Police have little evidence regarding triple drownings

PLEASANT PRAIRIE, Wis. - Investigators are baffled about how a Chicago father carried out a plot to drown his two sons and himself in Lake Michigan, where their bound bodies washed ashore last weekend, Police Chief Brian Wagner said Tuesday.

"We really don't know where these folks entered the water or how they entered the water," Wagner said. "Normally, you have a working theory. In this case, we don't. It is all speculative."

What investigators know is that Kevin Amde, 45, did not own a car, and there is no evidence he rented a boat or had access to a boat, Wagner said.

The bodies of Amde and his sons, Tesla E. Amde, 3, and Davinci Amde, 6, were bound together with rope and tied to bags filled with sand when a resident spotted them on the beach Saturday in this community just north of the Illinois state line. They had been missing almost six weeks.

Autopsies determined all three drowned in an apparent murder-suicide, Kenosha County Deputy Medical Examiner Rick Berg said Monday. They had been in the water for weeks.

Possible points of Lake Michigan access along the shore include rocky areas and sea walls next to deep water, breakwalls that extend out into the lake and bridges over rivers that flow into the lake.

Wagner said it's possible Amde simply waded into the lake with the children and in a matter of minutes they lost consciousness due to the frigid water in early May.

The bags of what appeared to be sand from a typical Lake Michigan shoreline weighed 48 pounds, which would have pulled him and the children down, Wagner said.

The police chief said he investigated an earlier incident of a woman wading into the water and drowning herself.

"I know it can be done," he said.

Amde and his sons were last seen May 6 in Chicago. Veronica Amde, Kevin Amde's wife and the children's mother, reported them missing May 11.

Wagner said Amde was believed to be depressed over financial troubles and his family's pending eviction from their Chicago apartment.

An attorney for the Chicago landlord who started eviction proceedings against the Amdes May 20 said Tuesday the family failed to pay the $675 monthly rent for May and June.

David Paul Alfassa said he knew very little about the Amde family other than the rent was past due.

The landlord got a judge to order the eviction earlier this month, but Mrs. Amde got the deadline extended until Friday, Alfassa said. She hasn't been evicted, he said.

It was not unusual for a landlord to start legal proceedings against a tenant just days behind in paying the rent, Alfassa said.

"Usually, landlords wait too long. If you are behind, you are behind," he said.

The police chief has said Amde's relatives did not want to comment on the case.