Bodies of Colorado family found on oil property
Shanann Watts (l) Chris Watts (r)
FREDERICK, Colo. (AP) - Authorities say bodies believed to be a pregnant woman and her two young children were found on the property of one of Colorado's largest oil and gas drillers where her husband used to work.
John Camper, director of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, told reporters Thursday that investigators have found Shanann Watts' body and were trying to recover what they believe are the bodies of 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. property.
Chris Watts has been arrested in the disappearance of his family. His paystubs show he was working for Anadarko in 2015.
Chris Watts was being held in jail and will appear in court Thursday. He has not yet been charged, and it wasn't known if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
"As horrible as this outcome is, our role now is to do everything we can to determine exactly what occurred," said John Camper, director of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Chris Watts spoke previously with Denver TV outlets about missing his family and his hopes for their safe return. He said his wife returned home about 2 a.m. Monday after a flight for a work trip was delayed.
He said the two had an "emotional conversation" before he left for work a few hours later and that he became concerned after she did not return his calls or texts or that of her friends. He said he came home to an empty house after a friend knocked on the door at noon and got no answer.
He told KMGH-TV about how traumatic it was to spend the night in the family's unusually quiet home and missing telling his daughters to eat their dinner and turning on their bedroom monitors.
"Last night I had every light in the house on. I was hoping that I would just get ran over by the kids running in the door, just barrel-rushing me, but it didn't happen," he said.
Shanann Watts' Facebook account paints a portrait of a happy family, with a constant feed of photos and videos of her family, friends and herself. Her comments are typically upbeat and say how happy she is, whether she's running errands, playing with her kids or promoting a health program.
She posted selfies of her and her husband smiling in restaurants, in front of the ocean on vacation and at their house. On one from May 5, she wrote: "I love this man! He's my ROCK!"
She posted a photo on June 19 of some texts with her husband after sending him a sonogram. He replied that he loved the baby already. She posted: "I love Chris! He's the best dad us girls could ask for."
Her page has photo collages and video slide shows praising Chris Watts for taking care of her and their girls, how their love was growing stronger and how he was why she was brave enough to agree to a third child.
The couple filed for bankruptcy protection in 2015. They estimated they had the same range of assets as liabilities, according to court records.
Shanann Watts moved to Colorado from North Carolina with her husband in 2012, according to property records and her social media accounts.
She had been in a hurry to sell a house in Belmont, west of Charlotte, and left behind the furniture as part of the sale, said the man who bought it, Byron Falls.
The August 2012 deed shows that Shanann Watts signed it while already living in Colorado. She had bought it in 2009, according to county property records.
Falls said he didn't meet Shanann Watts and that an agent handled the closing for her.
"I just knew that she wanted to sell the house quickly, and from my understanding she was moving out west to Colorado," he said.