dennis and sharon return as a couple, after several months away, and demand to see den. dennis is unconvinced by chrissie's story that den has left her for another woman but drops the matter to spare sharon's feelings. dennis and sharon go on to marry, and following this, they learn that sam mitchell had exhumed their father's body from his grave in the cellar of the queen victoria public house. den was murdered by chrissie in february 2005 after she, zoe and sam confronted him about his manipulation of lies regarding the three of them (den had tricked sam into selling him the queen vic). chrissie had also lured sharon back to overhear den's confessions so that den would lose the one person in his life that he truly loved. den attacked chrissie and zoe hit den with a doorstop to stop him. den then grabbed chrissie who delivered a fatal blow, leaving zoe to believe she had killed him. the three women then buried his body in the basement. dennis and sharon, with the help of phil and grant mitchell, soon bring chrissie to justice and sell the queen vic back to the mitchells, apparently concluding the watts/mitchell feud. dennis later visits den's grave and tearfully mourns the father he never had.