TANIA HAGAN: When the case first broke, Shan'ann and CeCe
and Bella were simply missing.
CHRIS WATTS: Like, I have no inclination
of where they're at right now.
KELLY: Something in your gut was telling you that he
had something to do with it.
TANIA HAGAN: Chris Watts thought that he could
go to the police department, knowing the fact
that he killed his family.
KELLY: Aggressive behavior predicts future behavior.
Chris had none of that in his past.
TANIA HAGAN: He thought that they were not looking at him.
TANIA HAGAN: He thought he could breeze
through a polygraph test.
[THEME MUSIC]
CHRIS WATTS: This is my flesh and blood.
This is, like, what I wanted all my life.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The Frederick Police Department
asked Chris Watts to come down to discuss
a few matters with them about his wife and children
and their disappearance.
Chris returns on the 15th--
without hesitation, agrees to take a lie detector test.
DILLON THOMAS: He is instructed to intentionally
lie about a series of unrelated questions to the case.
She's trying to see how he normally responds--
physiologically, pulse, respiration, heart rate.
Now she's got his baseline.
So then she can start asking those very probative questions.
DILLON THOMAS: She tells him, there's
no way you're going to walk out of here without telling
the complete truth.
DILLON THOMAS: His numbers were spiking like no other.
He's having to convince himself, there's no way out of this.
I've already agreed to doing this now.
I have to set the tone and make sure that they
believe what I'm about to say.
DILLON THOMAS: Now that Chris has failed the polygraph test,
it's time to open up.
And the investigators make that very clear.
Your opportunity of giving us a different story, of diverting
us away from you, is over.
DILLON THOMAS: That's when the investigators start to play
a little good cop-bad cop.
SUSAN CONSTANTINE: Chris Watts does admit to something,
but it's not what you would expect.
DILLON THOMAS: Chris admits to having
an affair with Nichol Kessinger, cheating on Shan'ann.
And the police officers respond with--
DILLON THOMAS: He didn't know that Nichol Kessinger,
his mistress, had already came in
and spilled the beans about their relationship.
DILLON THOMAS: So then Chris is sitting there and realizes,
these people know a little more than I realize.
I do believe when he confessed to that affair,
I think he thought that he'd be home
free at that point, where they'd say, ah, that's why you lied.
The polygrapher and the investigator
start to throw out other ideas that Chris can latch to.
DILLON THOMAS: And it's at that point where he says,
my father flew in from North Carolina.
Is he outside?
JEAN POWERS: And at that point in time, Ronnie
was present in the building.
And law enforcement approached him and asked him
if he was willing to speak with Christopher,
because Christopher wanted to talk to his dad.
SUSAN CONSTANTINE: So Ronnie walks into the room.
His father was not making eye contact with Chris.
And you can see that where his father was almost guarding
himself like ready to hear bad news.
And at this point in time is when Chris Watts starts
to reveal what really happened.
The disbelief on Ronnie's face says it all.
JEAN POWERS: It caused him pain to hear his son say that.
TANIA HAGAN: Chris thought, well,
once I tell this story to my dad,
I'm going to be seen as a hero.
DILLON THOMAS: Those investigators
are guiding him toward admitting more than he has in the past.
[MUSIC PLAYING]