A Colorado man told police he killed his pregnant wife in a “rage” after she strangled their two daughters, according to an affidavit released by police on Monday after prosecutors formally charged Christopher Lee Watts with the murder of his entire family. 
 
 The bodies of Watts’s wife and children were found last week on the property of the oil and gas company he worked for near Denver. 
 
 According to the new documents released by Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke, Watts, 33, told detectives that he and his wife, Shanann, 34, discussed ending their marriage on Aug. 13. Watts, who was having an affair with a co-worker, claimed that by the end of the conversation, both were “upset and crying.” He told investigators that he went downstairs, then returned to speak with Shanann. He looked at the baby monitor in their bedroom and what he saw threw him “into a rage”: His older daughter, Bella, 4, was “sprawled out on her bed,” and Shannon Watts was strangling their younger daughter Celeste, 3, he said. 
 
 After a multiday investigation, Christopher Watts confessed to killing his wife, loading the bodies into his truck and driving to an oil work site, where he left them. 
 
 Watts has been held without bail since his arrest Wednesday. He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning, when he will be informed of the charges against him. 
 
 He faces five counts of first-degree murder, one count of unlawful termination of pregnancy and two counts of tampering with a deceased human body. 
 
 The first three charges of murder in the first degree accuse Watts of killing his wife, who was 15 weeks pregnant, and his daughters “after deliberation.” Under Colorado law, “after deliberation” means Watts not only intended to kill his family, but opted to commit the homicides after he took time to reflect on his decision to do so. “An act committed after deliberation is never one which has been committed in a hasty or impulsive manner,” according to the state statute. 
 
 The district attorney’s office also filed two additional counts of first-degree murder for Bella and Celeste. To convict Watts on these counts, prosecutors must prove the children were younger than 12 at the time and Watts was “in a position of trust.” As their father, Watts fits Colorado’s definition of the latter. 
 
 A motion that Watts’s attorneys filed Friday suggested the two children may have been strangled and stated their bodies had been submerged in crude oil for four days. The attorneys had asked to obtain DNA samples from the children’s necks, as well as from their mother’s hands and nails, saying DNA would still be present on the bodies. A Weld County judge, however, denied the request. 
 
 Authorities have not said how the victims died. James Mason, a deputy state public defender in rural Weld County, did not respond to a request for comment. 
 
 Although the couple led what appeared to be an idyllic life, in 2015, two years after buying their big two-story house, the Wattses filed for bankruptcy, The Washington Post previously reported. They were under pressure from a $400,000 mortgage and more than $50,000 in credit card debt, bankruptcy court documents show. ||||| GREELEY — The Frederick man charged with murder Monday in the deaths of his pregnant wife and two preschool-aged daughters told police he caught his wife strangling one of their children, leading him to then strangle her in “a rage.” 
 
 Christopher Watts told a Frederick Police Department detective that he saw his wife, Shanann, strangling their youngest daughter, 3-year-old Celeste, on a baby monitor. Their oldest daughter, 4-year-old Bella, already was “sprawled out on her bed and blue,” according to an arrest-warrant affidavit released by the courts Monday. The affidavit offered new details about the investigation of Christopher Watts, 33, and the deaths of his 34-year-old wife and two daughters. 
 
 “Chris said he went into a rage and ultimately strangled Shanann to death,” the affidavit said. 
 
 After Watts killed his wife, he loaded all three bodies into his pickup truck and drove them to an oil field in Weld County, where he dumped the girls’ bodies into an oil tank and buried his wife in a shallow grave near the tanks, the affidavit said. 
 
 The affidavit was unsealed by a judge Monday afternoon after Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke filed charges against Watts, including five counts of first-degree murder, one count of unlawful termination of pregnancy in the first degree and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body. 
 
 Watts will appear in Weld County District Court at 10 a.m. Tuesday for an advisement hearing. 
 
 On Monday, Shanann Watts’ family made their first public statement since her and the girls’ deaths when her father, Frank Rzucek, addressed the media at a news conference at the Weld County Courthouse. Reading from a folded piece of paper and with his voice shaking, he thanked the Frederick police for their investigation and locating his family’s burial sites. He also thanked the public for their outpouring of support. 
 
 “Keep the prayers coming for our family,” Rzucek said. 
 
