In a bombshell development that has reignited national horror over one of America’s most infamous family annihilations, newly unsealed text messages from Shanann Watts — sent just hours before her August 13, 2018, murder — paint a devastating portrait of Chris Watts’ calculated deception. The messages, obtained by The Denver Post through a Colorado Open Records Act request and verified by the Weld County District Attorney, show Shanann pleading for answers as her husband spiraled into denial, gaslighting her about their crumbling marriage while secretly plotting to erase his family. “I can’t do this anymore,” Shanann texted at 10:47 p.m. on August 12. “You’re scaring me. Where are you really?” Chris replied at 11:03 p.m.: “I’m at work. Stop overthinking.” Less than five hours later, he strangled her in their bed, then smothered daughters Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, before dumping their bodies at an oil site.

The texts — part of 2,000 pages of discovery released November 2025 after a seven-year legal battle by victim advocates — contradict Watts’ initial claims of a “normal night” and bolster prosecutors’ 2018 assertion that the murders were premeditated. Shanann, 34 and 15 weeks pregnant with son Nico, had returned early from a business trip in Arizona, texting friends about Chris’ emotional detachment: “He said he doesn’t want the baby… He hasn’t touched me in weeks.” At 1:48 a.m. on August 13 — minutes before her death — she wrote: “I just want my family back. What did I do wrong?” Chris never responded. Phone pings place his device at the Cervi 319 oil site by 5:27 a.m., where he buried Shanann in a shallow grave and submerged the girls in crude tanks.

Weld County DA Michael Rourke, who secured Watts’ life sentence without parole in November 2018, called the messages “the final nail in his coffin of lies.” “Shanann was begging for truth while he was executing evil,” Rourke said at a press conference. The release coincides with Netflix’s American Murder: The Watts Family sequel, featuring the texts narrated by Shanann’s best friend Nicole Atkinson — who alerted police after Shanann missed a doctor’s appointment.

Chris, now 40 and incarcerated at Dodge Correctional Institution in Wisconsin, confessed in February 2019 letters to author Cheryln Cadle that he poisoned Shanann with oxycodone weeks earlier to induce miscarriage, then killed her in a “rage” after she threatened to leave. But the texts reveal planning: On August 7, he searched “when to say I love you” and “how to get an affair.” Shanann’s last Facebook post — a smiling pregnancy announcement — went live at 7:42 p.m. on August 12, captioned: “So thankful for this little miracle.”

Public outrage has surged. #JusticeForShanann trended with 3 million posts, as advocates demand Colorado pass “Shanann’s Law” mandating GPS monitoring in domestic dispute cases. The Watts home, demolished in 2020, remains a vacant lot — a grim reminder. As Rourke concluded: “Her final words weren’t just a plea — they were prophecy. Chris didn’t just kill his family; he silenced the truth. These messages ensure he never will again.”