A woman who began a “motherly” relationship with convicted killer Chris Watts says their correspondence took a dark turn when he reflected on his mistress and his family’s deaths.
According to Daily Mail, Cherlyn Cadle, 72, began communicating with Watts following his incarceration for the 2018 deaths of his wife, Shanann, and their two daughters, Celeste and Bella.
Cadle told the outlet that once Watts began talking about his mistress, Nichol Kessinger, his letters and calls revealed a sinister side to his “boyish charm.”
“He told me dark, sexual things that he did with his mistress,” she said. “There were a lot of things you wouldn’t tell your mother, but he told me.”
“A lot of it is stuff I just won’t repeat. But his relationship with her was very sexual, very twisted, very mixed up. And that’s part of why I believe he did what he did.”
He also reportedly said that if it had not been for Kessinger, he wouldn’t have carried out the murders. Cadle, however, stated that Watts attempted to blame others instead of holding himself accountable.
“It was always someone else’s fault: Nikki or Shanann, or someone else. He always had someone to blame for what he did, instead of really taking responsibility for his own actions.”
“That really got under my skin.”
Cadle said that Watts also appeared to take joy in repeated lurid details of the crime.
“He confessed, not once, but repeatedly. He revisited details. He contradicted himself. He rationalized, minimized, and occasionally revealed more than he intended to. And through it all, I listened.”
In 2023, following hundreds of calls and letters, Cadle stopped contact with Watts.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, in November 2018, Watts admitted to murdering Shanann at their home in Frederick, Colorado. She was pregnant with their third child.
Watts strangled Shanann at their home in August 2018, then drove her body to a Anadarko oil field, where he suffocated the children.
He buried Shanann in a shallow grave at the oil field and dumped the girls’ bodies inside oil storage tanks.
Weld County District Court Judge Marcelo Kopcowe sentenced Watts to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Watts is currently housed at the Dodge Correctional Center in Waupun, Wisconsin.
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[Feature Photo: Watts family/Fscebook]