 The tragic deaths have shaken Watts’ friends and family as well as strangers who have been horrified of accusations of a man killing his pregnant wife and two young daughters. On Friday night, more than 150 people attended a candlelight vigil outside the Watts family home, where a growing memorial of stuffed animals, flowers and candles rests. National media attended Monday’s news conference at which Rourke announced the charges. 
 
 Before Watts confessed to police, he told them his wife and children were missing. Shanann had returned home around 1:48 a.m. Tuesday from a work trip in Arizona, and Watts said he asked her for a separation around 4 a.m. He was having an affair with co-worker, the affidavit said. 
 
 “Chris stated it was a civil conversation and they were not arguing but emotional,” the affidavit said. 
 
 He also told the detective that they both cried. Shanann Watts wanted to go to a friend’s house the next day, the affidavit said. 
 
 Shanann Watts was reported missing on Wednesday after failing to answer messages from a friend and missing a doctor’s appointment. Watts was 15 weeks pregnant with a son, who would have been named Neko. The pregnancy had been difficult, the affidavit said. 
 
 The friend who reported her missing also called Watts and asked him to come home to check on his family. Police arrived at their Frederick house before Watts, the affidavit said. An officer who went into the house with Watts’ permission found Shanann’s purse, cell phone and medication inside. 
 
 The next day, after the mother and children had not come home, police issued a public notification that they were missing. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the FBI joined the search. 
 
 As the search intensified, Watts gave interviews to Denver TV stations in which he pleaded for his wife and children to come home. 
 
 Two days into the investigation, Watts told a detective “he would tell the truth after speaking with his dad,” the affidavit said. Watts’ father already was at the police station. 
 
 “After being allowed to speak with his father, Chris stated (that) after he told Shanann he wanted a separation, he walked downstairs for a moment and then returned to his bedroom to speak to Shanann again,” the affidavit said. 
 
 That’s when Watts told police he saw his wife strangling Celeste on the baby monitor, which was on a nightstand by their bed. 
 
 Rourke was tight-lipped during the Monday news conference, citing the ongoing investigation. It is too early to say whether he’ll consider the death penalty in this case, to which he has assigned three prosecutors, Rourke said. 
 
 He explained the charge of unlawful termination of a pregnancy, which is a relatively new crime in Colorado. The state does not have a law that allows district attorneys to charge someone with murder over the death of a fetus. In 2015, Dynel Lane, who cut an unborn child out of Longmont woman Michelle Wilkins’ womb, was convicted of unlawful termination of a pregnancy, along with attempted first-degree murder and four counts of assault. 
 
 On Friday, the Weld County Coroner’s Office confirmed the three bodies found at the oil tanks, which are owned by Anadarko Petroleum Company, belonged to Shanann, Bella and Celeste. However, a cause of death has not yet been determined. 
 
 Police discovered a bed sheet in the field near the tank battery that matched the pattern of other linens found in a kitchen trash can at the Watts home earlier that day, according to the affidavit. 
 
 Watts had worked for Anadarko until Wednesday, when he was fired. 
 
 Warning: The following video may contain content that disturbs viewers. ||||| DENVER -- The father charged with murdering his two young daughters, who were found submerged in oil tanks, told authorities his pregnant wife killed the children after learning he wanted a separation, according to court documents. He also said he erupted in rage after witnessing the killings and strangled his wife inside the family's suburban Denver home, according to the documents. 
 
 Days after letting police inside his home so they could help find his missing family, Christopher Watts told investigators "he would tell the truth." 
 
 Watts first asked to speak with his father, then admitted to killing his wife, Shannan. Watts told police in court papers released Monday that he killed her after witnessing her strangling one of the girls on a baby monitor. He said she had already killed the other child. 
 
 Christopher Watts, 33, was charged Monday with three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of murdering a child under 12, one count of unlawful termination of a pregnancy and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body. He is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday and is being held without bail. 
 
 District Attorney Michael Rourke declined to answer questions about the case Monday but said his office has three prosecutors working on it. When asked if his team would be seeking the death penalty, Rourke said, "It's way too early to make that determination." 
 
 Police first visited the family's house on Aug. 13, after a friend asked officers to check on Shanann Watts. She had missed a doctor's appointment and wasn't answering calls or text messages hours after returning home after a business trip, the friend reported. 
 
