Welcome everyone! Welcome to a new episode of Love and Murder – the weekly true crime podcast discussing relationships gone terribly wrong, where our motto is you’re either someone’s last love or first murder.
I am your host Ky and we don’t have a co-host today because we can’t figure out our technical difficulties, but the show must go on!
As a reminder, our show discusses true crime cases told in the form of a story with mystery, suspense, and just a little bit of humor sprinkled on top – but never at the expense of the victim.
Be sure to subscribe to Love and Murder on whatever platform you’re on, as well as give us a 5 star review right now so you don’t forget. If you’re new here, then listen to the episode first and then please rate us (also welcome!)
In today’s episode, we are discussing a horrible HORRIBLE crime. It’s the case of Chris Watts.
But first, I wanted to remind you to head on over to our Patreon where our last bonus episode was us talking about what it’s like to be a true crime podcaster. It’s not what everyone thinks it is. www.patreon.com/loveandmurder We’ll talk about our Patreon more later on in the episode.
Now, on to the show…
On January 10, 1984, Shanann Cathryn Rzucek was born in Aberdeen, North Carolina, to parents Sandra and Frank. On May 16, 1985, Christopher Lee Watts was born in Spring Lake, North Carolina, to parents Ronnie and Cyndi Watts. Chris and Shanann met sometime in 2010, getting married on November 3, 2012 in Mecklenburg County. They eventually moved into a five-bedroom home in Frederick, CO, in early 2013 and welcomed their first born-daughter, Bella, into the world on December 17, 2013. Her younger sister Celeste (also known as Cece) was born on July 17, 2015.
Shanann would often make posts on social media about her family. She had videos of herself and Chris hugging their children and baking cookies. One post that she made in April of 2018 was in regards to Chris captioned, “Happy Husband Appreciation Day.” This Instragram post then went on to say, “I couldn’t imagine a better man for us. You spoil us with love [and] attention! You put up with 3 impatient, demanding women in the house. You work so hard every day to provide for us. I love you so much.”
Chris worked for Anadarko Petroleum, a hydrocarbon exploration company. Shanann worked for a multi-level marketing company called Le Vel that sold a weight loss supplement called Thrive. Despite both spouses being employed, the family had to declare bankruptcy in 2015. Around May of 2018, Shanann became pregnant with their third child who they were going to name Nico.
On Monday, August 13, 2018, Shanann returned from a business trip and was dropped off at home at 1:48am by her friend Nickole Atkinson. Nickole had agreed to take Shanaan to a scheduled gynecology appointment later that morning. When Nickole attempted to contact Shanann about said appointment, her texts and phone calls went unanswered. When Shanann also missed a business meeting that day, Nickole decided to go to the house and look for her around 12:10pm. There was no answer at the door. Nickole noted that Shanaan’s shoes were still sitting in the front door and her car was still in the garage, so she called Chris to inform him what was going on. He called the Frederick Police Department from work.
An officer was dispatched to the house at 1:40pm, where he spoke with Nickole. After she explained her concerns and that Shanann was 15 weeks pregnant, the officer attempted to do a welfare check. With the door still going unanswered, the officer attempted to knock on multiple other doors and windows. He also asked some of the neighbors if they had seen Shanann that day, to which they said no. The officer called Chris and asked his permission to enter the house, and Chris responded by saying that he was on his way.
When Chris arrived, he let the officer into the house. Instead of going into the house and calling out for his wife and daughters, Chris first went into the garage to inspect her car. He then went in through the side door and let the police officer in through the main door. Inside, the family dog was found unharmed, but Shannan and their two girls were missing. Chris himself noted that the girls blankets were gone and that Shannan’s wedding ring was left on the nightstand in their bedroom. During this time, Chris looked like he was texting on his phone a lot but never picked it up to make any phone calls.
Shanann’s phone was found inside the couch. The police officer asked Chris if their marriage was rocky, and he admitted that they were going through a separation. Chris claimed that the separation was “civil for the most part.” One of Chris’ neighbors, Nathan Trinastich, offered to show the officer video from the surveillance equipment outside of his house. In the video, Chris can be seen loading several unidentifiable items into his truck early that morning. Chris and the officer were standing in Nathan’s house at this time, and he later pointed out that Chris seemed almost unable to watch himself in the video. When Chris left the house, the officer stayed to speak with Nathan directly.
