The secret girlfriend of murderer Chris Watts has revealed the brazen text message denial he sent her after his family’s disappearance.
The dad is serving a life sentence in jail for killing his family, after pleading guilty to the murder of his pregnant wife Shanann, 34, and daughters four-year-old Bella and three-year-old Celeste in Frederick, Colorado, in 2018.
He dumped Bella and Celeste in oil tanks at an oil site where he worked and buried Ms Watts, who was 15 weeks pregnant, in a shallow grave.
Watts, who did not want another child, was having an affair with a woman from work, Nichol Kessinger, and wanted to start a new life with her.
He had reportedly been claiming for some time that he was separated and going through a divorce - when he was in fact still with his wife.
A police interview in which Ms Kessinger - who is not suspected of any wrongdoing - was grilled about her relationship with Watts at the time of the murders, has emerged on YouTube, News.com.au reports.
The clip, shared by Ms Watts’ family reveals a chilling new detail about the last text Watts ever sent his mistress.
When news of Watts’ family’s disappearance hit the news in August 2018, Ms Kessinger told police she had grilled Watts for answers.
“I kept asking him, ‘What did you do, Chris? What did you do?’” she said.
“I asked, ‘Where’s your family?’”
Ms Kessinger said she had then messaged Watts a final time before she ended contact with him.
“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’,” she said.
“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.”
Police were initially made aware of Ms Watts and her kids’ disappearance by a family friend, who asked police to perform a welfare check.
While Watts had initially denied any involvement in his family going missing, he later admitted to his crimes to avoid the death penalty.
It was while Ms Watts was on a business trip that Watts hatched his sick plan to kill his entire family.
When she returned she and her husband had a huge row and Watts confessed to his affair.
Devastated, Ms Watts told him in the heat of the moment that she would have full custody of their children.
In cold blood Watts then strangled his wife to death - but his brutal actions were witnessed.
Steven Lambert, the lawyer representing Ms Watts family in a wrongful death lawsuit, told America's Dr Phil Show: "The night in question Shanann came home.
"She and Chris had got into a fight. They made up. They were getting along really well. Later on, they got into a fight again. In that fight he essentially confessed to having an affair, that he wanted a divorce.
"That it was pretty much over between them, and she had said something to the effect of, 'well you're not going to see the kids again'."
"As a consequence of that conversation he strangled her to death."
But after Watts murdered her mother and was wrapping Ms Watts’ body in a blanket, little Bella walked into the room and asked "what are you doing to mummy?"
The four year old, who was said to be bright for her age "knew something was up", according to Mr Lambert.
What happened next was truly chilling. Watts bundled Ms Watts’ body into the boot of the family car, put his two little girls in the backseat and belted them in.
The murderous father then drove 45 minutes to an oil field before carrying out the second part of his horrifying plan.
During the journey, Bella is said to have pleaded with her dad to take 34-year-old Ms Watts to hospital.
When they arrived at the oil field, first smothered Celeste with her favourite blanket. Bella witnessed the murder and begged her father not to kill her before trying to run away.
Mr Lamber explained: "At this point, Bella had unbuckled herself from the vehicle."
The prosecution at Watts' court case claimed he had killed the little girl "deliberately and viciously".
Watts then buried his wife in a shallow grave before disposing of the bodies of his two daughters in an oil tanker before returning to the family home and reporting all three of them missing.
The killer even gave interviews to the press, pleading for his family to come home and claiming he had no clue where they had gone.
Watts even sent his wife text messages, asking her where she was, after he had killed her.
