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New allegations have emerged suggesting that convicted family killer Chris Watts may have been involved with more than one woman before the murders of his pregnant wife, Shanann Watts, and their two daughters in 2018.
When Shanann Watts, who was pregnant with the couple's third child, and daughters Bella, four, and Celeste, three, disappeared from their Colorado home in August 2018, Chris Watts initially portrayed himself as a worried husband and father desperate for answers.
Investigators later discovered he had murdered all three. Watts eventually admitted to the killings and later indicated that his affair with Nichol Kessinger played a role in his desire to start over.
In a letter written from prison, he said: "I knew if I took my hands off of her, she would still keep me from Nikki." He also wrote: "They asked me why she couldn't fight back, it's because she couldn't fight back."
For years, Kessinger was believed to be the only woman Watts was involved with outside his marriage. However, newly highlighted information suggests there may have been others.
According to reports, a woman named Amanda McMahon told detectives that she met Watts through Tinder in either February or March 2018, several months before the murders.
McMahon claimed Watts told her he had separated from Shanann when they met in a restaurant parking lot before heading back to her home together.
She later described the encounter as deeply uncomfortable, alleging that Watts became unusually aggressive during sex.
In police interview footage, McMahon reportedly said: "He just followed me to my place." She also claimed Watts was extremely "rough" and "aggressive," alleging that he pulled her hair, put his hands around her neck and acted out what she described as a "rape fantasy".
According to her account, the situation became so intense that she had to physically push him away.
McMahon told investigators she was "99 per cent certain" the man she met was Chris Watts and was reportedly able to accurately describe his tattoos and workplace.
However, she acknowledged she could not identify him with enough certainty to testify in court. Watts later denied ever meeting her and maintained that Kessinger was his only affair.
Investigators also reportedly uncovered evidence suggesting the possibility of another woman.
Emails sent from an anonymous account referred to a woman named Heidi, who allegedly had an on-and-off relationship with "a guy named Chris" who was married with two children.
The anonymous source claimed the pair communicated through a secret messaging application disguised as a calculator. According to the email, entering a code would transform the app into a hidden messaging platform.
The tipster wrote: "She may by now have erased any messages," adding: "But if you have his phone I'd check for that app."
While no affair involving Heidi was ever confirmed, investigators reportedly found a calculator-style app on Watts' phone that concealed intimate content.
The murders and subsequent investigation were later explored in the 2020 Netflix documentary, American Murder: The Family Next Door, which detailed the events leading up to one of America's most shocking family murder cases.
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When Chris Watts’ pregnant wife and two young daughters went missing from their Colorado home on August 13, 2018, he publicly portrayed himself as a desperate, worried husband. He gave interviews pleading for their safe return, claiming he had no idea what had happened. But just days later, that façade crumbled; Watts confessed to their murders, a crime that shocked the nation.
Initially, Watts claimed he had only killed Shanann Watts, 34, in a “crime of passion” after she allegedly smothered their daughters, Bella, four, and Celeste, three, upon learning he wanted a separation. Investigators, however, didn’t believe his story.
The evidence pointed to a calculated act, and in November 2018, he pleaded guilty to all charges of first-degree murder. In exchange, prosecutors agreed not to pursue the death penalty.
The father of two (and soon-to-be father of three) was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, receiving five life sentences plus additional years for related charges. He has been serving that sentence primarily at Dodge Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison in Waupun, Wisconsin, after being transferred from Colorado for security reasons, KKTV reported.
The Watts family before the murders
Chris, a former petroleum company employee, met Shanann on Facebook in 2010. They married and went on to have two daughters, Bella in 2013 and Celeste in 2015. In 2018, Shanann became pregnant with their third child, a boy they planned to name Niko. Friends later revealed that Shanann had confided in them about marital troubles and a growing emotional distance from her husband.
Before the murders, Watts had been involved in an affair with a co-worker, Nichol Kessinger, who said she believed he was in the middle of an amicable divorce. Shanann reportedly confronted him about the relationship just days before she was killed.
