Case documents show deceit and distrust in family's final months 
 
 Nancy Lee takes a moment after placing flowers at a makeshift memorial, for Shanann, Bella and Celeste Watts, outside the family's home on Aug. 17. ( RJ Sangosti / The Denver Post ) 
 
 In an interview with police the day he was arrested for their murders, Christopher Watts talked about taking his daughters Bella and Celeste to a birthday party for the 4-year-old son of family friends. 
 
 Less than 24 hours after that party, he would conceal their lifeless bodies inside oil tanks in rural Weld County and bury their mother in a shallow grave nearby. 
 
 A Weld County district judge on Monday sentenced Watts, 33, to life without parole in the deaths of Bella, 4, Celeste, 3, and his wife Shanann, 34. 
 
 So far, Watts has only admitted to killing his wife, but he pleaded guilty in early November to multiple counts of murder and tampering with a corpse. Watts also pleaded guilty to unlawful termination of a pregnancy, because Shanann Watts was nearly four months pregnant with the couple's third child. 
 
 Shanann Watts, center, and her children Celeste (left) and Bella (right) were murdered by Christopher Watts at their home in Frederick in August, leading to his sentencing Nov. 19 in Weld County District Court to life in prison with no chance for parole. (facebook.com / facebook.com) 
 
 Watts remains in custody at the Weld County Jail pending his transfer to the Colorado Department of Corrections. 
 
 The Weld County District Attorney's Office on Wednesday released an enormous collection file of police interviews with family members, friends and coworkers as well as people who claimed extramarital affairs with Christopher Watts and people offering tips that were investigated but went nowhere. 
 
 A divorce attorney recounted a chance encounter with Shanann Watts at a Japanese steak house in Westminster in the spring, during which she inquired about child custody laws in Colorado. The file contains dozens of letters sent to Watts at the county jail, including bizarre, flirty letters from random women as well as interview requests from news reporters. 
 
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 A psychic made a fairly accurate prediction about the location of the girls' bodies and a police report outlined a Craigslist posting offering a pair of Christopher Watts' underwear for $500. 
 
 "These are legit and I have pics to prove it," the post states. "Serious offers only." 
 
 Mundane weekend 
 
 The nearly 2,000-page trove of documents also details the days and weeks leading up to the murders and outlines a troubled marriage, squabbles between family members over nut allergies as well as infidelity on the part of Christopher Watts and the transcript of a police interview during which he confessed to killing his wife, whom he blamed for his daughters' deaths. 
 
 Watts would fail three polygraph examination questions regarding the disappearance of his wife, a break in the case investigators would use to tease out his confession. 
 
 During the interview ahead of the test, however, Watts talked about the mundane weekend spent at his Frederick home eating pizza and watching TV with his daughters who, according to police interviews with friends and coworkers, were the light of his life. 
 
 Watts told police that his wife, shortly after the family returned from a trip to North Carolina, would take a weekend trip to Arizona as part of her job with nutritional supplement company Le-Vel. He took Aug. 10 off to look after his daughters, and the three went grocery shopping and had his eyeglasses repaired. 
 
 He cooked dinner for Bella and Celeste but decided not to make a video call to their mother because, as he told police, it would result in a "cry-fest." He put the girls to bed at about 8 p.m. and went down to the basement to work out and watch "SportsCenter" on ESPN. 
 
 The Lazy Dog 
 
 On Saturday morning, Aug. 11, Bella climbed into bed with her father. Later in the morning, he played with the girls outside and then brought them in once the temperature rose too high. He planned on another trip to the grocery store but cancelled after his wife said she would go upon her return. He requested green beans in a text message. 
 
 He told police and numerous other people that at about 5 p.m., he left the girls with a babysitter and attended a Colorado Rockies game. He told police that he ate dinner with friends at The Lazy Dog Sports Bar and Grill in Erie after the game. 
 
 It was a lie. Police had already interviewed Nichol Kessinger, Christopher Watts' coworker and the woman with whom he struck up a romantic relationship over the summer. She told police she and Watts had dinner at The Lazy Dog that evening. 
 
 Christopher Watts sits in court awaiting his sentencing at Weld County District Court on Nov. 19. (RJ Sangosti / The Denver Post) 
 
 Kessinger told police that Watts used a credit card to pay for the meal. She took that as a positive sign in their relationship, because Watts usually paid for items with gift cards, a practice she took as an attempt by Watts to conceal his activities from his wife. 
 
