Jessica Ellenberger, 28, and her daughter, Madyson, were killed. Credit: Family photo

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Patrick D. Fowler, 31, of Milwaukee has been charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide on allegations he stabbed his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter to death, and then used the girl's coloring books as fuel to set their bodies on fire, according to a criminal complaint.

Fowler told police he repeatedly stabbed Jessica Marie Ellenberger, 28, because she "disrespected" him during an argument. Her daughter, Madyson Marie Marshel, was screaming "Mommy," so Fowler stabbed her, too, according to the criminal complaint. Fowler, who is not Madyson's father, told police he "did not feel bad for any of the decisions he has made."

Ellenberger was stabbed 26 times and her throat was slashed, the complaint says.

The mother and daughter were found dead after the fire, set Saturday at their home in the 100 block of N. 68th St. in Milwaukee. Fowler was arrested in Arkansas this week.

According to the criminal complaint:

Police examined Ellenberger's phone records and found 3,233 contacts with a phone number belonging to Fowler. They located his mother, Brenda Fowler, who said she had tracked down Patrick the day of the crime and he told her: "She's dead."

Brenda Fowler asked Patrick if he had called 911, and he told her to "let it go." She then asked if Madyson had been there and he said no. Patrick "then told her not to watch the news because he did not want her to think her son was a monster."

Brenda offered to take her son to turn himself in, but he declined. She then became so distressed he had to take her to the hospital.

On Sunday, the day after the killings, Brenda Fowler found out Patrick was planning to take a Greyhound bus to Houston, where one of his brothers lives. U.S. marshals grabbed him during a layover in Texarkana, Ark.

When questioned by police, Patrick Fowler said the incident that led to the deaths of Ellenberger and her daughter began with a verbal argument. When it escalated, he grabbed a knife and went into Madyson's bedroom.

Fowler told police "Ms. Ellenberger continued to disrespect him so he grabbed her by the hair and asked her to just talk with him. Ms. Ellenberger demanded for Mr. Fowler to back off at which point 'the knife slid across her chest.'"

After he stabbed her several times, Ellenberger was still alive, "so he grabbed more knives and continued to stab her before slitting her throat," Fowler told police. Then he heard Madyson screaming, so he stabbed her as well.

When both mother and daughter were dead, Fowler considered killing himself but instead decided to set the house on fire.

"Mr. Fowler stated that there was no lighter fluid in the house so he took coloring books, lit them on the stove and threw them in the room. Mr. Fowler stated that after setting the fire he walked out the front door, taking the Easter candy from the residence with him."

Ellenberger's father and Madyson's grandfather, Konrad Ellenberger, told the Journal Sentinel this week that the 4-year-old had surgery to treat cancer in December.

"The doctors said she was one of the best patients they ever had," Konrad Ellenberger said of Mady, who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a cancer that starts in early nerve cells and most often affects infants and young children.

"She recovered, she went back to school in two weeks, she looked just like she did before the surgery, everything was looking up," Ellenberger said.

"That's what makes this such an unbelievable tragedy."

Jessica Ellenberger graduated from Milwaukee Lutheran High School in 2006 and attended Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon for a year, her dad said.

She held a variety of positions with several manufacturing firms and businesses before becoming a security officer with Total Security Management, he said.

Milwaukee police are working with Miller County, Ark., authorities to extradite Fowler to Wisconsin, Police Sgt. Timothy Gauerke said in a news release.

According to online records, Fowler is a registered sex offender and was convicted of felony child abuse in 2009.