News footage of Logan Kruckenberg Anderson in court on Nov. 5 (WMTV).
A Wisconsin man who shot his newborn daughter in the head and left her body in the woods has been convicted by a jury.
Logan Kruckenberg Anderson, 21, was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide and hiding the corpse of a child on Wednesday. The verdict came four years after Kruckenberg Anderson smuggled his days-old baby daughter Harper into the woods, shot her twice in the head, and covered her body with snow before leaving her. According to courtroom reporting by local NBC affiliate WMTV, the jury deliberated for just over two hours.
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As Law&Crime previously reported, Kruckenberg Anderson was 16 years old when his then-teenage girlfriend gave birth to Harper in a bathtub on Jan. 5, 2021. The young couple decided that they could not keep the child, and days after Harper was born, the teenage girl's father called 911, reporting that he had not seen the baby for days.
When the teens were questioned by police, they said they contacted someone on Snapchat to take the baby to an adoption agency. Eventually, Kruckenberg Anderson confessed to police that he brought Harper to the woods and left her in the snow to die of exposure. When he walked away and heard her crying, he turned back and shot her twice in the head.
Kruckenberg Anderson later led police to Harper's body.
WMTV reported that Kruckenberg Anderson's girlfriend was 14 years old when he got her pregnant. They hid the pregnancy until Harper was born. Kruckenberg Anderson then told his girlfriend that he was taking the baby to a better home. He then stuffed her naked into a backpack and took her to the woods.
Kruckenberg Anderson's defense attorney, Kevin Smith, attempted to paint the couple as "lying teenagers," saying that more emphasis should have been placed on the "physical evidence" rather than his client's multiple confessions.
Prosecutor Adrienne Blais told the court, "It's about one person fantasizing playing house. It's about one person bent on erasing a problem, because that was what Harper was to him. A problem to screw up his life, so he got rid of her, so he just tried to make her go away."
Kruckenberg Anderson is scheduled to be sentenced on March 16, 2026.
