A new Netflix documentary about family killer Chris Watts captures the disturbing moment his neighbor warned police he ‘wasn’t acting right’, after unknowingly showing the murderer footage of himself loading the body of his pregnant wife into his truck, along with his daughters, before dumping them at a work site.
American Murder: The Family Next Door explains in chilling detail how Watts, from Frederik, Colorado, killed his pregnant wife Shanann and strangled their daughters Bella and Celeste with a New York Yankees blanket, before dumping their bodies in an oil tanker in 2018 and reporting his family as missing.
The murderer, who was sentenced to life in prison for his vile crimes in 2019, was eventually forced to confess after failing a polygraph test.
However the new Netflix documentary lays bare the moments leading up to Watts’ confession that raised serious suspicions about his behavior – including his unnamed neighbor’s stark warning to cops that he ‘was not acting right’.
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Netflix’s chilling new documentary American Murder: The Family Next Door details how family killer Chris Watts murdered his pregnant wife Shanann and their daughters Bella and Celeste
In the documentary, Watts’ neighbor is seen warning police that the killer was ‘not acting right at all’, insisting that he was far more ‘fidgety’ than usual
Viewers could not believe how quickly the neighbor caught on to the fact that Watts was not being his usual ‘quiet’ self
The conversation came just moments after the man had unknowingly shown police and Watts footage of the murderer loading the body of his pregnant wife Shanann into the back of his truck, before forcing his daughters, Bella, four, and Celeste, three, into the vehicle with her.
He then drove them to a nearby work site, smothered his daughters with a New York Yankees blanket, and buried his wife, before dumping his children’s bodies in an oil tank.
Hours later, Shanann’s friend Nickole Utoft Atkinson contacted the police to do a welfare check on the mother-of-two, because she was not replying to text messages or calls.
After police went to the home and found nobody there, a seemingly-panicked Watts turned up at the house and walked the officer through each room, voicing his concern about the wellbeing of his wife, and even texting her phone to check in on her.
At the time, Shanann had only been suspected missing for a few hours, and Watts could be heard pointing that she had left her wedding band in their room, and left her phone, as if he was discovering these pieces of information for the first time.
The neighbor offered to show the police officer his camera recording to see if any cars had come in or any suspicious activity had taken place the night before.
‘Because if there is any sort of action out there, I would have got it,’ he said.
What the neighbor didn’t realize at the time was that he had just showed police and Watts security footage of the murderer loading his dead wife’s body into his truck after killing her
Watts looked on in horror as he realized that his neighbor’s security cameras had captured him leaving his house after killing his wife, moments before he smothered his daughters
The neighbor warned that Watts was never usually ‘fidgety’ which he seemed while watching the security video – having clearly just realized what the cameras had captured
Watts murdered his family in the early hours of August 13, 2018, but pretended he thought they had disappeared while speaking to the police hours later
Meanwhile a very talkative Watts was standing next to the neighbor’s TV and commenting on the footage.
When CCTV footage showed him moving his car on his driveway at 5:17am, he tried to explain that he usually parked it there so that it was easier for him to bring his tools in.
After the exchange, the policeman stuck around to get the neighbor’s take on events – at which point he told the officer: ‘He’s not acting right at all. He’s never fidgety.
‘He’s never rocking back and forth, and if you look,’ he added, motioning the police officer to his backlog of security recordings, ‘he never loads his stuff in and out of the garage ever.’
The neighbor added: ‘He’s normally, you can ask them, he’s quiet, really subdued, he never talks, so the fact he’s over there blabbing his mouth makes me kinda suspicious of something.’
Playing devil’s advocate, the police officer told the neighbor to put himself in Watts’ shoes, suggesting his nervousness could be explained by the fact his family was missing.
But the neighbor was proved right when Watts confessed killing Shanann three days later.
Viewers were impressed by how quick the neighbor caught on that something was not right with Shanann’s supposed disappearance
Duplicitous Chris was pretending to hope his family would return when he already knew they were dead and had dumped their bodies in an oil tank
Viewers were impressed by how observant the neighbor had been, and praised the fact he pointed out something was wrong before anyone else twigged.
‘Chris and Shannon’s neighbour solving the case in first five minutes,’ one wrote on Twitter.
‘Chris and Shanann’s neighbor saying only hours after the murder that Chris “ain’t acting right” was absolutely W I L D with what we know now in hindsight,’ another tweeted.
‘DAMN the neighbor said “he’s not acting right” and then called him out about his daily habits and how he doesn’t load up his car in the garage… EVER. He f****** called it,’ another observed.
‘Andddd the neighbor knew right away!!! He told the cops he never loaded his van that way,’ another added.
Watts, who had started an affair with his work colleague Nichol Kessinge and wanted out of his marriage, strangled his pregnant wife, 34, killing her and their unborn son Nico.
He then drove their daughters, Bella, four, and Celeste, three – with their mom’s corpse in the car – to a remote oil field where he worked, and smothered them with a New York Yankees blanket before squeezing their bodies into an oil tank.
The documentary revealed Watts sent his dead wife a text message reading: ‘Can you call me please?’ not long after he strangled her and dumped her body.
The new documentary looks into the grisly murders including the apparent picture perfect family life that led up to the crimes and the killer’s efforts to convince cops his wife had ran away with their kids
In a clip shown during the interview with the police, Chris claimed he killed his spouse in a fit of range because she had killed their children. He later eventually admitted to all of his crimes
Watts squeezed Celeste’s body through an eight-inch hatch in one of the oil tankers. Pictured: The site where Watts dumped his daughters and buried his wife
Footage showed how he attempted to deceive law enforcement that his wife had disappeared and taken their children with her. When someone asked if there was a note, he replied: ‘No. I don’t know what to do right now.’
During a police interview, he continued the facade, saying: ‘I think about like, did I cause this? Did I make her feel like she needed to leave?’
Chris was arrested on August 15 after failing a polygraph. He asked to talk to his father and then confessed to killing Shanann.
In a clip shown during the interview with the police, Chris claimed he killed his spouse in a fit of range because she had killed their children. He later eventually admitted to all of his crimes.
Watts took a plea deal to avoid the death penalty after pleading guilty to the four murders. He will spend the rest of his life in prison and is currently being housed at Dodge Correctional Institution, Wisconsin.
Watts took a plea deal to avoid the death penalty after pleading guilty to the four murders. He will spend the rest of his life in prison and is currently being housed at Dodge Correctional Institution, Wisconsin