Family annihilator Chris Watts is finally taking accountability and expressing regret – but apparently not for slaughtering his family.
Watts, who is serving five life sentences plus 84 years for murdering his pregnant wife Shanann and their two young daughters in 2018, is now telling people his greatest regret is trying to pressure Shanann into getting an abortion after learning they were expecting a third child.
The Daily Mail has spoken to two sources who have been in recent contact with the 41-year-old inmate at Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin, and both say he often returns to the subject of terminating the pregnancy.
‘He wanted her to have an abortion,’ says Miguel Canteros, who was in a prison Bible Study group with Watts last year.
‘He said he really felt bad about that, asking her to get rid of the baby.’
Canteros told the Daily Mail that Watts did not discuss the murders themselves as a source of regret.
‘He’s really focused on the abortion. That’s what he confesses about, that he was ungrateful for the gift of a new baby.’
In a series of jailhouse love letters to his female pen pals Watts echoed the same tone-deaf sentiment.
Family annihilator Chris Watts is serving five life sentences plus 84 years for murdering his pregnant wife Shanann and their two young daughters in 2018
Watts buried Shanann in a shallow grave before suffocating both little girls and dumping their bodies into oil tanks
‘I didn’t want another child,’ he wrote to one 43–year–old woman, who spoke to the Daily Mail on condition of anonymity.
‘I was selfish. I didn’t want more responsibility. It was wrong of me to tell her to do that, because that’s not what she wanted,’ said the November 2021 letter we reviewed.
Shanann, a devout Catholic, refused to get an abortion but told her friends that his negative reaction had dampened her excitement about the pregnancy.
‘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,’ she texted one close friend on August 7, 2018, less than a week before she was killed.
‘He said we’re not compatible anymore. He refused to hug me after he said he will try to “work it out.”’
In another message on the same date, Shanann wrote: ‘I grabbed his hand during ultrasound and he didn’t grab back.’
Watts, a former oil worker, strangled Shanann in their large Colorado home after she confronted him for cheating on her with a coworker.
He then loaded her body into his truck and took his two little girls – Bella, four, and Celeste, three – to his work site, still alive.
At the remote oil field, Watts buried Shanann in a shallow grave before suffocating both little girls and dumping their bodies into oil tanks.
After the horrific murders, he played the role of the distraught husband and father in television interviews and police appeals, insisting he had no idea where his family had gone.
But within days, investigators closed in on the lies.
He was having an affair with Nichol Kessinger who has since changed her name and moved to a different part of Colorado
Watts has been telling people from prison that his biggest regret was pushing Shanann for an abortion
Watts confessed to the murders on August 15, 2018, and later pleaded guilty. In November that year he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Shortly after arriving behind bars, Watts underwent an extreme religious transformation.
The shift appears to have begun in early 2019, just months after his sentencing.
He began obsessively reading the Bible, attending evangelical study groups and framing his crimes through scripture.
In letters and conversations from prison, Watts claims he felt ‘possessed’ before the murders Watts and claims God has forgiven him and that his incarceration is part of a divine plan for his salvation.
Dylan Tallman, who was housed in a neighboring cell from Watts in 2020, told the Daily Mail he witnessed the moment Watts became religious.
Tallman said Watts was watching crime host Nancy Grace discuss the murders on television when he suddenly broke down.
‘[Nancy Grace] was talking about what he had done, and she was yelling,’ said Tallman.
‘She addressed him through the TV, saying, “Chris Watts, I want to talk to you.” They showed pictures of his wife and daughters.
‘It affected him. He fell to his knees and confessed his sins. It sounds weird, but that’s when he became a man of faith.
‘I think that was his rock bottom, when he was confronted with all the things he had done and how many lives he had ruined. That was a lot for him. He turned to God after that.’
After the horrific murders, Watts played the role of the distraught husband and father, insisting he had no idea where his family had gone
Shanann was pregnant with their third child and their first son
Watts began his murderous night in the family’s upscale home in Frederick, Colorado
But critics have questioned whether Watts’ religious conversion is genuine – or simply another form of manipulation.
The Daily Mail previously revealed how Watts used his newfound faith to cultivate relationships with women on the outside, portraying himself as a tortured sinner chosen by God for a higher purpose.
In one October 2025 letter reviewed by the Daily Mail, Watts compared his suffering in prison to that of Jesus Christ.
‘God had a plan for me,’ Watts wrote to a woman Deborah.
‘He wants me in prison. This is His will, just like it was His will for Jesus to die for us. He wants to bring people closer to him through my suffering.’
Jailhouse conversions are not uncommon for killers – Jeffrey Dahmer and the Son of Sam killer David Berkowitz both claimed to find Christ behind bars.
Psychologists say it is a psychological trick used to shift blame and avoid confronting the full reality of their actions.
According to Watts’ later confession, Shanann returned from a business trip in the early hours of August 13, 2018.
The couple had sex before beginning a furious argument about their collapsing marriage and his affair with coworker Nichol Kessinger.
Watts admitted he then strangled her inside the bedroom of their upscale Frederick, Colorado home.
Shanann loved being a mom, and doted on daughters Bella and Celeste
He wrapped her body in a blanket, dragged her downstairs and loaded it into his truck before driving to the Anadarko Petroleum site with Bella and Celeste seated beside their dead mother.
Watts later told investigators he smothered Celeste first while Bella begged him to stop. He then killed Bella and disposed of both girls in separate oil tanks.
In a recorded confession, Watts gave his alleged true motive: he had been carrying on an affair for several weeks with Nichol Kessinger and wanted to start a new life with her.
But Watts has since distanced himself from Kessinger, calling her names like a ‘jezebel’ and a ‘harlot’ in correspondence with multiple people.
He has claimed that she was responsible for his actions, and that he allowed her to lead him astray from the righteous path.
Kessinger has never been charged with any crime in relation to the Watts family murders.
She has moved to another part of Colorado and has legally changed her name. She has ignored the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