 The charge on the card did not go unnoticed by Shanann Watts, however, who told a friend that her husband claimed to have eaten a salmon dinner and drank a beer with friends after the game, but the $62 bill aroused her suspicions, as it seemed pricey for fish and beer. 
 
 'He has changed' 
 
 In text messages with friends, Shanann Watts alternated between angry and sad about what she perceived as cold and distant behavior by her husband. She expressed increasing anxiety about having a third child with a man who seemed disinterested. 
 
 At the end of June, she took the girls to North Carolina. During the trip, she had a blowout with her mother-in-law after she served ice cream with nuts to several children in front of Celeste — who had a nut allergy — as a "lesson" that can't always have what she wants. Christopher Watts came for the last week, and the couple quarreled about his parents. 
 
 Shanann Watts confided in friends that her husband rebuffed her attempts at physical intimacy on more than one occasion, and that he wouldn't hold her hand during an ultrasound appointment. The couple had planned a gender reveal party for the weekend following her disappearance, but she cancelled it. 
 
 "Chris told me last night he's scared to death about this third baby. And he's happy with just bella (sic) and Celeste and doesn't want another baby," she wrote in a text message from Aug. 7 or Aug. 8. 
 
 "He's just scared," the friend replied. "Everything will be fun once the baby comes." 
 
 "He has changed," Shanann Watts countered. "I don't know who he is." 
 
 In one of the texts, the friend floated the idea that Christopher Watts was seeing another woman, but Shanann Watts told the friend that she confronted her husband with the possibility and he denied it. 
 
 Hundreds of text messages compiled by investigators show that Christopher Watts lived a double life over the summer. Shanann Watts often voiced outrage that her husband was living a "bachelor's life" while she struggled with the kids and a rocky situation with the grandparents. Christopher Watts was often juggling simultaneous conversations with his wife and Kessinger. 
 
 Shanann Watts' tone shifted in the few days leading up to her death, however. She told friends that she and her husband had started working through some issues, and the two planned to take a trip to Aspen the following weekend. She sent him a text asking if he would like to order a TV football package for the coming season and described the thunderstorms in Arizona. 
 
 Birthday party 
 
 On Sunday, Aug. 12, Bella woke up and rousted her sister from bed, Christopher Watts told police. The three spent the morning watching cartoons, and he put them down for a nap, so they wouldn't be too tired for the birthday party. 
 
 The girls woke up at about 12:30 p.m. and he fed them leftover pizza for lunch. They drove to the store to buy a gift for the party. 
 
 Watts told police that he didn't know that the party featured water balloons and a pool, so he didn't bring their swimsuits. Nonetheless, he said the girls enjoyed themselves, and he put them in the shower when they returned home, because they had gotten sandy from playing. He sent photos of the party to his wife, who had yet to return from Arizona. 
 
 The father of the birthday boy told police that nothing seemed amiss with Christopher Watts at the party. 
 
 Watts again told police that he fed the girls leftover pizza and the three made a video phone call to Shanann Watts' parents. Afterward, he gave Celeste some vanilla wafers and Bella some chips. The girls ended up trading snacks and eating them on their child-sized couches. 
 
 After Christopher Watts put the girls to bed, Bella twice emerged from her room because she knew her mother was coming home and she was excited to see her. He said he told Bella that her mother would be there when she woke up and put her back to bed. 
 
 In a matter of hours, Bella, Celeste and Shanann Watts would be dead. 
 
 During his interview with police and just prior to his confession, Christopher Watts told an investigator, "I love those girls to death." 
 
 John Bear: 303-473-1355, bearj@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/johnbearwithme ||||| When Nichol Kessinger started dating Christopher Watts in July, he appeared to be a softspoken man and a thoughtful father who was at the end of divorce proceedings. 
 
 It wasn’t until the Frederick man’s wife and two daughters went missing in August that Kessinger learned that Watts had never started divorce proceedings with his wife, who was 15 weeks pregnant, and that he had been lying to her for the entire relationship, which lasted less than two months. 
 
 Kessinger was shocked by Watts’ arrest. But she has never doubted that he killed his wife, Shanann, and their two daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3. 
 
 “I don’t think there is a logical explanation for what he did,” she said. “It’s a senseless act, and it’s horrific.” 
 
 Kessinger approached investigators before Watts’ arrest and participated in multiple police interviews, describing details of their relationship and what he had told her about his missing family. 
 