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The murders and investigation
Two days after Shanann and the children were reported missing, Watts admitted to killing his wife but insisted it was in retaliation for her harming the children. Investigators soon uncovered the truth: Watts had strangled Shanann after telling her he no longer loved her, then transported her body to an oil site. His daughters were still alive in the truck during the drive. At the site, he buried Shanann in a shallow grave and smothered Bella and Celeste, hiding their bodies in oil tanks.
It was widely reported that, during his confession, Watts' revealed Bella's final words, "Daddy, no", still haunted him.
Life in prison
While behind bars, Watts has received disciplinary reports; one in 2020 for unauthorized communication and transfer of property, and another in 2021 for disobeying orders and possessing contraband. Despite the public outrage over his crimes, he has received letters and even suggestive photos from women outside the prison, some claiming he is “misunderstood.”
A 2019 report revealed he kept photos of Shanann and the girls in his cell, sparking a petition with over 20,000 signatures demanding they be removed. The effort failed, with officials stating there was no legal reason to confiscate them, per CNN.
According to acquaintances, Watts spends his time exercising, working as a custodian, and corresponding with women. Though isolated in protective custody and disliked by other inmates, these exchanges appear to serve as his main source of attention and ego boost.
A woman who claims she had a secret sexual encounter with convicted family killer Chris Watts has come forward with allegations about a disturbing meeting months before he murdered his pregnant wife and two young daughters.
Per The Daily Mail, the claims are detailed in investigative documents and add another layer to one of America's most notorious murder cases. Watts is currently serving multiple life sentences after admitting to killing his wife, Shanann Watts, and daughters Bella and Celeste in August 2018.
The newly highlighted records also shed light on Shanann's final efforts to save her marriage, as well as previously reported evidence surrounding Watts's affair with co-worker Nichol Kessinger, which became a central focus of the investigation.
According to police records, a Colorado woman named Amanda McMahon told investigators she met Watts through Tinder in February or March 2018, roughly six months before the murders.
McMahon said the pair arranged to meet in a Chick-fil-A parking lot before driving separately to her home. She told detectives that Watts claimed he was separated from his "babies' momma" and said he was not allowed to see his children.
The encounter soon became unsettling, according to her account. McMahon alleged that Watts pulled her hair and wrapped his arms around her neck during sex. She described the experience as a "rape fantasy" and said she pushed him away at one point.
Despite being disturbed by what happened, she told investigators: "No radars went off or anything."
McMahon said she was "99 percent certain" the man was Watts and was able to describe his tattoos and workplace. However, she acknowledged she could not identify him with enough certainty to testify in court.
Watts denied ever meeting McMahon and maintained that his only extramarital affair was with Kessinger.
The files also reveal how investigators discovered a calculator-style app on Watts's phone that concealed photographs, videos and other private material linked to his relationship with Kessinger.
Police found evidence showing the pair exchanged intimate photographs and spent significant time together while Shanann and the children were visiting family in North Carolina during the summer of 2018.
Investigators also reviewed Kessinger's internet search history, which included searches such as "Man I'm having affair with says he will leave his wife" and "marrying your mistress."
According to the records, Kessinger also searched for Shanann Watts's name on September 1, 2017, months before she later said her relationship with Watts began. The documents do not explain why the search was conducted.
After Shanann and her daughters were reported missing, Kessinger searched terms including "Can cops trace text messages" and "How long do phone companies keep text messages." Investigators noted that some of those searches had later been deleted.
Kessinger was never accused of any wrongdoing in the case.
The documents also contain details about Shanann Watts's efforts to repair her marriage during the weeks leading up to her death.
Among the items recovered by investigators was an unopened copy of the relationship book Hold Me Tight, which Shanann had purchased for her husband. Police found it still sealed inside its Amazon box in the family garage after the murders.
Text messages reviewed during the investigation showed Shanann expressing concern about changes in her husband's behavior.
