Watts pleaded guilty to murdering his pregnant wife, Shanann Watts, and their daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, at their Frederick, Colorado home and his employer's oil site in August 2018. He is serving five life sentences without parole.
Watts is serving his sentences at Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin, a maximum-security prison, FOX reported in August 2026, citing a People report that he had applied to marry within the prison system.15 No pending appeal or court proceeding was found in the sources reviewed; his guilty plea ended the criminal case.
On Aug. 13, 2018, a friend asked police to check on Shanann Watts, 34 and pregnant, after she could not be reached and missed a doctor’s appointment, Colorado Public Radio reported.4 She and the couple’s daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, were reported missing from their home in Frederick, Colorado, that day.8 Frederick police were joined in the search by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the FBI.49 Watts gave television interviews in which he said the last time he saw his family was early Monday morning before he left for work, and said, “I just want them back.”10 According to records later released by prosecutors, he told police that there had been “a disconnect” between him and his wife after she spent five weeks in North Carolina, and he gave police her wedding ring, which he said he found on a nightstand.7
Watts was arrested on Aug. 15, 2018, and held without bond.108 According to the arrest affidavit, as reported by CNN and KOAA, he told investigators that early on Aug. 13 he told his wife he wanted to separate, that he then saw her on a baby monitor strangling Celeste while Bella lay “sprawled out” and blue on the bed, and that he strangled his wife in a rage.892 Investigators wrote that he was “actively involved” in an affair with a co-worker, which he had earlier denied.8 On Aug. 16, investigators recovered Shanann Watts’s body from a shallow grave at an Anadarko Petroleum oil and gas site where he had worked, and the girls’ bodies from oil tanks nearby.10118
On Aug. 20, 2018, the Weld County District Attorney’s Office charged him with nine felonies: three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree murder of a child under 12 by a person in a position of trust, one count of first-degree unlawful termination of a pregnancy and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body.9 Under Colorado law, first-degree murder, whether committed after deliberation or by a person in a position of trust who knowingly causes the death of a child under 12, is a class 1 felony.1
On Nov. 6, 2018, Watts pleaded guilty to all nine counts.45 Under the agreement prosecutors did not seek the death penalty; District Attorney Michael Rourke said Shanann Watts’s family was “very strongly in favor” of a resolution short of death, and also cited the “extraordinary delays” in Colorado executions.5 Rourke called Watts’s account blaming his wife a “flat out lie.”5
On Nov. 19, 2018, Judge Marcelo Kopcow sentenced Watts to life without parole on each of the three first-degree murder counts naming his wife and daughters, to run consecutively, and to concurrent life terms on the two counts for the girls’ deaths as a person in a position of trust.3 He received 48 years on the pregnancy count and 12 years on each tampering count, all consecutive, for 84 years in addition to the life terms.34 Rourke told the court that Watts smothered both girls, that Bella fought back, and that he had planned where to leave the bodies, putting the girls in separate crude oil tanks; he said investigators found scratch marks on one girl’s body and hair at the opening of one tank.3 Watts did not speak.3
Autopsy reports released the same day gave Shanann Watts’s cause of death as strangulation and the girls’ as asphyxiation by smothering.6 The coroner found blunt-force trauma to Bella’s jaw, injuries inside her mouth and bite marks on her tongue, which Rourke said showed she “fought for her life,” and no visible injuries on Celeste.6
On Nov. 21, 2018, the District Attorney’s Office released more than 2,000 pages of investigative records, including interviews with family members and friends describing the couple’s finances and conflict.7 At the plea hearing, Rourke said investigators believed they had a “partial motive.”5 Because the case ended in a plea, no court made a finding on motive.
On Feb. 18, 2019, a Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent, an FBI agent and a Frederick police detective interviewed Watts at the Wisconsin prison where he was held; a transcript and audio were made public on March 7, 2019.1312 By his own account in that interview, he strangled his wife in their bed after she told him he would never see the children again, wrapped her body in a sheet and put it in his truck, and drove the girls to the oil site, where he killed Celeste and then Bella in the back seat using a blanket, put each girl’s body in a separate oil tank and buried his wife’s body nearby.1213 He said his earlier claim that his wife killed the girls was a lie that he “just went with” after investigators raised it.12
Watts graduated in 2003 from Pine Forest High School in Fayetteville, North Carolina, WRAL reported, and once lived in nearby Spring Lake.1617 He was 33 at his sentencing.34 No sourced account of his childhood or family history beyond this was found in the sources reviewed.
He and Shanann Watts, who was raised in Southern Pines, North Carolina, married in Charlotte in 2012.1617 He worked as an operator for Anadarko Petroleum, hired about six months before the couple filed for bankruptcy in June 2015, Colorado Public Radio reported.4
No testimony, evaluation finding or on-record statement about Watts’s mental health was found in the sources reviewed; the case ended in a guilty plea without a trial.
In December 2018 he was transferred from Colorado to the Wisconsin prison system for what were reported as “safety concerns.”14 As of August 2026 he was held at Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin.15 At sentencing, his parents said through a representative that they forgave him and hoped he would spend his life atoning.3
Shanann Watts was 34 and 15 weeks pregnant; Bella was 4 and Celeste was 3.59 Shanann Watts grew up in Southern Pines, North Carolina, and attended Pinecrest High School.16 Her family called the unborn child Nico.3
Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke said at sentencing that Watts "totally and deliberately ended four lives," that he smothered both girls and that Bella fought back, and that he had planned where to leave the bodies.3 He called Watts's first account, that Shanann Watts killed the girls, a "flat out lie."5 He said the agreement not to seek death was made with the strong support of Shanann Watts's family.5
Watts pleaded guilty to every count and did not speak at his sentencing.43 In a recorded interview with investigators in February 2019, he said he had lied when he blamed his wife and had "just went with it" after investigators raised that idea.12
At sentencing Shanann Watts's father called him "evil" and told him "prison is too good for you," and her mother told him, "I didn't want death for you."3 Before the plea, her mother told the district attorney, "I do not want to be in a position of making the choice to take his."5 Watts's parents, in a statement read for them, said they were not seeking leniency and that they forgave their son.3
Watts and Shanann Watts marry in Charlotte, North Carolina.1617
A friend asks police to check on Shanann Watts after she cannot be reached and misses a doctor's appointment; she and the girls are reported missing.48
After giving television interviews saying he wanted his family back, Watts is arrested.10
Investigators recover the three bodies at an Anadarko Petroleum site where he had worked.1011
Prosecutors file nine felony counts; the arrest affidavit is made public.92
He pleads guilty to all nine counts; the death penalty is taken off the table.54
Judge Marcelo Kopcow sentences him to five life terms without parole plus 84 years.3
He is transferred to the Wisconsin prison system.14
In a prison interview with investigators, he gives a new account admitting he killed all three.1213
The guilty plea concluded the case, and life without parole leaves no parole date.43 No appeal, post-conviction motion or other pending proceeding was found in the sources reviewed.