Nathan told police, “He’s not acting right at all. He’s never fidgety. He’s never rocking back and forth…. He never loads stuff from his garage.” Nathan then went on to detail that he and his wife worried that Shanann had gone missing during her business trip because, “I had heard them full on scream at each other at the top of their lungs and he gets crazy.” He also described Chris as “normally quiet, real subdued,” and a very reserved, introverted person who never talks, but he was awfully talkative while trying to explain what he was doing in the video surveillance.
Chris agreed to be interviewed by two separate news outlets the next day. During his interviews, he seemed very distant and inward while answering questions. This led to the police wanting to question him further. Chris gave the police his phone under the assumption that they were going to go through his contacts to look for potential suspects. The answers that Chris gave to the interrogator were mostly very long and detailed. Chris tried to explain things like they were trying to stay together for the kids and that they often talked through their issues. The questioning officer said some semi-confrontational things such as, “Nickole seems more worried than you do.” These statements were essentially pointing the finger at Chris, but he did not question if the officer was suspicious of him.
Cliffhanger Ky’s back to give you your weekly reminder to subscribe so that you don’t miss an episode and we’d be ever so grateful if you would leave us a 5 star review on the platform of your choice. Also come on over and join us at our exclusive LnM community on Patreon at www.patreon.com/loveandmurder. Once you become a subscriber, you get access to commercial free episodes – so you don’t have to hear this particular interruption – crazy crime corner, love obsessions, serial killer corner, getting to know the hosts, behind the scenes, true crime games, and so much more! We have so much fun over there so come on and join starting at only $1/mo! But you get so much more with our $5 and above tiers! Don’t miss out! www.patreon.com/loveandmurder
….and if you’re listening to this on YouTube, go ahead and subscribe right now and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss out on new content. It would help us out greatly and we’d thank you before, now, and after.
We now resume our regularly scheduled program
A common technique used by police interrogators is “The Pause.” After asking a question, the officer will not respond once you’ve given your answer. In this instance, Chris kept talking when the officer had no reply. During his rambling Chris went on to say, “I would never harm my kids. I would never harm my wife. You can talk to any of my friends, or any of her friends. They know me. I’m a low-key guy. I’m quiet. I’m not about confrontation. I’m not about anything that elevates to that level. If someone yells at me or screams at me, I just take it.” The interrogator asked Chris, “When we find the guy who did this, what should we do to him?” Chris responded with, “Life in prison? That’s what I would think.”
The officer asked Chris if he’d be willing to take a polygraph test. Chris agreed to come back the next day. The polygraph administers explained to Chris, “If you had something to do with their disappearance, it would be really stupid for you to be here today,” and she really hammers home how dumb it is for him to be there if he was responsible for something that happened to Shanann and the two girls. As a further intimidation tactic, she put Chris through a “Directed Lie Test”; this includes her giving him easy questions to answer, but he was supposed to answer them wrong on purpose. The Polygrapher then congratulated Chris and thanked him for being a terrible liar.
After they did the real test, the polygrapher and interrogating officer came back to Chris and said, “It was completely clear that you were not honest during the test.” Chris attempted to deny this but the officer put a stop to it immediately and told him to just relax. After drilling Chris for some time, they eventually let him talk to his father, Ronnie.
Chris admitted to his dad that he failed the polygraph test. Ronnie then pushed Chris to tell him what really happened, so Chris claimed that he allegedly found Shanann choking the girls and that he killed her in retaliation. Supposedly, he was too late to save his daughters. The detectives came back into the room as soon as Ronnie mentioned the word, “lawyer.”
