A 16-year-old father from Wisconsin is facing first-degree homicide charges after allegedly abandoning his newborn daughter in the snow and later admitting to shooting her twice in the head.
The teenager, identified as Logan Kruckenberg-Anderson, is accused of killing his four-day-old daughter, Harper, whose body was found in a wooded area near the Village of Albany. Prosecutors say the teen initially claimed he left the baby in a snow-covered tree but later confessed to shooting her.
According to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday, Kruckenberg-Anderson first told investigators he had placed Harper naked in a tree filled with snow, covered her with more snow, and walked away knowing she would likely die from exposure. “He could still hear her crying as he left,” the complaint stated, describing how he broke down in tears while recounting the moment.
When police located the baby’s body, a member of the Wisconsin State Crime Lab determined that Harper had been shot in the head and was likely still alive when she was left in the snow. Two bullets were recovered from the scene. In a later interview, Kruckenberg-Anderson admitted to firing the fatal shots, and an autopsy confirmed the baby was alive at the time of the shooting.
Authorities charged the teen with first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse. His cash bond was set at one million dollars, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 20. The case came to light when a man contacted Green County authorities early Saturday morning, reporting that his teenage daughter had given birth in a bathtub on January 5.
The caller said Kruckenberg-Anderson took the baby afterward, and no one had seen her since. The infant’s mother told police that she and Kruckenberg-Anderson had decided they could not keep the baby and “needed to do something so the infant wasn’t in their life,” according to the complaint.
Initially, the teen told investigators he had given the baby to a friend named “Tyler,” whom he met on Snapchat. He claimed Tyler agreed to take the baby to an adoption agency in Madison for $60. However, police found no evidence of this exchange.
Investigators later recovered the alleged murder weapon after another juvenile turned in a firearm, saying Kruckenberg-Anderson had given it to him days earlier. The gun’s caliber matched the bullets and shell casings found near Harper’s body. The tragic case has shocked the local community as prosecutors prepare to present further evidence in the coming weeks.