A Complete 'American Murder: The Family Next Door' Timeline
Your latest Netflix obsession has arrived.
American Murder: The Family Next Door focuses on the 2018 disappearance of Shanann Watts and her two young daughters. Told via archival footage, the true-crime documentary unfurls through home videos, social media posts, police body-cam recordings, news reports, and private text messages. And because the horrifying events laid out over about 90 minutes actually occurred, the film is more terrifying than any found-footage flick you've seen.
Though the disappearance and murder of Shanann and her two young daughters played out in the news, it's possible you may have missed some details. In the documentary, director Jenny Popplewell takes you behind the scenes, exploring the incident, from husband Chris Watts's suspicious behavior to his extramarital affair and familial ructions. An examination of what really went down behind closed doors, American Murder: The Family Next Door is one of the most shocking murder cases in recent years.
Ahead, a complete timeline of how the events unfolded in real life.
May 2018: Shanann surprises Chris with her third pregnancy.
Shanann regularly posted videos about her family on social media, so when she found out she was pregnant for the third time, she made a video. In the clip, Shanann surprises her husband by wearing a T-shirt that says, "Oops... we did it again!" and films his reaction. Already parents to 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste Watts, the couple were planning to name their son Nico Lee Watts.
June 2018: Chris starts having an affair with Nichol Kessinger.
As reported by Insider, Chris's mistress, Nichol Kessinger, told authorities that she started seeing the married man more seriously toward the end of June in 2018. Kessinger met Watts at Anadarko Petroleum, where they both worked at the time.
According to Kessinger, Chris claimed that he was separated from his wife and in the process of getting a divorce. However, entered in their discovery document, the Frederick Police Department detailed Google searches made by Kessinger during the time period. For instance, Kessinger searched "man I'm having affair with says he will leave his wife" [page 1896 of discover, via Reddit] on July 24, suggesting that she knew Chris was still married when she started seeing him.
In an interview Kessinger gave to The Denver Post, it was later revealed, "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."
June 27, 2018: Shanann takes her daughters to North Carolina.
Shanann, Celeste, and Bella traveled to North Carolina for a five-week vacation. Chris was set to join them toward the end of the trip.
July 2018: Shanann becomes suspicious.
During the vacation, Shanann started to question Chris's behavior as she felt he had become more distant. In text messages shared by the Weld County DA (via Insider), on July 10, Shanann told Chris, "I miss you and I feel like you just want to work out and run." In reality, he had reportedly been on multiple dates with Kessinger while his wife was away, including spending Independence Day with her at the family home.
According to the Frederick Police Department's timeline in their discovery document, Chris joined his wife and children in North Carolina on July 31. Around a week prior, on July 25, Chris searched Google for "when to say I love you for the first time in a new relationship," suggesting that his relationship with Kessinger had been progressing quickly. And on July 28, Kessinger and Chris took an overnight trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park together.
August 4, 2018: Shanann sends Chris an angry message about his family.
As detailed in American Murder: The Family Next Door, Shanann became very angry with Chris's mom and dad when they ignored her daughter Celeste's peanut allergy. As a result, Shanann sent Chris a long message explaining why she stood up to his parents.
According to Insider, "Watts later told investigators that he believes he may have killed his wife and kids due to pent-up anger he harbored toward Shanann for what he described as driving a wedge between him and his family, feelings he said dated back to the beginning of their relationship."
Also on August 4, Shanann noticed that Chris no longer had a picture of her as his phone background. Instead, he replaced it with a picture of the sand dunes he'd visited with Kessinger, per the official discovery document.
August 7 & 9: Shanann tells friends about her marital problems.
Shanann started to open up to her friends about the troubles she'd been experiencing with Chris. She also canceled her baby's gender-reveal party after feeling as though Chris was not excited about having another child.
In text messages shared by the Weld County DA, via Oxygen, Shanann told one friend, "I grabbed his hand during ultrasound and he didn't grab back." In another series of messages she wrote, "Chris said we are not compatible anymore. … Said he thought another baby would fix his feelings." She also mused, "Only thing I can think of even though I don't think he has it in him is another girl."
August 9–13, 2018: Shanann goes on a business trip to Arizona.
While his wife was away in Arizona, Chris left the girls with a babysitter and took Kessinger on a date to The Lazy Dog Sports Bar and Grill in Erie, Colorado. Shanann seemed to be suspicious of her husband's evening out after noticing a charge for $60 on their shared card. Per the Frederick Police Department [page 1919 of discovery], on August 11, Shanann searched "Lazy Dog Menu," presumably trying to figure out whether Chris had been at the restaurant with another person.
