Missing girls identified, had been submerged in oil for four days

FREDERICK, Colo. -- The bodies of two young girls were submerged in crude oil for four days before authorities discovered them Thursday, according to court documents filed Friday by an attorney defending the girls' father against accusations that he killed his children and wife.

The motion filed Friday by Christopher Watts' attorney, James Merson, also asked that DNA swabs be taken from the girls' necks. The request quotes an expert who believes the oil would not eliminate DNA and said samples can be obtained "after strangulation."

Authorities separately announced the Weld County Coroner's Office had performed autopsies Friday and confirmed the bodies as 34-year-old Shanann, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste Watts.

Police did not release any information about how the mother and daughters died. More testing is planned to help determine the cause of their deaths.

Richard Eikelenboom, the expert cited by Watts' attorney, also recommended taking DNA samples from the girls' hands and the hands and nails of their mother. Eikelenboom has testified in several high-profile criminal trials, often on so-called "touch DNA" when small samples of genetic material are left on a surface.

After his wife and daughters were reported missing Monday and before his arrest, Watts told reporters he missed them, and longed for the simple things like telling his girls to eat their dinner and gazing at them as they curled up to watch cartoons.

Authorities are expected to file formal charges Monday against Watts, an oil and gas worker who authorities said dumped his wife and daughters' bodies on his employer's property.

Police said the mother, Shanann, was found dead on property owned by Anadarko Petroleum, one of the state's largest oil and gas drillers, where 33-year-old Christopher Watts worked as an operator. Investigators found the bodies of Bella and Celeste nearby.

Watts was fired on Wednesday, the same day he was arrested, the company said. He did not respond to reporters' questions when he was escorted into the courtroom Thursday.

Merson, Watts' attorney through the Colorado State Public Defender's Office, left Thursday's court hearing without commenting to reporters. He did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment by The Associated Press.

Police have not released any information about a motive or how the three were killed.

The family's two-story home is just outside Frederick, a small town on the grassy plains north of Denver, where fast-growing subdivisions intermingle with drilling rigs and oil wells.

A June 2015 bankruptcy filing depicts a family caught between a promising future and financial strain.

Christopher Watts had gotten a job six months earlier as an operator for Anadarko, and paystubs indicate his annual salary was about $61,500. Shanann Watts was working in a call center at a children's hospital at the time, earning about $18 an hour -- more for evenings, weekends or extra shifts she sometimes worked.

The couple had a combined income of $90,000 in 2014. But they also had tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, along with some student loans and medical bills -- for a total of $70,000 in unsecured claims on top of a sizable mortgage.

They said in the filing their nearly $3,000 mortgage and $600 in monthly car payments formed the bulk of their $4,900 in monthly expenses.

Christopher Watts, who is being held without bail, was arrested on suspicion of three counts of murder and three counts of tampering with evidence.

The case also has focused attention on Colorado's lack of a law allowing homicide charges in the violent deaths of fetuses, which is the case in 12 states. Proposals to allow homicide charges in the violent deaths of fetuses in Colorado have been stymied by debate about how to avoid infringing on abortion rights.

Republican lawmakers last tried to change the law after a 2015 case in Boulder County. A woman named Dynel Lane was charged with attempted murder and unlawful termination of a pregnancy for cutting open a pregnant woman's belly and removing her unborn baby girl.

Prosecutors said they could not charge Lane with murder because a coroner found no evidence the infant lived outside the womb.

State law does allow a homicide charge if a fetus was alive outside the mother's body and then killed. State lawmakers in 2013 also allowed prosecutors to add extra felony charges against anyone who commits a crime that causes the death of a fetus.

The law can add up to 32 years to a prison sentence. The top punishment for homicide in Colorado is the death penalty or life in prison.