"How many times do I have to ask you to hold me? You hate me that much?" she wrote.
Watts responded: "I don't hate you. I will fix this. It will be better."
Shanann reportedly explored marriage counseling, sought support from friends and organized a planned getaway to Aspen in an effort to reconnect with her husband.
On August 13, 2018, Watts murdered Shanann, who was pregnant with their son Nico, before killing daughters Bella, four, and Celeste, three. He later disposed of their bodies at a remote oil site in Colorado.
After initially denying involvement and appearing in media interviews pleading for his family's return, Watts eventually confessed. In November 2018, he pleaded guilty to multiple murder charges, including the unlawful termination of Shanann's pregnancy and tampering with deceased bodies.
He is serving five life sentences, three of them consecutively.
Seven years after convicted killer Chris Watts horrified the country by murdering his pregnant wife and two young daughters, one person tied to the case has stayed out of public view — and seemingly out of reach.
Now Nichol Kessinger, who was having an affair with Watts around the time of the 2018 killings, has vanished, with online communities fixated on figuring out where she went.
Kessinger was never charged — and was not even formally investigated — despite widespread speculation online that she may have been involved in the killings or in covering up evidence.
Shanann Watts, 34, and her daughters Bella, four, and Celeste, three, were killed inside their suburban Colorado home on August 13, 2018. Shanann was 15 weeks pregnant.
Watts is serving a life sentence in a Wisconsin prison, but discussion about Kessinger remains intense.
Some true-crime followers say they want to “avenge” Shanann and her daughters by locating Kessinger and pressuring authorities to revisit the case and investigate whether she played a role.
Others say their goal is simply to reveal where she lives, hoping to unsettle her. For now, Kessinger has remained difficult to track down.
Alec Harris, who specializes in what he calls “extreme privacy,” said disappearing for this long is no simple feat.
“It's no small task to disappear oneself nowadays and to do it successfully for as long as she has,” Harris told the Daily Mail.
“For someone who doesn't have professional help or experience in how to make yourself unfindable, it can be very, very hard.”
Kessinger, now 37, worked as an environmental health and safety contractor in the oil and gas industry. She met Watts through work as a contractor for Anadarko Petroleum in Colorado, and their relationship began in the summer of 2018.
At that time, Shanann was pregnant with the couple’s third child — a son — and she spent much of that summer in North Carolina with her daughters at her parents’ home.
Kessinger’s relationship with Watts became public only after he admitted to killing his family. He confessed to burying Shanann in a shallow grave and placing the girls’ remains into oil tanks.
Investigators reviewing his phone, text messages, and emails found he was in frequent contact with Kessinger in the days before and after his family disappeared.
Photos taken before the murders showed Kessinger posing in a bikini for him, and another image showed him kissing her during a hike.
Kessinger denied she had anything to do with the murders.
Public records suggest Kessinger may have used the name Nicole Miller, either through a legal change or as an informal alias.
A Daily Mail investigation into addresses connected to both names found no current trace of her.
Meanwhile, her whereabouts continue to consume dedicated followers of the case, some of whom have spent the last seven years chasing tips and alleged sightings.
In the online community surrounding the case — a group some members refer to as “Watts Island” — speculation about Kessinger’s life has become a constant topic.
One Reddit user believed they found a Kessinger lookalike in Scotland. Another said they spotted her in a bookstore in Kansas.
Some followers have collected recordings of her police interviews. Others have built YouTube playlists compiling media coverage focused on her, and new videos continue to appear.
Participants regularly trade theories about her current life, her mental health, and even whether she might be silently monitoring their conversations.
The community includes people from places as far-flung as Australia, New Zealand, and Peru. Some members are survivors of abusive relationships, while others are adult children of people who cheated on spouses.
In January 2025, online true-crime circles erupted over claims that Kessinger had been seen at a funeral in Billings, Montana — the funeral of the mother of one of her friends.
The service was live-streamed, and some viewers became convinced Kessinger appeared briefly on screen before it began.
