Shanann Watts, 34, and her two children Bella, 3, and Celeste ìCeceî, 4, have been missing since Monday from Frederick, CO, according to Frederick Police Public Information Officer Sgt. Ian Albert. Police checked on the residence of Watts after a friend called and requested a welfare check for the 15-week pregnant mom. At this time police are not releasing additional information about the incident, but believe the public is not at risk, Sgt. Albert said. Police are asking the public to call if they have any tips that could lead to the whereabouts of Watts. Court docs say victims may have been strangled Christopher Watts is escorted into the courtroom before his bond hearing at the Weld County Courthouse on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018, in Greeley, Colo. Watts, of Colorado, whose wife and daughters disappeared this week was arrested on suspicion of killing them. (Joshua Polson/The Greeley Tribune via AP, Pool) (CNN) — A murder suspect told police in Colorado he strangled his pregnant wife in a rage after he saw her on a baby monitor strangling the couple’s 3-year-old daughter, Celeste, according to court documents. Chris Watts said the couple’s other daughter, Bella, 4, was already “sprawled out” on the bed and blue in the couple’s bedroom, according to an arrest affidavit from Frederick police. Watts confessed to burying his wife, Shanann Watts, 34, near two oil tanks and dumping his daughters’ bodies in the tanks, according to the affidavit. But prosecutors paint a different picture of the killing. Watts was charged Monday with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his wife and young daughters. Two additional first-degree murder charges accuse him of causing the death of a child younger than 12. The 33-year-old father also faces three counts of tampering with a body, and a count of first-degree unlawful termination of a pregnancy, said Weld County District Attorney Michael J. Rourke, who did not reveal a motive. Watts, who was arrested last week, is being held without bond, with his next court appearance scheduled for Tuesday morning. Defendant previously denied affair with co-worker, investigators say Investigators said they learned Watts was “actively involved” in an affair with a co-worker. He had previously denied it in interviews, according to the affidavit. Early on the morning of August 13, Watts said he told his wife he wanted to separate, and then the killings took place, court papers said. Before Watts’ confession, authorities used a drone that spotted a bedsheet in a field near the oil tanks, the affidavit said. “The sheet matched the pattern of several pillowcases and a top sheet recovered from a kitchen trash can from [Watts’] residence early that day,” the affidavit said. In an emotional address Monday, Shanann’s father, Frank Rzucek Sr., thanked authorities for finding the bodies of his family members. He said the family appreciated those who attended a candlelight vigil and expressed support. “Keep the prayers coming for our family,” he said, holding back tears. KDVR/Weld County Sheriff Chris Watts Prosecutors: Pregnant wife was buried in a ‘shallow grave’ Shanann, Bella and Celeste were reported missing August 13 from their home in Frederick, a town of about 8,600 people 30 miles north of Denver. The location where their bodies were found on August 15 was the site of a petroleum and natural gas company where Chris Watts had worked, authorities said. Watts was terminated from Anadarko Petroleum on August 15, company communications manager Jennifer Brice said. A court filing by prosecutors says Shanann Watts’ body was “recovered from a shallow grave near an oil tank,” and that “law enforcement recovered the bodies of defendant’s two daughters from inside oil tanks located near the grave of their mother.” The girls’ bodies were in an “oil well filled with crude oil for several days,” Chris Watts’ attorneys indicated in a court filing. Autopsy results have not been released, but documents filed last week in Watts’ arrest revealed some of the victims may have been strangled, along with other details. On Monday, a judge denied several defense motions, including a request to require pathologists to swab the little girls’ necks, throats and hands for DNA. Watts’ attorneys have not publicly commented on the case. Friend recalls last time she saw Shanann In a Monday interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” friend Nicole Atkinson said she dropped Shanann off at home about 2 a.m. August 13 after they finished a business trip. “She went inside, turned around and waved at me and shut the door,” Atkinson said. Shanann didn’t return calls later that day and missed a medical appointment at which she was expected to hear her unborn child’s heartbeat, Atkinson said. Shanann was 15 weeks pregnant. Atkinson said she contacted Chris Watts, but he didn’t seem as worried as she thought he should be. Atkinson said she then contacted police. In an interview with a local news station on August 14 – after his family disappeared but before his arrest – Chris Watts also said his wife got home around 2 a.m. “We had an emotional conversation, I’ll leave it at that,” Watts told a reporter who asked whether they’d argued. “I just want them back. I just want them to come back.” Watts said he left for work about 5:15 a.m. that day and wasn’t concerned when his wife didn’t respond to his texts and phone calls since she’d just returned from being out of town. But he grew worried, he said, when one of her friends contacted him around noon and said she wasn’t responding to messages. “I walked in the house and – nothing,” Chris Watts told KMGH. “She wasn’t here. The kids weren’t here.” Court papers showed the couple also faced financial problems in recent years and filed for bankruptcy in 2015. Their homeowners association, Wyndham Hill Master Association, recently sued the couple, saying they owed $1,533.80, according to a civil suit obtained by CNN. CNN’s Kaylee Hartung and Konstantin Toropin reported from Greeley, Colorado. Ralph Ellis and Darran Simon wrote in Atlanta. Faith Karimi, Joe Sterling Sheena Jones and Dave Alsup contributed to this report from Atlanta.<doc-sep>The Colorado man who is accused of killing his pregnant wife and two daughters before dumping them at an oil work site told the police that it was his wife who strangled the children — and that he strangled her out of rage, according to an affidavit for an arrest warrant released on Monday. The man, Christopher Watts, 33, had been having an affair with a co-worker, the police said, and had told his wife he wanted to separate during an emotional conversation in the middle of the night on Aug. 13. Afterward, he told the police, he had looked at the family’s baby monitor and seen his wife strangling their daughter Celeste, 3. Their other daughter, Bella, 4, was lying on her bed and appeared blue, he said. After that, he strangled his wife, he told the police. But the authorities believe Mr. Watts — who gave a television interview pleading for the return of his family before he was arrested — is responsible for all three deaths.