Chris Watts, the man convicted of killing his pregnant wife and two young daughters, was recently ordered to pay his in-laws $6 million.
Chris Watts, the man who killed his pregnant wife and two young daughters last year, recently agreed to pay $6 million to his late wife’s parents, Frank and Sandy Rzucek. For those who don’t know, last year Watts pleaded guilty to “multiple counts of first-degree murder, unlawful termination of his wife’s pregnancy, and tampering with a deceased body” after he killed his wife Shannon, four-year-old daughter Bella, and three-year-old daughter Celeste in their Frederick, Colorado home on August 13, 2018. He is now serving five life sentences without the possibility of parole at the Dodge Correctional Institution in Wisconsin.
On November 6, 2018, Shannon’s parents filed a civil suit against Watts and were recently awarded $6 million. Of that $6 million, $3 million is for emotional pain, while the other $3 million is for Shannon, Bella, and Celeste’s deaths. According to court documents related to the case, the “Rzucek family has not been the same since August 13, 2018, and have suffered from anger, loneliness, sadness, and depression.” Additionally, the documents also go into detail about the “devastation and trauma the family has to contend with, stating that Frank and Sandy were unable to work, leave the house, or even eat after they learned about their daughter’s and granddaughters’ murders.” The suit further stated:
“As Sandy Rzucek puts it, she feels like she dies every day and is always missing and crying for her precious family. Even to this day, it is hard for the Rzucek family to get out of bed, they cry all the time, every day and every night…Sandy Rzucek has described the experience of losing her daughter and granddaughters as being adrift in a lifeboat, surrounded by water and without a port in sight…The detailed discovering of how Defendant ended his wife and children’s lives was, in Sandy’s words, like having the lifeboat removed and sinking into the ocean.”
To make matters worse, the suit claims the Rzucek’s have endured “attacks and death threats from people online who peddle conspiracy theories that Shanann killed the girls despite Watts’ confession that he was responsible.” It further states, “Between Defendant and the people attacking the Rzucek family, they have lost nearly all trust in people and humanity.”
Though the couple is unlikely to ever see the full $6 million, their attorney, Steven Lambert, said his clients originally decided to file the suit to “collect any money Watts may have left and to keep him from profiting off the murders.”
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