Conspiracy Theorists Believe Chris Watts's Mistress Was Involved in the Murders of His Family
"With a pregnant woman and two children missing, I was going to do anything that I could."
Published July 26 2024, 4:45 p.m. ET
Convicted killer Chris Watts is a practiced liar. He was able to successfully put on one face for his wife and children while showing another side entirely to the woman he was having an affair with. Despite how easy it was for Watts to hide behind a mask, his wife Shanann could tell something was off. Eventually, he confessed to cheating on her and on Aug. 13, 2018, Watts killed Shannan, then smothered both of their daughters.
Watts would later tell police he killed Shannan after discovering she was the one who murdered their children. However, a failed polygraph test led to Watts confessing to the crimes. Throughout all of this, he was texting with his mistress, Nichol Kessinger, as if nothing was wrong. To her credit, she did not believe him. He is currently in prison and will be for the rest of his life. Where is Nichol Kessinger now? Here's what we know.
Where is Nichol Kessinger now? She has essentially disappeared.
Kessinger has remained almost entirely out of the public eye since Watts pled guilty in November 2018. Despite his confession, some online conspiracy theorists are convinced there is more investigation to be done. In fact, there is a Change.org petition circulating online that demands the criminal investigation against her be reopened.
More than 4,000 people have signed the petition which has a goal of 5,000. The petitioner, a woman by the name of Pamela Thompson, doesn't provide any solid reasons why she believes Kessinger could know more. In the description she alludes to evidence being swept under the rug, but fails to explain what that means. She also suggests evidence tampering in the form of deleted texts. This is in reference to texts from Watts that Kessinger deleted on her phone.
Every person who commented on the petition echoes what Anderson wrote. It's a strange reaction to crimes where the person who committed them actually confessed. It almost feels as if these individuals want Kessinger to pay for the "sin" of adultery by turning her into a murderer. Thankfully, as flawed as it can be, that's not how the criminal justice system works.
Kessinger always maintained she had no idea Watts was still very much married.
Three months after the murders, Kessinger spoke with The Denver Post about her relationship with Watts. Kessinger and Watts worked at the same company, but she had never spoken to him until he walked into her office one morning in June 2018. He wasn't wearing a wedding ring and during the course of their conversation told Kessinger he had two daughters and was separated from his wife. "I believed him," she said.
They wouldn't go on an actual date until the end of June, at which point Kessinger asked Watts about his alleged impending divorce. All that was left, he told her, was figuring out the financial details. By July, the new couple was seeing each other four or five times a week, which Kessinger described as "taking things slow." At the end of that month, he called her while visiting family in North Carolina to say the divorce was final.
On the day Shannan and her daughters disappeared, Watts was texting Kessinger as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on. At 3:45 p.m. he informed Kessinger that his wife and children had gone on a playdate and never returned. After reporters began showing up at his home, Kessinger learned the truth. "When I read the news, I found out he was still married and his wife was 15 weeks pregnant," she shared.
Kessinger voluntarily reached out to police in order to tell them about the affair. She was sick of all the lies and knew it was the right thing to do. "With a pregnant woman and two children missing, I was going to do anything that I could."
