Correction: An earlier version of this article posted on the CNN app used the wrong photo of Shanann Watts. This photo has been removed and replaced with the correct Watts image.
CNN
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New court documents filed in the case of a Colorado man suspected of killing his pregnant wife and their two daughters suggest some of the victims may have been strangled.
“Happy Husband Appreciation Day! Couldn’t imagine a better man for us,” Shanann Watts wrote. next to their picture in April.
“You spoil us with love and attention! You put up with 3 impatient and demanding women in the house,” she continued. “You work so hard every day to provide for us. I love you so much.”
Four months after Shanann Watts posted this photo, her husband is in a Colorado jail suspected of killing her, along with their daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3.
The pregnant mother and her two daughters went missing Monday from their suburban Denver home. Their body were found Thursday at the oil company site where Chris Watts once worked, authorities said.
Chris Watts, 33, was arrested in connection with their deaths but has not been formally charged. He is due in court on Tuesday.
Authorities have not suggested a motive in the killing.
As stunned friends search for answers on how a couple’s love affair that seemed so perfect could end so tragically, bankruptcy filings reveal a family that had struggled financially.
Chris and Shanann Watts filed for bankruptcy in June 2015, according to court filing documents. This was after they purchased their home, an asset valued at $400,000, records show.
The year before filing for bankruptcy, the couple had a combined income of $91,000, most of which was earned by Chris Watts, who earned about $63,000 from his work at Anadarko Petroleum, records show. The rest was earned by Shanann Watts, who worked in 2014 at Children’s Hospital Colorado.
Still, they had about $70,000 in debt, most of it from student loans and credit card purchases, according to filings. The couple declared two savings accounts with a total of $9.51 and a joint checking account with $864.
By all accounts, they seemed to be past that, with Shanann Watts posting numerous times this year about her new job at a lifestyle company. She was also 15 weeks pregnant with a son, the couple planned to name Niko, his brother, Frankie Rzucek, posted on Facebook.
“Little Peanut!! Love her already!!” her husband texted in June when she sent him a photo of her ultrasound, according to a screenshot she posted on Facebook.
Documents filed Friday during the arrest of Chris Watts reveal that some of the victims may have been strangled, along with other grim details.
Shanann Watts and her daughters appear to have been killed in their home in Frederick, Colorado, a town of about 8,600 people about 30 miles north of Denver, prosecutors said.
Lawyers for Chris Watts asked a court on Friday to require pathologists performing autopsies to take DNA from the necks and hands of the little girls, according to court documents.
In a second motion, obtained by CNN Affiliate KDVR, defense attorneys asked the court to compel the coroner’s office to search for DNA under the mother’s fingernails and on her hands.
They also asked the court to authorize defense expert Richard Eikelenboom to take samples from the bodies.
It is unclear whether a judge ordered the coroner’s officer to take DNA.
The cause of death for each family member is still pending while medical investigators await test results, the Frederick Police Department said.
Shanann Watts’ body was found on the property of an oil and natural gas exploration company, authorities said. The company said Chris Watts worked there, but declined to say when his employment ended.
A company spokeswoman confirmed that Chris Watts worked there, but declined to say when his employment ended or what role he held.
Authorities have not released a possible motive or other details in the case. A judge sealed the affidavit of arrest, which could have provided this information.
Authorities have not released a possible motive or other details in the case. A judge sealed the affidavit of arrest, which could have provided this information.
In one interview with KMGH before his arrestChris Watts said his wife returned from a business trip around 2 a.m. Monday. The couple lived in Frederick, a town of about 8,600 about 30 miles north of Denver.
When asked by the reporter if they had had a falling out, Watts said, “We had an emotional conversation, I’ll leave it at that. I just want them back. I just want them back.
Watts said he left for work around 5:15 a.m. that day and wasn’t concerned when Shanann didn’t return his texts and phone calls, as she was likely busy with her work, just coming back from being out of town.
But he said he grew concerned when a friend of his contacted him around midday and told him Shanann was not responding to messages.
“I walked into the house and – nothing,” Chris Watts told KMGH. ” She was not here. The children were not there.
