[Whitfield:] All right, just days before her death, a Colorado wife and mother texted a friend that her husband was acting distant and cold. Chris Watts was sentenced to life in prison last week for killing his pregnant wife, Shanann, and their two young daughters. He initially reported his family missing, even pleading for their return. And the next day he told police how he brutally killed his family, stuffing them into oil barrels. New documents released by police show Shanann told a friend her husband didn't want their new baby. Rob Lowe of our affiliate KDVR has more.
[Rob Low, Reporter, Kdvr:] Heartbreaking texts from Shanann Watts to a close friend reveal a crumbling marriage and a wife who can't figure out why her husband seems to suddenly want a divorce. Six days before she was murdered, Shanann tells a friend, "Chris told me last night he's scared to death about this third baby and he's happy with just Bella and Celeste and doesn't want another baby." Remember, Shanann was pregnant with a boy but doesn't know it yet when she tells her friend, "I'm supposed to go tomorrow for 4D ultrasounds and gender. Gender reveal next Saturday. I just want to cry. We've never had a problem in our relationship like this. No joke, never. This is total left field." Shannan's friend tries to comfort her texting, "Aww, honey, it will be OK. Give him time. He's adjusting to the idea of the baby. He's scared. He shouldn't be doing this to you, but he's a good guy. He will fix it." "What if he really doesn't love me anymore?" Not possible, honey. He loves you." Shanann responds "Tomorrow is eight years we started dating." The next day, Shanann tells her friend, "He said we are not compatible anymore. He refused to hug me." Shanann's friend texts back, "Go through his phone. Make sure there isn't some other blank I have to kill." When the friend suggests counseling, Shanann texts back, he said he's not sitting on no damn couch, saying what he just said to me to no stranger. Shanann would soon add, "This baby in my belly deserves his full love." Finally, Shanann messages, "The only thing I can think of, even though I don't think he has it in him, is another girl."
[Whitfield:] That was Rob Low of our affiliate KDVR reporting. And a chilling report indeed, I want to bring in psychotherapist Robi Ludwig. She's the co-author of the book, "Till Death Do Us Part, Love, Marriage, and the Mind of the Killer Spouse." So Robi, you've been following this case as everybody really has been from the beginning. What has stood out to you? Even learning now those texts, does it fill in some of the blanks, some of the suspicions you may have had before?
[Robi Ludwig, Psychotherapist:] Yes, and it just really clarified what I always thought, that Shanann really never had Chris in the way that she thought she did, in part because Chris was never capable of that kind of love. And I think at one point when he looked around and he realized he felt trapped, he was no longer feeling successful, when he went into the marriage hoping that he would achieve, which is a sense of success and maybe this idea that Shanann would fix him, would help him to feel normal, it just never played out that way. And at one point his solution was to make his mistake disappear, and we know how it all ended.
[Whitfield:] Wow. So these new details about this case just being released. There's a 2,000-page report. And according to the documents, not only did family members think foul play was involved, they had that instinct right away, but they actually did feel like Chris Watts did it. Neighbors even said they noticed changes in Watts' personality. She texted about it. So as a psychotherapist, what are the warning signs? How do you put all of this now together for people?
[Ludwig:] Well, I think it's very hard, and it's one thing to look in retrospect and say, oh, my gosh, there were signs. But Chris was probably very good at creating a facade, a facade of the loving husband and the loving father. So it may not have been really clear in that at one point Chris felt unsuccessful and dead inside, and had an affair and thought the affair would be a solution for him, a solution to help him live the life that he really felt entitled to. But it's very difficult. You almost have to look at a person's past and find out how they connect in order to find the disturbances, but sometimes it's not clear because the crisis happens in the moment, and that's when the disturbed person acts in a murderous way.
[Whitfield:] And then contrast that, you look at the selfies of her where she looked very blissful and happy even though at the same time she's texting to a friend, I'm quoting now, Chris came back a different man after spending five weeks apart. So that, too, promotes a lot of confusion.
[Ludwig:] I think probably one of the appeals for Chris was probably that Shanann knew how to create this very happy, blissful image, and he wanted to step into that image, and he wanted to feel like a successful, healthy man. If we look at the person who has anti-social personality disorder, they're not really able to connect and feel empathy and to feel love. They can't have that feeling in the way the rest of us can. And I think that there was something about Shanann's presentation that got him to believe perhaps he could be normal and like everybody else. And when it didn't turn out that way, he then blamed Shanann for not fixing him or helping him to feel like the successful man he wanted to be. There were financial issues. There was an additional child. He just could not give Shanann what she wanted from him, and he felt burdened by that. And the way he dealt with it was probably in a way he didn't feel was ideal, but the only way he knew how, which was to kill them.
[Whitfield:] And do you have I guess a little more clarity as to why prosecutors would keep a lot of these details, you know, quiet, these text messages, et cetera, until sentencing?
[Ludwig:] Maybe it was out of respect to the family and to try to keep this case as private as possible. It was a very public case, and maybe just to decrease a circus-like atmosphere that can happen when a case is very public. And then after the sentencing it's a bit safer to reveal this information and to explore it in a way that doesn't impact the case.
[Whitfield:] All right, Robi Ludwig, thank you you so much. It's such a troubling case.
[Ludwig:] Thank you. Yes, very.
[Whitfield:] Still ahead, a massive storm system sweeping through parts of the country could make a travel mess for so many heading home after the Thanksgiving holiday. Where we could see the biggest issues as millions hit the roads and the airways, next.