UPDATED December 6, 5:11 p.m. E.T.
The records supervisor at the Frederick Police Department told CrimeOnline on Thursday that the entry in the discovery report showing that Nichol Kessinger performed a Google search for Shanann Watts on September 1, 2017 is a typo.
CrimeOnline reached records supervisor Amanda Purcell on Thursday after repeated inquiries made to multiple Colorado law enforcement agencies to confirm the accuracy of an entry in the Phone Data Review included in the discovery documents connected to the Chris Watts murder case, released by the Weld County District Attorney’s office late last month.
Asked if the entry in the Phone Data Review showing that Kessinger, who was involved in an affair with Chris Watts when he murdered his wife Shanann Watts and two young daughters, showing that Kessinger performed an internet search for “Shanann Watts” on her cell phone on September 1, 2017, was typographically correct, Purcell said it was a typo in the report.
Purcell was not able to provide additional clarification about another section of the phone data review that indicates Kessinger searched for Chris and/or Shanann Watts prior to beginning her relationship with Chris Watts in the spring of 2018, and referred our inquiry to the Weld County District Attorney’s office. CrimeOnline will provide further updates when more information is available.
EARLIER STORY:
The discovery documents released by the Weld County District Attorney’s office in connection to the murder investigation of Shanann Watts and her two young daughters contains an entry that appears to suggest Chris Watts’s mistress may have been aware of Shanann Watts, or someone by that name, before she became involved an an extramarital affair with the deceased woman’s husband.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, the nearly 2,000 pages of discovery documents published by the Denver Post include a “Phone Data Review” of devices belonging to Shanann Watts, Chris Watts, and Chris’s mistress Nichol Kessinger, who he began seeing in June of 2018, less than two months before he murdered his wife and daughters in mid-August. Kessinger reportedly offered her phone to investigators, but had deleted all text messages between her and Watts as well as any entry for him in her contacts.
The Phone Data Review examined text messages, voice calls, voicemail messages, and online searches that may have been relevant to the investigation. The first entry in the chronological report that includes data from all three devices is from Kessinger’s phone; it states that Kessinger performed an online search for the name Shanann Watts in September 2017.
CrimeOnline has noted in its review of the extensive documents, which were compiled by multiple law enforcement agencies, a few instances in which a date appears to have been entered incorrectly. The above entry, however, appears to be the only questionable date in the chronological Phone Data Review.
CrimeOnline has reached out to the Greeley Police Department for clarification or confirmation of the information listed in the entry, and has not yet received a response.
The discovery documents show that Kessinger has said that Watts was dishonest with her about his relationship with Shanann, and that he claimed they were in the process of divorcing. Kessinger was reportedly unaware of Shanann’s pregnancy until the media coverage of her disappearance revealed that Shannan was 15 weeks pregnant with her third child. That same week, Kessinger approached law enforcement officers and informed them of her relationship with Watts. Kessinger appears to have been cooperative with the investigation.
CrimeOnline will provide further updates when more information is available.
