The Watts Family Murders

A listener note, this episode contains adult content and is not suitable for everyone. Please be advised. In the 2014 film Gone Girl, Ben Affleck plays Nick Dunn, a man who comes home one day only to discover that his wife, Amy, has gone missing. Nick becomes the prime suspect for a few reasons, the most glaring being recent marital disputes, Nick's affair with the younger woman, and his lack of emotion throughout the investigation. In one memorable scene, while at a press conference, Nick smiles for the cameras while standing next to Amy's missing poster. Despite the growing narrative against Nick, we soon learn that he is innocent. Amy orchestrated the disappearance herself. In 2018, a similar case played out in real life. Standing in his driveway in Frederick, Colorado, Chris Watts addressed the media. His pregnant wife and two daughters had disappeared just one day before, and he pleaded for their return home. But unlike Nick in Gone Girl, Chris knew there would be no reunion. He knew his family was not missing. In hopes of pursuing a new life with a new woman, Chris murdered them, thinking the only way forward was to destroy everything behind him. He was so, so wrong. From Audible Originals and Treefort Media, I'm Candace DeLong, and this is Killer Psyche. For five decades, I studied people's minds through my work as an FBI profiler and psychiatric nurse. I've interviewed countless murderers, including many serial killers. Why did they do it? To get a satisfying answer, we have to dive deep into their minds so that I can give you my best analysis of what made them do what they did. This episode is The Watts Family Murders. You're listening ad-free on Audible. Frederick, Colorado, August 13, 2018. At 1.48 a.m., Shanann Watts returned home from a business trip to Arizona. She was 34 years old, 15 weeks pregnant, and had been dropped off by her friend, Nicole Atkinson. Her husband, 33-year-old Chris Watts, was already home and asleep. Shanann went inside and went to bed. A few hours later, the couple woke up, and an argument ensued. Their marriage had been strained for months, beginning not long after Shanann learned she was pregnant with their third child, a son they planned to name Nico. Since then, Chris had grown distant. He was spending less time at home and less time with Shanann and their two daughters, four-year-old Bella and three-year-old Cece. Not long after the argument, Chris left the house and went to work. From then on, nothing about the Watts family would ever be the same. By early afternoon, Shanann's friend Nicole was panicked. She had not heard from Shanann all day, which was completely out of character. Shanann also had a prenatal appointment that day, and Nicole was supposed to drive her. When Nicole went to the Watts house to check on her, Shanann's car was still in the driveway with both car seats for the girls inside. And when Nicole knocked on the front door of the Watts family home, no one answered. Nicole called Chris, who told her not to worry and claimed Shanann had taken the girls to a friend's house for a play date. But Nicole had doubts. If Shanann left with the girls, why would she leave her car and the car seats at home? Nicole told Chris she was going to call police for a welfare check. In that moment, Chris said he would leave work and come home. After 45 minutes with Chris nowhere to be found, Nicole called the police. Officers arrived to find Nicole and a neighbor waiting outside. Nicole explained that Shanann had given her the code to the house due to Shanann's lupus diagnosis. In the case of a medical emergency, Shanann allowed Nicole to have access to the home. But on this particular day, Nicole was unable to gain entry into the house. That was because the front door deadbolt was engaged, which Nicole said was unusual. A few moments later, when Chris arrived, he let Nicole and the officers inside the house and consented to a search. Inside the home, officers found Shanann's purse, her phone, and her car keys. They also found Shanann's wedding ring on the bed in her and Chris's room. Nicole told them Shanann would never leave without those items, especially her purse, which contained her lupus medication. In body cam footage from that moment, Nicole appeared visibly distressed. She struggled to come to terms with the grim reality that something was terribly wrong and that her close friend was likely in danger. In that same footage, Chris appeared calm. He did not seem particularly worried about the discovery, still insisting that Shanann and the girls were likely at a playdate. After the search, Chris walked with an officer to a next-door neighbor's house to review surveillance footage from his home security cameras. One of those cameras pointed directly toward the Watts family driveway. The video showed only one thing, Chris's truck leaving the driveway earlier that