The mistress of Chris Watts, the Colorado man who killed his pregnant wife and two children, reportedly looked on the Internet to see whether people hate the “other woman” in such cases and whether they can get book deals.
Nichol Kessinger also spent “over two hours” looking up wedding dresses on Google just nine days before Watts killed his wife Shannan and daughters Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, according to “newly released investigative documents in the case” obtained and reported on by People magazine.
Investigators analyzed Ms. Kessinger’s web history, People reported, and learned that in July, the same month she started a sexual relationship with Watts, Kessinger used Google to search for the phrase “Man I’m having affair with says he will leave his wife.”
By Aug. 8 she was Googling topics relating to “marrying your mistress” and the wedding dress searches came in the wee hours of Aug. 4, People reported based on more than 2,000 pages of investigative papers released by prosecutors in Weld County, Colorado.
On Aug. 13, Watts strangled his 15-weeks-pregnant wife and suffocated his girls — in all three cases manually. On Aug. 15, he was arrested, and his mistress’s Google patterns changed, People magazine reported.
“Did people hate Amber Frey?” she typed into an internet search, referring to the woman notorious for having an affair with Scott Peterson, who was sentenced to death in 2004 for murdering wife Laci and unborn son Conner.
But she had plans, People reported.
“Kessinger’s internet searches about Frey on Aug. 19 — four days after Watts was arrested — also included queries about a book deal Frey obtained, along with Frey’s net worth, the documents show,” People wrote.
According to People, Kessinger went to authorities before they contacted her, although the documents also show she deleted all of Watts’ information from her phone before meeting with police. A Google search used the sentence “can cops trace text messages.”
Watts pleaded guilty to the triple murder earlier this month in order to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole rather than risk the death penalty.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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