Father Drowned Self, 2 Sons

Father Believed To Be Depressed Over Finances

PLEASANT PRAIRIE, Wis. -- Authorities said the deaths of a father and his two children whose bodies washed up on a Lake Michigan beach were an apparent double murder and suicide.

The deputy medical examiner in Kenosha County, Rick Berg, said that's the finding after autopsies in the case of a Chicago man and is youngsters whose bodies were bound together with rope and weighted down with sand.

Police said the father -- who was believed to be depressed over his family's financial troubles -- apparently drowned the two sons along with himself in Lake Michigan.

Kevin Amde, 45, and his two sons, 3-year-old Tesla Amde and 6-year-old Davinci Amde, were found on a beach by a Pleasant Prairie resident Saturday.

Authorities said the three were last seen on May 6, when the father picked Davinci up from school in Chicago. Kevin's wife and the two children's mother reported them missing on May 11.

The autopsies were performed in Waukesha County because Kenosha County doesn't have an active medical examiner.

The woman who discovered the victims' bodies talked with 12 News.

Shortly after 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Karen Strathman was walking a stretch of Lake Shore with her grandson.

"We saw something that was washing up to shore that was quite large and so I said, 'Let's go see what's coming into shore,'" Strathman said.

Within moments, that curiosity led them to a tragic discovery.

"As soon as I saw what it was I asked him to go back away because my concern was for him. I knew what it was. I didn't know until it came into the beach that it was three, but then I recognized what it was and called 911 and then stayed with the bodies until they got there," Strathman said.

Lenny Swaney was also on the beach that morning, shortly after the authorities arrived.

"Sadness because of the age of the children at the time. We didn't know how old they were. It's just sad. Children don't have to die that way," Swaney said.