MONROE — As what is perhaps the region’s most high-profile murder case languishes in the system, so does the defendant, Logan Kruckenberg-Anderson, the teen accused of murdering his newborn infant daughter in 2021.
Kruckenberg-Anderson, now 19, but 16 at the time of the crime, faces felony charges of first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse in connection with the newborn’s death in January, 2021. He has been a resident of Green County Jail mostly ever since.
The state appellate court is still considering a key evidentiary ruling and thus, no court dates have been set or held for months. And that means that in this tragic case, the wheels of justice seem to be turning unusually slowly.
Kruckenberg-Anderson has not appeared in court since last April. But it’s not the prosecution causing the delay.
Kruckenberg-Anderson’s defense team argued late last year to suppress his statements to police during a series of interviews in late 2021 following the baby’s disappearance: One beginning after midnight on Jan. 9 and early on Jan. 10 at the Brodhead Police station as authorities continued to frantically search for baby; another at the Albany police station after leading police to the infant’s body in some nearby woods.
Green County District Attorney Craig Nolen has said the state is appealing the initial ruling made in Circuit Judge Thomas Vale’s court, arguing that all the evidence gathered against the teen be allowed in, including various statements.
“The State is appealing the suppression of statements made by Mr. Kruckenberg-Anderson on the grounds that the State believes that the Court erred in making its findings and ultimately ruling to suppress those statements,” Nolen told times last April.
But some of the numerous statements will be allowed in, such as those made at Rock County Jail, Vale previously held.
The murder has drawn national media interest, including in People Magazine, which wrote of the case that “Kruckenberg-Anderson initially told police that he gave (someone) $60 to take Harper to the adoption agency, but later stated that he and the baby’s mother decided he would ‘get rid of the infant by simply dropping it somewhere…’”
The teen then put Harper in a backpack and would later allegedly place the baby in a snow-covered fallen tree, where he is accused of shooting her in the head with a .22 caliber gun.
Early in the case, in early 2021, bond for Kruckenberg-Anderson was set at $1 million. There have been no efforts or motions to have the bond amount reduced, according to court records.
Investigators say they were initially told that a baby girl was born on Jan. 5 at an Albany home, then carried from the home by Kruckenberg-Anderson, the newborn’s father.
In April 2021, a Green County judge effectively ruled in a reverse waiver hearing that Kruckenberg-Anderson could be tried in adult court, despite his age at the time of the baby’s death.
The mother has not been charged.