"It's worse than we ever thought": Shanann Watts' family react to Chris Watts' jailhouse confession.

When audio was released this week of Chris Watts’ jailhouse confession, people around the world voiced their horror and disgust. But among those who listened as the Colorado man recounted, in graphic detail, how he murdered his pregnant wife, Shanann, and their two little girls, were his in-laws. Shanann’s family.

In in interview with television psychiatrist Dr. Phil, due to air in the US on Monday, the murdered mother’s parents Sandra and Frank Rzucek and her brother, Frankie, reacted to the chilling tape.

“It’s worse than we ever thought,” Frankie said, according to The Daily Mail. “We thought we’d heard the worst already, we had no idea it was worse than this.”

Sandra said there have been times since the August 2018 crime that she’s felt like “giving up”.

“Those were my grandchildren. I loved them. They were mine. I cry all the time,” she said.

“If it wasn’t for God I wouldn’t be here.”

Chris Watts is currently serving three consecutive life sentences for the murder of his wife, 34, and their daughters Bella, four, and CeCe, three.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation this week released a prison interview recorded on February 18; the first time Watts, 33, has publicly confessed to the crime.

He detailed how Shanann had returned from a work trip at 2am, on the morning of August 13, 2008, and that they engaged in an argument during which he admitted to having an affair.

He claimed that when Shanann threatened to leave and deny him custody of the children, he "snapped" and strangled her. He then transported her body to an oil field that belonged to his employer, and buried her. Their two children were alive in the car. He then smothered his two girls with a blanket, and disposed of their bodies in vats of crude oil.

Watts also told investigators he mourns his family daily: "Right now I'd have a five year old...a three-year-old...and more than likely a one-month-old son...and a beautiful wife..and right now it's just me," he said.

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