Chris Watts has been placed on suicide watch, a source with Wisconsin Department of Corrections told RadarOnline this afternoon. While the exact reasoning for placing Chris Watts on suicide watch is unclear, Radar implies it is due to statements he made to the FBI, CBI, and Frederick CO police last month regarding other inmates encouraging him to harm himself.

This doesn’t quite make sense (and I have another theory why this occurred, which I’ll discuss below). For the past several days, we’ve been typing up the Chris Watts confession interview transcript in it’s entirety, and the issue with other inmates occurred at his former jail in Weld County, Colorado. He was only there for a few months before being moved to Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin (where the most recent FBI interview took place), and says he is much happier there and has no issues with other prisoners. Below is exactly what Chris stated in the interview about problems in prison, and life in his new facility:

What Chris Watts Said About Inmate Threats and Taunts

Tammy Lee (CBI): So did it have anything to do with you not having the death penalty? [*She is asking if his decision to plead guilty had to do with Colorado’s death penalty].

Chris: No like honestly, when I was sitting it that cell, I felt I should die. I was listening to everybody (*other prisoners) telling me like “Hey if you do this and this you can hang yourself from that cell. You can do this and that —“

Tammy: They were like telling you stuff you could do?

Chris: Yeah, that you could drown yourself in the toilet if you wanted to fill your toilet bowl up or something like that – they’ve been there a bunch of times and at one point I was listening to them [*This is when Chris Watts was placed on suicide watch for the first time in Colorado]. I was just like you know, I just felt like maybe there’s a different purpose for me somewhere. Maybe it’s here. I don’t know. I prayed to God every day that He would move me away from Colorado, like move me away from the DOC there. They were saying there was a hit on me! They said if I was going to a DOC in Colorado I’d last a week and I’d be dead. There’s like the gangs and all the kind of stuff. So I just feel like God moved me here (*his new prison in Wisconsin) for a reason and hopefully I can help people that way. I didn’t want my family, I didn’t want Shanann’s family and all of our friends having to go through that because after awhile I knew that like, this stuff was everywhere and I knew all her Thrive friends and everybody..it would just..break that hole in their hearts a little bit bigger every time. I didn’t want that. I knew it would have gotten worse. I didn’t want it to get any worse than it already was.

[He was then moved to a prison in Wisconsin]

Here is how Chris Watts described his current life at his new Wisconsin prison:

Grahm Coder (FBI): Do you know how long you’re gonna be here? Neither do I, by the way.

Chris: No.

Grahm: Do you know…are you going to get a job?

Chris: Yeah, since I got staffed here you have to work.

Grahm: So what’s your job now?

Chris: I don’t have one yet. They haven’t moved me out of Assessment and Evaluation

Grahm: You’re still in that phase? How long will that take?

Chris: Well, right now since I’ve been staffed here I’m just waiting for them to move me over to a different unit.

Grahm: So are you in Gen. Pop [*’General Population’] right now?

Chris: No. I’m in a unit, there’s like 11 or 12 of us on there. There was like 22 when I first got there but they’ve been transferred to the other prisons around Wisconsin.

Grahm: What are the other guys like?

Chris: They’re fine. The first time I sat out and ate like a breakfast or lunch, I was scared. This hasn’t happened- this NEVER happened. They locked the hallways down when I moved to Colorado.

Grahm: In Weld [*Colorado jail]? I heard that.

Chris: Yeah. So it was like, you know, being right next to someone [*describing being around other prisoners in Wisconsin for the first time ever, since he was completely segregated in Colorado], eating next to somebody, I was just like thinking “Are they gonna take a spork and stab me or something, or what?”. But it’s totally different here. People know who I am, but they don’t run at me or jump at me. Apparently the guys that work here, they know other Max-es you’re locked down 22, 23 hours a day.

Grahm: Oh, so then this is an alright place to be?

Chris: For other Maximum, other Max guys. They said it’s the best Max but the worst Medium. Cuz, if you’re Max you’re working so you’re out of your cell working like, if you’re a clerk, or if you’re in the kitchen, or if you’re in the rec area…you’re doing something. But they said if you get stabbed here, it will be best for you. [*Note: I’m assuming he means this prison has good medical care?] Plus it’s not as rowdy as some of the other places.

Grahm: Wow, that’s pretty intense.

Chris: Yeah, so I’m going to the GP [General Population] area, I just don’t know when.

Grahm: And do you think it will be when you’re here?

Chris: Mhmm. They said it takes awhile to get moved from Max to Medium because in Colorado I was classified as Minimum Restrictive, but with the charges it would have been Medium, but here it’s automatically Max.

Describing Other Prisoner’s Charges

Grahm: And what are the other guys in here for, do you know?

