Chris Watts Confession Transcription: Read the full transcript of the five hour interview with FBI, CBI and Frederick, CO police.

For over 24 hours I have been working on the Chris Watts confession transcription. It’s taking a VERY long time, especially since Chris can have moments where he talks very fast, mumbles at the same time, and doesn’t finish a thought before jumping to the next. With that, I have done my best! Chris uses excessive amounts of “likes” and “ums”- in some cases I have removed those unnecessary fillers without changing the other words if it made the sentence overly difficult to understand in print. There are also a few times where it is absolutely impossible to understand a word/sentence he said- in that case I added a note or (??). Additionally, occasional notes have been marked and added for clarity. If you are a website or a blog who would like to use this transcription, please link directly to this page- as I said, I’ve devoted an incredible amount of time & put in a lot of effort to transcribe this in hopes it will be helpful! (Pages will continue to be added until the entire transcription is complete).

CHRIS WATTS CONFESSION TRANSCRIPT PART 1: Begins to discuss events after Shanann returned home, suspicion of mistress Nichol “Nikki” Kessinger, and problems in North Carolina (‘NutGate’)

Tammy = Agent Tammy Lee from CBI Denver

Grahm = Special Agent Grahm Coder from FBI

Dave = Detective Dave Baumhover. From Frederick, CO police

Chris = Chris Watts, murdered his wife and children.

[ Begin Chris Watts Confession Transcript Part I] 

Grahm: We never really got to talk about that night- what happened?

Chris: So nothing really happened that night, it was in the morning.

Grahm: Okay.

Chris: It was, you know, me and Shanann- she got home at like two o’clock. And uh, you know, I felt her get into bed and I just (*this part is extremely hard to understand- talking very fast + mumbling) thought I heard like (??) make sure I left my phone out at 2:00..make sure she’s okay, she’s in there and I could kinda feel her kinda stirring around a little bit. I just had a feeling that she knew, like what was going on. Cuz like obviously I didn’t use an Anadarko gift card, you know, that I had gotten, I used my actual credit card and I kinda just felt like she knew what was going on and, she uh, started rubbing her hand on me and we ended up having sex, but uh, I guess that was more like a test…

Grahm: Oh?

Chris: I woulda thought.

Grahm: Interesting, okay- that makes sense.

Chris: Cuz when we talked when I woke up later on in the morning I pretty much told her I didn’t think it was ‘gonna work anymore. And she was like, “What happened…what was last night?”. You know, I figured that was a test after I’ve gone through everything in my head.

Grahm: That makes sense.

Chris: And, she just told me you know like to get off of her and she’s like “I knew there was somebody else, I knew there was somebody else, I knew there was somebody else” I couldn’t just say just yes, there is somebody else but then she said “You’re never gonna see your kids again, you’re never gonna see them again, get off me- don’t hurt the baby”.

Grahm: Is that what she said?

Chris: Cuz when like When I climbed in bed, that was pretty much, like on top, pretty much like straddling her [??]

Grahm: Okay.

Chris: She thought I was gonna like, you know, hurt her or hurt the baby or something so cuz she knew that like, you know, something happened, she thought I was just trying to check out or something..and that’s when that happened..

Grahm: I know it’s hard but do you mind if we talk just a tiny bit deeper about that? So, she comes home, uh, you know, she touches you, you guys have sex, it seems like she’s doing her test- which I understand. It sounds like you do too

Chris: I’m sure that you know like Nikki or Nickole Atkinson or Cassie probably told her, ya know? (*Suggesting that one of Shanann’s friends on the trip told her to ‘test’ him with sex)

Grahm: That’s what I was thinking, right?! They talked about it during that whole weekend.

Chris: One of them  – My parents have told me there was like a — going through like text messages it’s like all..pretty much they all kinda just told her he’s with someone else typea deal.

Grahm:: Yeah, and she spent a lot of time with the gals, that’s what they did probably all weekend…is talk about it, give her advice, I think that’s what we found, right?

Tammy: Mhhmm.

Grahm: Ok, so she comes home, you guys have sex, and then did you fall asleep between then and going to work?

Chris: Yes.

Grahm: Okay, so then at some point, does she wake you up or is it you waking up for work?

