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FREDERICK, Colo. (AP) -- Colorado authorities prepared Friday to file formal charges against an oil and gas worker accused of killing his pregnant wife and two young daughters inside their suburban home, then dumping their bodies on his employer's property.
Police said the mother, Shanann Watts, 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 what they believe are the bodies of 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste nearby on Thursday.
The operator position generally charges employees with routine visits to oil fields, checking on the status of wells, maintaining the equipment and fixing any issues. Watts was fired on Wednesday, the same day he was arrested, the company said.
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.
According to a June 2015 bankruptcy filing, 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.
But the family remained caught between a promising future and financial strain from debt and other obligations.
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 that their nearly $3,000 mortgage and $600 in monthly car payments formed the bulk of their $4,900 in monthly expenses.
Police have not released any information about a motive or how the three were killed. Authorities did not immediately respond to messages Friday seeking information about exactly where the families' bodies were found.
Details about what led police to arrest Watts late Wednesday night on suspicion of three counts apiece of murder and tampering with evidence likely were to be revealed next week.
Prosecutors also will ask a court to unseal the affidavit for Watts' arrest after filing formal charges, due by Monday afternoon, said Krista Henery, a spokeswoman for district attorney Michael Rourke.
Henery declined to answer questions Friday about where the mother and daughters' bodies were found or whether police still are processing that scene.