Man kills his three young daughters during a surprise visit it

A man asked his ex-wife for a visit with
his daughters, but when he came he
killed them all.
The North Dakota man killed his three
daughters after they ran to greet him
during a surprise visit. The man left
their bodies tucked in their beds,
Wisconsin authorities said in court
documents released this week.

St. Croix County prosecutors filed a
criminal complaint accusing Aaron
Schaffhausen, 34, of three counts of
first-degree intentional homicide. Each
charge carries a mandatory life
sentence.
Circuit Judge W. Howard Cameron set
bail at $2 million on Thursday, and
ordered him to have no contact with the
mother of the girls or her immediate
family.
Autopsy results showed 11-year-old
Amara Schaffhausen, 8-year-old Sophie
Schaffhausen, and 5-year-old Cecilia
Schaffhausen, died of "sharp force
injury" to the neck. Cecilia had also
been strangled, according to the
complaint.
The girls' mother, Jessica Schaffhausen,
and Aaron, got divorced last January. He
lived in Minot while the girls lived with
their mother in River Falls, a city of
15,000 residents about 30 miles east of
Twin Cities, in a rented house of her ex-
husband, according to the complaint.
The investigators wrote in the
complaint that Aaron Schaffhausen sent
a message to his ex-wife around noon
on Tuesday, and called for an
unannounced visit with the girls. The
mother thought he must be working a
construction job in Minot, but agreed
saying that he should be gone by mid-
afternoon because she did not want to
see him.
The girls' baby sitter told investigators
that the girls were so excited to see him
that they rushed towards him and led
him upstairs to show off their stuff. The
nanny followed them upstairs, hugged
them goodbye and left, according to the
indictment.
About two hours later, Aaron
Schaffhausen called his ex-wife.
"You can come home now because I
killed the children," said Jessica
Schaffhausen.
She immediately called police, who
found no one home when they got
there. They found the girls in bed,
blankets up to their neck. The three had
what appeared to be dried blood on
their faces and a large amount of blood
that covered the carpet in the bedroom.
Officers detected an odor they thought
at first was natural gas. It was later
discovered that a container of gasoline
had overturned in the basement,
spilling their contents.
About an hour after he contacted his ex-
wife, Aaron Schaffhausen arrived at the
parking lot of the River Falls police
station and surrendered.
The bureau noted his pants were
stained with what appeared to be blood.
Detectives tried to interview the man,
according to the complaint, but he said
nothing.