Suburban Chicago man charged with drowning his 3 young children left note for estranged wife: "If I can't have them, neither can you"
A suburban Chicago man charged in the drowning deaths of his three young children left a note for his estranged wife saying, "If I can't have them, neither can you," prosecutors said Wednesday.
The note was mentioned during a bond hearing for Jason E. Karels, 35, of Round Lake Beach, who faces three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths Monday of 5-year-old Bryant Karels, 3-year-old Cassidy Karels and 2-year-old Gideon Karels.
Officers sent to his home to check on the children's welfare found the note, prosecutors said.
Jason Karels appeared before Lake County Judge Theodore Potkonjak and was ordered held on a $10 million bond. It was not immediately known if Karels had a lawyer to speak on his behalf.
"The most important thing to me were the kids, and he knew that," his estranged wife Debra Karels told CBS Chicago. "He knew that nothing mattered but those children, and he took them away from me, because he knew that would hurt me the most."
She told the station she left her husband one month ago because he "neglected this family."
She had brought the children to visit their father this past weekend.
"I thought what was right was the father should be involved. The father should see them," she said.
Dozens gathered Wednesday at the Round Lake Beach municipal building to support Debra, who is grieving an unthinkable loss.
"My children were absolutely amazing. They were three beautiful little souls that didn't deserve this," she told the station.
The Lake County State's Attorney's Office will seek to hold Karels without the possibility of cash bond, and that motion will be heard in court on July 13, prosecutor Jeff Fackham said.
Karels was arrested after leading police on a chase that ended in a crash Monday at an Interstate 80 bridge in Joliet, Round Lake Beach police Chief Gilbert Rivera said at a news conference Tuesday.
Karels was hospitalized after the crash but has since been released, prosecutors said.
After the crash in Joliet, Karels told first responders he was responsible for his children's deaths and had attempted to kill himself before fleeing the home, Rivera said. Officers found the man's blood in the house from his attempts to hurt himself, Rivera said.
Debra Karels told CBS Chicago the murders happened amid divorce proceedings.
"I just had so much faith; so much faith, so much love that it would all work out in the end, and it didn't," she said.