Chris Watts Agrees To Pay Murdered Wife’s Parents $6 Million In Damages

Chris Watts — the man that murdered his family last year — has agreed to pay $6 million to the parents of his late wife.

As RadarOnline.com has learned, Shanann Watts’ parents, Frank and Sandra Rzucek, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the killer on the same day he was sentenced to three life terms with no parole, in November 2018.

Readers know that while Chris, 34, initially denied any involvement in his family members’ deaths, he eventually came clean about his actions in a disturbing interview from behind bars. He said that on the day of the murders, he woke up feeling off, and knew he had to get rid of his 15-weeks pregnant wife, Shanann, 34, to be with his mistress. Chris said that after having sex with Shanann in the morning of August 13, 2018, he strangled her to death and threw her body in his truck. He then drove the body to an oil field, with daughters Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, in the backseat of the car, and smothered them both to death. He buried Shanann in a shallow grave and threw his daughters’  bodies in the oil tanks. 

Now, to close the civil case, Chris has agreed to pay the family for damages: $1 million for each death, plus $3 million for emotional distress, with an 8 percent annual interest rate, according to the Denver Post. 

In court documents, Shanann's parents argued that they suffered serious emotional trauma from the murders.

“The Rzucek family has not been the same since August 13, 2018,” the documents read, according to the Post . “They have suffered with anger, loneliness, sadness, and depression. For a substantial period of time following the discovery of their daughter and grandchildren’s murders, they were unable to work, leave the house, or even eat.”

Chris did not fight back against the suit, and instead agreed to pay for his involvement in his in-laws’ trauma.

“The Defendant stipulates that the death of Shanann, Bella, and Celeste was a tremendous loss to Plaintiffs Franklin Rzucek and Sandra Rzucek and that they have suffered extreme emotional stress and damage as a result of such loss,” the documents read.

Chris was put on suicide watch moths into his sentence. In an interview, he said inmates at his Colorado prison were planning to kill him. He has since been moved to the Dodge Correctional Institution in Wisconsin.