Lawyers for the family of murdered pregnant mother Shanann Watts appeared on the “Dr. Phil” show Tuesday and revealed even more horrific details of the Watts family murders.
Attorneys from the Grant & Hoffman Law Firm appeared on “Dr. Phil” in Part One of a two-part episode that is based on new information confessed killer Chris Watts reportedly gave investigators in a late February interview at the Wisconsin prison where he is serving multiple life sentences after pleading guilty to murdering his pregnant wife Shanann and their daughters Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3.
One of those attorneys, Steven Lambert, told Dr. Phil that Shanann’s mother Sandra Rzucek has been briefed on the contents of an interview Chris Watts had with investigators from multiple agencies last month, which the show’s host characterized as a “full confession.” Lambert did not share specifically how Sandra was informed about the new information that Watts shared. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is expected to release an audio and written transcript of the interview this week.
The lawyers said that Watts had backed down from his initial claim that he had killed Shanann in a “rage” because he saw her strangling one of their daughters. In the more recent interview, according to Lambert’s account, Watts admitted to strangling his pregnant wife when she told him that he wouldn’t see his children anymore, in response to his confession that he was having an affair and wanted a divorce.
At some point, the lawyer said, Bella came in the room and asked what was going on.
“From our understanding Bella did not witness the actual killing of her mother,” Lambert said. “But she walked in while Chris was wrapping Shannan in a sheet.”
At that point, the lawyer said that Watts told his daughter that “Mommy is sick and we need to take her to the hospital to make her better.”
But instead of taking Shanann to the hospital, Watts reportedly told investigators that he put his daughters, still alive, in his pickup truck with Shanann’s dead body and drove them 45 minutes away to an oil field where he killed the girls after he dug a shallow grave for his wife.
According to the lawyer’s account, Chris Watts dumped Shannan’s body and came back to his daughters. He took a favorite blanket from his younger daughter, nicknamed “CeCe,” and smothered her with it, the lawyer said.
At that point, Bella pleaded with her father for her life.
“Please, Daddy, do not do to me what you just did to CeCe,” the 4-year-old girl reportedly said.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, the autopsy reports released by authorities late last year indicates that Bella fought back as she, too, was being smothered. Shortly after his arrest, Watts told investigators that he had buried his wife on an oil field property owned by his employer, and stuffed his daughters’ bodies into oil tanks.
The second part of the two-part “Dr. Phil” episode, featuring Shanann Watts’ family, will air on Monday, March 11.