 With Chris Watts' approval, police searched the house and found his wife's cellphone stuffed inside a couch. Her purse was on a kitchen island and a suitcase was at the bottom of the stairs. 
 
 A detective spoke to Chris Watts and learned about his separation plans. Watts first described the conversation with Shannan as civil but later told police that "they were both upset and crying" and she planned to go to a friend's house that day, the court papers said. 
 
 When Shanann Watts and the girls did not return home by Tuesday morning, investigators ramped up their efforts with the help of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Christopher Watts was interviewed by several local television stations, asking for the return of his family and discussing how much he missed spending time with his children. 
 
 It wasn't until Wednesday night that he made his promise to tell police "the truth," and offered an account of the deaths. 
 
 According to Watts' account, the early hours of Aug. 13 began with an intense conversation. He said he told his wife that he wanted a separation. Separately in the papers released Monday, investigators said they learned that Chris Watts was "actively involved in an affair with a co-worker," something he denied in earlier conversations with police. 
 
 Watts told police that after discussing the separation he walked downstairs. When he returned, he told them he spotted a baby monitor on his wife's nightstand -- displaying her "actively strangling" their 3-year-old daughter, Celeste. He said the video feed also showed their other daughter, 4-year-old Bella, "sprawled out on her bed and blue." 
 
 "Chris said he went into a rage and ultimately strangled Shanann to death," the document said. 
 
 Police found surveillance video from a neighbor showing Watts' truck backing into the driveway at 5:27 a.m. and shortly after driving away from the house in Frederick, a small town on the grassy plains north of Denver where fast-growing subdivisions like the one the Watts family lived in intermingle with drilling rigs and oil wells. 
 
 Watts, an operator with Anadarko Petroleum, said he loaded his wife and daughters' bodies into the back seat of his truck and drove to an oil work site about 40 miles east of the family's home. There, he buried Shanann Watts' body and "dumped the girls inside" oil tanks, according to the court document. 
 
 Separate court documents filed by Watts' defense attorney last week said the girls' bodies were submerged in crude oil for four days before police found the remains late Thursday. Their mother's body was found nearby, in a shallow grave, according to prosecutors. 
 
 Anadarko, one of Colorado's largest oil and gas drillers, has since fired Watts. 
 
 The court filing says Watts gave police an aerial photograph of the area and identified three areas where he placed the bodies. Investigators used a drone to search the area and spotted a bed sheet that matched other linens in the family home, along with fresh dirt. 
 
 Shanann Watts' social media social media posts show the girls playing with their father and each other. The couple married in North Carolina nearly six years ago, and moved to Colorado soon after. 
 
 Watts was arrested last week and charged on Monday. A day before his arrest, Watts issued a televised plea for the return of his wife and daughters. 
 
 Shanann's father, Frank Rzucek, spoke to reporters for the first time on Monday. 
 
 "We would like to thank everyone and the Frederick Police Department and all the agencies involved for working so hard to find my daughter, granddaughters and Niko. Thank you everyone for coming out to the candlelight vigil and saying all your prayers. They are greatly appreciated. Keep the prayers coming," Frank Rzucek said. 
 
 Outside the family's home in Frederick, north of Denver, a memorial of stuffed animals, balloons, flowers and messages continues to grow.
– Colorado man Christopher Watts has admitted killing his pregnant wife—but he says he's not the only murderer in the family, according to court records released Monday. A court affidavit states Watts told investigators that he "flew into a rage" and strangled his wife Shanann Watts after she strangled their two daughters, 3-year-old Celeste and 4-year-old Bella, the Denver Post reports. The records state that Watts—who admitted to detectives that he was having an affair with a co-worker—told police that he told his wife after she arrived home from a business trip Aug. 13 that he wanted a separation. He said the conversation left them both "upset and crying." "Chris stated it was a civil conversation and they were not arguing but emotional," the records state. Watts told detectives that he went upstairs after the conversation with his wife, then looked at a baby monitor in his bedroom to see Bella "sprawled out on her bed" and Shanann strangling Celeste, CBS reports. He said after killing Shanann in a rage, he loaded the three bodies in his truck and hid them at an oil field he had worked at, burying Shanann and putting his daughters' bodies in oil tanks. Prosecutors, however, believe he killed them all, the Washington Post reports. Watts was charged with nine felonies Monday, including three counts of first-degree murder, and is due back in court Tuesday.