With Father’s Day right around the corner, you see a lot of celebrations of fatherhood everywhere. But then on the other side, you also see heartbreaking stories like these which make you rethink everything you might know.
On Tuesday in Round Lake Beach in Illinois, police officials came across an incredibly disturbing case. A mother had to pick up her children from her estranged husband but felt something was off. She contacted the police around 1:40 p.m. to perform a wellness check to see what was going on.
Upon the police’s arrival at the location, they found the three children, 5-year-old Bryant, 3-year-old Cassidy, and 2-year-old Gideon Karels dead.
The children were identified by the Lake County Coroner’s Office, who also confirmed that a preliminary autopsy revealed that the cause of death for the children had been drowning.
The mother is devastated at this tragic loss of her three beloved children. To help her grieve in peace, Lake County Board Member Dick Barr set up a GoFundMe account to help her raise money. He wanted to ensure that the mother Debbie, is able to focus on healing and not have to worry about finances.
“She wants people to know who they were, and she wants people to remember them, we’re getting hundreds of emails from people saying ‘what else can we do?'” Barr said.
As for the father, when police arrived at the scene they found Jason Karels and his car, a Nissan Maxima, missing. His car was located soon after at I-57 at 115th Street after which a high-speed chase ensued. The chase came to an end in a wooded area after the father’s car crashed.
Once he was apprehended by police, he confessed to the murders of his three children.
“After the crash, Karels made statements to police officers involved in the chase and wearing body-worn cameras indicating he was responsible for the deaths of the children at the Round Lake Beach home,” Round Lake Beach Police Chief Gilbert Rivera said.
The police reported that the father also confessed to attempting suicide after he killed his children but his several attempts to take his own life, all failed.
I don’t know that anything could’ve stopped this or if there were any early indications of it,” Chief Rivera said to the press, adding “as I mentioned, we were not familiar with this family nor with the house.”
However, on the GoFundMe page, it has been alleged by Lake County Board Member Dick Barr, that the father suffered from some kind of ‘mental illness’ which prompted his actions. But nothing has been confirmed about what prompted his horrific actions.
After his treatment at the hospital was complete, Karels was transported to the Lake County Jail where he will stay till his court hearing on Wednesday morning.
This is such a heartbreaking story and one you would never expect.
Please join us in praying for the three lives that were lost too young.
