Christopher Watts Tragedy House Auction Now Delayed Until 2020

The postponement marks the third this year.

September 9, 2019

The Watts family prior to the August 2018 triple homicide. Family photo via crimeonline.com

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The auction of the house in Frederick, Colorado, where admitted slayer Christopher Watts killed his pregnant wife and two children in August 2018 has been pushed back again, just as we predicted last month. Now the property won't go on the block until 2020 at the earliest.

In the rash of articles marking a year since Watt murdered his wife, Shanann, and their kids, three-year-old Celeste and four-year-old Bella, the Denver Post and many other publications announced the auction date for the residence at 2825 Saratoga Trail as September 18. But attorney Jessica Hale, whose law firm, McCarthy Holthus, LLP, represents the seller, JPMorgan Chase Bank, made it clear via email that the odds of such a transaction happening were mighty slim.

"Unfortunately, we cannot provide any detail as to why the sale has been postponed," Hale wrote about previous delays for sales scheduled on April 17 and July 17, respectively. "I predict the sale will not be taking place 9/18/2019."

That turned out to be accurate. The website of Weld County Public Trustee Susie Velasquez now lists the date as January 8, 2020.

The potential for a change didn't shock Velasquez, who will be handling the proceedings whenever they take place. "Some foreclosures are continued several times, and we usually don't know why," she told us last month. "We just receive information from the attorney for the lender, and they don't give us a reason."

One possibility: While there's a lot of curiosity about the house, as Velasquez acknowledged, there may be considerably less interest in paying market value for the setting of violence so extreme that it made coast-to-coast headlines for weeks. More details can be found in our post "Watts Family Killings Update and Why Colorado Crimes So Often Go National."

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Michael Roberts began his career with Westword in 1990 as music editor. In 1999, he took on a new role, full-time media reporter, as author of a column called The Message. In 2008, he became the lead writer for Westword's news blog, The Latest Word, a position he held until January 2023. Michael continues to freelance for Westword, covering everything from business to sports and the media; he also contributes to Jazziz, a national music magazine. He holds a bachelor's degree from what is now Colorado Mesa University and master's degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Northwestern University.

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