morning. Shanann and the girls were never shown leaving the house, as Chris had claimed. As the footage played, Chris grew visibly nervous. He placed his hands on his head, watching intently as he hypothesized out loud about any possible explanation for Shanann's absence from the videos. Afterward, Chris thanked his neighbor for the footage before heading home, and as soon as he walked out of the door, the neighbor turned to the officer and said, he's not acting right. He pointed out that Chris normally parked on the street, but that morning he parked in front of the garage, conveniently blocking the full view of the home's front door. The neighbor also mentioned he had heard frequent arguing from the Watts house in recent months. The next day, August 14th, Shanann, Bella, and Cece were officially declared missing. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation issued endangered missing person alerts for them. That same day, Chris sat down for a television interview with Denver 7 News. In the interview, he said Shanann and the girls were at home when he left for work the morning before. He called his children his life and described his first night alone as horrible and traumatic. And when asked if he and Shanann had an argument that morning, he denied it, saying that they instead had an emotional conversation. During the entirety of the interview, Chris referred to his wife and children in the past tense, despite not knowing for sure if they were dead or alive yet. referring to someone you live with or are very close to in the past tense, is known as consciousness of guilt. It is a legal concept referring to a defendant's actions, utterances, or statements after a crime, such as fleeing the scene or community, lying or using a false alibi, or hiding evidence that suggests they are guilty of the crime. Such evidence can be introduced to suggest that the person engaged in that behavior or lied in an attempt to avoid apprehension. It is behavioral evidence, not physical evidence, such as a blood stain or bullet hole in a headboard. Scott Peterson did the same thing in the very early days after his pregnant wife Lacey went missing, referring to both her and their unborn son in the past tense. In a local TV interview, rather than remain silent, he volunteered, quote, Now Lacey and Connor won't get to enjoy the nursery we prepared. How did he know that? Because he was their killer. Later that night, Chris was brought in for an interview with police. Chris handed over his phone, believing detectives were looking for any mutual contacts between him and Shanann, who could be possible suspects. In reality, they were looking for evidence. During the interview, Chris was visibly uncomfortable. He met straightforward questions with rambling answers. He filled long silences with unnecessary details. And most revealing of all, when presented with photos of Bella and Cece, he referred to them as these kids and those kids, never my kids or my daughters. When asked if there was any infidelity in the marriage, Chris said that he would never cheat on Shanann and that she would never cheat on him. After the interview, Chris was sent home and agreed to come back the next day to take a polygraph test. What he did not know was that his phone data already gave the detective the truth. And the truth was that, in the weeks leading up to the disappearances, Chris was having an affair, but the phone data revealed even more information. On the morning Shanann and the girls disappeared Chris had unenrolled his daughters from school texted his realtor about selling the house and searched for a quote four top Aspen area hotel The next day, Chris took his polygraph test at the police station. He failed. When told the results, Chris insisted he was not lying. When he refused to tell the truth, investigators brought in his father. That is when Chris changed his story. He said Shanann had killed the girls and that he had killed Shanann in response. He then disposed of all their bodies because he was scared. At 11.30 p.m. that night, Chris Watts was arrested. He was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body. The next day, he would tell police where to find the bodies of his wife and daughters. And eventually, he would backtrack on the story he told the police, admitting that Shanann had not hurt or killed Bella and Cece. According to Chris, during the argument they had on the morning of August 13th, he admitted to having an affair and told Shanann that he wished to separate. He claimed that she told him he would never see Bella or Cece again, and then he snapped. He strangled Shanann for nearly two minutes, killing her in their bedroom. Chris later said that Bella and Cece woke up and saw him wrap their mother's body in a sheet. He carried Shanann out of the house and placed her in the trunk of his truck, telling the girls that she was not feeling well. After