Was drowning tragic climax of abusing kids?

He told one woman he was semi-retired and that he made money day-trading. He told others he was a firefighter. He was charming and handsome and owned a home in Kent, complete with an in-ground swimming pool.

One by one, the women were drawn to Joel Zellmer.

And one by one, according to court documents, they came to believe Zellmer had abused their children. One infant had two broken legs. Another child had second-degree burns on his hands. A third toddler had a close call in Zellmer's hot tub.

Then came 3-year-old Ashley McLellan, who died in 2003 after falling into the pool when Zellmer was supposed to be watching her. Prosecutors say three months earlier, at Zellmer's suggestion, he and Stacey Ferguson, the child's mother, had taken out a $200,000 life-insurance policy on her.

The child's death had been ruled an accident by sheriff's detectives and the King County Medical Examiner's Office. But for more than three years, Ferguson, Zellmer's fourth wife, kept pushing authorities to investigate further.

"I cannot help but feel that Joel was either fantastically irresponsible or that he carefully planned a way to lure her to her death in order to collect the insurance proceeds," Ferguson said in papers she filed for their divorce.

King County prosecutors charged Zellmer Wednesday with first-degree murder, claiming the death of his stepdaughter was premeditated. He was also charged with second-degree murder, which does not include the allegation of premeditation, presumably to give a jury the option of finding him guilty of either charge.

Zellmer, who is being held at the King County Jail in lieu of $5 million bail, also is charged with first-degree theft stemming from allegations that he defrauded the state Department of Labor and Industries of more than $193,000 since 1999.

The theft charges stem from Zellmer's collection of disability benefits from the state. Although he said a work accident left him unable to concentrate, and he presented IQ scores consistent with someone who could function only at a minimal level, he led a life that belied those claims, charging documents state.

The documents do not state how authorities believe Zellmer killed Ashley. But they do paint a portrait — albeit circumstantial — of a man who has been involved in a number of inexplicable "accidents."

Zellmer's family says it's a "witch hunt" by disgruntled ex-wives.

King County sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart calls it "a pattern of abuse toward children and insurance fraud."

"He comes across as a perfectly normal human being," said his third wife, Shelly Ahlquist. "He's a professional con artist, is what he is."

A rocky marriage

Zellmer and Ferguson married in September 2003, just four months after they had met. The marriage was rocky, and Ferguson left him several times before finally separating from him after Ashley died, divorce papers state.

A timid, blond 3-year-old with thick, dark-rimmed glasses, Ashley was terrified of the dark. And she hated to be cold. But she loved cake, according to court papers filed by her mother.

On that cold December evening, Zellmer was supposed to be watching her while her mother was at work. Zellmer told police he found her floating face down in the pool. Sheriff's deputies found some old cake on a back patio near a garbage can. They found a trail of crumbs leading down algae-covered steps to the pool 40 feet away.

Zellmer later told investigators the 3-year-old must have gone outside to get the cake and then to the pool to wash cake off her hands in the 39-degree weather.

Paramedics who worked on Ashley described Zellmer as strangely distant, court papers state.

She died two days later. Prosecutors aren't saying in detail what they think happened, but they say he murdered her.

Maintaining innocence

Through his attorney, Zellmer maintains he has been wrongly charged.

Marnie Harstad, Zellmer's sister, and Andrew Schwarz, his attorney, say Ferguson and her family won't accept that the girl's death was an accident.

"They're trying to ruin him financially and mentally," said Harstad, who lives in Covington. "They [sheriff's deputies] brought him in a witch hunt."

Schwarz said the charges were filed only because Ashley's mother conducted her own investigation "and presented a wealth of character attacks, half-truths and other slanderous information from ex-wives who stood to gain by hurting Mr. Zellmer."

Ferguson sees it differently. On Thursday, in a statement released through her attorney, she said Zellmer took advantage of her "trust and hope."

"As a single mother with a small child, many of us hope for a partner to go through life with and for a father figure that will help set a good example for our children," she wrote. "After Ashley's death, to my shock and horror, I learned that Joel Zellmer has a prior history of deceiving and manipulating single mothers with children."

"Professional con artist"

Shelly Ahlquist, Zellmer's third wife, describes him as "a professional con artist."

Zellmer and Ahlquist met at a Tukwila bar during the mid-1990s and were married after three months of dating. They had a son, Dakota, together.

"He's one of those people that paints a pretty picture. He has the nice home; everything is clean and organized," Ahlquist said Thursday. "He said he had his own business, he had custody of his first son [from a previous marriage], which to me instantly meant he must be a good guy."

But once they were together, Zellmer was unemployed and struggling with serious debt, she said.

After Ashley's death, Ahlquist filed a domestic violence protection order in Snohomish County barring Zellmer from coming near her or Dakota. She claimed that Dakota returned from Zellmer's house with a bruise on his face and that he slapped her when she was pregnant.

Years earlier, Zellmer's second wife also accused him of abuse.

On Sept. 18, 1990, Zellmer and his then-wife, also named Stacey, brought her 4-month-old baby, Mitchell, to a Renton hospital after Zellmer claimed his car had been rear-ended by a hit-and-run driver, according to charging papers. Medical tests showed nothing was wrong with the child. But three days later they returned to the hospital, and another set of X-rays showed the child had broken legs.

The charging papers do not explain the discrepancy.

Zellmer demanded a payment of $25,000 from an auto-insurance policy he had bought a month before the accident. But he dropped the claim after Stacey told insurance investigators that he had staged the crash, court papers said. The couple soon divorced.

(The Seattle Times is using the full names only of Zellmer's ex-wives and girlfriends who were contacted for this story.)

In 2000, the infant child of a girlfriend of Zellmer's suffered second-degree burns while in Zellmer's care, court papers said. He claimed the child touched the glass screen of a lit fireplace.

In April of that year, the child, who could not yet walk, was found in the hot tub, according to charging papers.

As the boy lay dripping wet and blue, his mother rushed to his side, but Zellmer told her that as a volunteer police officer and fireman, he knew what was best. At his instruction, she waited 30 minutes before touching the boy, charging papers say.

State court files indicate that Zellmer has been married four times since 1988. King County court charging papers also mention two more girlfriends and a fiancée.

All of them had young children from previous relationships, and two say Zellmer tried to get them to take out life-insurance policies on their children shortly after they met.

Wrongful-death claim

In 2004, Ferguson filed a wrongful-death claim against Zellmer. The case was thrown out after a judge ruled that a parent, including a stepparent, can't be sued for wrongful death. The case is on appeal and the Washington Supreme Court heard arguments on it May 22. Eric Lindell, who represents Ferguson, said he doesn't expect a decision for at least six months.

"It's a bad law, and I think injured children should be treated the same as anyone else," Lindell said.

Schwarz said neither he nor Zellmer, who had most recently been working as an elevator repairman, knew the arrest was going to happen.

"This thing has been hanging over his head for four years and he hasn't had an opportunity to clear his name," Schwarz said.

Seattle Times staff reporters Nancy Bartley, Diane Brooks, Christopher Schwarzen and news researchers Gene Balk and Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com

Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com