Chris Watts’ Hand Signals During Interrogation Led Police To Think He Strangled His Wife

Chris Watts’ Hand Signals During Interrogation Led Police To Think He Strangled His Wife Netflix

The horrible truth about what happened to Shanann Watts and her two daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, is well-known at this point: They were murdered by Chris Watts, who believed killing his family would allow him to run away with his mistress. However, before the details of the crime came to light, Chris was interrogated by police, who thought his body language was suspicious and gave hints about what he’d done to his wife and kids.

The Netflix documentary “American Murder: The Family Next Door” delved into the case, with videos of police interviews and CCTV footage included. In one interrogation, Chris Watts talked to an agent from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and made “a lot of movements towards his neck area” throughout.

“Chris, while he was talking to Special Agent Colder, made a lot of movements towards his neck area,” said Special Agent Tammy Lee in a clip shared on the r/ChrisWatts subreddit. Several instances of Watts doing just that were then shown. At one point, he rested his left arm against the side of his throat, while at other times he randomly touched his own neck.

That’s when Special Agent Coder left the room and told his fellow agents that he believed Watts might have strangled Shanann. His hunch turned out to be right — Shanann was indeed strangled to death, and Watts also killed her unborn child when he ended his wife’s life.

Meanwhile, Bella and Celeste were also smothered to death. Their bodies were found in an oil tank in the middle of a field. Shannon and her unborn son, Nico, were found nearly 100 yards away in a shallow makeshift grave.

Thankfully, Chris Watts was convicted of all of the murders and is currently serving a life sentence in the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin, a maximum-security prison.

Jennifer has been the managing editor of Bolde since its launch in 2014. Before that, she was the founding editor of HelloGiggles and also worked as an entertainment writer for Bustle and Digital Spy. Her work has been published in Bon Appetit, Decider, Vanity Fair, The New York TImes, and many more.