Background: A photo of the fire damage to Joshua Kannin”s apartment in Kenosha, Wis. (GoFundMe). Inset (from left to right): Connor, Rylee, and Alena Kannin (GoFundMe).
A Wisconsin man who allegedly fled his apartment while it was on fire, leaving his three children to die inside, now faces felony charges.
Joshua Kannin, 39, was charged with three counts of child neglect resulting in death on Tuesday, according to the Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office. The charges stemmed from the deaths of Kannin’s three children, 10-year-old Rylee, 9-year-old Connor, and 7-year-old Alena, who died after their father’s apartment caught on fire on Nov. 27, 2025. According to a criminal complaint obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Kannin said he and his children went to bed at 9 p.m.
A short time later, Kannin said he woke up and went downstairs, where he saw “a little fire” in the kitchen. He told police that he “panicked” and ran to his neighbor to bang on their door for help, thinking his children were still on the second floor of his apartment.
By the time firefighters and police arrived at the scene around 10:30 p.m., the apartment was “fully engulfed” in flames. Kannin reportedly ran to the first responders to tell them his three children were still inside.
According to the complaint, Kannin told police that after he went to his neighbor’s apartment, he returned to his apartment and heard his children inside. Kannin told police, “I tried to go back in, but smoke just came at me and I couldn’t see. I barely got two steps in and I had to turn back around.”
Connor and Rylee were found dead in the kitchen, where authorities believed the fire started. Alena was taken to a hospital and later died. According to reporting on the complaint by local ABC affiliate WISN, authorities saw evidence that the two boys were making noodles on the stove while their father was asleep upstairs and could have accidentally started the fire. One of the burners on the stove was found in the “on” position.
Police said Kannin admitted to leaving various items on the stove, including “packs of donuts, his wallet, pack of cigarettes, a toaster, his work bag, napkins and possibly even other items,” which authorities believed could have caught fire while the boys were cooking.
According to the complaint, Kannin also admitted that he unhooked the smoke alarms in the apartment because he believed they were malfunctioning and going off at random, which was becoming “an annoyance.” Kannin told police that he smoked in the apartment, which was against the property’s rules, and boarded up the windows to prevent burglars from breaking in.
Jourdan Feasby, the mother of the three children, had dropped them off to spend the latter part of the Thanksgiving holiday with their father. In the complaint, she told police that she thought Kannin’s apartment was “absolutely disgusting.” She described the food situation for the kids when they stayed at the apartment as “fend for yourself, in a sense.”
In an interview with People, Feasby said she spoke to Kannin at the hospital after the fire, while he was being treated for smoke inhalation. She said she asked him, “You wouldn’t grab the kids first?”
The Kenosha Fire Department said in a press release after the charges were announced, “There is no evidence that the father, Joshua Kannin, caused the fire, either through an accident or a malicious act.”
Kannin was charged with three felony counts of child neglect causing death. He did not appear on any jail rosters on Thursday. His first court appearance was scheduled for May 14.
GoFundMe campaigns were launched after the fire to help raise money for expenses.
