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Watts Court Documents Suggests Victims Were Strangled

WELD COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4)- The defense attorney for the man accused of murdering his pregnant wife and two young children has petitioned the court to collect DNA samples during the autopsies. Those same documents suggest the victims may have been strangled.

Chris Watts was identified as the sole suspect in the triple homicide investigation, and appeared in court on Thursday. In court documents filed by the state, the bodies of two of the victims in Frederick were in an oil well filled with crude oil for four days.

chris watts
Chris Watts (credit: CBS)

Frederick Police, the FBI, and CBI joined other agencies in the three-day search for Shanann Watts, and her daughters Bella and Celeste.

Shanann Watts
(credit: CBS)

Chris Watts reported them as missing after suggesting they went to visit a friend and never returned.

Wednesday night, Chris was arrested on suspicion of three counts of first-degree murder, and three counts of tampering with deceased bodies.

Sources told CBS4 Watts admitted to murdering his family, though law enforcement would not confirm nor deny those allegations.

chris watts in court
Chris Watts (credit: CBS)

The autopsies were scheduled to begin Friday. In the court documents filed on Friday afternoon, Watts' attorneys filed a motion that "an expert be present at the autopsies to take swabs consistent with what" the DNA expert recommends.

That expert, Richard Eikelenboom, stated, "I have a lot of experience taking samples from dead bodies getting good results after strangulation."

Eikelenboom is a forensic scientist who has testified as a DNA expert in trials across Colorado.

Watts is scheduled to appear in court at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

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