- Watts strangled his wife Shanann – who was 15 weeks pregnant with their son
Killer dad Chris Watts has been spending his time in a Wisconsin maximum-security prison working as a custodian while exchanging letters with female pen pals.
Murder
On August 13, 2018, Watts strangled his wife Shanann – who was 15 weeks pregnant with their son – inside the couple’s Frederick, Colorado, home.
He later smothered their daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3.
The 36-year-old is serving serving five life sentences plus 48 years in prison without the possibility of parole at the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin.
Not only does Watts work as a custodian, he maintains active correspondence with several women, many of whom believe he’s innocent, according to Inside Edition.
‘In my <3 you’re a great guy,’ writes Candace. ‘If you do write me back, I’d be the happiest girl alive, that’s for sure.’ She punctuated the note with ‘#TEAMCHRIS,’ ‘#CHRISISINNOCENT,’ ‘#ILOVEHIM’ and ‘#TOOCUTE.’
Letters tell the murders were premeditated
In just a few weeks in prison, Watts received close to 60 letters from complete strangers that expressed both love and hatred for the murderer.
Tatiana writes: ‘I found myself thinking a lot about you,’ in addition to a photograph of herself in a bikini.
Kim told Watts she was ‘hoping to brighten your days’ while Hannah said ‘I feel this connection to you.’
Women have written Watts in the past, with the killer even sharing the gory details of the murders.
Cherlyn Cadle appeared in a new episode of Lifetime’s Cellmate Secrets to share personal details from letters she exchanged with Watts.
Cadle, a Midwest author and grandmother of 12, asserted that the murders were premeditated based on what he’d told her from behind bars.
‘He told me he would daydream about killing Shanann,’ Cadle said.
‘She would be yelling at him or be upset about something and he wouldn’t fight back, but he would just stand there and just daydream about what it would be like to kill her.
‘When I saw his first interview, I don’t know, I looked at him that morning and I just felt something really spoke to me,’ she said.
‘It was like a calling for me to contact him and see if he would share his story with me.
‘I knew he was guilty. You could tell by the way he was talking, the body language,’ Cadle added.
‘But it was just one of those things where I really felt like I was supposed to do it.’
God told him to respond
Watts eventually replied to Cadle after her third letter at the beginning of 2019.
‘He was receptive from the very beginning,’ Cadle recalled.
‘He said that God told him to respond. I think because I was a mother and grandmother, he didn’t feel any kind of threat.’
When Watts sent her a 12-page letter outlining details of each murder, Cadle immediately grew emotional.
‘I just broke down and started bawling,’ Cadle admits.’I cried and cried. I just couldn’t believe what he did to those girls… It was a real shock to read his letter.
‘I knew in my heart right then and there that this was the real and true confession. He said it was planned right away,’ she added.
‘It was premeditated. And he wanted to clear the slate. He wanted to start over. He didn’t want to bring any baggage into the new relationship. And there was a good-sized insurance policy… It changed everything for me.’