that, he led the girls outside and had them sit inside the truck. At 5.27 a.m., surveillance cameras captured Chris backing his truck out of the driveway. He then drove to a remote oil site where he worked. Leaving Bella and Cece in the truck, Chris dug a shallow grave, grabbed Shanann's body, and buried her. When he returned to the truck, he grabbed a blanket and smothered Cece to death. He then took her body, climbed to the top of an oil tank, and forced her body into a small opening. Only Bella was left. And when Chris returned to the truck, he did to her what he had already done to her baby sister. His so-called confession about their argument in the bedroom may or may not be true, but it sounds to me like he is blaming his wife for him murdering her. He's asking people to believe that he snapped and strangled her because she said, you'll never see the kids again. Yet those are the very same kids he killed about an hour later. I don't believe you, Chris. I think the truth is that you wanted to be unencumbered by the family life you had built. You no longer wanted to be a family guy. I think you ruled out divorce because that would not leave you free enough financially to live the life of a carefree bachelor. In the end, Chris Watts chose himself over his family. In a single morning, he destroyed the woman who loved him and the children who trusted and admired him. every decision he made, every lie he told, led to a life he could never reclaim. What remained was a cruel truth, that one man's hedonism, his pursuit of sensual self-indulgence, had ended the lives of those he should have protected. If you want to dive deeper into the world of killer psyche, there's a vault of exclusive episodes available only on Wondery+. By joining Wondery+, you will be able to uncover the twisted mind behind cinema's most chilling character in the episode Ed Gein, Hollywood's favorite killer. Unravel the complex psychology of a terrorist who eluded the FBI for nearly two decades in the Unabomber Evil Genius episode, and so much more. With Wondery Plus, you get access to exclusive episodes as well as early and ad-free access to the latest episodes of Killer Psyche days before everyone else. Wondery Plus also gives you early access to some of the biggest true crime podcasts out there, like Dr. Death, Morbid, and Red-Handed. Join Wondery Plus by clicking the link in the episode description or head over to wondery.com slash plus. Chris Watts was born in Spring Lake, North Carolina on May 19, 1985. He was one of two children born to Cindy and Ronnie Watts. According to Cindy, his mother, there was nothing abnormal about Chris in his youth except him being a bit socially awkward. In a later interview, behind bars, Chris would describe his upbringing as normal, aside from his father briefly struggling with a drug addiction. Notably, Chris claimed that his father's drug use did not affect him emotionally and mentally as much as he thought it would. By Chris's account, his father's addiction was a family problem, and problems were things that Chris avoided at all costs. In that same interview, Chris said that he was a lot like his father, who tended to distance himself from conflicts. This was in contrast to Chris's mother, who was much more outgoing and tended to face problems head on. Considering what we now know about Chris, that he supposedly told his wife he wanted out of the marriage, it seems like the foundations were laid early on in Chris's life to emotionally detach and avoid relationship issues. If so, perhaps he rationalized that resorting to extreme solutions to keep his version of peace in his life was perfectly okay. In 2010, when Chris was 25 years old, a friend of his told him that he knew a woman that would be perfect for Chris. The friend showed him the Facebook profile for 26-year-old Shanann Ruzek. Chris sent a friend request to Shanann. At first, she deleted it. At the same time, she was dealing with a plethora of health complications, including a diagnosis of lupus and fibromyalgia. The last thing on her mind was a romantic relationship, especially since she was a recent divorcee. Months later, Chris sent another request, and this time, Shanann accepted it, thinking that they would never actually meet in person. But that was not the case. In a video she later shared to Facebook about their love story, Shanann would say that Chris not only met her in person, but stuck around through her lowest moments. Despite needing to cancel dates due to health problems, Chris was understanding. Despite her many health appointments, including a colonoscopy, Chris accompanied her. They quickly fell in love. Because of how caring and selfless Chris seemed to be towards their daughter, Shanann's parents would tell her, God must have sent him to you. And Shanann would say that meeting Chris saved her life. Two years after they met, Chris and Shanann were