US3 min(s) read
Published 12:26 15 May 2026 GMT
Just days before she was murdered by her husband, Shanann Watts was reportedly preparing an elaborate gender reveal party for the baby she was carrying, while privately confiding to friends that her marriage was falling apart.
Newly released financial records and text messages obtained by the Daily Mail paint a heartbreaking picture of Shanann’s final weeks before Chris Watts killed her and their two daughters in August 2018.
The 34-year-old mother had been organizing a large celebration at the family’s home in Frederick for around 50 guests on August 19, 2018.
Records reportedly show Shanann spent hundreds of dollars on the event, including nearly $500 on food and a cake from Costco, more than $120 on cookies, $89 on flowers, and over $160 on party decorations and supplies.
But according to the newly surfaced texts, she abruptly canceled the celebration after Chris allegedly admitted he didn’t want another child.
“Chris told me last night he's scared to death about this third baby and he's happy with just Bella and Celeste and doesn't want another baby,” Shanann wrote to a friend on August 7.
She also revealed the strain in their relationship, saying: “He said we're not compatible anymore.
"He refused to hug me after he said he will try to ‘work it out.’”
In another emotional message sent the same day, Shanann recalled a painful moment during a medical appointment, writing: “I grabbed his hand during ultrasound and he didn't grab back.”
“I cringed, he rejected sex the night we arrived here.
"Only thing I can think of even though I don’t think he has it in him is another girl,” she added.
The devastated mom-to-be canceled the gender reveal and reportedly asked Chris for a divorce shortly afterward.
“I canceled gender reveal. Nicki is going to tell me [the baby's gender] today,” Shanann said.
She added heartbreakingly: “This baby in my belly deserves his full love either way.”
The couple had reportedly already chosen the name Nico for their unborn son.
According to reports, Shanann had trusted her friend Nicki Atkinson with the baby’s gender, and the reveal would have involved popping a balloon filled with blue confetti.
Just five days after canceling the party, Shanann - who was 15 weeks pregnant - was dead.
Chris Watts later confessed to strangling his wife before murdering their daughters, four-year-old Bella and three-year-old Celeste.
Authorities said Watts transported the bodies to an oil site owned by Anadarko Petroleum, where he buried Shanann in a shallow grave and placed the girls’ bodies inside oil tanks.
Before his arrest, Watts publicly pleaded for his family’s return in television interviews, claiming they were missing.
Investigators quickly became suspicious, however, and Watts later admitted to the killings.
He eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to multiple life sentences without parole.
The murders became one of America’s most infamous true crime cases, especially after it emerged Watts had been having an affair with coworker Nichol Kessinger.
In later prison letters reportedly obtained by the Daily Mail, Watts claimed he had changed.
“I am a new man,” he allegedly wrote.
“I am not the person who committed those horrible acts.”
He also reportedly stated: “I know that God does not see me as a sinner who killed his family; he sees me as His child.”
Despite this, Watts continued corresponding with multiple women while in prison, former inmates have reportedly claimed.
