The autopsy reports for Shanann Watts and her two daughters have been completed and handed over to the man charged with their murders.
A court document filed on Monday in Weld County District Court revealed that the prosecution was ‘in receipt of the autopsy reports of Shanann, Bella, and Celeste Watts’ and ‘ have provided said documentation to the Defendant, via the discovery process.’
The reports took almost two months to complete, with the girls and their mother believed to have been killed on August 12 or 13 by their father and husband.
What is in the report remains a secret however, and will be kept under seal at the request of the prosecution.
There is a possibility that there may not be enough DNA evidence to secure a conviction in the murder of the two young girls, based on the fact that the bodies of Celeste and Bella had been submerged in an oil tank for three days before they were discovered by police.
Results: A notice filed on Monday in Weld County District Court revealed that the coroner had completed autopsy reports for Shanann, Bella and Celeste Watts (The Watts family above)
These results come on the heels of motions filed over the past three weeks by the defendant and his attorney in which they objected to demands from the prosecution to turn over prints from his hands and feet.
Those motions were ultimately overturned by the court, with the judge siding with the prosecution in the case.
Watts’ argument had been that the prosecution had not stated why they needed his prints, at a time when the autopsies of the three victims have still been submitted in the case.
‘Based on the general nature of the pleading, Mr. Watts cannot make out the government’s need for buccal swabs, finger and palm prints, nor digital photographs,’ stated the defense response to the first request earlier this month.
‘Because of that, Mr. Watts must conclude that the required seizure of Mr. Watts and the subsequent search of his person are unconstitutional for the reasons set forth below.
That could have helped Watts’ defense as there may be very little DNA evidence found on either of his daughters given the fact that their bodies were not found until almost three days after their deaths, in a nearly full oil tank during the hottest month of the year.
Watts has claimed that his wife murdered the children and he killed her in a rage after witnessing the act, as he told police on the day the bodies were discovered.
Police had already located Shanann’s body just before Watts confessed to where he had brought the bodies to police.
Shanann, who he admitted to killing, could be exonerated in her daughters’ death based on DNA evidence found on her daughters.
A lack of DNA though, or even trace amounts, would likely mean that this claim would come down to how Chris defends these allegations on the stand.