married in Charlotte, North Carolina. A wedding that Chris's mother and a good portion of the Watts family did not attend. Leading up to the wedding, Chris's mother, Cindy, made it clear to her son that she did not approve of the relationship. Why? Because Cindy was skeptical of Shanann's lupus diagnosis and believed that Shanann used it to her advantage to have more control over Chris. This, of course, caused a huge rift between the Watts family and the newlyweds. newlyweds. Remember, Chris said that he was the type of person to avoid conflict at all costs. In an effort to keep the peace, aka avoid the problem at hand, he and Shanann isolated themselves from the Watts family as they built a family of their own. In 2013, Chris and Shanann bought a $400,000 home in Frederick, Colorado. And later that year, they had their first child together. Bella Marie Watts. But by early 2015, the picture-perfect life they created was starting to crumble. Due to Shanann's lupus and being pregnant again, she found it difficult to work full-time, raise Bella, and prepare for the arrival of another baby. As her work hours reduced, the family relied on Chris's work at a petroleum company to pay the bills. But the bills were rarely paid. Chris and Shanann racked up tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, medical bills, and student loans on top of the $3,000 a month mortgage payments they had fallen behind on. By June, the young couple filed for bankruptcy. And the following month, their second child, Celeste C.C. Catherine Watts was born. Financial strain can be a cause of rifts in many relationships. In fact, it is noted as one of the top contributing factors for couples to split up. Chris blamed Shanann for the financial stress, which he believed was created by her spending habits and lifestyle. His grievance stewed and his resentment of Shanann intensified. It is likely he used that grudge to justify having an affair. In an article for Psychology Today, Carleton University professor of psychology, Dr. Johanna Peets, says that financial stress, has been linked to feeling more upset, stressed, angry, and sad, and less carefree and happy. Financial stress can also affect people's capacity to think rationally and pay attention. Dr. Peets goes on to say, Both worsened mood and a reduced ability to pay attention may affect interactions with close others in relationships people might not notice their partner supportive behaviors Whether or not Shannon and Chris were attentive and supportive of each other is unknown But what is an undeniable fact is that even after filing for bankruptcy, they continued spending. But that was just the beginning of the turmoil. Caring for two very young children meant that Shanann had little to no ability to work full-time, but Shanann found a way to work from home. In January of 2016, she started working as a brand promoter for a multi-level marketing company. The gig brought extra money and opportunity into the household, which kept the family on their feet for a while longer. By May of 2018, the Watts family seemed to be in a much better place, by all accounts, and by the looks of Shanann's Facebook page, they were the definition of one big happy family. But over the course of the next four months, that would all change. One day, Shanann set up her phone camera and started live streaming to Facebook. She wore a shirt that read, Oops, we did it again, signaling to the viewers that she was pregnant with her third child. During the stream, Shanann turned toward the front door of her house as Chris walked in. He read the shirt, said he loved it, then paused. When it clicked that Shanann was pregnant again, he looked to her and said flatly, Really? That's awesome. That moment would mark the beginning of the end for the Watts family. While Shanann spent the next few days telling family and friends about how excited she was, Chris would meet a 30-year-old woman named Nicole Kessinger at work. As Shanann told friends that she hoped to finally give Chris a son this time around, Chris told Nicole that he was in the process of separating from his pregnant wife. But that process was only going on in his mind. An affair ensued. Chris suddenly started working out more because his girlfriend was passionate about fitness and nutrition. And while Shanann continued to care for Bella and Cece, Chris spent less and less time at home. In June, Shanann took the girls to North Carolina in an effort to mend the relationship between the families. Because of Chris's work schedule, he was set to come later in the trip. But for Shanann, Chris seemed busier than usual. Her calls went unanswered, and when he would answer them, he always seemed to be in a rush to hang up. Shanann's texts were met with short, uninterested responses, something Chris said was due to work being extra stressful. But in reality, Chris was spending his time with Nicole, who