August 13, 2018: Shanann and her daughters go missing.
Shanann was due to fly home on August 12, but her flight was delayed. As a result, she didn't arrive home until August 13 at around 1:48 a.m. Shanann was dropped home by Nickole Atkinson, who was the first person to raise the alarm when she couldn't get ahold of her friend later that day. Shanann, who was 15 weeks pregnant, was due for a doctor's appointment, for which she never showed up.
The father who confessed to killing his wife and two daughters is expected to be formally charged later today -- This as the last friend to see the mother alive speaks out for the first time: https://t.co/0wZJnpowI9@Clayton_Sandell reports. pic.twitter.com/IwnV7ccGCm
— Good Morning America (@GMA) August 20, 2018
Per People, a police officer arrived to conduct a welfare check on Shanann at around 1:40 p.m. and was met by Atkinson at the residence. Chris subsequently arrived home and let the officer search the property. Shanann's purse, phone, and medication were all in the house, but there was no sign of her or the couple's daughters. Chris told the police that Shanann had planned to take the girls to visit a friend, although he had no further details about his wife's whereabouts.
As seen in the Netflix documentary, a neighbor suggested that Chris was acting strangely regarding the disappearance. Chris was captured on camera leaving the house at around 5:27 a.m. that morning, claiming that he was heading to work.
August 14, 2018: Chris pleads for Shanann to return home.
In a series of television interviews, Chris insisted that Shanann had left the house on her own accord. Speaking to local TV station KMGH (via People), he said, "I just want everybody to come home." When quizzed by a reporter about whether there'd been a marital fight prior to Shanann's disappearance, Chris replied, "It wasn't like an argument. We had an emotional conversation, I'll leave it at that. But I just want them back. I just want them to come back."
On Denver7, Chris said, "Shanann, Bella, Celeste, if you're out there, just come back. If somebody has her, just please bring her back. I need to see everybody, I need to see everybody again. This house is not complete without anybody here."
August 15, 2018: Chris fails a polygraph, and his affair is discovered.
According to Frederick Police Department's discovery report, the regional manager from Chris's place of employment contacted the police to reveal that they'd been made aware of a relationship between two of their employees: Watts and Kessinger. Later that morning, Kessinger contacted police to discuss the case, after reportedly becoming concerned by news reports regarding Chris's missing wife and children.
As seen in American Murder: The Family Next Door and detailed in the Frederick Police Department's discovery report, Chris underwent a polygraph test on August 15, which he failed. Afterward, he confessed to murdering Shanann, initially claiming, however, that his wife killed their daughters and he retaliated by killing her.
Following the arrest, Shanann's family released a statement to CBS4: "It is with deep hurt, confusion and anger to confirm our beautiful cousin Shanann Watts, her unborn child, and her two angelic daughters, Bella (4), Celeste (3) were viciously murdered by husband Chris Watts; who confessed to the killings. Please keep Shanann's parents and brother in your prayers."
After Chris's arrest, Shanann's body was located at the Andarko oil field, one of the locations where Chris worked. Shanann had been strangled at home by her husband and moved to the site.
August 16, 2018: The bodies are recovered.
After locating Shanann's body and removing it from its burial site, two more bodies were removed from oil tanks nearby. These were later identified as Bella and Celeste, who were smothered by their father at the site.
August 20, 2018: Chris is charged.
Per Inside Edition, "Watts was officially charged with three counts of first-degree murder; two counts of first-degree murder for causing the death of a person under the age of 12 while being in a position of trust; one count of unlawful termination of a pregnancy and three counts of tampering with a deceased body."
November 6, 2018: Chris pleads guilty to the murders.
Despite his previous claim that Shanann killed their daughters, per The New York Times, Chris "pleaded guilty to nine criminal counts—including murder, the unlawful termination of a pregnancy and tampering with a dead body—in exchange for an agreement that prosecutors would not pursue the death penalty."
Nov 15, 2018: Nichol gives her only interview about the affair.
Speaking to The Denver Post, Kessinger said of her affair with Chris, "We had just met. … I barely knew him." Kessinger also claimed, "When I read the news, I found out he was still married and his wife was 15 weeks pregnant."
November 19, 2018: Chris is sentenced.
Chris was sentenced to "five life sentences with no possibility of parole," per Inside Edition. As noted by the outlet, Judge Marcelo Kopcow told Chris, "I could objectively say this is perhaps the most inhumane and vicious crime that I have handled out of the thousands of cases I have seen. Nothing less than a maximum sentence would be appropriate."
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