Every part of this story is a horror.
In early 2021, two young teens became parents.
Logan Kruckenberg Anderson took the newborn into the snow-covered woods and ended her life.
He was convicted of the unthinkable homicide. And now, he has received a life sentence.
Every part of this is so upsetting
In 2021, Logan Kruckenberg Anderson was 16 years old.
When an unnamed 14-year-old gave birth to his newborn daughter on January 5 of that year, the teens knew that they were not ready to be parents.
According to investigators, Kruckenberg Anderson told his then-girlfriend that he was going to take their baby, Harper, to a better home.
(Apparently, his story was that he’d found someone on Snapchat who could help with an adoption.)
Four days after the birth, he took the baby in a backpack and walked into the woods.
According to reports, Kruckenberg Anderson placed his 4-day-old daughter, Harper, inside a fallen tree in the woods.
The alleged plan was for her to die of exposure in the freezing cold.
(It is believed that this was solely Kruckenberg Anderson’s plan, with no others having any knowledge of it.)
However, he heard her crying, and opted for something that may have, in some twisted way, seemed less cruel to him at the time.
Authorities say that Kruckenberg Anderson shot his newborn twice in the head, ending her life.
This grisly ‘plan’ fell apart immediately
Harper’s maternal grandfather, however, called the police when he learned that the baby’s father had taken her from the home.
When authorities first questioned the teens, Kruckenberg Anderson insisted that Harper had been taken to an adoption agency by the anonymous Snapchat friend.
(Snapchat is considered fairly anonymous and posts on it are ephemeral. That must have made this story sound plausible to a 16-year-old. It did not work.)
Eventually, Kruckenberg Anderson relented and led police to Harper’s body.
No one believes that Harper’s 14-year-old mother had any knowledge of his plans. No charges have been filed against her.
Anderson was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide and of hiding the corpse of a child.
In March 2026, the now-21-year-old Kruckenberg Anderson received a life sentence.
On the charge of first-degree intentional homicide count, he’ll be eligible for extended supervision in 45 years.
He received a 4-year sentence for hiding his baby’s body, followed by 3 years of extended supervision.
These sentences are concurrent. So, unless the homicide conviction is entirely voided, the other is moot.
Horrors like this are preventable
As a society, we need to make sure that access to safe adoption is universal.
No one likes the idea of someone dumping a newborn at a safe dropoff without responsibility. But it is better than infanticide.
Meanwhile, access to comprehensive sex education and contraceptives should be universal, too. Everyone should have a choice before they become pregnant, before they give birth.
No teens should become parents.
And, at the risk of sounding controversial, we’d strongly prefer that no teens become murderers, either. Harper wasn’t the only life that ended in this story — she was just the most innocent.