Chris Watts used disturbing app to hide affair that unlocked huge amounts of evidence
Chris Watts used a calculator-style app to hide his affair with his co-worker, according to newly reviewed investigative files.
It ultimately helped investigators uncover a digital trail linked to the murders of his pregnant wife, Shanann Watts, and their two daughters.
The 40-year-old, who remains incarcerated at the Dodge Correctional Institution in Wisconsin, confessed to smothering his daughters Bella, four, and Celeste, three, in the backseat of his truck after strangling his wife Shanann, 34, in August 2018.
Watts said he and Shanann were arguing at their home in Colorado about his extramarital affair with Nichol Kessinger.
Advert
After telling her that he wanted a separation, Shanann allegedly threatened that he would never see their children again, prompting Watts to strangle her in a rage.
Watts received five life sentences without the possibility of parole in November 2018 after pleading guilty to nine criminal charges, including five counts of first-degree murder and one count of unlawful termination of a pregnancy.
Chris Watts’ calculator app
The app, disguised as a standard calculator, functioned as a hidden storage and messaging platform which required a secret code to get through, the Daily Mail reports.
Its existence only came to investigators’ attention after an anonymous tip was sent to police days after the murders, suggesting Watts may have been communicating with women through a concealed application.
When detectives examined his phone, they discovered the app contained intimate photographs and videos documenting his relationship with Kessinger.
Watts’ final message to his mistress
Kessinger revealed the final text he sent her before murdering his family.
In footage posted on a YouTube channel run by Shanann's brother in 2022, she told the authorities: "So I texted Chris one last time, and I told him, "If you did anything bad, you're going to ruin your life and you're going to ruin my life. I promise you that.
"And he responded, 'I didn't hurt my family, Nicky.' And that was the last text. I never said another word to him after that."
In a 2018 interview with The Denver Post, Kessinger added: "There were several discussions that we had about his current relationship and where it had gone.
"He talked about his kids from time to time. But the thing was that he was never hostile. It was never anything aggressive. It was still very kind. He was just like, 'This is not working.'
"It wasn't anything out of the ordinary or anything that would scare me.
"Even to this day, even after everything that I've found out, I still look back at that, and I don't see any red lights about the way he spoke about his family."
Anish Vij