Mother and daughter from Ohio killed in house fire in Wisconsin

NECEDAH, Wis. (WCMH) – A Powell woman and her 5-year-old daughter were among six people killed in a house fire at a vacation home in rural Wisconsin.

Officers from the Juneau County Sheriff’s Office and crews from two nearby fire departments responded to a 911 call about a house fire around 2:30 a.m. on June 30.

Officers found several people in the driveway and moved them further away from the home. The people told officers there were five more people in the home, and they later learned a sixth person was missing.

Firefighters spent about three hours extinguishing the fire and remained on the scene for nearly 12 hours. All six missing people died. Among them were 38-year-old Charis Kuehl and her five-year-old daughter Stella, who were members of the congregation, according to Shepherd of Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Powell.

A family GoFundMe page said the family was on vacation and planned to move to New Ulm, Minnesota, in the summer.

Steven and Lycia Witte, ages 66 and 35, and two children, ages 8 and 2, were also pronounced dead.

The Juneau County Sheriff’s Office believed the fire was an accident, but the investigation was ongoing as of Friday.