 Now that Watts has pleaded guilty to the murders, Kessinger said in an exclusive interview with The Denver Post that she wanted to share her side of the story. Many people have speculated about their relationship after an arrest affidavit revealed that Watts was having an affair with an unnamed woman. 
 
 Watts, 33, is scheduled to appear in court Monday for a sentencing hearing after pleading guilty last week to murdering his wife and two children in August and concealing their bodies on a rural Weld County oil site. If the judge accepts the plea deal, Watts will be sentenced to life in prison for the crimes that drew national attention to the small town north of Denver. 
 
 Kessinger, a 30-year-old Colorado native, said the brief affair has turned her life upside down as people have named her on social media and discussed the relationship in online forums. 
 
 “We had just met,” Kessinger said. “I barely knew him.” 
 
 A brief relationship 
 
 Kessinger was working in the environmental department with an Anadarko Petroleum contractor when the two met, she said during a Thursday morning interview in the office of her lawyer, Ed Hopkins. 
 
 Every morning, Watts and the other operators would gather in the office break room while they waited to be dispatched to a field site. Kessinger would walk through the group to place her lunch in the fridge, but she never spoke to Watts. 
 
 One day in the middle of June, he walked into her office to introduce himself. They continued casual conversations. She noticed that Watts did not wear a wedding ring, and Kessinger, who was single, thought he was attractive. 
 
 “When he spoke to me, he was very softspoken. He appeared to be a good listener,” she said. 
 
 Watts told her that he had two daughters and, after Kessinger asked, Watts said he was separated and at the end of divorce proceedings, she said. 
 
 “I believed him,” she said. 
 
 When they first met outside of work in late June, Kessinger asked Watts more questions about his divorce. He told her the mutual divorce was almost final, and they were working out financial details, she said. 
 
 The two began a physical relationship in early July and saw each other four to five times a week, Kessinger said. She told him she wanted to take it slow and he should focus on helping his daughters adjust to the divorce. 
 
 When Watts went to visit family in North Carolina at the end of July, he called to tell her that his divorce was final, Kessinger said. Later that month, he asked Kessinger to help him find an apartment that would be good for him and his daughters. They never spoke about long-term plans for their relationship. 
 
 “He made me believe that he was doing all of the things that a rational man and good father would do,” she said. 
 
 Kessinger never met any of Watts’ family or friends. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Frank Rzucek the father of Shanann Watts, left, and her brother Frankie Rzucek were in court for Christopher Watts arraignment hearing at the Weld County Courthouse on Aug. 21, 2018 in Greeley. Christopher Watts faces nine charges, including several counts of first-degree murder of his wife Shanann and his two young daughters, 4-year-old Bella, and 3-year-old Celeste. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Christopher Watts is in court for his arraignment hearing at the Weld County Courthouse on Aug. 21, 2018 in Greeley. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Christopher Watts is in court for his arraignment hearing at the Weld County Courthouse on Aug. 21, 2018 in Greeley. Watts faces nine charges, including several counts of first-degree murder of his wife and his two young daughters. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Nancy Lee takes a moment after placing flowers at a makeshift memorial for Shanann, Bella and Celeste Watts, outside the family's home on Aug. 17, 2018 in Frederick. Frederick police have arrested Shanann's husband, Christopher Watts, on suspicion of killing the three. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Members of the community gather for a candlelight vigil to honor Shanann, Bella and Celeste Watts outside the family's home on Aug. 17, 2018, in Frederick. 
 
 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Aubriella Luna, 8, joined others from her community for a candlelight vigil to honor Shanann, Bella and Celeste Watts outside the family's home Aug. 17, 2018, in Frederick. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Frederick Police Department Chief Todd Norris talks to media on Aug. 16, 2018 in Frederick. Frederick police have arrested Shanann's husband Christopher Watts on suspicion of murdering the three. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post According to Christopher Watts's arrest affidavit, Shanann Watts' body was found in a shallow grave near this oil work site, seen here on Aug. 21, 2018 near Roggen. Both of her daughter's bodies, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste, were submerged for days in the same oil tanks in rural eastern Colorado, prosecutors said. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Colleen Hendrickson and her grandson Ezra Reed, 3, who lives down the street, place flowers at a makeshift memorial to Shanann, Bella and Celeste Watts, who have been missing since Monday, outside the family home on Aug. 16, 2018 in Frederick. Frederick police have arrested Shanann's husband Christopher Watts on suspicion of murdering the three. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Residents stand in front of a makeshift memorial for Shanann, Bella and Celeste Watts outside the family's home on Aug. 17, 2018 in Frederick. Frederick police have arrested Shanann's husband Christopher Watts on suspicion of killing the three. 
 