he took on dates and even invited into the family home a few times. One time, he woke up in Nicole's bed to a string of missed calls from Shanann. As he rushed to leave and call her back, Nicole became upset. Chris assured her that he was going to be divorced soon so they could be together. To prove his love for Nicole, he started ignoring Shanann's calls and messages more often. He and Nicole also started to talk about their future plans, including Chris getting an apartment of his own and the pair getting married. Chris was making these claims to Nicole knowing that he had no plans to actually divorce Shanann. So I have to ask myself, was he already starting to figure out ways to be rid of Shanann and the girls permanently? By the time Chris joined Shanann and the girls in North Carolina, he was set on figuring out a way to be with Nicole. With Shanann, his caring and lovey-dovey behavior had turned into something of a formality, not something from the heart. Shanann confided in friends through texts that he rarely touched her or kissed her anymore. When Chris, Shanann, and the girls returned to Colorado in August, the distance between Chris and his family continued to grow. When Chris was not at work, he was going on long runs, sometimes well into the night. And when he was at work, co-workers started to pick up on Chris's behavioral changes, like losing his temper over small workplace annoyances and being increasingly combative with other people. Just a week into their return home, Shanann would get a heartbreaking answer to the confusion and questions she had about Chris's lack of affection and attention. He told her he did not want to have another child. When she asked him to do couples therapy with her, he refused. Okay, so let's look at that. Telling her he did not want another child, one that she was already carrying, I think is the same as saying, I do not want you, without actually saying those exact words. But the meaning is the same. This broke Shanann. She texted friends telling them that before the trip, everything was fine in the relationship. In her messages, she blamed herself for the change, calling herself bitchy. The next week, Shanann went on a business trip to Arizona. Before leaving, she wrote a handwritten letter to Chris for him to read while she was away. In the letter, she expressed her feelings for Chris and that she missed how they were before. While Shanann was in Arizona, Chris hired a babysitter and spent most of his time pretending that his new life was already in his hands. Nicole was Chris's focus. He actively ignored Shanann's calls and texts, most of which were to check on Bella and Cece. According to Shanann's friend, Nicole Atkinson, the same friend who called police the day of Shanann's disappearance, Shanann was so stressed and distraught over her marital problems that she stopped eating and drinking. Out of concern for her friend, Atkinson offered to give Shanann a ride from the airport when she returned to Colorado. She also offered to give her a ride to her next prenatal appointment, scheduled that same day. That day was August 13th. Atkinson dropped Shanann off at her house just before 2 a.m., telling her to call later in the morning when she needed to be picked up for the appointment. But that phone call would never come. Hours later, Shanann Watts and the children she loved so selflessly would be killed by the one man who vowed to love, honor, and protect them. But that protection was conditional. And when he started to see his family, his loving wife and daughters, as obstacles to his desires, as a problem in his budding romance with Nicole, he did what he knew best. He avoided the problem and conflict at any cost. And in this case, the solution was murder. I don't think it is anywhere near as difficult to imagine killing one's spouse as it is killing your own children. Yet, that is exactly what happened here. Chris is what is known as a family annihilator. Someone who kills their entire family. the crime itself of killing one's spouse and a child, is called Familicide. A University of Albany study entitled Family Annihilators, The Psychology of Murderous Fathers, conducted by Taylor Othout, revealed that the most common causes of these types of murders were the breakup of the family and financial difficulties took a second place. In a 2013 study in the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, three decades worth of family annihilator cases were analyzed. The study found that family annihilation is an overwhelmingly male crime, with 59 out of the 71 murders in the study being men and more than half of the male perpetrators being in their 30s. The same study also helped researchers identify four types of family annihilators. First is the self-righteous. This killer seeks to locate blame for his crimes upon the mother who he holds responsible for the breakdown of the family. Second, the