Who was Christopher Watts, what happened to him and did he go to jail?

A man who was convicted of murdering his whole family, Christopher Watts was a monster masquerading as a loving father and husband. But when he met a new girlfriend, and his family stood in his way, he killed his pregnant wife and their two young daughters.

Watts committed his grisly crimes on August 13, 2018, in Colorado, disposing of the bodies callously. That was the day 34-year-old Shanann Watts, who had just come back from a work trip to Arizona that morning, was reported missing by her friend and colleague, Nicola Atkinson.

Shanann, who was 15 weeks pregnant, and her two daughters, Bella and Celeste, weren't at home and Shanann wasn't answering messages from either Nicole or her husband, Christopher. But Christopher knew why Shanann wasn't answering his messages - he had strangled all three of the women in his family, reports MirrorOnline.

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He then proceeded to bury Shanann's body in a shallow grave, and dumped his daughters' lifeless forms in oil tanks at his place of work. Christopher's heinous crimes were covered on Netflix documentary American Murder: The Family Next Door.

But tonight (Wednesday) is Channel 5's turn, with The Man Who Murdered His Family: A Suburban Nightmare. The oil field operator - who was originally from North Carolina - moved with his family to Frederick, Colorado, to work for Anadarko Petroleum.

Watts met Shanann Rzucek on Facebook in 2010 and married her three years later. Daughter Bella Marie Watts followed in December 2013, and Celeste Cathryn Watts was born in July 2015.

In the days after he murdered all three, Chris appeared on TV to plea for his family's safe return, but he soon became a suspect. His girlfriend, Nichol Kessinger, told police about their affair after seeing him on the news and realising he had lied to her about the state of his marriage - and on the subject of Shanann's pregnancy.

Police soon formally accused him of the three murders. It came out later that he had admitted his crimes to his own father - claiming he did it because she smothered their children.

Following his arrest, Watts revealed the locations of his wife and children's bodies. By August 21, he was charged with three counts of first-degree murder, including an additional one count per child cited as “death of a child who had not yet attained 12 years of age and the defendant was in a position of trust”, unlawful termination of a pregnancy, as well as three counts of tampering with a deceased human body.

On November 6, he pleaded guilty and was given five life sentences without the possibility of parole. Although sentencing took place in Colorado, he was moved to a prison in Wisconsin in December 2018 because of "security reasons", and has been in maximum security prison Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun ever since.

In 2019, a source told People that he “has nothing to do but think” while in prison, although he is working as a custodian.

“He thinks about what he did every day”, they said. “He is tormented by his past and the mistakes he made.”

In 2020 he received a conduct report for "unauthorized forms of communication and unauthorized transfer of property", while in 2021 he was given another for "disobeying orders and possession of miscellaneous contraband.” In 2019, it was reported that he kept photos of his wife and children in his cell.

The photos enraged the public, who created an online petition that gained more than 20,000 asking officials to remove the photos. However, the statement was unsuccessful as the Department of Corrections explained it “has no legal basis for removing the photographs from Christopher Watts”.

The Man Who Murdered His Family: A Suburban Nightmare airs on Channel 5 HD at 10pm tonight