Following the Netflix documentary "American Murder", a letter was revealed that formed the basis for the story of the shocking murder case in Colorado, in which Watts strangled his pregnant wife and two daughters to death.
The West family
Photography:
From the movie
Warning: The text contains difficult descriptions
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In August 2018, the United States was shocked by the shocking murder of an entire family. Chris Watts strangled his pregnant wife Shannon and his two young daughters Bella (4) and Celeste (3) to death with pillows he took from their bedroom. He buried his daughters in oil barrels and his wife in a shallow grave He dug.
At first he pretended to be devastated and even claimed that his family had been abducted (later changed his version and claimed that his wife had murdered the girls), but later admitted to the horrific murder.
In order to escape the death penalty, he agreed to a plea deal in which he was convicted on five counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to five life sentences.
Correspondence between Watts and author Charlene Kiddle (who wrote a book on the affair based on the correspondence and conversations between the two after Watts was imprisoned) near the time of the release of the film "American Murder: The Family from a Near Home" is currently airing on Netflix and reviving public debate on the affair. In a harsh and shocking way the way he committed the murder.
"On the morning of August 13 I went to the girls' room before Shannon and I argued. I went first to Bella's room and then to Sassi's room and strangled them with pillows from their beds. So the cause of death was determined as suffocation. After I left Sassi's room I went back to bed and the argument with Shannon began , He revealed, but it turns out the girls were stronger than he thought he was.
"After Shannon died, Bella and Sassi woke up," he wrote and went on to calmly describe the horror: "I'm not sure how it happened, but they woke up. Bella's eyes were bruised and the two girls looked as if they had experienced trauma."
Watts goes on to list the days leading up to the horrific murder: "On August 12, I put the girls to bed. I left their room knowing it was the last time I would put my babies to sleep. I knew what was going to happen and did nothing to stop it."
On the murder of his wife he wrote: "It's not strange that now that I think about it, what I especially remember is her face covered in black smears from her mascara? All the weeks I thought of killing her, and now I'm facing it. She's starting to lose consciousness. Somehow. I knew how to press on her main artery until her blood flow to the brain stopped and she lost consciousness. "
Watts goes on to describe in a shocking way how while he was murdering his wife, his daughters, when Zakur miraculously managed to survive the first attempt to kill them, they ran around the house and looked at him with frightened looks.
"Bella started crying and then Celeste started whining. It was a nightmare," West recalled, adding that he was furious that they were alive.
"I threw Shannon to the ground. Then I went back to the truck, took the blanket Celeste was holding in her hand, put it over her head and strangled her.
"I could not believe how easy it was to just throw her in the barrel and let her fall there. I heard the noise of her body hitting the oil at the bottom of the barrel. Out of the three, Bella was the only one who tried to resist me. I can still hear her screaming 'Dad, no'. She knew. "What am I doing to her? She may not have understood the concept of death, but she knew I was killing her."
Watts added that although he initially insisted his actions were insane, the murders were actually premeditated (including attempting to abort the fetus by stealing pills for Shannon's drink) and deliberately, so he could live undisturbed with his mistress Nicole Cassinger, who testified against him and is now In the Witness Protection Program.
A source close to Watts says that since he began serving his sentence, he has become a devout Christian who calls himself "God's servant."
Watts even admitted in his letters to Kiddle and wrote that if he was ever released, he would dedicate his life to rehabilitating others, and insisted that there was no chance he would be dangerous or repeat his actions again.
