“They were excited to hear my news. “They were excited to talk,” Karels told The Daily Beast. “They did nothing special, they just looked excited that I would get them the next morning.” But a few hours later, Karels called the police, asking her to do a welfare check on the home of her estranged husband, Jason Karels. When Round Lake Beach police raided Camden Lane’s home, they found the three children – 5-year-old Bryant, 3-year-old Cassie and 2-year-old Gideon – dead. Their father was missing. The horrific discovery sparked a huge search for Jason Karels, who was eventually spotted in his red Nissan Maxima on a local freeway. He was arrested after a 17-minute high-speed chase that ended in a crash. The 35-year-old father later admitted to drowning his three children, adding that he had tried to commit suicide several times after the killings, police said. Karels was taken to a local hospital and remains in custody. Lake County Medical Examiner’s Office said Tuesday that preliminary autopsies of the three children show they all died of drowning, though it remains unclear exactly where they died. Police said there was blood in the house but not in the children. “I am just in disbelief. You never think that something like this will happen to you. “I never thought he would do that to his children,” Karels said. “But now I know, if you have any doubts, do not ignore it and stay in your arms.” Authorities have said the shocking killings – which have shaken the troubled Illinois community – are “due to a domestic situation.” Debra Karels’s sister-in-law told the Daily Beast that Jason “had serious mental health problems and refused to ask for help”. “Unfortunately, there was domestic violence in their relationship and Debbie finally found the strength to leave him and get a divorce,” Christina Neumann Berg, who is married to Debbie’s brother, said on Tuesday. “But Debbie wanted to have a relationship with the father of her children and let him visit them, and now we know it was a horrible mistake.” Karels also noted that she had just started the divorce proceedings and had left Jason a month earlier, even taking out a loan to keep a lawyer. She said her estranged husband had pushed for a visit with the children, which he allowed despite the low voice in his head because he said he “would never hurt the children”. “He said ‘all my beef is with you,’” Karels said, noting that he even talked about possible family reunification at the doctor’s visit Monday. “He wanted the children to be peaceful.” Bursting into tears, Karels described her three children as “wonderful”, each with a unique personality. Bryant, he said, was a “very, very smart” kid who loved video games and was looking forward to starting kindergarten this year. “He said, ‘Do not worry mom, I will always take care of you,’” he added. Her only daughter, Cassidy, was a “little middle-aged child” whom Karels believed would protect her siblings. The youngest, Gideon, “was a sweet mommy boy” obsessed with dinosaurs and Mickey Mouse. Dick Barr, a member of Lake County’s board, told the Daily Beast that the tragic deaths have taken members of the community by surprise, who are now trying their best to help Karel rebuild their lives. “This community has always been involved in tragedy,” added Barr, who also started GoFundMe. But for Karels and Berg, knowing that Jason Karels is already in custody and charged with three counts of murder gives them hope that “justice is still being done.” “We want justice,” Berg said. “He must face the consequences of his actions. “He has to pay for what he did.”
