled her in the back seat. He then took her body and shoved her into one of the two nearby crude oil tanks.
He walked back to the car, where Bella asked him what happened to Celeste and wondered if the same thing was going to happen to her.
She uttered just two words before he put a blanket over her head: “Daddy, No!”.
Evidence showed that she had defensive wounds trying to stop her father from killing her.
Chris then took Bella’s body and shoved her into a different oil tank.
“Every time I close my eyes, I hear her saying ‘Daddy, No’ and that’s it,” he told police.
“I hear that everyday.”
After murdering his entire family, he did three things.
The first was to call the girls’ school to unenroll them. The second was calling a realtor about selling the house. And the third was texting his mistress about their future together.
Never to be released
On November 19, 2018, Chris pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The death penalty was not put forward on the request of Shanann’s family, who did not wish for any further deaths in the case. They were supportive of his decision to accept a plea deal.
Chris was sentenced to five life sentences – three consecutive and two concurrent – without the possibility of parole.
He received an additional 48 years for the unlawful termination of Shanann’s pregnancy and 36 years for three charges of tampering with a deceased body.
“I could objectively say that this is perhaps the most inhumane and vicious crime that I have handled out of the thousands of cases that I have seen,” Judge Marcelo Kopcow said at the sentencing hearing.
“Nothing less than a maximum sentence would be appropriate and anything less than the maximum sentence would depreciate the seriousness of this offence.”
He is serving out his life sentences at Dodge Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison in Waupun, Wisconsin.
Up for sale
The Watts home is currently listed for $US775,000 ($AU1,190,310). The listing does not disclose the murders.
Under US law, only the states of Alaska, California and South Dakota must disclose a murder if it occurred at a property for sale.
In Alaska and South Dakota, agents must disclose a murder or suicide within the past year, and in California they must disclose any deaths within the last three years.
Records show the home last sold for $US600,000 ($AU921,241) in November 2022, more than four years after the murders. Now just over a year later, it is on the market again.
“Wow, this is a beautiful home,” the listing for the home reads.
“Nothing like this one for sale at this price in the area. Spacious, open floor plan that features 5 bedrooms plus a loft area, 4 full bathrooms and 3 car garage.
“Enjoy those summer nights on the covered front porch or on the back deck. Some areas of the home have views of our lovely Colorado mountains.
“Wonderful pool community with parks, trails and schools nearby. Close to all the activities, shopping and restaurants that the town of Frederick has to offer.
“Don’t miss this one!”
The advertisement also states that “no photos or videos to be taken while in the home”.
Where is Chris Watts now?
A spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections told People that Chris is imprisoned in ‘general population’, meaning he is able to workout once or twice per day Monday through Friday, depending on the day.
“He has nothing to do but think. He thinks about what he did every day,” A source reportedly told the outlet in 2019.
“He is tormented by his past and the mistakes he made.”
In 2019, it was reported that Chris kept photos of Shanann, Bella and Celeste in his cell.
Outrage ensued, leading to an online petition that garnered more than 20,000 signatures, imploring officials to remove the pictures.
However, the Department of Corrections said that they have “no legal basis for removing the photographs from Christopher Watts.”
“Incarcerated inmates are permitted to possess certain identified items of property, including photographs,” they said in a statement.
“Some photographs are not allowed, such as those depicting gang signs, colors, or insignias or photographs that include nudity.”
In 2022, it was reported that Chris had been corresponding with multiple women during his incarceration.
“They send sexy pictures, and he responds,” the source told People.
“There are a lot of women who think he’s handsome and misunderstood. They send a lot of letters.”
The source also revealed that he had been working as a custodian in jail and spending money at the prison’s commissary on stamps and paper.
“He’s got nothing else to do,” they said.“So he feeds his ego in that way. Because he’s not popular at all in prison.
“He’s in protective custody. The only outlet he has is with these letters.”
The convicted murderer will turn 39 next week.
jasmine.kazlauskas@news.com.au