<doc-sep>By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - A Colorado oil worker charged with murdering his pregnant wife and two young daughters told investigators following his arrest that he killed his wife after she strangled the children, court documents showed on Monday. Chris Watts, who had been involved in an extramarital affair with a co-worker, said during a police interrogation that his wife, Shannan, strangled their daughters Bella and Celeste after he announced that he wanted a separation, according to an arrest affidavit filed in the sensational case. "While in the bedroom, via a baby monitor located on Shannan's night stand, he observed Bella 'sprawled' out on her bed, blue, and Shannan actively strangling Celeste," Frederick Police Officer Matthew James wrote in the affidavit. "Chris said he went into a rage and ultimately strangled Shannan to death," James wrote. Watts, 33, was formally charged on Monday 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. The five murder counts include alternate legal theories available to prosecutors under Colorado state law. Watts has been held without bail since his arrest last week for the murders of his family that has fixed national attention on the tiny former mining town of Frederick, now a bedroom community of 13,000 people. Shannan Watts and the two girls were reported missing by a family friend on Tuesday from their home in Frederick, about 30 miles (50 km) north of Denver. Watts said in an interview with TV station Denver 7 on Tuesday that he was torn up inside about his family going missing and pleaded for their return. "I just want them to come back," Watts told Denver 7. "My kids are my life. Those smiles light up my life. I want everybody to just come home." Prosecutors say the body of Shannan Watts was discovered buried in a shallow grave and his daughters had been stuffed into oil tanks at the facility where Chris Watts worked until his arrest. According to the affidavit, Watts told detectives he had disposed of the bodies by loading them into his pickup truck and driving them to the field. The affidavit says Watts told police where the remains could be found. Neither Watts nor his court-appointed attorney have commented publicly on the case since his arrest. He was due in court on Tuesday for an arraignment on the charges. (Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Writing by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by James Dalgleish and Chris Reese)<doc-sep>
DENVER (AP) — A Colorado man told police that he killed his pregnant wife in "a rage" when he discovered she had strangled their two daughters after he sought a separation, according to an arrest affidavit released on Monday. Colorado prosecutors, though, filed formal charges earlier in the day, accusing the former oil and gas worker of murdering his entire family days before he was interviewed by local television stations and pleaded for his missing family's safe return home. Christopher Watts, who is being held without bail, is due back in court on Tuesday morning to be advised of the charges filed against him. District Attorney Michael Rourke declined to answer most questions about the case Monday but said his office has three prosecutors assigned to it. Rourke also said it was too early to discuss whether he will seek the death penalty. Under state law, the top punishment for homicide is the death penalty or life in prison. The arrest affidavit was sealed at prosecutors' request until Monday, a frequent request in Colorado as prosecutors determine what charges to file after someone has been arrested. After filing charges, prosecutors asked a judge on Monday to unseal it — revealing Watts' confession that he had killed his wife and his accusation that she was responsible for the deaths of 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste. The document also says police confirmed that Christopher Watts was having an affair with a co-worker, something he denied in earlier conversations with investigators. According to the affidavit, early on the morning of Aug. 13 Christopher Watts told his wife that he wanted to separate. She had returned from a business trip a few hours before their conversation. Watts told police that he walked downstairs, leaving his wife in their bedroom. When he returned, Watts said he checked a baby monitor on Shanann's nightstand and saw his wife strangling their youngest daughter. He said the monitor also showed their oldest daughter sprawled on her bed, looking blue. Story continues Watts, 33, said he then "went into a rage" and strangled his wife. He told police that he loaded all three bodies into his work truck, and then he buried his wife at an oil work site and dumped the bodies of Bella and Celeste inside oil tanks. Autopsies have been completed but not released. A judge on Friday denied a request by defense lawyer James Merson to require the coroner to collect DNA from the necks of the children. Watts faces three first-degree murder charges, two counts of murdering a child, one count of unlawful termination of a pregnancy and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body. The charges come a week after a friend reported Shanann Watts, 34, and the girls missing. Before his arrest last week, Christopher Watts lamented in interviews with local television stations about missing his wife and daughters. He spoke in front of their home in Frederick, a small town on the grassy plains north of Denver where fast-growing subdivisions intermingle with drilling rigs and oil wells. Police spoke with Watts several times before he was arrested late on Wednesday, according to the affidavit. It says Watts initially told police that his conversation with Shanann about a separation was civil but emotional. Watts later told police that both he and his wife were "upset and crying" and Shanann told him she was going to a friend's house that day. The bodies were found on property owned by Anadarko Petroleum, one of Colorado's largest oil and gas drillers, where Watts had worked as an operator. He was fired on Wednesday. Court documents filed by Merson said the girls had been submerged in crude oil for four days. The affidavit says Watts gave police an aerial photograph of the area and identified three areas where he placed the bodies. Investigators used a drone to search the area and spotted a bed sheet that matched other linens found in the family home, along with fresh dirt. Family and friends have said they were shocked by the slayings, saying the family seemed happy and Christopher Watts appeared to be a good father. The social media accounts for Shanann Watts, who was from North Carolina, are filled with photos of the family smiling and playing and posts praising her husband and expressing excitement about the couple expecting their third child.