Shanann Watts’ father speaks out on hate in new Fox Nation special
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Chris Watts’ guilty plea in 2018 may have brought closure to the legal case, but for Shanann’s family, the tragedy turned into years of online criticism and smears.
Nearly eight years later, relatives say they have been subjected to a persistent wave of online harassment that they describe as relentless and unrelenting and fueled by true crime conspiracy theories.
“I’ve never seen this much evil in this world. Against us, against the other victims,” Shanann’s father, Frank Rzucek, said in a new Fox Nation special. The new special episode will be available to watch on Fox One starting March 23.
Watts was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the November 2018 murders of his wife, Shanann Watts, 34, and their daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3. The Weld County District Attorney’s Office said Watts, then 33, pleaded guilty to all charges against him in exchange for prosecutors not pursuing the death penalty.
Chris and Shanann Watts with their daughter. (Facebook)
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Rzucek and other relatives say the online messages distort Shanann Watts’ life and character or falsely suggest that her family was somehow involved in or responsible for the murders.
“And you know, the hate has to stop. They had nothing to do with it other than losing someone they loved. Or in my case it was four people,” Rzucek said, referring to his daughter, grandchildren and Shanann’s unborn child.
Immediately after the crime, in August 2018, Watts told responding officers from the Frederick Police Department in Colorado that his wife and two young daughters had “disappeared.”
“My children are my life” he told KMGH. “So those smiles light up my life. When I came home and walked into the house, nothing happened. It disappeared. There was nothing here.”
Chris Watts was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his pregnant wife and daughters. (Photo: RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
A few days after his disappearance, Chris Watts was arrested and the bodies of his pregnant wife and children were found.
take a break case The day Shanann and the children disappeared came after a neighbor submitted home security video showing Chris backing up his truck into the driveway early in the morning. Shanann or the children were not seen leaving in the video. In addition to the video, authorities also tracked Watts’ digital footprint, including cell phone data and GPS tracking data.
He admitted during an interview after failing a polygraph on August 15, 2018. He led investigators to an oil and gas field operated by Anadarko Petroleum near Roggen, Colorado., where the bodies were found.
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Shanann Watts, who was about 15 weeks pregnant at the time, was found in a shallow grave. Authorities said Bella and Celeste were located in separate crude oil storage tanks in the same area. Their bodies were found after the tanks were emptied.
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A photo of Shanann Watts and her daughters Bella, 4, left, and Celeste, 3, are displayed at a makeshift memorial in Frederick, Colorado. (AP Photo)
In 2025, Shanann’s brother Frankie Rzucek won a UK defamation and harassment lawsuit against a YouTuber accused of spreading false claims about the family. The case resulted in the creator being ordered to shut down the channel; This is thought to be the first time a conspiracy-focused YouTube account has been removed in the UK following a legal ruling linked to harassment and defamation.
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The family said the legal victory was a turning point but did not end the larger problem.
“You can’t stop anyone from doing something because they say it’s freedom of speech. Yes, there is freedom of speech and there is freedom of hate,” Rzucek said. he said.
The body of Shanann Watts, 34, was found in a shallow grave near an oil tank on land owned by the oil and gas company where her husband worked. (Colorado Bureau of Investigation)
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In the United States, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act largely protects platforms from liability for content they did not create. The law is thought to have enabled the development of social media, but has also been criticized for limiting recourse from victims of online harassment.
On the 30th anniversary of Section 230, lawmakers pushed to reform the law, debating whether platforms should take greater responsibility for harmful or defamatory content shared on their services.
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“This is mostly unregulated,” attorney Tom Grant told Fox Nation, noting the challenges families face in removing harmful content or holding creators accountable.
The house where Chris Watts lives with his wife Laci and their two young daughters. (Google Maps)
The harassment was not limited to public posts. Family members say they have received direct messages and other communications that they describe as threatening and deeply personal, compounding their loss.
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Psychotherapist and author Lena Derhally said some people turn to alternative narratives or blame victims to bring order to events that don’t make sense.
“People want to try to make sense of the world, and so they don’t want to believe that this kind of evil exists,” Derhally told Fox Nation. “And I think that’s why we see so much victim blaming.”