Chris: My alarm wakes me up.

Grahm:: Oh okay, and you’re going to work out?

Chris: Mhhmm.

Grahm: But that’s when she started wanting to talk more, she was pretty mad?

(Based on response, it seems like Chris nodded in agreement)

Grahm: Okay.

Chris: Yeah she— I mean, it was I had already kinda knew that, you know, using that credit card was kinda, it was—

Grahm: —was that intentional? (*using the credit card to pay for dinner with his mistress- Shanann could see the charges and realized it didn’t add up. Based on the Discovery and texts with her friends, this is was really seemed to cement her feelings that Chris may be having an affair or hiding something from her. The dinner was much too expensive for just him. She knew something was not right).

Tammy: Yeah?

Chris: I had no other way to do it, like I had got Anadarko gift cards from like, you know doing good stuff at work and stuff like that and I had used them all.

Grahm: Ohhh. Was part of you just like, “Aww, screw it whatever- I don’t care. I’m using this card.”?

Chris: I— I— part of me just wants to say “Nikki could you pay for this?” (laughs). I don’t know, even I think from what my attorneys said she even noticed I used a different card, like, a blue card and she thought, you know, I felt comfortable enough just to use a bank account or something, I told her [Shanann] I was going to a Rockies game and I told you [The CBI/Police]  I was going to a Rockies game. It felt like, you know, looking back at everything and reading The Scripture more and more now I can see like, ya know, God told me, like gave me opportunities to get out…. even my friend Jeremy Lindstrom he even invited me, cuz like it was his daughter that came and watched the kids Saturday..that Saturday night… and he was like “Hey instead of going to a Rockies game you wanna go with me to a Broncos game and watch the Arizona Cardinals?”. Like, in my mind it was like you know, “Don’t”. Just say “Hey I can’t find a babysitter…”

Grahm: To Nikki?

Chris: Yeah. And maybe that would have been like, you know, a light switch in my head goes off…a light switch in her head goes off…maybe just like, goes different directions.

Grahm: Mhhmm.

Chris: That was kinda like, my last opportunity to get out it seems like. I wish I woulda just said “Yeah, lets go!” (*Agreeing to go with his friend Jeremy to the game instead of going out with his mistress) I think that woulda just put me on a different trajectory.

Grahm:: So then Shanann, did she actually say “You’re never gonna see the kids again”?

Chris: She said it to me before.

Grahm: Yeah, that must be hard to hear.

Chris: Yeah, cuz she said to me before she went to Arizona, cuz I wasn’t really sleeping in the bedroom I sleeping on the couch or in the basement bed or something and she had slammed the door, said you’re never gonna see the kids again ….

Grahm: Did she get fiery like that?

Chris: Only once in our entire relationship I ever seen her act that way.

Grahm: Yeah? And that was a time before or was that the night it happened?

Chris: No it was back in North Carolina

Grahm: Oh

Chris: Yeah it was one  it was just like one of those..it was just a fiery argument —I never raised my voice to her or anything, I just got mad and I slammed the door and she’s like like, ahh, shouldn’t have slammed the door…

Dave: Is that when you were in North Carolina that last week?

Chris: No it was like, this was like 2010…2011…

Dave: Ohhh

Chris: ..it was like early, early, early

Dave: Okay

Chris: At the old house.

Grahm: Before kids?

Chris: Yes

Grahm: Were you dating or were you married at that point?

Chris: Dating:

Grahm: Oh

Chris: Yeah it was just like… I don’t remember what it was about, I think some girl maybe texted me from my past or something and I was just like …and she said, you know, “Don’t have that happen again” and I’m just like  “What, I can’t have friends that are females? I don’t even talk to this woman anymore It was just like, (whistles) “Nope!”.

Grahm: Was she fiery? Did she have that Italian blood that her mom has?

Chris: Lord, yes!

(Laughter)

Grahm: Was she always like that…or…did she snap at things?

Chris: She wouldn’t snap at me but you could tell like, if something really irked her a little bit, it would come out.

Grahm: Zero to one hundred type thing, or what?

Chris: Uh, yeah-  zero to TWO hundred.

Grahm: Oh, interesting.

