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Funeral services held in North Carolina for Colorado mother Shanann Watts, daughters

Posted at 2:31 PM, Sep 01, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-02 11:39:08-04

PINEHURST, N.C. — Friends and family came together Saturday to honor and remember the family of 34-year-old Shanann Watts and her daughters, 4-year-old Bella Marie and 3-year-old Celeste Cathryn.

Funeral services for the for the pregnant Frederick woman and her two daughters, and Shanann’s unborn child, which the family said was going to be called Nico, were held Saturday at the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Pinehurst, North Carolina.

The three caskets were led into the church as mourners filled the pews. Father John Forbes delivered the eulogy.

“Shanann was a woman of love. She loved God; she loved her family; And she loved her friends,” Forbes said. “Shanann was a woman of determination. Her mother describes her as a fireball.”

Forbes said the family would like to see changes to the law in the wake of this tragedy.

“They’d like to see a law passed to recognize the lives of unborn children like their grandson Nico,” Forbes said. 

Watch the service in the player below:

During the funeral at a Catholic church, Father John Forbes read comments aloud from Shanann Watts' family.

"You are nothing but pure love, always caring for everyone," her father, Frank Rzucek, wrote. "You will always be daddy's little girl."

The bodies of the three murder victims were found Aug. 16 in Weld County on property owned by Andarko Petroleum. Chris Watts, 33, Shanann’s husband and father of the two girls, was arrested the previous day on suspicion of killing his wife and children. He remains in a Weld County jail without bail and has not yet entered a plea.

The family asks people to donate to the Lupus Foundation of America, the Frederick (Colo.) Police Department Missing Persons Division or the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in lieu of flowers. People can leave messages for the family by clicking here.