A new Investigation Discovery (ID) channel documentary about how Colorado man Chris Watts murdered his pregnant wife and two daughters is set to premiere on Sunday.
Back in November 2018, Watts was sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murders of his wife Shanann Watts, and their daughters Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3. The case immediately garnered national attention, in no small part because Watts appeared on a local news broadcast after his family went missing and begged for their safe return.
ID, Travel Channel, American Heroes Channel and Destination America President Henry Schleiff said that Family Man, Family Murderer: An ID Murder Mystery was put together because this was a uniquely tragic case.
“This case, so senseless and so tragic in its brutality, is a jarring example of how an idyllic family image can be shattered in an instant,” Schleiff said in a statement. “As the first and only network to produce a deep dive into this tragedy, we understand the responsibility we have to show the truth behind a story that follows the actions of a man unhinged.”
The special is set to air on June 2 at 10 p.m. EST.
Back in March, The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) released a report of Watts’ five-hour confession of how he murdered his family.
After his wife and kids disappeared, Watts shamelessly begged for the safe return of his family. He even tried to blame the murders of the girls on Shanann, saying that he only killed his wife because she murdered their children. He now admits, in great detail, that this was all a lie.
Watts claimed that the night Shanann came home for the last time she got into bed around 2:00 a.m. He said he feared that she knew he was having an affair. Nonetheless, they had sex, he claimed. When they woke up the next morning, he said they had a talk that ultimately led to him strangling Shanann to death. He claimed she never fought back or screamed and surmised she might have been praying as he killed her.
He went on to describe, in gruesome detail, how he killed his daughters and disposed of their bodies in oil tanks.
Watts was sentenced in November 2018 to multiple lifetime sentences without the possibility of parole. Watts was sentenced to an additional 12 years for each of three counts of tampering with the bodies, plus 48 years for ending his wife’s pregnancy. Watts is incarcerated at the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin.
Matt Naham contributed to this report.