Chris: She gets (unclear word, sounds like acclimated?) about something it’s like alright it’s gonna happen…

Grahm: Well that’s why she was probably so successful at Thrive, right?

Chris: Oh yeah, she had done a couple other direct sales businesses, but this one was different.

Grahm: Why?

Chris: This one, like, cuz I think she had done like Origami Owl and something called It Works and then like a couple other different things, some bags and stuff like that, but this supplement stuff, cuz it worked with her and it worked with me, and she was like “Ok, I can kinda like use this as like, alright this is what it’s doing for us” and then like after a little while she could see how people were above her, how it was helping them, and then it was just like trickle down effect. It was like, a good system, about commission wise and everything. She could use all the business IQ she has from running those cell phone shops and from the Dirty South Customs shops and all that, she’s business minded she knows how to do accounting book like the back of her hands. So it all just fell into place with all the ——

Grahm: —so then on that night, was it just a new type of fight you never had or what?

Chris: Yeah it was just a totally different type of fight, it just felt like, I noticed more anger than anything else, there was emotion to it first and then it felt like it was just anger there was no love there it was kinda like…what we were saying, what she was saying was just like, it’s almost like you knew, like, something was combating at each other…it wasn’t ourselves.

Grahm: Really? Anger from you, or anger from her?

Chris: I think it was more anger from me and more like desperation from her, cuz she wanted to fix it. And she knew, she knew something wasn’t right. When that whole thing with my parents happened with the whole..my parents called it ’Nutgate’

Grahm: What happened?

Chris: Nutgate.

Grahm: What’s that?

Chris: The peanut…the peanut thing…

Grahm: Ohhhhh yeah…ohhhh…with her family?

Tammy: Pistachio ice cream or whatever?

Chris: yeah, they call it Nutgate.

Tammy: I haven’t heard that (*heard the incident referred to as ‘NutGate’)

(Laughing)

Chris: I guess that’s what people are calling it, but that was like another ‘out’, maybe I coulda just stopped everything with Nikki and concentrated on helping whatever happened there. Shanann had a story, my mom had a story. Whatever happened…I probably asked my 10 year old nephew probably could tell me what actually happened.

Grahm: Well they both had their feelings for good reasons and they both didn’t see it the other person’s way and—

Chris: —yeah, and like I didn’t talk to my parents from then on, ’til like August 6th, and like, you know, my dad took the whole week off—

Grahm: —you didn’t talk to your parents from then on?

Chris: Yeah…

Grahm: Oh, okay.

Chris: Cuz Shanann was like, “Do not talk to them, do not call them, do not do anything”.

Grahm: Is that what she said?

Chris: Yeah, and CeCe’s birthday was the 17th but I think the actual birthday party was a couple days after.

Grahm: In August?

Chris: In July. And my mom and my dad was gonna go, but then there was a post on Facebook about allergies and stuff like that Shanann had made and my dad was like nah, I just can’t do it anymore…

Pictured Above: Shanann Watts Facebook post about CeCe’s nut allergy as discussed in the Chris Watts confession transcription.

Grahm: He perceived that as her taking a shot at him?

Chris: Yeah.

Grahm: Okay.

Chris: She always said she never put those posts directed at anybody but I know—

Tammy: —if you read them you know who she’s talking about.

Chris: Yeah, she had a method to the madness and you could see it, but um, I wish I coulda just took more time to fix that, cause I wanted my parents to be involved, since the whole wedding thing and then my mom and my sister are always combatting with Shanann and Shanann combatting with them. My dad was always cool. He’s just like me, he’s just like go with the flow I just want everybody to get along type deal…

Grahm: Chicks, man!

Tammy: I loved your dad

Grahm: He’s the best.

Tammy: Isn’t he?

Grahm: So, I’m sorry- keep going.

Chris: That’s cool. I just wish I coulda, like, when we were at the beach in August, my dad was supposed to take the whole week off just so he could see the kids and like see me and grab a cookout at my sister’s house or something, and then but we just pretty much spent five days at the beach and Shanann [mumbling] …I don’t want to say, like punishment for them not to see the kids, but like I wanted them to see them, I wish I could fix it all, fixed all that, even when I was at the beach I told Shanann that it was more like what was going on was more of like…I feel like..cuz you know my dad’s my hero…I feel like I lost something in my life, I hadn’t talked to him for three weeks. He couldn’t see the kids for three weeks, FaceTime, or anything. I wanted them to be able to have that relationship. She was pretty much gung-ho, like “she tried to kill my daughter by giving her peanuts”. Like, I don’t think she gave it to her!

