Woman arrested in case of baby left in trash bin
A woman was arrested after admitting to being the mother in the 19-yearold case of a newborn found dead in a trash bin at Sky Harbor International Airport, Phoenix police announced during a Tuesday morning news conference.
Annie Anderson, 51, of Washington state, was charged on suspicion of firstdegree murder in the Oct. 10, 2005, death of her newborn daughter, named Baby Skylar by authorities, according to police. Police accused Anderson of discarding Baby Skylar — a full-term baby with its umbilical cord still attached — in a Sky Harbor women’s restroom trash can. The cause of death was suffocation, according to Phoenix Police Lt. James Hester who declined to say how the child died that way.
The baby was recovered on the east end of the second floor of Terminal 4, according to reporting by The Arizona Republic at the time. Detectives on the case had determined she was delivered elsewhere and then discarded at the airport as there was no blood or other indication the child had been born there, The Republic’s reporting noted.
Baby Skylar was found wrapped in newspapers and a wet towel, stuffed in a plastic bag with red Marriott hotel lettering, according to Hester. Detectives scoured Marriott hotels in the area but were unsuccessful in finding a suspect, Hester said. The crime scene DNA was also put in CODIS, the FBI’s DNA database, but no match was matched, Hester added.
Investigative genetic genealogy, which FBI Special Agent Dan Horan said “combines unknown crime scene DNA with traditional genealogy research to generate leads for law enforcement to follow,” was instrumental in cracking the case, he explained.
Authorities narrowed their suspect search to Anderson after approaching a family member of hers who consented to a DNA sample for one-time use by investigators, according to Horan. When approached by authorities, Anderson admitted Baby Skylar was her child and that she was involved in the newborn’s death, Hester detailed.
Anderson was visiting Phoenix for a “real estate boot camp” when the incident occurred, Hester said.
At the time of Baby Skylar’s death, Arizona was already a Safe Haven state, which means mothers may leave newborns at so-called havens, including hospitals, fire stations and churches.
In February 2017, Phoenix police used DNA samples recovered in the investigation to develop a computergenerated composite featuring the likely facial traits of Baby Skylar’s mother — a first for the agency.