Jason E. Karels, 35, has been charged in connection with the murders of 5-year-old Bryant Karels, 2-year-old Gideon Karels and 3-year-old Cassidy Karels who were found dead inside his home in the 200 block of East Camden Lane in Round Lake Beach Monday. | Left: via Facebook – Right: Provided

A Round Lake Beach man is now being held without bond Tuesday afternoon after prosecutors say he drowned his children in a bathtub and then left a note to his wife saying, “If I can’t have them, neither can you.”

Jason E. Karels, 35, of the 200 block of East Camden Lane in Round Lake Beach, was charged Tuesday with three counts of first-degree murder.

Round Lake Beach Police Chief Gilbert Rivera said during a press conference that officers responded to the 200 block of East Camden Lane in Round Lake Beach around 1:40 p.m. Monday for a well-being check.

A mother went to the residence to pick up her three children who were with Karels, their father, for visitation for the weekend.

Rivera said the mother went into the home and found her three children dead in a bedroom.

Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Jeffery Facklam said police found a note in the house that said, “If I can’t have them neither can you,” referring to the children.

Karels was still married to his wife but they were separated, police said.

After Karels’ arrest, he made statements admitting to killing his three children.

Police investigate the murder of three children inside a residence in the 200 block of East Camden Lane in Round Lake Beach Monday afternoon. | Photo: Joe Shuman/J. Shuman Photography (2022)

He later gave a detailed statement to investigators about how he drowned each child one by one in a bathtub, Facklam said.

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Karels said during a bond hearing that he could not afford a lawyer and was seeking a public defender.

Facklam asked Lake County Judge Theodore Potkonjak to order Karels held without bond.

Potkonjak said he could not order that because Facklam had not filed a petition with the court asking for the no bond.

Last Wednesday, Potkonjak ordered Karels held on a $10 million bond.

After the bond hearing, the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office filed the petition.

A bond review was held Tuesday afternoon following the petition being filed.

Potkonjak granted prosecutors’ request to hold Karels without bond.

Police investigate the murder of three children inside a residence in the 200 block of East Camden Lane in Round Lake Beach Monday afternoon. | Photo: Woo-Sung Shim / Lake and McHenry County Scanner

According to Rivera, the Round Lake Beach police issued an alert to area police departments across the Chicago area following the triple murder.

Illinois State Police spotted Karels’ red 2010 Nissan Maxima and attempted a traffic stop on him.

Karels refused to stop and led officers on a 17-minute high-speed pursuit where he crashed into a heavily wooded area on Interstate 80 near Water Street in Joliet.

Karels had to be extricated from the vehicle by firefighters.

Officers wearing bodycams captured Karels admitting to killing his three kids.

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Rivera said that Karels had attempted suicide multiple times leading up to his arrest, including at the crime scene at his residence where investigators found a “significant amount” of blood that did not belong to his kids.

Karels was hospitalized and police said last Tuesday he had been released from the hospital and transported to the Lake County Jail.

Round Lake Beach Police Chief Gilbert Rivera talks to members of the media during a press conference at the Round Lake Beach Police Department Tuesday afternoon. | Photo: Woo-Sung Shim / Lake and McHenry County Scanner

Lake County Chief Deputy Coroner Steve Newton said preliminary autopsies on the three victims indicate they died from drowning.

Newton identified the children as Gideon Karels, age 2; Cassidy Karels, age 3; and Bryant Karels, age 5.

No other substantial injuries were evident on the children, Newton said. Toxicology results are pending.

Rivera said officers did not a history with Karels or the family. Investigators are also unaware of any mental illness history.

Rivera did not disclose an exact motive for the killings but called it a “domestic situation.”

Police investigate the murder of three children inside a residence in the 200 block of East Camden Lane in Round Lake Beach Monday afternoon. | Photo: Willie Gillespie (@wgweather)

“We are all touched by this. This is not something you go to and are unaffected by. What they [officers] saw yesterday is something no one should have to see,” Rivera said.

Lake County Board Member Dick Barr said Monday evening that the three children were “taken from this earth by unspeakable evil.”

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“That unspeakable evil existed in the heart and mind of the man who so heinously took the lives of three of his own children,” Barr said.

“This was not a criminal act that is emblematic of who we are or where we live, rather a selfish soul, void of humanity, void of compassion, void of mental well being, who cared more about himself than he did about his own children,” Barr said.

Police investigate the murder of three children inside a residence in the 200 block of East Camden Lane in Round Lake Beach Monday afternoon. | Photo: Joe Shuman/J. Shuman Photography (2022)

“As heart broken as I am, I am equally angry. I’m angry that this coward is not dead while his innocent children are stacked up at the morgue and his estranged wife weeps with sorrow no human alive should ever have to endure,” he added.

Barr, a Round Lake Beach resident, said he started a GoFundMe account to help raise money for the mother of the children.

The fundraiser has already collected more than $60,000 in a day.

Authorities said additional charges are possible against Karels, who remains held in the Lake County Jail.

He is scheduled to appear in court again on July 13 for a preliminary hearing.

The incident remains under investigation by the Round Lake Beach Police Department.