Father accused of killing newborn to stay behind bars

MONROE, Wis. (Court TV) — A Wisconsin judge refused to lower the bond for a man accused of killing his newborn daughter on the day she was born.

Logan Kruckenberg-Anderson, now 20, was 16 years old when he was charged with the first-degree intentional homicide of his newborn daughter, named Harper. At a hearing on Monday, Judge Jane Bucher refused to reduce the defendant’s cash bond of $1 million. Kruckenberg’s bond came up for review after a series of decisions at the appeals level that tossed much of the evidence in his case.

Logan Kruckenberg-Anderson, charged with killing his infant daughter, walks into court for a hearing on July 29, 2024. (Court TV)

Harper was born on Jan. 5, 2021, in her teenage mother’s bathtub. The mother, identified in court documents only as “Juvenile Witness #2,” told police that she agreed to have Kruckenberg-Anderson, whom she identified as the father, give the infant to a friend to be taken to an adoption agency. Initially, Kruckenberg-Anderson told investigators a similar story, saying that he had given the child, along with $60, to a person he’d met on Snapchat named “Tyler.”

But investigators quickly determined that there was no friend. In a series of interviews, Kruckenberg-Anderson admitted to taking the infant from its mother’s home in a backpack before walking into the woods and leaving it, nude, in a snow-covered tree.

“Kruckenberg-Anderson stated that as he walked away he could still hear the infant crying which caused him to emotionally break down, fall to his knees and cry,” investigators said in a criminal complaint.

Police found the infant’s body exactly where the defendant led them, but crime scene investigators determined that the little girl had been shot in the head. In a subsequent interview, Kruckenberg-Anderson admitted that he shot the child twice in the head. A second teenager, identified as “Juvenile Witness #3,” gave police a firearm they said the defendant had given them on Jan. 8, 2021, which matched casings found near the infant’s body.

A still photo released by investigators allegedly shows Logan Kruckenberg-Anderson walking with a backpack on Jan. 5, 2021. (Wisconsin Attorney General’s Office)

Acknowledging that many of the statements had been ruled inadmissible for trial, prosecutors told the judge that many others were still fair game. In a statement after he had been read his Miranda rights, Kruckenberg-Anderson allegedly told police, “I heard her crying … that’s when I shot her in the head.” Prosecutors also noted that the defendant had threatened to approach witnesses, leave the country or take his own life if released.

The parties will return to court via Zoom for a status conference in September.