Early in the morning on Aug. 13, Watts and Shanann had intercourse, and Watts said that may have been a trigger point, “or like you push the button on a bomb and it just blows up.”
After sleeping for a little while, they started talking about how their marriage was no longer working. Shanann said she knew Watts was seeing somebody else, which he denied. When he said he didn’t love her anymore, she said he would never see the kids again.
After hearing those words, Watts started to strangle her.
“Every time I think about it, I’m just like, ‘Did I know I was going to do that before I got on top of her?’” Watts said.
He said he felt like something in his head had already decided he was going to strangle his wife, and he felt that he had no control over his actions. Shanann didn’t fight back, and Watts said he thought she may have been praying.
After she died, he said he was shaking and not in control of his thoughts or actions. He wrapped her in a bed sheet, walked down the stairs and put her in his truck. He then put Celeste and Bella into the truck, each holding a blanket. He said he also loaded a gas can into the truck because he felt he should get rid of himself too.
He drove to a site with oil and gas tanks owned by his employer in a remote part of Weld County.
At the site, he strangled his daughters. To this day, he said he can still see Bella yelling “Daddy, no!” after watching him kill her younger sister and then reach for her. He put both of their bodies in oil tanks and buried Shanann nearby in a shallow grave.
He said he didn’t kill himself because he thought if there was an explosion or fire, other people in the area could have been hurt.
After he murdered Shanann, he drove home and placed her wedding ring on the counter to make it look like she didn’t want to work on the marriage any longer. He also threw a therapy book into the trash.
He
talked with Denver7 the following day outside his home, pleading for Shanann and the girls to come home.
Two days afterward, on Aug. 15, the search was on for Shanann and her daughters, who had been
reported missing by one of Shanann’s friends after she missed a doctor’s appointment.
Watts took a multi-hour polygraph test at the Frederick Police Department that turned his brain “to mush, to Jell-O,” he said.
“Walking in there that day, just walking into that room — I knew I wasn’t walking out,” he said.
He failed the polygraph test.
