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He's been dubbed a "heartless monster" – and the latest development in the case of triple murderer Chris Watts seems to attest to that.
Watts, who cold-heartedly killed his pregnant wife and their two young daughters in one of America's most chilling family murders, Googled "When to say I love you for the first time in a new relationship" less than three weeks before he killed his family at their Colorado home.
The 33-year-old was in the throes of an affair with a co-worker, named as Nichol Kessinger, 30, at the time of the murders, People reports.
He also typed in, "What do you feel when someone tells you they love you" and "How does it feel when someone says I love you". He also looked up secluded holiday spots.
His Google searches are detailed in the nearly 2 000 pages of documents released by the Weld County District Attorney's Office after Watts had pleaded guilty to murdering his wife Shanann, 34, who was 15 weeks pregnant at the time, and daughters Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3.
Prosecutors cited Watts' desire for a fresh start with his mistress as the motive behind the killings.
In yet more chilling evidence authorities released a surveillance video, taken on 13 August at 8am in a convenience store, of Watts calmly buying breakfast shortly after getting rid of his wife and daughters' bodies, Daily Mail reports.
He smothered his children at their home while they were sleeping and strangled his wife. He then dumped his children's bodies in an oil tank and buried his wife in a shallow grave in a crude oil field where he worked.
The video shows Watts, dressed in an orange T-shirt and sunglasses perched atop a cap, calmly making his purchase before strolling away from the counter.
Co-workers described his behaviour as perfectly normal since the atrocities, prosecutors said, adding he was texting his mistress as law enforcement officials searched for his dead family members, Fox13 reports.
It appears Shanann had tried desperately to salvage their crumbling marriage in the months before the killings, sending her husband pleading messages to work on things and getting him self-help books, one of which he threw into the rubbish.
In one heart-breaking message she sent him while away on a work trip she wrote, "I realised during this trip what's missing in our relationship! lt's only one-way emotions and feelings. I can't come back like this. I need you to meet me halfway. You don't consider others at all, nor think about other's feelings."
On 19 November, Watts was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole. He avoided the death penalty after striking a deal with prosecutors.
During emotional scenes from the courthouse in which Shanann's family gave victim impact statements, her father Frank Rzucek labelled his former son-in-law a "heartless monster".
"I trusted you to take care of them, not kill them," he said. "They were loving and caring people. You may have taken their bodies from me but you'll never take the love they had for me. They loved us more than you'll ever know because you don't know what love is, or you wouldn't have killed them."
Shannan's brother also testified. His statement was read by the Weld County DA: "You took away my whole world, the people who mattered to me the most."
Sources: People, Daily Mail, Fox13,CBS
