Man arrested in deaths of two children Homicide suspect William Francis Bagneski (file photo). The 1999 and 2001 deaths were too coincidental, officials say By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle A Green Bay man is in the Brown County Jail, charged with murdering two of his infant children in 1999 and 2001. William F. Bagneski, 35, made an initial court appearance via closed-circuit television from the Brown County Jail on Wednesday afternoon. He faces a $300,000 cash bond after his request for a signature bond was denied. "I just want to be with my family," Bagneski said. His next court appearance will be June 3. Police and District Attorney John Zakowski said Bagneski, 810 12th St., is charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the deaths of the two children, identified in the complaint as J.M.B., 6 months, on Nov. 2, 1999 and K.G.B., 8 months, on Oct. 17, 2001. A search of News-Chronicle obituary files listed the children as Joel M. Bagneski and Kelly Grace Bagneski. The first death had been listed as a result of sudden infant death syndrome, but when the second child died and the death was listed by pathologists as "non-accidental trauma," police started to examine both cases. They also learned Bagneski's child in a previous marriage in Georgia in 1989 had been hospitalized with injuries "comparable with infliction" and also nonaccidental in nature. That child, age 9 months, survived her injuries. Bagneski and his wife, Kelly, have a third child, age 2. "I think that a significant piece of evidence is that this third child is healthy, and the one variable is that Mr. Bagneski has never been left alone with this fourth child," Zakowski said. Bagneski was home alone with the two dead children and the earlier injured child, Zakowski said. Zakowski said investigators had no motives for the deaths and added that intentional did not mean premeditated. Lt. Bill Galvin said police were looking at an outside cause in the first death but with the autopsy determination they could not go any further. He said there were several factors leading to the long period between the deaths and the arrest, including the need to wait for evidence from laboratories overwhelmed with work in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Bagneski had been interviewed, but not charged, during that time. Zakoski said they were waiting for other medical findings to rule out possible disease factors and get evidence on SIDS deaths. In the criminal complaint, a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay professor is quoted as saying the odds of two small children dying of SIDS in the same family in that short a period were one in 25.8 billion. According to the criminal complaint: On Nov. 2, 1999, police answered an emergency call to Bagneski's house and found a child not breathing. Bagneski told the officer he found the child lying face-down on top of a Winnie the Pooh stuffed toy. He told one officer he could not remember the emergency number, 911, and hit speed dial and called a friend, who called officers and came over, she said, to help resuscitate the child. The autopsy report by medical examiner Mark J. Witeck showed no evidence of trauma or disease and listed the death as SIDS-related. In 2001, Green Bay police answered a 911 call from a man she said was Bagneski, who said his 3-month-old baby was not responding. The operator gave the man instructions on how to perform CPR but believed he was not doing so because of silence on the phone and refusal to respond. She heard the rescue squad arrive and the man ignore her order to stay with the child. She also heard the man say "I am outta here" when they arrived. Zakowski said Wednesday the tape was examined and "results were inconclusive" on whether CPR was being done. An emergency medical technician on the scene said Bagneski was "calm to the point of being abnormal and disturbing" and was nonchalant when he was asked what happened. When the mother, Kelly Bagneski, arrived, an officer said, she was distraught and asked William "Where were you?" and "How could this be happening again?" Bagneski told her he had left for a moment to get a soft drink from the kitchen. One officer said William Bagneski seemed emotionless and told an officer "don't treat me like a criminal the way they did last time." This time, Witeck's examination showed massive brain swelling and bilateral retinal hemorrhages. William Bagneski told a detective a different story, however, saying he had performed CPR but became confused when he was given different instructions than what he had been taught. He also said he thought the rescue squad caused the trauma with rough handling and that he had taken out insurance on the girl. And Bagneski told another detective, the report continued, that he had a theory that the daughter started getting a fever on her way to the hospital and that he could not have shaken his daughter to cause injury because of an operation. Asked about his knowledge, he said he knew a medical student. Police also heard from a member of a SIDS support group who said Bagneski seemed to show more concern over the investigation than over the death. Other e-mails retreived by police showed Bagneski saying the daughter had stopped breathing in front of him. Zakowski said Kelly Bagneski was "supporting her husband" in the matter and that William Bagneski had a history of alcohol abuse but he did not know if it factored into the deaths.