The timeline
How the Wand brothers plotted arson, according to a state investigation:
Tuesday, Sept. 4
Armin G. Wand III, 32, and Jeremy Wand, 18, begin discussing ways to collect on renter's insurance and life insurance policies by damaging the house Armin rented at 402 Oak St. in Argyle. The plan is that Armin's pregnant wife, Sharon, and their four children, ages 2 to 7, will die in the fire.
Armin suggests they set a fire and make it appear similar to an electrical fire that occurred in the home in April. Armin tells Jeremy he'll pay him $300 from the insurance settlement in exchange for his help.
Armin later told an investigator he was tired of his family struggling from day to day, living from check to check, and hearing Sharon always complaining about wanting more money. She was never satisfied with the amount of money available for the family, he said, and she was contemplating a divorce. Armin wanted a "fresh start."
Thursday, Sept. 6/ Friday, Sept. 7
4 p.m. - Jeremy is over at Armin's house on Oak Street. Armin tells him this is the night they'll start a fire. A few hours later, Jeremy leaves and goes back to his home on Broad Street in Argyle, to comply with a court-imposed curfew. He watches television in his bedroom and goes to sleep.
11 p.m. - Jeremy wakes up. He later claimed he was hesitant to return to his brother's house to start a fire but he returns anyway.
11:45 p.m. - Sharon and Joseph, 3, are sleeping in the living room. The other children - Allen, 7, Jeffery, 5, and Jessica, 2 - are sleeping in their bedrooms. Jeremy and Armin smoke cigarettes and talk for a few hours while they discuss their plan to start the house on fire.
3 a.m. - After several failed attempts to light the carpet on fire, the brothers successfully light fires in the living room. Jeremy begins by lighting a fire near the electrical cords of the new television that had been delivered the previous day, so the fire would appear electrical. Armin later told investigators his brother also used a lighter to start a fire on the arm of the couch where 3-year-old Joseph was sleeping.
They crumple up sheets of paper and put them on the floor, around the computer in the living room and under the futon where Sharon is sleeping. At his brother's direction, Jeremy locks the door to the bedroom where Allen and Jeffery are sleeping. Jeremy later said he closed the door because he wanted to ensure no flames entered the bedroom.
The boys' bodies were later found together face down on the floor with the door locked from the outside. Autopsies showed they died of smoke inhalation.
As the fires spread, the men see Sharon wake up. She's on fire. Armin, thinking he's caught, goes to the sink to partially fill a small glass with water. He throws the water on the futon where she'd been sleeping, then leaves.
Jeremy also leaves the house around this time. (The criminal complaint presents conflicting stories on how he leaves, based on separate interviews with the Wand brothers. Jeremy later claimed he did not want to leave the house without taking the children but Armin pulled on his arm and forced him outside. According to an interview with Armin, Jeremy ran out the back door when he saw Sharon on fire.)
Badly burned herself, Sharon brings the unscathed 2-year-old Jessica outside and hands the girl to her husband. Armin tells his wife to move their minivan from the driveway, and while she's doing that, he tries to put the toddler back in the burning home through a broken bedroom window. He stops when a woman arrives.
3:10 a.m. - Heather Penniston, a neighbor, calls 911 to report the fire and goes over to the house. She sees Armin holding Jessica by one of the windows.
3:15 a.m. - Firefighters and police arrive. Sharon is severely burned and yelling "Save my babies."
Fund established
A fund has been set up to help pay for funerals of the three Wand children who died as the result of a house fire in Argyle Friday, Sept. 7, and for needed items for 2-year-old Jessica Wand, the only child to survive.
Checks can be made out to the Wand Children Benefit Fund. Donations can be sent to: Wand Children Benefit Fund, c/o Talmer Bank and Trust, 101 7 1/2 St., Monroe, WI 53566; or in person at the bank.
More information is available by calling Lessa Bobak, aunt of Sharon Wand, at (608) 558-0109.
Armin G. Wand III, 32, and his brother Jeremy Wand, 18, allegedly planned the fire with the intent to kill Armin Wand's wife and all four of their children and collect on the life insurance policies. They were jailed over the weekend.
Armin Wand is charged with three Class A felony counts of first-degree intentional homicide, one for each of his boys who died in the fire. He also faces three Class B felony charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, two counts for his 2-year-old daughter Jessica and one for his wife, Sharon Wand, 27.
