POLICE OFFICER: Shan'ann, are you home?
Police department.
If anyone's inside, make yourself known.
TANIA HAGAN: Chris Watts just annihilated
and buried his entire family.
LENA DERHALLY: Chris did not take
into account security cameras.
He didn't watch enough CSI.
SUSAN CONSTANTINE: The next door neighbor is showing the police
officer the surveillance footage of Chris
Watts loading up his truck at 5 o'clock in the morning.
NEIGHBOR: It's on video at 5:27.
But he backs, like, into the garage
partially, because you can't see the tailgate area,
so you can't see what he's loading.
LENA DERHALLY: Nobody was going to buy that
Shan'ann would take her children and run off
and never be heard from again.
You-- you told me that she went on a playdate with them.
WOMAN: He had every confidence in the world.
He honestly thought he could fool everyone.
Nobody's heard from them and nobody's seen them.
[THEME MUSIC]
CHRIS WATTS: This is my flesh and blood.
This is, like, what I wanted all my life.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
POLICE OFFICER: This young lady and her kids
are missing right now.
A missing persons report is issued to the public,
saying that Shan'ann, Bella, and CeCe are all missing.
Police in Colorado have issued an alert for a pregnant mother
and her two young daughters.
They were reported missing on Monday.
In a matter of hours, suddenly,
the small town of Frederick turned
into the epicenter of a media focus for that night's news.
TANIA HAGAN: There was a media frenzy.
Everyone everywhere-- around the world, everyone
was interested in this case from the get-go.
So Chris goes on multiple Denver TV channels and pleads
for the public to help him find his loved ones,
even though he knows there's no way they're coming back.
CHRIS WATTS: I have no inclination
of where they're at right now.
Like, I've exhausted every friend that I know
of, and every friend that I have has
called friends that Shan'ann has that maybe I didn't know about.
I have no idea, like, where they went.
And it doesn't-- it's just Earth-shattering.
I don't feel like this is even real right now.
It's like a nightmare that I just can't wake up from.
I want her back so bad.
I want those kids back so bad.
LENA DERHALLY: He was saying all the right things,
but there was something in your gut
that you knew that he did it.
He smirks after he makes a comment.
I want those kids back so bad.
SUSAN CONSTANTINE: And that's what we call duping delight.
He thinks he's such a great performer
and pulling this whole story off.
Bella was going to start kindergarten next--
next Monday.
He says, Bella was to start kindergarten soon.
He's viewing her as dead because he already knew she was
not going to be coming home.
DILLON THOMAS: Something just seems off.
His body language and his mannerisms
are raising red flags.
CHRIS WATTS: It's really hard to even suspect anything
right now, as far as how she could have left,
or if someone came and picked her up,
or if somebody took her.
DILLON THOMAS: There was something more to this case
than all of us realized.
A lot of things aren't adding up.
Police want to sit him down and talk with him.
LENA DERHALLY: And then it sort of spiraled from there.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The police officer set this up as a very
informal interview at the Frederick Police Department.
Chris is brought in, sat down, given something to drink.
But at the same time, up in the corner of the room,
a camera is recording.
SUSAN CONSTANTINE: The police officer's
trying to gather information.
He's building rapport and creating safeness.
It scares you to think that he could, you know--
that he would just be so compliant,
knowing right where they were.
DILLON THOMAS: They're asking more in-depth questions,
and they're also starting to corner him,
not only through his story, but also physically by making him
sit in the corner of the room and setting themselves up
between him and the door, as if the only way
you're getting out this door is if you go through me first.
Chris was almost overconfident that his ability to charm
would win the investigators over.
Now Chris is portraying himself as the least-likely
suspect in this scenario.
He is a free man.
He's able to walk out of the room at any point if he wants,
but he continues to offer up information to any question
that they ask.
The investigators tells him, you're probably wondering why
I asked some of these questions, and you're probably wondering
if I think you're a suspect.
You're going to go home tonight
and think about the moments where you might have slipped.
Come back tomorrow, and we'll continue to talk.
Chris leaves a free man from the Frederick
Police Department on August 14.
On August 15, Chris agrees to do a lie detector test.
Regarding Shan'ann's disappearance,
do you intend to answer all the questions truthfully?
Yes.
He thought that they were not looking at him.
He thought he could breeze through a polygraph test.
Right now, there's only one person in this room
that knows what the truth is.
In about five minutes, there's going to be two of us.
DILLON THOMAS: That's one heck of a way to start a polygraph.
[MUSIC PLAYING]