Grahm: Was that her stance? That your mom—

Chris: —put something in front of CeCe.

Tammy: Like, to kill her? Or just—

Chris: —no, to just like, she thinks that allergies, in this day in age people think “Oh, you’re fine”

Tammy: like it’s a made up kind of thing?

Chris: It’ll be fine, you’ll have a rash, it’ll be fine. I’ve seen CeCe, I’ve seen a picture of when she had a cashew the first time…that wasn’t good. Then she had kiwi the second time and same thing happened. And um, I know it’s real.

Tammy: You know it’s serious.

Chris: Yeah, it wasn’t like her throat closed up but she broke out in a full body rash that looked really crazy looking. Luckily, nothing with her throat happened.

Tammy: So did that make you angry at your mom for doing that?

Chris: Yeah I was just like mom, I told her you need to think, you need to pay attention, just because another kid could have something doesn’t mean another kid could have something (*meaning just because he other grandchildren could have ice cream with nuts and be fine, doesn’t mean CeCe could have ice-cream with nuts and be fine due to allergies), cuz we were at that birthday party at Jeremy’s  that Sunday, they had this cake there. Bella wanted it so bad, I’m like you can’t have it sweetie cuz CeCe can’t have it. She was like you know, okay, and all the other kids were like they can’t have the cake? I just kinda took em off and gave em one of those frozen pops or something. She had to learn that just because one kid can have something there’s another kid that can’t have it for a legitimate reason, like she couldn’t have done it, but ya know, that’s the kinda talk I had with her, Shanann had called me I thin it was middle of July or something when she told me all this had happened, that’s when I called my mom and talked to them for awhile and there’re just like, they couldn’t deal with her anymore-Shanann- just kinda like flipped out and my nephew told Bella to go hide behind a curtain cuz “I don’t think your Mommy’s gonna let you come over here again” or something like that

Grahm: So it got heated!

Chris: Oh they were- it was bad. It was like a last straw between them I think.

Grahm: In the same room or over the phone?

Chris: No they were at the house

Grahm: So they were really heated.

Chris: At my mom’s house, yeah. Cuz CeCe and Bella and then my niece and nephew were there.

Tammy: How did Shanann find out about the ice-cream thing?

Chris: Cuz Shanann was there and I guess they were all sitting one one of those couches, kind of like a U, and my niece went into the kitchen and she knew where the ice-cream was cuz she’s been there before.

Tammy: Oh, so it’s not like your mom gave it to her?

Chris: Oh no, she went into the freezer and got it, went and sat beside CeCe and started eating. But it’s just a matter of CeCe could go like (makes throat clicking sound) – like that. I don’t know what would have happened if she just got it on her hand, but I know on the prick test, on the back, it’s like a welt.

Dave: So were they staying there at your parent’s house during that time?

Chris: Yeah it was, so, they would go from Sandy and Frank’s house [*Shanann’s parents] for like a few days or five days and go to my mom and dad’s house for a couple days back and forth

Dave: So it happened during that time when they were there?

Chris: Mmhmm.

Grahm: So, there were so many things that happened, weren’t there, that were just little tiny ingredients to this recipe? It’s nuts, Chris. It’s just so many things just didn’t go your way.

Continue reading Chris Watts Confession Transcript: Part 2. In the second part of Chris Watt’s confession interview with the FBI, he begins to talk about the relationship with his mistress Nichol ‘Nikki’ Kessinger, and waking up his wife Shanann to ‘talk’ before her murder.

Shanann’s Family (Sandy, Frank, and Frankie Rzucek) have asked that those interested in remembering and honoring the lives of Shanann Watts, Bella Watts, Celeste ‘CeCe’ Watts and Baby Nico Watts can make a donation in their honor to one of three charities they adore: The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital or The Lupus Foundation.