Marathon County Sheriff's officials say the two people killed in a house fire in the Town of Day on April 6th were victims of a dangerous art project gone wrong.
Deputy Chad Billeb says 44-year-old Tanya Rodriguez and 52-year-old James Carolfi were electrocuted while trying to make a fractal wood burning.
“It’s a very dangerous process, where you take a microwave oven apart and you remove the power supply from that microwave oven, and you run it through jumper cables to nails that are in a board” said Billeb.
He says those that aren't trained in how the process works shouldn't dabble in it.
“It is not safe when you’re dealing with electricity, so we would caution the public to refrain from doing it.”
Billeb says this isn't the first time that the technique has turned deadly in Wisconsin.
“So they’ve seen this before at the state pathology lab. It is a danger. People have died in the community… in our local community as well as other parts of the state and we want people to stop doing it.”
Investigators say that Rodriguez and Carolfi were dead before the equipment they were working with started the fire.
The fire spread from their garage and engulfed their entire home before fire crews could arrived.
Foul play is no longer suspected, and the incident is now being called an accident.
Billeb adds that because of the damage they were not able to positively identify the couple until earlier this week.
