Editor's note: Below is the first of a two-part profile of Jeremy and Armin Wand III. The story continues Tuesday.
ARGYLE - A week and a half after he was charged in a homicidal arson plot, 18-year-old Jeremy Wand wrote his parents a letter from jail in pencil on yellow legal pad paper.
"Dear Dad and Mom, Hey how are you doing? Myself could be better, but stuff has changed a little it seems like," he wrote. (Minor spelling errors and typos in the letter have been corrected for clarity.)
"My bail got put at $1.2 million. Yeah, high right? ... I heard what happened became nationwide news and everyone heard about it."
He's been reading Merlin R. Carothers' collection of redemption stories, "Answers to Praise," and wrote, "It's a good book, so while I'm in here God will be with me."
Before he signed off with a heart shape and "Your son, Jeremy S. Wand," he tended to a practical matter, his paper route.
"Can you do the route for me Mom and I'll share the money with you?"
His parents, Barbara Wand and Armin Wand, Jr., are caught in the middle of a tragedy.
Not only have they lost three grandchildren, their own sons are accused as the culprits, and the case is attracting national attention. In the midst of this, the Wand family is grappling to understand the sequence of events that landed their sons in jail.
They got Jeremy's letter Thursday, Sept. 20.
On a Thursday night two weeks earlier, authorities say Jeremy snuck out of his parents' home to help his older brother, Armin Wand III, set fire to the elder brother's rental house in a plan to kill his pregnant wife and four children and collect on their life insurance. During the early morning hours of Friday, Sept. 7, the blaze spread around the home on Oak Street, located on the southeastern edge of this town of 857 wedged in the farm hills of Lafayette County.
Three of the children died in the house fire: Allen, 7, Jeffery, 5, and Joseph "Jo Jo," 3. Their little sister, 2-year-old Jessica, survived. When firefighters arrived, their mother was in the driveway, severely burned and screaming for her children. Sharon Wand lost the baby she was carrying and, six weeks after the fire, is still in critical condition at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison.
The criminal complaints against the Wand brothers describe a gut-wrenching chain of events. Armin III told investigators he was tired of his family struggling day-to-day and wanted a "fresh start." Jeremy, a senior at Argyle High School, said he agreed to the arson plan when his older brother promised him a $300 cut of the insurance settlement, and snuck out his parents' home to help. Most startling, Armin III reportedly tried to put his little girl back in the burning house through a window after her mother saved her. He faces an extra homicide charge for this.
News outlets across the country picked up the Wand case. Even sharp-tongued cable star Nancy Grace expressed interest in the story. Her show ultimately decided against airing a segment on the Wands, apparently in favor of lurid headlines such as "425-pound gang member tried to kidnap boy" and "Teen girl kills baby, hides remains in shoebox."
As the state collects evidence in preparation for the Wands' preliminary hearing Nov. 13, their family has been trying to make sense of what's happened.
Over the course of several visits from The Monroe Times to their home in Argyle - about a 10-minute walk from the house that burned - the family was often gathered around the kitchen table, an aluminum coffeemaker percolating on the counter.
Armin Jr., 56, sits in the same chair during each visit, with a can of Budweiser and his Fortuna cigarettes nearby. He's quick to laugh and crack jokes. "I like to clown around," he says, grinning. He has cerebral palsy, and one of his legs is shorter than the other. His gait is stiff and he steadies himself on furniture when he gets up to walk to the bathroom. A doctor once told him he'd be in a wheelchair by age 20, but he's stubborn. "I still refuse to go in a wheelchair."
His wife Barbara, 57, rarely sits. After state investigators searched the home for evidence related to the charges against Jeremy, Barbara was the one to scurry around cleaning up and to fuss over what a mess they left.
Barbara and Armin Jr.'s youngest child, 14-year-old Jason, has disabilities and during the week is at a school in Janesville for the deaf and blind. Their eldest, 34-year-old Tammy, lives down the street with her three young children and often comes up to visit.
Extended family is also close. Armin III's brother Gary, 52, lives in the basement for $180 a month. Armin Jr. says Gary is on disability for being "dumb" - a word he tosses off, half-joking. Gary just smiles, not disputing it. He's quieter than his brother and looks happiest when the family's Chihuahua, Molly, is curled up in the crook of his arm.
Gary and Armin Jr.'s wheelchair-bound mother Wilma, 78, also lives in the home. She drinks beer with her sons, but out of a coffee mug, and enjoys telling a good story, like the time she prepared a meal with rattlesnake meat for her unsuspecting husband.
He's the original Armin Wand. He's 86, has Alzheimer's and lives at Pleasant View Nursing Home in Monroe. Wilma says he still knows who she is, despite his illness: "He'll call me 'honey' on the phone, so he knows." Next June is the couple's 60th anniversary.
