Chris Watts has seemingly turned to God after murdering his pregnant wife and their daughters.
In 2018, Watts strangled his wife, Shannan, who was carrying their third child at the time, to death at their home in Frederick, Colorado. He also murdered their daughters, Bella, four, and Celeste, three.
Initially, he claimed to have no idea what happened to his missing family, but eventually Watts pleaded guilty to killing them and was sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of parole in 2019. He avoided the death penalty as part of his plea deal.
Watts has turned to religion since his incarceration, and in an interview with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation at the time in 2019, he told them that he keeps a picture of his late wife and daughters in his cell and reads scriptures to them, Business Insider reports.
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According to audio and transcription obtained by the news outlet, Watts shared: "I never knew I could have a relationship with God like I do now."
He added: "It's like the amazing grace with all of this, but I just wish nobody had to pay any kind of price for this."
Turning to God for help stopped the convicted criminal from taking his own life after his fellow inmates taunted him to do so.
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With this in mind, Watts prayed to be transferred to a different state and was ultimately moved to a federal prison in Wisconsin.
Before being in jail, he said he'd never read the Bible, but he's now read it from cover to cover. Lawyer Thomas Grant also told Dr Phil in 2019 that Watts claimed he is 'remorseful', and 'he has found God'.
Elsewhere, he stated that it doesn't matter what people think of him, as only God's opinion counts.
"I know I shouldn't really, you know, take to heart what other people think about me so much," he mused. "It's just a matter of what God thinks about me, what his opinion is, not anybody else's."
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Watts has been writing letters to a pen pal since being jailed, where he has mentioned his newfound faith.
In one note, he said that God had 'forgiven him'.
"I am a new man," he wrote in the letter seen by the Daily Mail. "I am not the person who committed those horrible acts. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says 'if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.' That's me. I'm a new creature."
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He continued: "I know that God does not see me as a sinner who killed his family; he sees me as His child. I have confessed my sins.
"I am forgiven. The hardest thing I have had to do was to forgive myself.
"God has separated me from my sin as far as the east is from the west. But forgiveness of self is another matter entirely and it has taken me years to find my peace, the peace that passes all understanding."
Topics: Crime, True crime, Religion, US News
Niamh Shackleton