 
 
 Shock and sadness 
 
 On Aug. 13, the Monday that Shanann and the girls disappeared, Watts texted Kessinger to say that he had been busy. The two chatted like normal throughout the workday. 
 
 About 3:45 p.m., Watts texted that his family was “gone,” she said. He told Kessinger that Shanann had taken the girls to a play date and had not returned. He seemed casual and didn’t show any emotion, she said. 
 
 Kessinger was worried about his missing family, but she didn’t want to make a big deal out of a situation that Watts seemed calm about. Then, news reporters showed up at the Watts’ family home. 
 
 “I was very confused why the media was at his house,” she said. 
 
 Later that night, Kessinger learned the full situation: Shanann’s wallet and purse were still in the house; Watts had left work early to let the police into his home; people had been trying unsuccessfully to contact Shanann all day. 
 
 “When I read the news, I found out he was still married and his wife was 15 weeks pregnant,” Kessinger said. 
 
 She was shocked at his lies and scared for the missing woman and children, she said. 
 
 “I thought, ‘If he was able to lie to me and hide something that big, what else was he lying about?’ ” she said. 
 
 In a flurry of long calls and texts that night, Watts changed his story about his split with his wife. 
 
 Kessinger barraged Watts with questions: Were there signs someone had forced themselves into the home? Were the daughters’ car seats still there? Was one of the girls’ EpiPens still in the house? 
 
 Watts didn’t show any emotion during their conversations and tried to change the subject away from his missing family, Kessinger said. 
 
 “It seemed off,” Kessinger said. 
 
 While at work Aug. 14, she texted Watts, pushing him to tell what he knew about their disappearance and asking what he had done. He told her he would never hurt his family, she said. 
 
 “It got to a point that he was telling me so many lies that I eventually told him that I did not want to speak to him again until his family was found,” she said. 
 
 Kessinger checked the news in hopes that Shanann and the girls would be found. The next morning, she called the Weld County Sheriff’s Office to tell them about her relationship with Watts and his lies, she said. She met with FBI investigators that day. 
 
 “I just wanted to help,” she said. “With a pregnant woman and two children missing, I was going to do anything that I could.” 
 
 Her suspicions proved true when police arrested Watts later that night, Aug. 15, for the killings of his wife and two daughters. Kessinger saw it on the news. 
 
 “I just felt so, so sad,” she said. 
 
 Since his arrest, she has never doubted that he killed them. The story that Watts told police — that he killed Shanann after he saw her strangling one of the girls — is a lie, Kessinger said. 
 
 “He’s a liar,” she said. “He lied about everything.” ||||| (CNN) In the weeks before Chris Watts killed his pregnant wife and two daughters in Colorado, she saw him becoming suddenly cold and distant, and she canceled a party where she was to reveal her unborn child's gender, newly released documents reveal. 
 
 Authorities say Watts, 33, killed his wife Shanann, 34, and their daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, on August 13 before disposing of them at a secluded site where he worked. 
 
 He pleaded guilty this month to first-degree murder and other charges, and was sentenced Monday to five life sentences with no possibility of parole. 
 
 Shanann Watts was realizing her marriage was in trouble around the time she and her daughters took a weekslong trip this summer to see family in North Carolina, the last week of which Chris Watts joined them, investigative documents released this week by the Weld County district attorney's office show. 
 
 While they were apart from June 27 to July 30, Watts, apparently unbeknownst to his wife at the time, went on dates with a mistress in Colorado, investigators say in the documents. 
 
 Arguments between Watts and his wife intensified when he reunited with the family in North Carolina in late July and early August. By the time they returned to Colorado, Shanann Watts, roughly 15 weeks pregnant, revealed to friends that her husband told her he didn't want the baby, friends told police. 
 
 "I don't know how you fell out of love with me in 5.5 weeks, or if this has been going on for a long time, but you don't plan another baby if you're not in love," Shanann wrote to her husband on August 8, according to a police review of her phone data included in the investigative documents. 
 
 'Chris said we are not compatible anymore' 
 
 A friend reported Shanann Watts missing on August 13, saying she wasn't responding to messages, not long after Shanann returned from a short work trip from Arizona. Police found no one home. 
 