The detectives then had Chris direct them via a map of where he buried the bodies. The detectives poked a hole in his story by noting that Chris did nothing to save his daughters in the scenario that he presented; he went straight to burying them instead of calling 911 to potentially revive them. This led to him admitting to straight up murdering his wife and children. Chris was arrested on August 15, 2018. He later told his lawyer that Bella had walked on him after he assaulted Shanann, and he told her that Shanann was just feeling sick. He loaded Shanann’s body in the car, drove to an oil storage owned by his employer, and suffocated the two little girls. He buried Shanann in a shallow grave and placed the girls’ bodies in a crude oil storage tank.
After Chris was arrested, a man by the name of Trent Bolte claimed that he and Chris had been in a sexual relationship. In these claims, he said that he and Chris met online in 2017, and that they met in person shortly after. He detailed how Chris was allegedly struggling with a gay or bisexual identity, and that his marriage to Shanann was a loveless trap. The pair supposedly separated in 2018, before Chris committed the murders. Everything else that Trent said about the situation was nothing that hadn’t already been released by the media, and his story wasn’t very credible.
It should be noted that when police took his phone during the previous interview, they found evidence that he was having an affair with a woman by the name of Nicol Kissenger. Nicol was interviewed on August 16th by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and she spent 3 and a half hours detailing the affair and Chris’ behavioral changes leading up to the murder.
Inside Edition would later report in June of 2021 that Chris had confessed to putting oxycontin into Shanann’s system, hoping for her to miscarriage. He did this because he wanted to be with Nicol and thought it would be easier if Shanann were not pregnant. Supposedly, he also tried smothering his daughters while they were still in their beds but failed.
On August 21st, Chris was charged with 3 counts of FDM, unlawful termination of a pregnancy, and two counts of “death of a child not yet 12 years of age and within his position of trust”, and three counts of tampering with a deceased body. He was given a $5 million bail, after he was denied bail completely during a previous hearing. He pleaded guilty on November 6th, 2018 to all three murders.
Shanann’s family (her father, mother, and brother) requested not to put forward the death penalty, as they did not want any further deaths to come out of this situation. They were supportive of Chris’ decision to make a plea deal. Chris’ parents, Shanann’s parents, and Shanann’s brother all gave their own statements during the trial. We will have the appropriate video posted to accommodate this episode.
Chris was given 5 life sentences on November 19, with an additional 48 years for the unlawful termination of pregnancy, and 36 years due to tampering with the deceased. On December 3, 2018, Chris was moved to an out-of-state-location, and on December 5 he was placed at the Dodge Correctional Institution.
Nichol reportedly moved away from Colorado immediately after Chris’ trial was over. She claimed in one of her interviews, “My name is about to be, like, slandered, for probably a while. I don’t know how long it’s gonna take to heal but I would not be surprised if it’s gonna be hard to go out in public sometimes for a couple of years.”
And that is the insane story of Chris Watts.
What do yall think of this case?
Let us know what you think in the comments below or if you want your comments heard on air, head on over to our website, www.murderandlove.com and click on our brand new shout out system or SOS. It’s right there on our homepage ya can’t miss it. Record your comment and it will be played at the end of the next episode.
If you liked this episode then head on over to apple podcasts or spotify and rate us 5 stars. You can also download Goodpods and rate us on there too. You can say whatever you want in description but it helps bring us up in the charts so others can find us just like you did.
Don’t forget to visit us on Patreon to become an exclusive member of the LnM community. You get commercial free, full length early release episodes of Love and Murder as well as some extras of whatever case we’re covering. You also get bonus content like cases about love obsessions, or cases with the craziest crimes, or serial killer corner. You also get host stories, behind the scenes and so much more. We have options starting at only $1/mo so come on over!
Follow us on social media at
Facebook.com/relationshipcrime
Instagram at lovemurderpodcast
Join our Facebook Fan Group by searching Love and Murder Fan Page in Google or Facebook or by simply clicking the link in the show notes.
Find our awesome merch by going to our website www.murderandlove.com and clicking “our shop” in the menu above.
And an easy and free way to help us out is by simply sharing this episode.
And as always, we end each episode by reminding you
[lock your doors at night]
No! It’s …..
All Love and No Murder Yall
Join our Fanpage at https://bit.ly/39qUG3t