Wilma and her husband are the targets of another disturbing story to come out of the coverage of the Wand brothers' case. A TV station in Madison unearthed court records from 1962 alleging the couple abused and neglected their children while living in rural Dakota, Ill. The Channel 3000 news report called it "a glimpse from the past that experts say helps better understand the mindset" of Armin III.
A story in the June 26, 1962 Freeport Journal-Standard reveals the Wand children - ages 7, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 6 months - were improperly fed and routinely locked in an attic with no toilet facilities. Witnesses in court testified that human excrement was caked all over the floors, smeared on the walls and on the children.
"I thought of bringing a pail up once," Wilma is quoted as saying, "but my husband said not to ... I said I'd rather have the pail stinky than let it get all over the floor, but he wouldn't let me take it up there. So what's up there is his fault, not mine."
Wilma, then just shy of her 28th birthday and pregnant with her seventh child, also testified that her husband frequently beat the 3-year-old with a belt buckle.
Now, five decades later, she clams up when asked about what happened and refuses to talk about it or how it may relate to the homicide charges against her grandsons.
Her son speaks up.
"That has nothing to do with this case," Armin Jr. says. "Isn't there a statute of limitations? I was only 6 years old so I don't remember half of it."
Then, calmer, he reflects, "I'm not going to say what happened in 1962 isn't true. I've got a newspaper clipping about it in the basement."
In the first week after the fire, Armin Jr. flat out denied his sons "would do that." After state investigators released a criminal complaint with admissions of guilt from the two brothers, his conviction faltered: "I don't know what to believe anymore." Now, after visiting his sons in jail, he and Barbara suspect investigators pressured Armin III and Jeremy into confessing.
"He was set up, the way I look at it," Barbara says of Jeremy.
Furthermore, she claims the house has faulty wiring and the night of the fire, it was thundering and lightning.
Whatever happened that night in early September, many questions nag at the family. If Jeremy needed $300, why didn't he ask his parents? Why would Armin III buy a $2,000 television two days before the fire if he was planning to burn the house down? Why didn't they hear Molly bark if Jeremy snuck out that night? How could Armin III and Jeremy cause the deaths of the children they loved?
The family doesn't have answers. All they have is Jeremy's letter.
"Wish I was home and none of this happened, but we can't change the past. Please write or visit."
Coming Tuesday: A look at the Wand brothers growing up like "two peas in a pod."
ARGYLE - A week and a half after he was charged in a homicidal arson plot, 18-year-old Jeremy Wand wrote his parents a letter from jail in pencil on yellow legal pad paper.
"Dear Dad and Mom, Hey how are you doing? Myself could be better, but stuff has changed a little it seems like," he wrote. (Minor spelling errors and typos in the letter have been corrected for clarity.)
"My bail got put at $1.2 million. Yeah, high right? ... I heard what happened became nationwide news and everyone heard about it."
He's been reading Merlin R. Carothers' collection of redemption stories, "Answers to Praise," and wrote, "It's a good book, so while I'm in here God will be with me."
Before he signed off with a heart shape and "Your son, Jeremy S. Wand," he tended to a practical matter, his paper route.
"Can you do the route for me Mom and I'll share the money with you?"
His parents, Barbara Wand and Armin Wand, Jr., are caught in the middle of a tragedy.
Not only have they lost three grandchildren, their own sons are accused as the culprits, and the case is attracting national attention. In the midst of this, the Wand family is grappling to understand the sequence of events that landed their sons in jail.
They got Jeremy's letter Thursday, Sept. 20.
On a Thursday night two weeks earlier, authorities say Jeremy snuck out of his parents' home to help his older brother, Armin Wand III, set fire to the elder brother's rental house in a plan to kill his pregnant wife and four children and collect on their life insurance. During the early morning hours of Friday, Sept. 7, the blaze spread around the home on Oak Street, located on the southeastern edge of this town of 857 wedged in the farm hills of Lafayette County.
Three of the children died in the house fire: Allen, 7, Jeffery, 5, and Joseph "Jo Jo," 3. Their little sister, 2-year-old Jessica, survived. When firefighters arrived, their mother was in the driveway, severely burned and screaming for her children. Sharon Wand lost the baby she was carrying and, six weeks after the fire, is still in critical condition at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison.
The criminal complaints against the Wand brothers describe a gut-wrenching chain of events. Armin III told investigators he was tired of his family struggling day-to-day and wanted a "fresh start." Jeremy, a senior at Argyle High School, said he agreed to the arson plan when his older brother promised him a $300 cut of the insurance settlement, and snuck out his parents' home to help. Most startling, Armin III reportedly tried to put his little girl back in the burning house through a window after her mother saved her. He faces an extra homicide charge for this.