 Chris Watts, after returning from work, told police that he had informed his wife early that morning that he wanted a separation. They had not argued, but they were both upset and crying, he told police, according to an affidavit. He told police that she'd indicated she was leaving for an unnamed friend's house. 
 
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 A day later, Chris Watts, in an interview with CNN affiliate KMGH at his home in Frederick, north of Denver, pleaded for his family's return. 
 
 But later that week, Shanann Watts' body was found in a shallow grave, and the bodies of Bella and Celeste were found in commercial oil tanks at a company where Watts had worked. Chris Watts had strangled his wife and suffocated the children, authorities said, and he was arrested. 
 
 While they investigated, police spoke to several of Shanann Watts' friends, who told them Chris Watts had just recently become distant with her. 
 
 "While in North Carolina, Shanann called (a friend) and said he (Chris Watts) wouldn't touch or kiss her anymore," a Frederick police officer wrote in one of the documents. "Shanann told her that Chris didn't want the baby she was pregnant with and that he was scared. He was happy with having only the two girls." 
 
 That friend told the officer that after Shanann and the children spent five weeks without Watts in North Carolina over the summer, "Chris came back to Shanann a different man." 
 
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 A different friend told police that she'd been helping to plan an August 19 party at which the baby's gender would be revealed. But the friend learned on August 8 -- a day after the family returned form North Carolina -- that Shanann was canceling the party. 
 
 The friend asked, by text, if everything was OK. Frederick police documented the exchange: 
 
 Shanann: "No can I call you tomorrow and tell you." 
 
 Shanann: "Chris said we are not compatible anymore" 
 
 Friend: " ... Oh my god what?" 
 
 Shanann: "He said we are not compatible anymore! He refused to hug me. Said he thought another baby would fix his feelings. Said, he refused couples counseling! " 
 
 ... 
 
 Friend: "What the hell changed in 6 weeks?" 
 
 Shanann: "He said he had a lot of time to think." 
 
 'Why didn't you just tell me you were done?l?' 
 
 The newly released documents includes a police investigator's analysis of data from Chris Watts' and Shanann Watts' phones. The messages show increasing strain as Shanann's summer trip in North Carolina progressed. Some excerpts from the documents: 
 
 July 10: 
 
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 Shanann writes to Chris: "You OK? It's like you don't want to talk l kept trying to talk and I had to dig it out of you?" 
 
 Chris replied, "l'm fine baby. The last few days at work have put a lot of responsibility on me with new people. I didn't mean to seem short Boo. I love you to the moon and back." 
 
 Shanann answers, "l miss you and l feel like you just want to work out and run." 
 
 Watts claimed running helps "clear my head." 
 
 Shanann responds: "l wish my husband wanted to talk to me." 
 
 July 24 
 
 Shanann remarks that Chris has been slow to respond to her. 
 
 "Thought something happened. But you don't care about others feelings... Or think you're with another girl, or worse. No consideration of others." 
 
 Later, Shanann writes: 
 
 "l realized (during) this trip what's missing in our relationship! lt's only one way emotions and feelings. I can't come back like this. I need you to meet me halfway. You don't consider others at all, nor think about others feelings." 
 
 Watts replied that he was sorry and he loves her, the investigator writes. 
 
 Shanann responded: "l try to give you space, but while you are working and living the bachelor life l'm carrying our 3rd and fighting with our two kids daily and trying to work and make money. lt's not hard texting love you and miss you. lf you don't mean it then I get it, but we need to talk. I kept looking at my phone all night and no response from you. Like seriously! We didn't just start dating yesterday! We've been together 8 years and have 2.5 kids together." 
 
 July 29 
 
 After a 14-minute phone conversation, Shanann writes: "lt would have been nice for my husband to show interest in how the girls and I are, and the baby. l'm done with begging for you to talk." 
 
 August 5 
 
 By now, Chris had reunited with his wife and kids in North Carolina. 
 
 Shanann messages Chris: "l don't know how you fell out of love with me in 5.5 weeks, or if this has been going on for a long time, but you don't plan another baby if you're not in love. Kids don't deserve a broken family ... You show up and I have to practically ask for a kiss in airport." 
 
 Later, she adds: "Being away from you, it's not the help I missed because I handle that. lt was exhausting, but with school that's not hard. I missed the smell of you, you touching me when l'm cooking, you touching me in bed, you touching me period ! I missed holding you and snuggling with you. ... lf you are done, don't love me, don't want to work this out, not happy anymore and only staying because of kids, I NEED you to tell me." 
 
