Teen dad put crying baby in snowy tree – then shot her to death, Wisconsin police say

A teenage father left a crying baby in a snowy fallen tree and shot her to death, Wisconsin police say.

Logan Kruckenberg-Anderson, 16, was charged Tuesday with first-degree intentional homicide in the killing of his newborn daughter named Harper, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice. He also was charged with hiding a corpse.

On Saturday, an Albany man reported his daughter had given birth to the baby in a bathtub five days earlier and the infant disappeared after Kruckenberg-Anderson took her, police say.

Kruckenberg-Anderson initially told investigators he paid a friend he met on Snapchat to leave the baby with an adoption agency, according to court documents.

Another story emerged in subsequent police interviews.

Kruckenberg-Anderson said he went to the home of baby’s mother shortly after she gave birth and they decided against keeping the baby, documents say. They discussed leaving the child at a local fire station or taking her to an “adoption place” in Madison, he said.

Ultimately, they decided against both options, Kruckenberg-Anderson told investigators, and chose to “get rid of the infant by simply dropping (her) somewhere,” documents say. He said he put the baby in a backpack, then went to his mother’s residence and put her in a larger backpack before going to a remote wooded area of Albany, according to documents.

“As Kruckenberg-Anderson left the residence he heard the infant child crying so he bounced up and down on his heals to sooth the infant,” documents say.

After walking into the woods, Kruckenberg-Anderson said he placed the girl in an opening of a fallen tree covered in snow, which started the infant crying again, according to documents. At first, he told investigators he buried her body in snow and walked away, falling to his knees and crying as he heard the baby’s cries.

When police found the baby, they discovered she had been shot.

Kruckenberg-Anderson then told investigators he shot the baby twice, documents say. Investigators retrieved two bullet casings, which were “consistent” with a gun Kruckenberg-Anderson gave to a boy in his late teens several days after the shooting, police say.

Authorities say Kruckenberg-Anderson is charged as an adult, WTMJ reported.

Albany is a village of about 1,000 about 100 miles west of Milwaukee.

This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 7:26 PM with the headline "Teen dad put crying baby in snowy tree – then shot her to death, Wisconsin police say."