According to Kessinger, she had an intense text conversation with Watts after the family's disappearance hit the news.
Trigger Warning: This story contains details of murder that may be disturbing to readers.
Chris Watts killed his wife and two daughters and stashed their bodies in an oil field, but for three days after the gruesome murder, he told police that he didn't know where his family was. He even pleaded on the local news for their safe return, according to PEOPLE.
With the desperate husband farce he had going on in the public, he was making sure to cover his tracks in private. He even texted his mistress amid all the chaos to assure her that he had nothing to do with the disappearance of 34-year-old Shanann Watts and their daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3.
Now, a police interview with the mistress, Nichol Kessinger, surfaced on a YouTube channel run by Shanann's family and it sheds some light on her relationship with Watts from start to finish.
After Murdering His Wife and Daughters, Chris Watts Texted Mistress Saying 'I Didn't Hurt My Family' https://t.co/aHa39rR87C
— People (@people) March 15, 2022
In the 3-hour-long video, Kessinger tells the cops that they met through work and that Watts said that he was separated and planning to divorce.
"There were several discussions that we had about his current relationship and where it had gone," she says in the video. "He talked about his kids from time to time. But the thing was that he was never hostile. It was never anything aggressive. It was still very kind. He was just like, 'This is not working.'"
"It wasn't anything out of the ordinary or anything that would scare me," Kessinger says. "Even to this day, even after everything that I've found out, I still look back at that, and I don't see any red lights about the way he spoke about his family."
The Chris Watts family massacre is a reminder that you never really know anyone. You can be married, have children with them, think you're on one accord, the whole time, they're someone else. Underestimate no one.
— Soledad Francis PhD (@SoledadFrancis) March 11, 2022
But, even if Kessinger didn't spot any red flags, Shannan definitely did. In fact, just a few days before she was brutally murdered by her husband, she reached out to a friend and shared her growing concerns about her marriage. However, even then, she didn't suspect that her life was in danger.
On August 13, 2018, not only did their marriage come to an end, Shannan's life did, too. Watts strangled Shanann in their Colorado home. He then drove her body to a job site at the oil company where he worked. He buried his wife's body and then smothered his daughters and put their bodies in oil tanks. After a friend sent police to the family's home for a wellness check, Watts said he had no idea where his family was.
According to Kessinger, she had an intense text conversation with Watts after the family's disappearance hit the news. "I kept asking him, 'What did you do, Chris? What did you do?'" she recalls. "I asked, 'Where's your family?'"
"I was still in my head. I was stressed out," she continues. "So I texted Chris one last time, and I told him, 'If you did anything bad, you're going to ruin your life and you're going to ruin my life. I promise you that.' And he responded, 'I didn't hurt my family, Nicky.' And that was the last text. I never said another word to him after that."
Now, Watts is serving five consecutive life sentences at Dodge Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison, in Waupun, Wisconsin. He is not eligible for parole.
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLc0GHtbNLM
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by RJ Sangosti - Pool