 August 6 
 
 Shanann writes to Chris: "Your only response last night was 'l don't want to lose the kids!' 'You used me to just have a 'boy!' Only reason you wanted another kid?! I can't handle this and you are ok with it. Why didn't you just tell me you were done?l? Why get me pregnant?!?" 
 
 Chris responds: "l'm not just staying because of the kids. They are my light and that will not change. I didn't fall out of love in 5 weeks, that's impossible. I don't want to erase 8 years just like that. l'm not sure what's in my head." 
 
 Later, Shanann writes that at one point, she was trying to get him to hug her, and to "make me feel safe." Chris responds that "this will all get fixed." 
 
 "No I don't need words damnit," Shanann responds. "You just told me you don't want this baby." 
 
 August 7 
 
 In a text with a friend, Shanann writes: "Chris told me last night he's scared to death about this third baby and he's happy with just Bella and Celeste and doesn't want another baby." 
 
 After the friend writes that Chris is just scared and everything will be fine when the baby is born, Shanann writes: "He has changed. I don't know who he is. ... He hasn't touched me all week, kissed me, talked to me except for when l'm trying to figure out what is wrong ... He's been distant since I left." 
 
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 Other woman tells her side of story 
 
 According to an unsealed Weld County arrest affidavit , investigators say they discovered Watts was "actively involved" in an affair. According to the documents released this week, Nichol Kessinger told the FBI that she had developed an intimate relationship with Watts. 
 
 In a report analyzing the phone records of Kessinger and Chris Watts, police said the two had dates while his wife was in North Carolina, including to the Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve in southern Colorado, and a museum in Boulder. 
 
 Kessinger, 30, told The Denver Post she met him while working for the environmental department of a petroleum contractor. 
 
 "We had just met," Kessinger told the newspaper. "I barely knew him." 
 
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 He wasn't wearing a wedding ring when they were introduced, and she thought he was attractive, soft-spoken and a good listener, she said. When they first met outside of work in late June, he told her he was in the final stages of a divorce. She never met any of his relatives or friends, Kessinger told The Post. 
 
 Watts sent her a text August 13 to say his family had disappeared, and she was confused about why the media was at his house. 
 
 "When I read the news, I found out he was still married and his wife was 15 weeks pregnant," Kessinger told the newspaper. 
 
 She peppered him with questions via phone calls and text, she said, and he changed his story about the divorce, showed little emotion about his family's disappearance, and tried to change the subject. 
 
 "It got to a point that he was telling me so many lies that I eventually told him that I did not want to speak to him again until his family was found," she told the paper, explaining that she called police on August 15 to report Watts' lies. ||||| Frank Rzucek leaned forward on a courtroom bench and sobbed as a prosecutor detailed the horrible ways his pregnant daughter and two young granddaughters were murdered by Christopher Watts, the husband and father whom the victims loved and trusted. 
 
 The details were gruesome — how 4-year-old Bella bit her tongue while fighting back as her father smothered her to death, how Bella’s body was scraped as Watts shoved her through a small hatch in the oil tank where he hid her body, how investigators later found a tuft of soft blond hair on one of the tanks. 
 
 But the new facts explained at Watts’ sentencing hearing Monday didn’t answer the question repeatedly asked by the victims, including Watts’ own parents: Why did Watts kill his wife and daughters? How could a seemingly normal husband and father commit such horror? 
 
 “I trusted you to take care of them. Not to kill them,” said Rzucek, his voice breaking as he recited in court the names of his murdered daughter, Shanann, and granddaughters, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste, and unborn grandson, Nico. 
 
 A prosecutor offered a theory at the Frederick man’s sentencing Monday morning — that Watts wanted a fresh start with a new girlfriend. But when given the chance to explain himself, Watts declined. 
 
 “No sir,” Watts said when the judge asked him if he would like to speak. 
 
 Soon after, Weld County District Court Judge Marcelo Kopcow sentenced the Frederick man to life in prison without parole for the murders of his wife and children, ending a criminal case that has drawn widespread attention from across the country since a friend reported Shanann and the girls missing on Aug. 13. Watts, 33, pleaded guilty to the crimes on Nov. 6 in exchange for the prosecutors’ agreement that they would not pursue the death penalty. 
 
 “This is perhaps the most inhumane and vicious crime I have handled out of the thousands of cases I have seen,” Kopcow said before delivering the sentence. 
 