Chris: Ah, they said most guys in here are for like, gang snitches and sex offenders and mainly people who have 20 years or more.

Grahm: So people who are in for a long time and who would otherwise have a pretty hard time at a jail, for whatever they did whether it be snitching or children or–

Chris: Yeah there’s some people from other states here as well, and I guess there’s a couple cops here too, just things have happened and they think it would be a lot better if they were here and not at another prison.

Dave: So what kind of jobs are available?

Chris: They’ll probably have be in the kitchen more than likely that’s where everybody starts out. Either washing dishes or putting food on the trays or helping with pots and pans something like that. But they have libraries, they have like, I think this is the PS2 area, the psych area, so they’ll have different guys doing clerk stuff over here. They have over 300 GP guys here, that live here, so they have a job for everyone of them. There’s even a guy that shovels the sidewalks.

Tammy: Do you go to therapy? Do you see a psychologist?

Chris: There’s actually, her names like Javier or something like that. I see her once a month. She’s actually from Aurora [Colorado]. It’s weird, I walked in and saw a Broncos flag I was like “Okaaayy, who are you?”.

Tammy: So does she give you therapy, or…

Chris: No she just like talks to me to see if I need anything, like if I need psych meds or if I need anything like that, which I’ve declined all that stuff. Most people on my unit have meds.

Tammy: Just to have them? Or do you think they need them?

Chris: Well, it’s a Special Management Unit. They just put me on there to keep me away from GP. Most people have some type of medication they’re on. They just keep me in there until the security adisor says I can get moved to GP down the hall.

Thoughts

As you can see from Chris Watts’ statements above, prison in Wisconsin seems to be a walk in the park compared to jail in Colorado. He was in with other “maximum” security prisoners, who (as Grahm from the FBI perfectly described it “people who are in for a long time and who would otherwise have a pretty hard time at a jail, for whatever they did”) and was no longer getting harassed. He was still on an assessment unit with only 11 other people and was not exposed to general population. So why is Chris Watts on suicide watch?

Here’s my guess: Chris did not know the law enforcement agents from the FBI, CBI, and Frederick CO police department were coming to Wisconsin to meet with him and interview him further. He was very surprised to see them. They told him they didn’t want to tell him in advance they were traveling to talk with him so it “wouldn’t give him anxiety”, but in reality its much more likely they didn’t want him to be informed so he wouldn’t have time to craft up any stories or lies- they wanted to see what they could get out of him off the cuff, and see if he would finally be honest about what occurred and answer other questions (like was his mistress involved).

I also don’t believe he knew his interview was being recorded, never mind that it would be released and cause an absolute media storm. The Chris Watts summary transcript released by the FBI states: “We activated our covert digital recording devices and also used several covert video recording devices”. 

Pictured Above: FBI documents note Watts was secretly recorded. Not knowing his admission would become front page news may have played a part in placing Chris Watts on suicide watch for his own protection.

Chris told them an incredible amount of information that was previously unknown, including the shocking admission that after he murdered his wife Shanann Watts, his daughters Bella and Celeste Watts were still alive, and he brutally murdered them in front of one another after he drove for an hour with their beloved mother’s body at their feet. This was some of the most sickening and disturbing information I have ever heard.

Watts also noted that his parents and family did not believe he was guilty, and still believed the original story he attempted to fool investigators with, that Shanann killed the girls and he killed Shanann in retaliation for what she did to them. When investigators asked if he planned to tell his parents the truth, he claimed he was not going to to it until he saw them in person, which would be either in the spring or summer. Personally, I do not believe he ever had plans to tell them.

I can imagine that when the media began to report some startling revelations about Chris Watts would soon be released, he was shocked. He had no idea the savagely violent details he told investigators would be shared with the world (…and his parents would finally hear his admission of guilt). Throughout the investigation it’s become quite clear that Chris is a narcissist who cares deeply about pleasing people and what others think of him (while having no real discernible self identity of his own).

In between the time he met with investigators and the time the new details were released, there is a good chance he was moved out of assessment ward and into a more permanent unit with other inmates. While he previously did not have any problems with the other prisoners at the Wisconsin facility, he likely will now. Even the most hardened criminals will not be able to turn a blind eye to the ruthless and downright disgustingly cruel way he killed those beautiful little girls. Chris may have felt safe before, but after this media blitz that made headline news across the world for over a week, things likely aren’t so great anymore. Chris Watts on suicide watch is likely for his own protection from inmates, and due to concerns that the media attention could cause a change in his mental state. Radar’s assertion that they placed Chris Watts on suicide watch due to what he said other inmates were saying to him in the interview does not make sense, as that occurred in a Colorado jail, not the Wisconsin prison where is currently house.