The woman shown looked older and heavier than Kessinger did during her relationship with Watts.
The clip spread widely, and discussion continued for more than a year, with people debating the woman’s appearance in detail — including her nose, jaw shape, walk, clothing, and the fact that she did not appear to be wearing a wedding ring.
Kessinger’s friend in Montana declined to confirm whether the person in the livestream was Kessinger.
The horrific murders of Shanann Watts and her two young daughters, Bella and Celeste, sent shockwaves across America.
On August 13, 2018, Chris Watts, 35, committed one of the most shocking family annihilation crimes in modern U.S. history.
After killing his pregnant wife, Shanann, and their daughters, Bella and Celeste, he disposed of their bodies at an oil site where he worked, all while publicly pretending to be a distraught husband.
But behind closed doors, Watts was hiding his affair with a woman named Nichol Kessinger, which ultimately played a role in the deadly acts.
The chilling details of Watts' behavior leading up to the murders have been revealed through various sources, including a new police interview with Nichol Kessinger, his mistress at the time.
In a heartbreaking exchange, Kessinger recounted her final conversation with Watts before she learned the truth about his crimes.
According to Kessinger, she repeatedly asked him where his family was and what had happened. "I kept asking him, ‘What did you do, Chris? What did you do?’ I asked, ‘Where’s your family?’” she recalled.
Kessinger sent him one last message, warning him that his actions would ruin both their lives: “If you did anything bad, you’re going to ruin your life and you’re going to ruin my life. I promise you that.”
Watts' response, "I didn’t hurt my family, Nicky," was the last communication Kessinger received from him. She revealed: “I never said another word to him after that.”
The day after the murders, Watts appeared on television, making a public plea for the return of his wife and children, saying: “Shanann, Bella, Celeste, if you’re out there, just come back. If somebody has her, just bring her back. I need to see everybody.”
His seemingly desperate appeal to the public was a calculated deception, as he had already brutally ended the lives of his family members.
Despite his repeated denials to Kessinger, Watts had already begun to unravel his own dark truths, which ultimately led to his confession.
He later pleaded guilty to nine charges, including murder and the unlawful termination of a pregnancy, and was sentenced to five life terms in prison without the possibility of parole.
While Watts' life behind bars may have seemed like a new chapter for him, disturbing details have surfaced about his behavior and mindset during his imprisonment.
Former cellmate Dylan Tallman, who spent seven months in an adjacent cell to Watts in 2020, has revealed unsettling aspects of Watts' character, particularly his obsession with women.
Tallman explained that Watts’ infatuation with women was a recurring theme even while incarcerated. “He will talk to a girl and she becomes his everything really fast,” Tallman said.
“He becomes obsessed with a woman and she becomes all he can think of - and he’ll do whatever they ask him to do.” Watts would allegedly often spend hours on the phone, writing long letters, and calling women incessantly.
Despite his monstrous past, Watts continued to receive attention from women, many of whom wrote to him in prison. Tallman noted that Watts' obsession with women didn’t stop behind bars.
"A lot of women write him in prison," Tallman added. "He talks to them a lot." In a twisted pattern, Watts' fixation on women reportedly persisted, even after he had already destroyed the lives of his own family.
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Even more disturbing is how Watts attempted to justify his brutal actions by blaming his affair with Nichol Kessinger.
In letters from 2020, Watts referred to Kessinger as a "seductress" who led him astray.
Using Biblical language, he tried to paint her as the root cause of his crimes.
"The words of a harlot have brought me low," Watts wrote in one letter, confessing that Kessinger's “flattering speech was like drops of honey that pierced my heart and soul. Little did I know that all her guests were in the chamber of death.”
Tallman, who described himself as Watts' "spiritual twin," said that Watts' tendency to blame others was evident in his discussions about Kessinger.
Watts sought solace in religion, trying to reconcile his actions with his newfound faith. However, his attempts to excuse his crimes by blaming others seemingly show a lack of true remorse for his actions.
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