‘She was drugged’: Author who exchanged letters with family killer Chris Watts says he’s still lying about Shanann’s murder

In the latest episode of “Crime Stories with Nancy Grace,” Nancy talks to an author who has been corresponding with family annihilator Chris Watts in prison — and who believes the convicted murderer is still leaving out a key detail about the August 2018 morning that he killed his pregnant wife Shanann Watts and their two young daughters.

As CrimeOnline previously reported, Cheryln Cadle began communicating with Chris Watts while he was in prison, and says that he shared never-before-revealed details about the horrific murders. She has published some of the correspondences in the book“Letters from Christopher” and writes further about the killings in the upcoming book “The Murders of Christopher Watts.”

Chris Watts initially denied having anything to do with the disappearance of his wife and daughters Bella and Celeste, but after failing a lie detector test, claimed he killed Shannan because she had strangled the little girls. His story has continued to change in the time since he pleaded guilty to the murders in November 2018, and took a plea deal that spared him the death penalty. Months later, he gave a lengthy, detailed interview to agents from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, admitting that he murdered Shanann in their marital bed the morning that she arrived home to Colorado from a business trip, and after the two had sex. Watts reportedly said that Shanann did not fight back when he murdered her, and he did not have any defensive wounds or bruises.

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Watts shared even further details with Cadle, she said — but the author believes Watts is still leaving something out.

“This was planned,” Cadle said on the latest episode of “Crime Stories.”

“He put the girls to bed that night and thought, ‘this is the last night I’m going to have to tuck my girls in,'” Cadle said Watts told her.

As previously reported, Watts reportedly told Cadle that he tried to smother his daughters to death in their beds that morning, but that both later got out of bed, surprising him — and questioning him about what was wrong with their mother, who had already been killed. He said he murdered his daughters later that same morning after driving them to an oil field where he buried Shanann.

Cadle said on the podcast that Watts told her he squeezed Shanann’s jugular veins. But the author believes, despite what Watts reportedly said, that Shanann would have fought for her life if she was aware of what was happening.

“I’m almost positive she was drugged — again,” Cadle said, claiming that Watts allegedly gave his pregnant wife the narcotic painkiller oxycodone in an attempt to cause her to lose the baby.

“He had more of the drug and I believe that night gave her oxycodone to wipe her out,” Cadle said.

Listen to the full “Crime Stories with Nancy Grace” episode here: