When police arrived on Aug. 13 to the houseChris Wattsshared with his wife,Shan’ann Watts, and their two young daughters, officers saw evidence confirming Shan’ann had recently returned from a trip.
Less apparent? Any clues about where she and her girls had gone, or why they vanished.
These details were first revealed in an arrest affidavit released after Chris, 33, was accused ofmurdering Shan’ann, then 15 weeks pregnant, and kids Bella and Celeste in their home in Frederick, Colorado.
The officer called Chris, who came back to the residence and allowed him inside.
Her effects were all accounted for: Police said her “purse, wallet and medication were all located in the house.”
Shan’ann Watts (right) and her daughters.Shanann Watts /Facebook
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Even stranger signs did not portend anything darker, at least at first, the affidavit shows: Shan’ann’s phone, which was not found next to her purse in the kitchen, was located in the cushions of an upstairs sofa. The bedding in the master bedroom had been stripped off and bundled on the floor, but no “signs of foul play” were discovered.
What changed, however, was Chris’ story, according to his arrest affidavit.
He initially said he told Shan’ann, his wife of nearly six years years, about 5 a.m. that day that he wanted to separate after she got back from her trip around 2 a.m., and then he went to work while she was still in bed.
He told police that she said she was going to take their daughters to a friend’s home, though he could not name the friend, the affidavit states.
Later asked to recount the last time he saw his wife, Chris told another investigator that he and Shan’ann talked about him wanting to separate around 4 o’clock that morning and that she “told him she was going to a friend’s house that day.”
Chris Watts.Joshua Polson/AP/REX/Shutterstock
Chris was arrested late on Aug. 15. On Aug. 16, authorities announced the bodies of Shan’ann, Bella and Celestehad been recovered on propertybelonging to his former employer Anadarko Petroleum.
A source close to the investigation previously told PEOPLE, “The theory that she [Shan’ann] did it doesn’t hold any water. There is absolutely no evidencethat she killed her children.”
Chris is being held without bondin the Weld County Jail. He has not yet entered a plea.
His lawyer did not respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment but,according to a statementfrom the state’s public defender’s office, their attorneys are barred from discussing ongoing criminal cases.
According to authorities, the bodies of Chris’ family were found at an oil work site near a bed sheet that matched “several pillowcases and a top sheet in a kitchen trash can from the Watts’ residence.”
source: people.com
