Wisconsin dad accused of killing his children, aged 3 and 5, after they were left in his care by estranged wife
KAUKAUNA, WISCONSIN: The father of two young children has been arrested and accused of "intentional homicide" more than three months after the siblings were found dead inside a Kaukauna home in Wisconsin. The police gave away no details when they announced the arrest of Matthew Beyer who was the biological father of 5-year-old William and 3-year-old Danielle Beyer. The two bodies were found on the second floor of a duplex just after 7 am on Feb 17.
According to the medical examiner's office, the children had died from "intentionally conflicted injuries", People reports. Matthew Beyer had been booked into the Outagamie County Jail after being linked to their deaths. The Kaukauna Police Department said in a statement on their Facebook page that they will be forwarding charges of two counts of first-degree intentional homicide against Beyer to the Outagamie County District Attorney’s Office. The statement read, "The Kaukauna Police Department has forwarded charges of 2 counts of First Degree Intentional Homicide to the Outagamie County District Attorney’s Office. Any further information regarding the offense will be released through the District Attorney’s Office criminal complaint."
"We want to thank the community for their cooperation and patience during the investigation of this incident," the statement continued. The Kaukauna Police Chief Jamie Graff said in a press conference that officers had responded to call where the caller "indicated their children needed help." However, he did not identify the person who had made the call. At the time, Graff had shared with reporters, "Any time a death occurs due to intentional injuries, it is shocking to the community, but when the victims are children, it's unbearable."
The children's shared obituary had described the siblings as "inseparable" and read, "Will was Dani's protector and Dani always looked up to Will. They were both always smiling with their great big smiles and were just happy to always be together." The children's biological estranged mother Melissa Schuth was living apart from Beyer and the children at the time of their deaths. She had also been looking to get sole custody and primary placement of her children, family documents revealed, Post-Crescent reports. As per the documents, Beyer was allowed to take the children on alternate Saturdays starting from December 14.
On the same day that the two children had died, a review hearing in the family court had been scheduled to take place. According to documents, Schuth claimed that Beyer would "periodically make the assertion that one or more of the children weren't his" and that the two would argue over where to exchange the children. She wanted to have sole custody and wanted Beyer to have "non-specifically scheduled, non-overnight alternate periods of placement on 24-hours notices," the court documents say.
Kaukauna Mayor Tony Penterman said, "Thank you to the Kaukauna Police Department investigative team, the State of Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation, and all other agencies involved for their countless hours put into this case. And thank you to the community for your patience during the investigation. We are relieved that an arrest has been made," Wbay reports.