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The Netflix documentary The Family Next Door captivated millions with its raw footage and real-life horror.
But despite its impact, the 82-minute film didn't tell the full story of what really unfolded in the Chris Watts case.
Now, with Reddit sleuths and online investigators digging deeper, even more chilling truths are coming to light.
Watts is currently serving multiple life sentences after admitting to the unthinkable: murdering his pregnant wife and their two young daughters in 2018.
Here are five things that the documentary missed:
Three years before the murders, in 2015, the Watts family filed for bankruptcy.
According to court documents reported by CNN, the couple had purchased a $400,000 home and were grappling with around $70,000 in student loan and credit card debt.
At the time, Chris was the primary breadwinner, earning about $63,000 of their $91,000 annual income.
But by 2018, the dynamics had shifted. Shanann had started a lucrative job with a lifestyle company and was soon traveling for work to places like Mexico and the Dominican Republic - all while driving a Lexus.
As Shanann’s career took off, Chris began spending more time at home with their daughters - and started a secret relationship with a co-worker named Nichol Kessinger.
According to CinemaBlend, Chris failed a polygraph test, but the results were not included in the documentary.
His score was a disastrous -18.
To put that into context, anything below -4 typically signals dishonesty.
The test, which lasted over five hours, became a turning point.
At one point during questioning, Chris even referred to his daughters in the past tense - before their bodies had been found.
The failed test led to his confession and ultimately to the discovery of the family’s remains.
What happened to the victims' bodies was even more disturbing than the documentary let on.
According to a hazardous materials incident report obtained by The Daily Mail, Chris hid Bella and Celeste inside oil tanks at his work site. The openings to those tanks were just eight inches wide.
Shanann’s body was buried nearby - too large to fit inside.
The process of recovering the girls took more than 14 hours, involving the draining of two 400-barrel tanks and sifting oil through metal screens to preserve evidence.
It’s a nightmare scenario the film largely chose not to show.
The documentary touched on Chris’s affair but barely explored the role Nicole Kessinger played in exposing him.
Kessinger, who began dating Chris in July 2018, said she believed he was single. But after Shanann and the girls were reported missing, she noticed his behavior didn’t add up.
According to Marie Claire, Kessinger contacted investigators to reveal everything she knew.
Speaking to The Denver Post, she said: “It got to a point that he was telling me so many lies that I eventually told him that I did not want to speak to him again. With a pregnant woman and two children missing, I was going to do anything that I could.”
Though she didn’t testify at trial, her cooperation was a game-changer in the case. Still, the Netflix film skimmed over much of her behind-the-scenes involvement.
While serving five life sentences, Chris Watts wrote to friends, family, and strangers—including author Cheryln Cadle, who published Letters From Christopher: The Tragic Confessions of the Watts Family Murders.
In these letters, Chris admitted to premeditating the murders well before they happened. He wrote: “I knew that night was going to be the last time I would tuck them in.”
Watts also described a failed attempt to smother his daughters before killing Shanann. When the girls woke back up, he carried out the murders at the oil site.
The most haunting confession? He gave Shanann Oxycodone in hopes of causing a miscarriage. In one letter, he wrote: “I thought it would be easier to be with Nicole if Shanann wasn’t pregnant.”
In December 2018, Chris Watts was sentenced to five life terms without the possibility of parole, in addition to other charges related to tampering with a corpse and the unlawful termination of a pregnancy.