 During the hearing, Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke explained new details about how Watts murdered his family. Watts strangled Shanann — a process that can take more than 2 minutes — in the early hours of Aug. 13. Shanann had bruises in the shape of fingers on her neck, an autopsy report said. 
 
 Watts then loaded the bodies into his truck and drove to an Anadarko Petroleum site that he knew from work. He buried Shanann in a shallow grave and shoved the girls’ bodies through hatches on the top of oil storage tanks. 
 
 “All of this, your honor, for what?” Rourke said. 
 
 Rourke’s best explanation was that Watts wanted to start a new life with Nichol Kessinger, a woman he had started dating fewer than two months earlier. Watts texted the woman at all hours of the night while ignoring messages from his wife. The two had traveled to Great Sand Dunes National Park while his family was on vacation in North Carolina, Rourke said. 
 
 But Rourke couldn’t know for sure as Watts has never given a full confession. 
 
 “None of this answers the questions of why,” Rourke said. “If he was this happy and wanted a new start, get a divorce. You don’t annihilate your family and throw them away like garbage.” 
 
 Watts’ parents, Ronnie and Cynthia, condemned the crimes and did not ask the judge for leniency in their son’s sentencing. 
 
 “We still don’t have the answers,” Ronnie Watts said in a statement read by his attorney, Jean Powers. “I hope one day, Christopher, you can help us.” 
 
 Cynthia Watts said she was still struggling to understand the “absolute horror” and will never recover from the trauma. 
 
 But Chris is still her son, she said, and she loves him as his mother and always will. Her words tumbled faster as she neared the end of her prepared statement and tears streamed down her face. 
 
 Watts bounced his leg up and down as his family spoke. He looked toward his lap but did not cry as his mother told the judge how much she still loved her son. 
 
 At the end, she turned to face her son, who was dressed in inmate orange. 
 
 “We forgive you, son,” she said. 
 
 Watts’ mother called multiple local news outlets, including The Denver Post, the week after her son pleaded guilty and said that she believed her son had been coerced into the agreement. But the Watts met with prosecutors over the weekend and said at the hearing Monday that they believe their son committed the murders. 
 
 “Doesn’t just happen in the moment” 
 
 Rourke said he believes Watts planned the murders, though Watts has never said so. The afternoon before the killings, Watts texted with a coworker and arranged his work schedule so that he would be the only person at the site when he disposed of the bodies. Later that morning, he called the girls’ school to say he was unenrolling them and called a real estate agent to discuss selling the home where he killed his family, Rourke said. 
 
 “Something like this, in my mind, doesn’t just happen in the moment,” he said at a news conference Monday afternoon with Shanann’s family, who did not speak. 
 
 Watts became a suspect in his family’s disappearance very quickly because his stories didn’t make sense, Rourke said. Shanann’s purse, phone and car were still at the home when police arrived, and the house was locked from the inside. Investigators later used the GPS system in Watts’ truck to track his travels the morning of the killings to the site where the bodies were found. 
 
 Rourke also confirmed the account Watts’ girlfriend, Kessinger, gave The Denver Post in an interview but added that the woman deleted all of the photos and messages related to Watts from her phone before she approached law enforcement with her story. He said that Kessinger cooperated with police and had no prior knowledge of the murders. 
 
 After the news conference, Weld County Coroner Carl Blesch released the autopsies of Shanann, Bella and Celeste. The findings were consistent with Rourke’s description of the victims’ deaths during the hearing. Toxicology reports state that Shanann had a blood alcohol content of .128, but Rourke said that was caused by decomposition and there was no evidence that the woman had been drinking when Watts killed her. The girls also had substances in their bodies, but the coroner’s office found they were caused by the crude oil they were found submerged in. 
 
 Rourke said investigators didn’t know how Bella and Celeste were smothered, but noted that Watts had no external injuries beyond a small mark when he was taken into custody. 
 
 Shanann’s parents and brother decided they did not want to pursue the death penalty after discussing with Rourke the emotional, years-long process it would require. 
 
 “I didn’t want death for you because that’s not my right,” Sandra Rzucek said to Watts at the sentencing. 
 
