Dad Murders His Wife & Kids Then Googles Lyrics to a Metallica Song: 'Lunacy Has Found Me'
Chris Watts‘ pregnant wife and two young daughters had been dead only a few hours when — in the brief window between murdering them and coming under the suspicion of police — he reportedly took the time to look up the lyrics to a Metallica song.
The song he Googled was “Battery,” according to local TV station KCNC. The track contains lyrics such as “Smashing through the boundaries, lunacy has found me” and “Pounding out aggression, turns into obsession/Cannot kill the battery/Cannot kill the family.”
The full context of his morbid search is unclear, but it was disclosed in a bevvy of investigative documents — police reports, interview transcripts and other materials — released in the Watts family murder case and obtained by local media outlets.
Colorado prosecutors have said that Shanann Watts, Chris’ pregnant wife of nearly six years, was strangled before sunrise in their Frederick home on Aug. 13.
Chris smothered their daughters, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste, and hid all three bodies on property owned by his then-employer.
The newly released investigative documents, as described by TV stations KCNC, KDVR and KUSA, vividly underline the basic narrative already laid out by authorities: Chris, 33, had grown distant from his family and infatuated with an unwitting co-worker with whom he wanted a “fresh start.”
RELATED: Chris Watts Is Mad About How the News Portrays Him, Source Says
Surveillance video recorded him leaving his home about 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 13 to dump his victims’ bodies, less than four hours after Shanann had returned from a weekend work trip.
About 10:10 a.m., Chris went online to look up the Metallica lyrics, according to documents obtained by KCNC. By that point, his wife had already missed a doctor’s appointment — an unusual absence that would raise the concern of friend who in turn would summon the police, eventually leading to Chris’ arrest.
He exhibited other strange behavior before his arrest, authorities have said, including calling his girls’ school to say they would not be attending the upcoming year and contacting his Realtor about selling his home.
RELATED: How the Watts Family Murder Case Unfolded
Among the revelations in the investigative documents are text messages between Shanann and Chris, and Shanann and a friend, that show the strain their relationship was under in the weeks before the murders.
KDVR reports that on Aug. 7, six days before she was killed, Shanann shared with a friend that she was concerned Chris had pulled so far away from her that he may never return.
“What if he really doesn’t love me anymore?!” she texted.
The situation confused and saddened her, Shanann wrote: “We’ve never had a problem in our relationship like this. No joke. NEVER. THIS IS TOTAL LEFT FIELD.”
