From a prison cell just inches away, Chris Watts detailed how he brutally murdered his pregnant wife and two young daughters. Now, his former cellmate is revealing chilling conversations he had with the killer father, including how Watts blamed “the harlot” for everything.
On Aug. 13, 2018, Shanann Watts and her two daughters were reported missing from their home in Frederick, Colorado. Shanann, who married Chris Watts in 2012, was 34 years old and 15 weeks pregnant at the time with Nico, who would be the couple’s first son.
By Aug. 16, investigators had located her body in a shallow grave, while the remains of Bella, 4, and Celeste “CeCe,” 3, were found submerged in separate oil tanks on a property owned by Anadarko Petroleum, where Watts worked.
In the days between their disappearance and discovery, the now 40-year-old man appeared on local television pleading for help, claiming he had no idea what had happened to his family.
But police were already uncovering inconsistencies in his story.
‘He’s a liar’
It was also revealed that starting July, Watts had entered into an affair with a co-worker, Nichol Kessinger, who has not spoken publicly since 2018.
In her only known interview, given to the Denver Post shortly after Watts’ arrest, she said she had no knowledge of the murders and believed he was separated at the time of their relationship.
“I believed him,” she told the outlet. “He’s a liar. He lied about everything.”
She has since changed her name and moved to another part of Colorado.
Confession and sentencing
During the investigation, Watts initially denied involvement, but after failing a polygraph test, he admitted to killing Shanann and later confessed to also killing his daughters, People reports.
In November 2018, he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of first-degree murder and other charges, avoiding the death penalty as part of a plea deal. He was sentenced to five consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole and was eventually transferred out of Colorado due to safety concerns.
He is now held at Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin, where he was placed in a unit reserved for high-risk or high-profile inmates.
‘He’s my brother’
While at Dodge, Dylan Tallman was placed in the cell next to Watts in 2020, and for seven months, the two men lived on opposite sides of the same wall.
In a 2021 interview with OK! Tallman explained that the walls between them were thin enough to allow near-constant communication – conversations that included Watt’s affair with Kessinger, and the deaths of his wife and children.
Speaking with the publication, Tallman – who explained he knew a version of Watts that few people had seen – also admitted he believed his cell buddy was innocent.
“If you looked up godly in the dictionary, there would be a picture of Chris,” Tallman told OK!. “He’s my brother. He has been there when no one else was, has helped me out when I needed someone to have my back.”
‘A lot of women write him in prison’
Over time, the two men – who developed what Tallman described as a “spiritual connection” – discussed religion, self-image, and life decisions.
Though Watts regularly expressed guilt over the affair with Kessinger, Tallman said that even after his conviction, his fixation on women hadn’t changed.
He described a pattern of behavior in which Watts quickly became attached to any woman who gave him attention, forming intense connections through letters and phone calls.
“He will talk to a girl, and she becomes his everything really fast,” Tallman told the Daily Mail, adding that some even sent him money through the prison’s commissary system.
“A lot of women write him in prison. He talks to them a lot,” he revealed. “He becomes obsessed with a woman, and she becomes all he can think of – and he’ll do whatever they ask him to do.”
‘Harlot’
While in prison, Watts apparently found God and his religious awakening became the central theme of conversations with Tallman – Watt’s “spiritual twin.”
The Daily Mail reports that Tallman explained that Watts didn’t usually bring up the murders directly. Instead, he filtered those discussions through the lens of Scripture, referencing Bible stories or spiritual metaphors rather than plainly recounting what he had done.
In letters reviewed by the outlet, he often referenced Biblical figures and framed his affair with Kessinger in language drawn from Scripture.
One message from March 2020 included a passage: “The words of a harlot have brought me low,” Watts said, referring to Kessinger. “Her flattering speech was like drops of honey that pierced my heart and soul. Little did I know that all her guests were in the chamber of death.”
According to Tallman, Watts repeatedly portrayed himself as someone led astray and described Kessinger as a woman who had influenced him in destructive ways.
‘She is of evil spirits’
In his book “The Cell Next Door,” Tallman recounts what Watts shared about the night he killed his pregnant wife and smothered his daughters before dumping their little bodies in oil tanks.
The book description reads: “Dylan recalls hundreds of conversations with Chris that reveal a lot of what happened the night he murdered his family…It is in these writings that Chris reveals details of the murders and events that led up to exactly what happened. Chris admits he had an accomplice.”
Tallman writes that he was told by Watts: “I was having an affair with this girl, and I ended up in love with two women at the same time. It’s what led up to what happened. She is of evil spirits, like Jezebel.”
“He admitted that he was stupid to cheat on his wife, and he asked God’s forgiveness every day for his infidelity,” he added.
Although Watts had previously considered appealing his conviction, Tallman says those plans have since been abandoned.
“He says he’s where he belongs. And that maybe people will come to Christ after hearing about him,” Tallman shared.
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