The images show a playful, affectionate couple.
The prosecutor said Watts’ desire for a“fresh start”with Kessinger — a co-worker with whom he began a physical relationship in July — led him on Aug. 13 to strangle 34-year-oldShanann Watts, his 15-weeks-pregnant wife of nearly six years, and smother their daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3.
Chris Watts, at left, with Nicole Kessinger.Weld County District Attorney’s Office
Watts had told Kessinger he wasseparated and finalizing a mutual divorceafter they met at work in late June, Kessinger toldThe Denver Post,adding, “I believed him.”
Weld County District Attorney’s Office
On July 24, Kessinger Google-searched the phrase “Man I’m having affair with says he will leave his wife.”
On Aug. 8 Kessinger searched Google on topics relating to “marrying your mistress.”
Nichol Kessinger (left) and Chris Watts.Weld County District Attorney’s Office
The affair unfolded as Shanann and the girls spent several weeks away from Watts over the summer visiting Shanann’s family in North Carolina — a period during which Shanann continuously reached out to him in hopes of repairingtheir struggling marriage, the documents show.
After they returned home to Frederick, Colorado, Shanann took a short solo work trip. She returned home again on Aug. 13, when prosecutors say Watts strangled her andsmothered the two girlswith his bare hands.
Shan’ann Watts (center) and her daughters.Shanann Watts /Facebook
Watts initially issued a public appeal for his family’s safe return, but was arrested two days later, on Aug. 15; the next day the bodies were found on the oil field property of his former employer.
“Did people hateAmber Frey?” Kessinger typed into an internet search, invoking the name of the woman who was having an affair withScott Peterson, whomurdered his wife, Laci, and their unborn childin 2002.
Kessinger’s internet searches about Frey on Aug. 19 — four days after Watts was arrested — also included queries about a book deal Frey obtained, along with Frey’s net worth, the documents show.
When Kessingerrevealed her identity to the media, she said she “barely knew” Watts and that “we had just met.” She said the two were taking it slow and didn’t discuss any long-term plans, and she didn’t realize he was cheating on his wife with her until his many lies were revealed after his family went missing.
The documents show that Kessinger reached out to authorities about the affair before they contacted her, although they also reveal that she acknowledged deleting all of Watts’ information from her phone prior to meeting with police.
Chris and Shanann Watts.
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The documents further reveal that authorities who examined Kessinger’s phone found hours’-worth of searches for “Shanann Watts” and, after the murders, a search using the phrase “can cops trace text messages.”
At Watts’ Nov. 6 sentencing, Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke said that after he killed his wife and kids, Watts loaded their bodies into his truck and hid them on the remote oil work site where they were found days later.
Watts placed the two girls in oil tanks through a hatch that was only eight inches in diameter, said Rourke. Bella had scratches on her body from being shoved through the hatch and a tuft of her hair had been ripped off, he said. Watts buried Shanann in a shallow grave away from the oil tanks.
At work later that day, Watts acted “completely normally,” said Rourke. “It was a normal work day even while his daughters sank the in the oil and water not far from him.”
Watts’ motive was simple, Rourke said: “He had a desire for a fresh start, to begin a new relationship with a new love.”
Watts was sentenced to multiple life terms in prison for the murders, with no possibility of parole. At his sentencing, Shanann’s father, Frank Rzucek, called him a “heartless monster.”
In pleading guilty, he avoided the death penalty.
source: people.com