Killed in the fire were Allen Wand, 7; Jeffery Wand, 5; and Joseph Wand, 3. The fire broke out just after 3 a.m. Friday, Sept. 7 in the home the family rented at 402 Oak St.
Sharon Wand remains hospitalized and has lost the baby she was carrying. Two-year-old Jessica Wand was rescued without serious injuries from the home and is in foster care in Platteville, according to relatives. Also unharmed were two dogs, Boo Boo and Heidi.
The children's uncle, Jeremy Wand, is also charged with three Class A felony counts of first-degree intentional homicide. He faces two Class B felony charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
Both men also face a Class C felony charge of arson. They make their initial appearance in Lafayette County Circuit Court at 1 p.m. Wednesday.
The criminal complaint reveals startling details of a desperate husband "tired of his family struggling from day to day" and his brother who agreed to help in an arson plot for a $300 cut from the anticipated insurance payout. Armin Wand told investigators he and his wife were having marital problems, and she was contemplating divorce. He said he wanted to make a "fresh start."
Among the most disturbing allegations is that Armin Wand III tried to put his toddler Jessica back in the burning house through a broken bedroom window after his wife saved the girl from the fire. He reportedly stopped when a neighbor arrived.
Funeral arrangements for the boys are pending at Erickson Funeral Home in Argyle.
The case was investigated by the Argyle Police Department, along with the state fire marshal at the Department of Justice-Division of Criminal Investigation and the Lafayette County Sheriff's Department. Assistant Attorney General Roy Korte and Richard Dufour are acting as special prosecutor in the case.
"Our thoughts should be with Sharon Wand, her 2-year-old daughter, and those mourning the deaths of her children," Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said in a statement.
'The boys are gone'
The brothers' parents were reeling from the deaths of the children and cleaning up from a search warrant on their home on Broad Street in Argyle Tuesday afternoon, just hours before authorities announced the homicide charges.
The brothers' father Armin Wand Jr., mother Barb, grandmother Wilma and other relatives were gathered around the kitchen table, trying to sort through the events of the last few days.
Jeremy Wand, a senior in high school, lived here until he was jailed over the weekend. The search warrant, related to charges against him, was still on the kitchen table.
Signed by Judge William Johnston, the warrant specifies that officers were searching for a "Bic-type Green Bay Packers lighter" and DVDs or movies that reveal "evidence of a fascination with fire."
Barb Wand said more than a dozen officers searched through the home for about an hour, "pulled everything out" and seized several DVDs and a sheet off a window. She was restoring order while the rest of her family sat in the kitchen.
Armin Wand Jr., defended his sons and said the allegations of arson are untrue. "Neither one of my sons would do that," he said.
The house on Oak Street has a history of bad wiring, the family said. The whole house should have been rewired after an electrical fire in April, they agreed, but only the room where the fire started was rewired.
The Wands are waiting for details on a funeral for the three boys. Since the boys' mother is hospitalized and the father is in jail, coordinating the details is left to the grandparents.
"Everybody in Argyle has been pretty good to us," Wand Jr., said. Neighbors and relatives have brought over food. "We didn't need it but they did it anyway. My wife hasn't been feeling like cooking."
He remembers hearing the news Friday that "the boys are gone." At first he thought maybe they'd gotten lost. The youngest, "JoJo", sleepwalks. "He would never go out the door, but you never know at that age."
When the reality hit Wand, he "completely went into shock." He said he wasn't supposed to know yet that his daughter-in-law was pregnant, but he found out about her pregnancy when she was hospitalized for her burn wounds and lost the baby as a result of her injuries.
"I didn't want to find out that way," he said.
Sharon Wand's health status has been updated to "stable," the Wands said, and she's currently receiving skin graphs.
Sharon and Armin Wand III have been together eight years, according to the family. The couple moved into the house on Oak Street a few months after Jessica was born on their anniversary in July 2010.
Jessica is "Daddy's little girl," said Wand, Jr. "She clings to him."
The three boys who died in the fire were happy kids, the family said. Allen loved cartoons and wrestling. Jeffery played T-ball. JoJo was supposed to start a preschool program this week.
"I always get a big kick out of all three of those boys," said Wand, Jr.