News outlets across the country picked up the Wand case. Even sharp-tongued cable star Nancy Grace expressed interest in the story. Her show ultimately decided against airing a segment on the Wands, apparently in favor of lurid headlines such as "425-pound gang member tried to kidnap boy" and "Teen girl kills baby, hides remains in shoebox."
As the state collects evidence in preparation for the Wands' preliminary hearing Nov. 13, their family has been trying to make sense of what's happened.
Over the course of several visits from The Monroe Times to their home in Argyle - about a 10-minute walk from the house that burned - the family was often gathered around the kitchen table, an aluminum coffeemaker percolating on the counter.
Armin Jr., 56, sits in the same chair during each visit, with a can of Budweiser and his Fortuna cigarettes nearby. He's quick to laugh and crack jokes. "I like to clown around," he says, grinning. He has cerebral palsy, and one of his legs is shorter than the other. His gait is stiff and he steadies himself on furniture when he gets up to walk to the bathroom. A doctor once told him he'd be in a wheelchair by age 20, but he's stubborn. "I still refuse to go in a wheelchair."
His wife Barbara, 57, rarely sits. After state investigators searched the home for evidence related to the charges against Jeremy, Barbara was the one to scurry around cleaning up and to fuss over what a mess they left.
Barbara and Armin Jr.'s youngest child, 14-year-old Jason, has disabilities and during the week is at a school in Janesville for the deaf and blind. Their eldest, 34-year-old Tammy, lives down the street with her three young children and often comes up to visit.
Extended family is also close. Armin III's brother Gary, 52, lives in the basement for $180 a month. Armin Jr. says Gary is on disability for being "dumb" - a word he tosses off, half-joking. Gary just smiles, not disputing it. He's quieter than his brother and looks happiest when the family's Chihuahua, Molly, is curled up in the crook of his arm.
Gary and Armin Jr.'s wheelchair-bound mother Wilma, 78, also lives in the home. She drinks beer with her sons, but out of a coffee mug, and enjoys telling a good story, like the time she prepared a meal with rattlesnake meat for her unsuspecting husband.
He's the original Armin Wand. He's 86, has Alzheimer's and lives at Pleasant View Nursing Home in Monroe. Wilma says he still knows who she is, despite his illness: "He'll call me 'honey' on the phone, so he knows." Next June is the couple's 60th anniversary.
Wilma and her husband are the targets of another disturbing story to come out of the coverage of the Wand brothers' case. A TV station in Madison unearthed court records from 1962 alleging the couple abused and neglected their children while living in rural Dakota, Ill. The Channel 3000 news report called it "a glimpse from the past that experts say helps better understand the mindset" of Armin III.
A story in the June 26, 1962 Freeport Journal-Standard reveals the Wand children - ages 7, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 6 months - were improperly fed and routinely locked in an attic with no toilet facilities. Witnesses in court testified that human excrement was caked all over the floors, smeared on the walls and on the children.
"I thought of bringing a pail up once," Wilma is quoted as saying, "but my husband said not to ... I said I'd rather have the pail stinky than let it get all over the floor, but he wouldn't let me take it up there. So what's up there is his fault, not mine."
Wilma, then just shy of her 28th birthday and pregnant with her seventh child, also testified that her husband frequently beat the 3-year-old with a belt buckle.
Now, five decades later, she clams up when asked about what happened and refuses to talk about it or how it may relate to the homicide charges against her grandsons.
Her son speaks up.
"That has nothing to do with this case," Armin Jr. says. "Isn't there a statute of limitations? I was only 6 years old so I don't remember half of it."
Then, calmer, he reflects, "I'm not going to say what happened in 1962 isn't true. I've got a newspaper clipping about it in the basement."
In the first week after the fire, Armin Jr. flat out denied his sons "would do that." After state investigators released a criminal complaint with admissions of guilt from the two brothers, his conviction faltered: "I don't know what to believe anymore." Now, after visiting his sons in jail, he and Barbara suspect investigators pressured Armin III and Jeremy into confessing.
"He was set up, the way I look at it," Barbara says of Jeremy.
Furthermore, she claims the house has faulty wiring and the night of the fire, it was thundering and lightning.
Whatever happened that night in early September, many questions nag at the family. If Jeremy needed $300, why didn't he ask his parents? Why would Armin III buy a $2,000 television two days before the fire if he was planning to burn the house down? Why didn't they hear Molly bark if Jeremy snuck out that night? How could Armin III and Jeremy cause the deaths of the children they loved?
The family doesn't have answers. All they have is Jeremy's letter.
"Wish I was home and none of this happened, but we can't change the past. Please write or visit."
Coming Tuesday: A look at the Wand brothers growing up like "two peas in a pod."