Prosecutors said Wednesday the Illinois man facing charges of drowning his three children in a bathtub left a chilling letter to his estranged wife.
“Mr. Karels left a note in the house that said, ‘If I can’t have them, you can’t,'” Lake County Attorney Eric Rinehart said during Jason’s trial. Karels on Wednesday.
Karels, 35, has been charged with murder for the Monday deaths of his three young children — 5-year-old Bryant, 3-year-old Cassie and 2-year-old Gideon. On Wednesday, a Lake County judge set the father’s bail at $10 million.
Prosecutors allege that after Karels drowned his children one after another in the bathroom, he wrote a gruesome letter to his estranged wife, Debra Karels. Hours later, Debra called the police asking them to do a welfare check at his home. The devastated mother, who spoke exclusively to The Daily Beast on Tuesdaysaid she plans to pick up the baby according to the doctor’s appointment.
When Round Lake Beach police stormed the Camden Lane home, they found three dead children and their father missing, prompting a massive search. Karels was eventually tracked in his red Nissan Maxima on a local highway and arrested after a 17-minute high-speed chase that ended in a crash.
“Following the collision, Karels made a statement to police officers involved in the chase and wore a body-worn camera indicating he was responsible for the deaths of children at the Round Lake home. Beach,” Round Lake Beach Sheriff Gilbert Rivera said Tuesday. press conference announcing the charges. “He also said that he attempted suicide several times after the deaths of the children but was unsuccessful in these attempts.”
Authorities have indicated that the sensational killings were “driven by the domestic situation.” Debra Karels’ sister-in-law, Christina Neuman Berg, told The Daily Beast on Wednesday that Jason “has serious mental problems and refuses to get help”.
Debra Karels told The Daily Beast on Wednesday that she was disappointed by the news that her estranged husband, with whom she is in the process of divorce, was bailed because of the nature of the crime. She added that she was aware of the note but had not seen it in person.
“I don’t want to see it,” she said.
