Shan’ann Watts (center) and her daughters.Photo: Shanann Watts /Facebook
“Closets were full before she was even pregnant,” Shanann’s brother, Frankie Rzucek, wrote ina letter read aloud at his sister’s funeral. “She couldn’t wait.”
Shanann was pregnant again, expecting her third child, a son, whenChris Wattscommitted the triple-murder on Aug. 13, 2018.
Their firstborn, Bella,would have turned 5 years oldlast December 17. Celeste, who was 3 years old when she died, was born July 17, 2015.
“Oh how Shanann was so excited to be able to have another child because of her battle with Lupus,” Shanann’s family wrote inShanann’s obituaryabout the arrival of Celeste. “She was determined to stay healthy and with her love for her Celeste, every moment with her was a blessing.”
Chris, 34, is serving multiple life sentences for the killings, to which he pleaded guilty last November.
He killed the girls and their mother, said Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke, so he could start a new lifewith a woman with whom he’d been having an affair.
Shanann Watts /Facebook
After strangling Shanann, who was 15 weeks pregnant, and smothering his two daughters, withBella putting up a struggle as she fought for her life, Chris loaded their bodies one at a time into the back of his truck.
He then hid them on a remote oil field work site where they were found days later, his wife in a shallow grave and the girls in oil tanks with openings that were just 8 inches in diameter, said Rourke.
Celeste and Bella Watts.Facebook
“I have no idea who gave you the right to take their lives, but I know God and his mighty angels were there in that moment to bring them home to paradise,” Shanann’s mother, Sandra Rzucek said in court on Nov. 19, when Chris was sentenced to life inprison without parolefor the murders, which included that of his unborn son, which the couple planned to name Niko.
Shan’ann Watts (right) and her daughters.Shanann Watts /Facebook
In aletter from prisonsent ahead of Celeste’s birthday to his mother, Cindy Watts, Chris claims to be a changed man who has a newfound relationship with God.
“I’m still a Dad! I’m still a son! No matter what,” he wrote. “Now, I can add servant of God to that mix! He has shown me peace, peace, love and forgiveness, and that’s how I live every day.”
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In an interview from inside prison, Watts gave chilling details of the murders to authorities from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
He said Shanann “may have been” praying as he strangled her to death inside their bedroom before turning his murderous intentions to the girls.
During his confession, he said that whenever he closes his eyes, he hears his oldest daughter’s final words begging him not to kill her.
“Daddy, no!,” Bella screamed as her father moved in to smother her with the same blanket he’d used to kill Celeste first.
“I hear it every day, when Bella was talking to me,” Watts told investigators. “When she said, ‘Daddy, no!”
source: people.com