 Watts will be transferred to the Denver Reception and Diagnostic Center where he will be evaluated and assigned to a prison, Rourke said. Prosecutors will file a request within the next three months that Watts pay restitution, including for the costs of burying Shanann, Bella and Celeste. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Frank Rzucek the father of Shanann Watts, left, and her brother Frankie Rzucek were in court for Christopher Watts arraignment hearing at the Weld County Courthouse on Aug. 21, 2018 in Greeley. Christopher Watts faces nine charges, including several counts of first-degree murder of his wife Shanann and his two young daughters, 4-year-old Bella, and 3-year-old Celeste. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Christopher Watts is in court for his arraignment hearing at the Weld County Courthouse on Aug. 21, 2018 in Greeley. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Christopher Watts is in court for his arraignment hearing at the Weld County Courthouse on Aug. 21, 2018 in Greeley. Watts faces nine charges, including several counts of first-degree murder of his wife and his two young daughters. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Nancy Lee takes a moment after placing flowers at a makeshift memorial for Shanann, Bella and Celeste Watts, outside the family's home on Aug. 17, 2018 in Frederick. Frederick police have arrested Shanann's husband, Christopher Watts, on suspicion of killing the three. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Members of the community gather for a candlelight vigil to honor Shanann, Bella and Celeste Watts outside the family's home on Aug. 17, 2018, in Frederick. 
 
 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Aubriella Luna, 8, joined others from her community for a candlelight vigil to honor Shanann, Bella and Celeste Watts outside the family's home Aug. 17, 2018, in Frederick. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Frederick Police Department Chief Todd Norris talks to media on Aug. 16, 2018 in Frederick. Frederick police have arrested Shanann's husband Christopher Watts on suspicion of murdering the three. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post According to Christopher Watts's arrest affidavit, Shanann Watts' body was found in a shallow grave near this oil work site, seen here on Aug. 21, 2018 near Roggen. Both of her daughter's bodies, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste, were submerged for days in the same oil tanks in rural eastern Colorado, prosecutors said. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Colleen Hendrickson and her grandson Ezra Reed, 3, who lives down the street, place flowers at a makeshift memorial to Shanann, Bella and Celeste Watts, who have been missing since Monday, outside the family home on Aug. 16, 2018 in Frederick. Frederick police have arrested Shanann's husband Christopher Watts on suspicion of murdering the three. 
 
 RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Residents stand in front of a makeshift memorial for Shanann, Bella and Celeste Watts outside the family's home on Aug. 17, 2018 in Frederick. Frederick police have arrested Shanann's husband Christopher Watts on suspicion of killing the three. 
 
 
 
 During the extensive search for Shanann, Bella and Celeste by multiple law enforcement agencies, Watts appeared on local television news and asked for the safe return of his family. His emotionless plea before TV cameras was brought up Monday in court. 
 
 Two days after his television interviews, Watts was arrested in their deaths. Watts told police that he strangled his wife in a rage on Aug. 12 after he saw her choking their daughter Celeste on a video baby monitor, according to his arrest affidavit. He said Bella was “sprawled” on a bed and appeared blue. 
 
 Watts told police that he had asked for a separation from Shanann earlier that day and that he was having an affair. 
 
 The woman Watts was dating, Kessinger, told The Denver Post she had only been involved with Watts since July and they never discussed long-term plans for their relationship. Watts lied to her and told her that he had finalized a divorce with his wife, she said. 
 
 Watts has never given investigators another account of what happened and has never shown signs of remorse for anybody but himself, Rourke said. 
 
 “I don’t think he’ll ever tell us,” he said.
– Christopher Watts will spend the rest of his life in prison for the murders of his pregnant wife and two daughters in Colorado. Some of the last things he did as a free man have come into sharper focus thanks to some 2,000 pages of documents the Weld County District Attorney's Office released on Wednesday. Authorities say he suffocated his girls late on Sunday, Aug. 12, or early on Monday the 13th, which is when he strangled his wife. The details begin before that, per the Daily Camera: With his wife out of town on business, Watts on Saturday took girlfriend Nichol Kessinger to dinner, though he told police and others he had dinner with friends. More: Kessinger says he uncharacteristically paid with a credit card, rather than a gift card, which she took as a sign that he no longer needed to hide their relationship from his wife (whom Watts told her he had divorced). The $62 charge caught Shanann Watts' eye; she mentioned it to a friend as suspiciously high considering her husband told her he had salmon and a beer. CBS Denver reports on Aug. 5, Shanann texted Watts, "l just don't get it. You don't fall out of love in 5 weeks." CNN reports Shanann took her girls on a lengthy summer trip to North Carolina to see family; Watts joined her for the last week of the trip, but the two were apart from June 27 to July 30. During that time, Watts reportedly saw Kessinger, who told co-workers they got physically intimate in early July.