Four-year old girl asked her father a chilling question - then he murdered her

Chris Watts brutally murdered his pregnant wife Shanann, before heartlessly dragging her lifeless body down the stairs in full view of their two young daughters - and later claimed he had "no control over" his actions. Moments before her death, his four-year-old daughter, Bella, asked her father a chilling question as Watts covered her head with a blanket and strangled her.

Watts, who had been having an affair, told cops Shanann had confronted him about the other woman. He confessed to telling her he no longer loved her, prompting his wife to threaten to keep their daughters away from him, saying, "You're never gonna see the kids again," in August 2018.

Reflecting on the events, Watts said: "Every time I think about it, I'm just like, did I know I was going to do that before I got on top of her? It just felt like there was already something in my mind that was implanted that I was gonna do it and when I woke up that morning it was gonna happen and I had no control over it."

According to Watts, Shanann did not resist or scream during the attack. In his account to investigators, he described how Bella entered his room clutching her blanket, inquiring about her mother's whereabouts.

Watts claimed he told her Shanann was unwell. Watts wrapped his wife's body face-down in a sheet and tried to carry her downstairs, but ended up dragging her down the stairs when he lost his grip. Bella saw this and tearfully asked: "What's wrong with mommy?".

He later parked his truck on the driveway, put his wife's body onto the backseat floorboard, and upon going back inside, he found his youngest daughter Celeste awake. In an account to investigators, Watts described how he placed his daughters on the bench seat of the truck, with Bella asking: "Is mommy okay?".

Throughout the drive to his oil worksite, the daughters fell asleep, cuddling each other. There, the Colorado father buried his wife's corpse before tragically ending his daughters' lives and disposing of their bodies in oil tanks – despite Bella's repeated pleas and inquiries about her mother.

Bella's last words were reported to have been: "What are you doing to mommy?" According to a document released by Colorado authorities, Watts claims he cannot remember what he told her. He then detailed how he smothered Celeste with a blue Yankees blanket while Bella watched in silence.

When Watts returned to the truck, with his last remaining family member Bella, who clutched her stuffed animal, she tragically asked him: "Is the same thing gonna happen to me as Cece?". He disclosed this heart-wrenching ultimate question from Bella during an interview with law enforcement at the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin.

He admitted to suffocating Bella with a blanket, the same as he did with her sister, noting that she put up a struggle. Bella's final, distressing plea was "Daddy, no!" - haunting words that Watts said torment him every time he closes his eyes.

Following the burial of his wife, Watts intentionally left her wedding ring to imply she wanted a divorce, according to reports. Initially, he feigned ignorance, telling reporters his family had disappeared.

Speaking to ABC Denver affiliate KMGH, he stated: "When I came home and then walked in the house, nothing. Vanished. Nothing was here." He continued: "My kids are my life."

A mere few days later, after the discovery of the bodies of his family, he was arrested. Under interrogation, Watts confessed he found it impossible to admit his crimes as he hadn't reconciled with the gruesome reality himself. By entering a guilty plea, Watts spared himself the death penalty for the harrowing triple homicide.

His sentence was decreed as life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in November 2018.