Eight years after murdering his pregnant wife and two young daughters, Chris Watts reportedly wants to become a husband again.
Watts, 41, is serving multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole at Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin. Now, he and his reported girlfriend, 39-year-old Lizzie Henderson, have applied to marry within the prison system, according to PEOPLE and the Daily Mail.
The development is drawing renewed attention to the 2018 murders of Shanann Watts, 34, who was 15 weeks pregnant with the couple’s son, Nico, and their daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3.
Henderson, a former real estate agent from Cleveland, Ohio, reportedly relocated to Wisconsin to be closer to Watts and has become a frequent visitor at the maximum-security prison. Wisconsin court records also show that a woman named Lizzie Henderson filed for a confidential legal name change in 2025. According to the Daily Mail, she has begun going by “Lizzie Watts.”
Henderson confirmed her relationship with Watts to the outlet and acknowledged that others may find it difficult to understand.
“How things began is between me, him and God,” she said.
Asked how she feels about the murders, Henderson said Watts knows her position.
“He knows how I feel. I don’t know all the people involved but I would want to respect them,” she said, calling the killings “something harsh for anyone to experience.”
On Aug. 13, 2018, Watts murdered Shanann at their Colorado home before taking her body and their daughters to an oil field where he worked. He later admitted to killing Bella and Celeste and disposing of their bodies in oil tanks at the site.
Investigators said Watts was having an affair with a co-worker at the time. Shanann had expressed concerns about their deteriorating marriage to a friend in the days before her death, but there was no indication she believed her life or her children's lives were in danger.
Watts initially denied involvement in his family's disappearance and appeared publicly asking for their safe return. He later pleaded guilty to the murders in exchange for prosecutors agreeing not to pursue the death penalty. He was sentenced to five life terms without the possibility of parole.
His reported relationship with Henderson follows years of correspondence with women from behind bars.
PEOPLE reported in 2020 that Watts was exchanging letters with multiple female pen pals. Interest reportedly increased following the release of Netflix’s “American Murder: The Family Next Door,” which introduced the case to an even wider audience. By 2022, a source told PEOPLE that some women were sending Watts suggestive photographs and letters.
“There are a lot of women who think he’s handsome and misunderstood,” the source said.
It remains unclear whether Watts and Henderson will ultimately be allowed to marry. But the reported application has once again put attention on a case that continues to haunt many who followed it — and on the wife and children whose lives were taken by the man now seeking another chance to say “I do.”