disappointed annihilator. This killer believes his family has let him down or has acted in ways to undermine or destroy his vision of ideal family life. The third is a nomic. This is a man who sees his family as the result of his economic success, allowing him to display his achievements. However, if the father becomes an economic failure, he sees the family as no longer serving this function. And lastly, the paranoid. Those who perceive an external threat to the family. And in these cases, the murder is motivated by a twisted desire to protect the family. If Chris fits into any of those categories, it is both self-righteous and disappointed. Specifically, he appears to believe that Shanann was the cause of their problems. In the study, the most common category of offenders were found to be self-righteous offenders, and they were primarily motivated by the family breakdown. Many of the cases revealed jealousy, custody disputes, and spousal affairs. And by that, I mean the spouse of the soon-to-be killer, not the killer himself. Disappointed offenders were found to be driven by a combination of family breakdown and financial distress. The money problems being the primary motive for the massacre in 66% of offenders who were disappointed. Regarding family breakdown one study found that the most common risk factor in cases of family homicide in slightly over half of them the offender had been previously suspected or charged with domestic violence Now, we have no knowledge that any abuse was ever present in the Watts marriage. However, financial distress, the other primary motivator of familicide, was definitely a problem in this marriage. Another common occurrence in most of these cases is that 64% of offenders committed suicide after the attack. Well, obviously, that did not happen here either. That, among other things, tells me Chris is probably psychopathic. He didn't care. He does not feel guilt or regret. So killing his family was pretty easy for him. Since the moment he was arrested, he has shown little to no remorse. and initially blamed Shanann for killing Bella and Cece. Even today, when he talks about killing the girls, he comes across as matter of fact, just like most of the psychopathic serial killers we have featured on this show. I think he did not kill himself because he blamed Shanann for everything that happened. Chris blamed Shanann for getting pregnant, as if he had nothing to do with it, And he blamed her for their financial problems, not himself. And those two things, those two grudges, led him to seek a perfect world with someone else. But let's not forget, while Chris was blaming his wife's spending habits for their problems, he was spending money on trips and gifts for Nicole. When it comes to marital problems, these two people together cooked up a smorgasbord of them. But in any case, murder is never the solution. One of the researchers of the landmark study on family annihilators, Dr. Carl Monquist, said, quote, The study found that all of the surviving fathers they interviewed said that they previously loved and continue to love their children deeply. They displayed signs of mourning and described their children's murder from the perspective of a bystander. While obviously he was not talking about Chris Watts, Chris was the opposite of regretful. He added, the men in the study separated themselves from their crimes, viewing their anger as the offender rather than themselves. Quote, when they were rageful, all objects were reviewed as evil and needed to be destroyed. After the murder and upon reflection, surviving fathers showed a dichotomized view of the murder, such that the suffering caused by the family member and their murder are separated from the actual individual and their immortalization in the mind of the offender. Another researcher, Dr. David Wilson, found that in most cases of familicide, the spouse was the primary source of the offender's anger, and the children were seen as supporters or extensions of their mother. It should be noted that in all of the studies I reviewed for this episode, many of them mentioned that the offender was motivated out of jealousy, that it was their spouse who was having an affair or wanted to leave them for someone else. That is not what we see in the case of Christopher Watts, wherein he was the one being unfaithful. Chris killed Shanann and their daughters in the hopes of leaving his old life behind and starting a new life with his lover, Nicole Kessinger. It is a crime so disturbing that no one seemed to see it coming. And there's a reason for that. In an article for Rolling Stone, when asked if there are any signs that a man like Chris Watts would be capable of killing his family, Dr. Neil Websdale, the director of the Family Violence Center at Arizona State University said, quote, you cannot predict intimate partner homicide at all. We see folks who end up being