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Five years after killing his pregnant wife and kids, Chris Watts works as a custodian at a maximum-security Wisconsin prison and reportedly has some female pen pals — including one who claims he spilled all the grisly details of his sick plot.
Watts, 38, has a custodial job at Dodge Correctional Institute in Waupun, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections confirmed to The Post.
Sentenced to five life sentences for the August 2018 murders of his wife, two little girls, and unborn son, Watts mostly keeps to himself, the WDOC told Inside Edition, and spends time writing pen pals, many of whom are women.
Cherlyn Cadle told Inside Edition in 2021 that Watts once shared with her the gruesome details from the weeks before he strangled his pregnant wife, Shan’ann, and smothered their young daughters, Bella and Celeste, whom they called Cece.
Watts alleged he planned the murders after he became “mesmerized” by co-worker-turned-girlfriend Nichol Kessinger, Cadle claimed.
The former oil field operator said he slipped Shan’ann, 34, OxyContin to end her pregnancy and admitted he tried to smother Bella, 4, and Cece, 3, hours before he finally killed them and stowed their bodies in oil drums, she added.
“At times, when he would talk about the murders, his eyes would turn so black. He just would get a different look on his face, and he talked about it so nonchalantly, like going down to get a cup of coffee,” Cadle recalled of an in-person meeting.
Watts and Cadle had at least one three-hour “contact” visit after initially corresponding, a 2020 WDOC report obtained by Inside Edition shows.
More recently, Watts is said to have grown close to Dylan Tallman, a fellow Dodge inmate who insists Watts is innocent, the outlet reported — adding that both men became religious behind bars and jointly self-published a prayer book titled “Revelation in the Reckoning” in 2021.
“My past is a blueprint and the devil the architect. While I watch his fallen ones build stone upon stone every day I see these walls as insurmountable, a barrier that blocks me from enjoying your love, your peace, and of your joy, oh Lord,” one prayer allegedly reads.
“You are my master builder. Help me walk around these walls, sound the trumpet and shout that they may come crashing down like the walls of Jericho.”
Religion is a crucial part of Watts’ “healing process,” the 2020 WDOC report stated, according to the outlet.
“In regards to his feelings towards the victims, he just kind of renewed his faith and talks to the victims through prayer,” it said.
Watts was arrested on Aug. 15, 2018 — two days after Shan’ann, Bella, and Cece were reported missing from the family’s Frederick, Colo., home.
Though he initially denied he was involved in the disappearance of his wife and daughters, Watts eventually confessed to strangling Shan’ann — who was 15 weeks pregnant — in the early hours of Aug. 13, 2018.
Watts initially said Shan’ann killed their daughters in a rage after he asked for a separation, but eventually confessed to smothering the little girls with blankets after driving them and his wife’s body to the Anadarko Petroleum plant where he worked.
Shan’ann’s body was subsequently found in a shallow grave on the oil field; the remains of Bella and Cece were recovered from crude oil storage tanks.
Autopsies revealed both little girls had oil, water, and sludge in their stomachs.
Watts avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty to the murders of Shan’ann, Bella, and Cece, and the unlawful termination of their unborn son, Nico, on Nov. 6, 2018.
He is serving five life sentences at Dodge after being transferred from a Colorado facility in December 2018 because of security concerns.
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