WISCONSIN RAPIDS − A 30-year-old man is being held in the Wood County Jail pending a $1 million cash bail set Dec. 26 in Wood County Circuit Court after three counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide were filed against him.
Michael J. Vandenbergh, of La Farge, a village in Vernon County in southwestern Wisconsin, also faces one count of arson of a building. If convicted of all four counts, Vandenbergh faces a maximum sentence of 145 years in prison.
Vandenbergh did not have an attorney when he appeared in Wood County Circuit Court Dec. 26. Wood County Circuit Judge Gregory Jerabek scheduled a new initial appearance date for Jan. 2 and gave Vandenbergh instructions for applying for a public defender. Jerabek also set the $1 million cash bail.
Two attorneys were entered for Vandenbergh on Dec. 29, according to online records.
According to the criminal complaint, at 1:52 a.m. Sept. 12, a Wisconsin Rapids woman woke up when she heard a popping noise and she saw an orange glow coming from her window. The woman went to her home’s kitchen and saw her back porch was on fire.
The woman saw the fire was too large for her to put out, so she called her children, ages 4 and 11, and they all got out of the house, according to the complaint.
A neighbor couple told police they had been sitting on their porch when they saw a man go behind the house and then come out after about five minutes. Police talked to people in the neighborhood who had security cameras and saw that the same vehicle had gone down the street the woman’s house was on multiple times prior to the fire. In one video, they saw the vehicle park and someone get out.
The woman told police she didn’t know why anyone would want to hurt her, but her sister told police the woman’s former boyfriend, Vandenbergh, had been seen in the Wausau area prior to the night of the fire.
Police were able to use security cameras and cellphone signals to determine Vandenbergh and his vehicle had been in Wisconsin Rapids just before the fire, according to the complaint. They were able to find him in Adams County with another woman.
Police used a specially trained dog to sniff the porch area where the fire started and the dog alerted on an area of the porch, according to the complaint. Fire investigators determined the fire was deliberately set.
Vandenbergh told officers he had nothing to do with setting the fire.
Contact Karen Madden kmadden@usatodayco.com. Follow her on Twitter @KMadden715, Instagram @kmadden715 or Facebook at www.facebook.com/karen.madden.33.
This article originally appeared on Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune: Man charged with attempted homicide after Sept. 12 fire in WI Rapids
Reporting by Karen Madden, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune / Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune
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