killed and are not aware of someone's potential for that, thinking, oh no, he could never do this to me, or he could never do this to the kids. The research is clear. These guys have secret lives, to be candid, they fantasize, they plan, they strategize, they keep it to themselves. Bearing that in mind is important. Close quote. Now, with all of this information in mind, I think it is important to note that there has been an alarming rise in cases of family annihilators. The trend is growing. In an interview conducted after Chris pled guilty to his charges, Cindy Watts, his mother, told Denver 7 News that, quote, there had to be a trigger causing Chris to kill Shanann, Bella, and Cece. I can understand her belief, but I think she's grasping for some kind of explanation as to why her son killed his family other than what appears to be the truth. We only know what Chris said happened that morning, that they had an argument. She threatened to prevent him from ever seeing his kids again, and he snapped. Well, if that's what happened, Why did he go on and kill the kids hours later? Chris did not need a trigger to commit this horrible crime. It was slowly building, probably over many weeks throughout the affair. He did not want his old life at all. He wanted a new and exciting one. I think the motivation to kill his family is clear. He did not want to go through a messy, costly divorce followed by years of shared custody. He wanted Nicole and a carefree life where money would not be an issue and there would be no strings from his past attached to his new happiness. But Chris failed to take into account that, well, he was not as smart as he thought he was. and obliterating his past was not as easy as he thought it would be. On August 21, 2018, Chris was formally arraigned in court. He was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, one count of unlawful termination of a pregnancy, and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body. He was ordered to be held without bond. Chris received two counts of first-degree murder for each of his daughters, one count for each child, and an additional count because they were under the age of 12 and because he was considered to be in a position of a trust. In court, Chris also waived his right to a preliminary hearing. On November 6, 2018, just months after his arrest, Chris pleaded guilty to all nine charges against him. In exchange, the death penalty was removed from consideration. On November 19, 2018, Chris was sentenced. He received three consecutive life sentences, one for Shanann, one for Bella, and one for Cece. He was also sentenced to an additional 84 years for the unlawful termination of a pregnancy and tampering with a deceased human body. In court, the judge described the murders as, quote, The most inhumane and vicious crime that I have handled out of the thousands of cases that I have seen. On December 3rd, 2018, Chris was transferred from the Colorado Department of Corrections to Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupon, Wisconsin. The Colorado Department of Corrections said the transfer was made for security reasons due to his status as a high-profile offender. Today, he continues to serve his sentence. He is 40 years old. Chris Watts will spend the rest of his life in prison. He no longer has a wife. He no longer has children. And the future he imagined, a life without Shanann and with another woman, never came to be. Instead, Chris Watts is left with a cell, an interminable sentence, and a lifetime to confront what he destroyed. From Audible Originals and Treefort Media, this is Killer Psyche, produced by Audible with Treefort Media. I'm your host, Candice DeLong. Make sure to follow us on TikTok and Instagram at atkillerpsychepodcast and on my official Facebook page, Killer Psyche with Candice DeLong. There you'll find exclusive content, behind the scenes insights and updates on upcoming episodes. Don't miss a moment. Join the conversation and let's explore the depths of the human psyche together. This episode was written and researched by Mary Chalenza and Jada Williams. Our series producers are Mary Chalenza and Jada Williams. Mixed and sound design by Matt Dyson and Anthony Laurie. Treefort's head of audio is Matt Dyson. For Audible, Andy Beckerman is our senior producer. Desi Blalock is our managing producer. Executive producers for Treefort are Kelly Garner and Mary Chalenza. and myself, Candice DeLong. Executive Producer for Audible, Jenny Lauer Beckman. Head of Creative Development at Audible, Kate Naven. Head of Audible Originals, North America, Marshall Louis. Chief Content Officer, Rachel Giazza. Copyright 2026 by Audible Originals, LLC. Sound recording. Copyright 2026 by Audible Originals, LLC. Follow Killer Psyche on the Audible app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to all episodes of Killer Psyche ad-free by joining Audible.