Identified! "Baby Skylar", infant found deceased in bathroom of Phoenix airport in 2005, mother Annie Anderson, 51, arrested, 20 February 2024

[HmmMysterious]

On October 10, 2005, a newborn girl was found deceased wrapped in newspapers and a white towel and stuffed in a plastic Marriot Hotel bag, in a women's restroom of the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. She was given the nickname "Baby Skylar" by investigators.

19 years later, the baby's mother, 51-year-old Annie Anderson of Washington state, has been arrested.

"The breakthrough in the case came thanks in part to the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force and advances in DNA technology and investigative genetic genealogy.

Using the DNA evidence from Baby Skylar's unidentified mother, officials created a DNA profile and a family tree of potential relatives.

“Through the genealogy, we identified someone in the family tree. That person consented to a sample and led the investigation further to Miss Anderson,” said Dan Horan, supervisory Special Agent for the FBI Phoenix field office."

Anderson had been at the airport for a real estate boot camp in Phoenix when she gave birth to Baby Skylar. She is awaiting extradition to Arizona from Washington. The father of the infant is not a suspect.

Mother of 'Baby Skylar' who was found dead in Phoenix airport trash can 19 years ago is arrested

 

[lightofmine99]

I'm sorry but I just don't see any justification or excuse to doing this as oppose to, oh I don't know, seeing medical attention for yourself and the baby, then giving the baby up for adoption if you didn't want him/her.

We can't ever say for certain how we would act in hypothetical scary situations but if I "didn't know I was pregnant" (example/speculation) then suddenly went into labor in my hotel room, I would be screaming and calling 911. If I had the baby before calling 911 and he/she was stillborn, guess what. I'd still call 911.

 

[Mary-Belle]

I'm sorry but I just don't see any justification or excuse to doing this as oppose to, oh I don't know, seeing medical attention for yourself and the baby, then giving the baby up for adoption if you didn't want him/her.

We can't ever say for certain how we would act in hypothetical scary situations but if I "didn't know I was pregnant" (example/speculation) then suddenly went into labor in my hotel room, I would be screaming and calling 911. If I had the baby before calling 911 and he/she was stillborn, guess what. I'd still call 911.

I agree… and it’s also not like she was a young teenage girl who panicked and made a horrible decision. She definitely knew there were other options available to her.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

"Baby Skylar" was found wrapped in newspapers and a towel, and stuffed in a hotel plastic bag in a trash can in a Terminal 4 women's restroom at the airport on Oct. 10, 2005.

"They discovered a female newborn, wrapped in newspapers, and a white towel, stuffed in a plastic bag with red Marriott Lettering, deceased," said Lt. James Hester with the Phoenix Police Homicide Unit.

The infant's death was ruled a homicide, and the manner of death was suffocation.

For years, detectives worked the case, even releasing a composite back in 2017 of what they believed the mother of the child looked like.

In 2021, the FBI helped officers use genetic genealogy to find a maternal match for the victim. That was cross-referenced with DNA collected from the scene.

Court documents show plainclothes officers asked 51-year-old Annie Anderson to come outside her home in Arlington, Washington in 2023 to look at her car. That’s when police arrested her, just three days before Christmas, without incident

Arlington woman arrested for cold case death of newborn found in Phoenix airport trashcan

Police say a woman has been arrested nearly 20 years after her newborn baby was found dead at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

www.fox13seattle.com

 

[Panniniclaus]

There have to be many criminals out there looking over their shoulders. 19 years... she thought she was free and clear.

 

[ZombieKittie]

As the mother of 2 children one of whom was born the year before Baby Skylar I'm never sure whether to be humbled by or fear a woman who can give birth to a child so quietly that no one notices

 

[LadyL]

I'm sorry but I just don't see any justification or excuse to doing this as oppose to, oh I don't know, seeing medical attention for yourself and the baby, then giving the baby up for adoption if you didn't want him/her.

We can't ever say for certain how we would act in hypothetical scary situations but if I "didn't know I was pregnant" (example/speculation) then suddenly went into labor in my hotel room, I would be screaming and calling 911. If I had the baby before calling 911 and he/she was stillborn, guess what. I'd still call 911.

especially at 32 years old
she knew better

 

[LucyOso]

There have to be many criminals out there looking over their shoulders. 19 years... she thought she was free and clear.

I agree that many are looking over their shoulders. Sadly, many will also get away with it. Sounds like a fluke the baby was found.

We don't know if she thought she was "free and clear". I would guess she might have even known the body was found, in this day and age of internet? It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. There was another case where the father was tracked first...I wonder if father knew she was pregnant? Or no...

 

[imstilla.grandma]

*PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- In 2005, a baby girl was found dead in the women’s bathroom trash can at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. The medical examiner rule she was suffocated, and lived just 24 hours. She became known as “Baby Skylar.” For nearly two decades, police had no idea who the baby’s mother was, or why she was killed. Now, detectives have found and arrested 51-year-old Annie Anderson of Washington state for first degree murder; the baby’s own mother. How they found her so many years later, her checkered past in Washington, and what a detective says “divine intervention” may be the reason Baby Skylar was ever found at all.

True Crime Arizona Podcast: Bombshell arrest in cold case murder of baby left in Phoenix airport

A remarkable story of a trailblazer in law enforcement .

www.azfamily.com

*Phoenix police say an arrest has been made in an 18-year-old cold case involving the death of a newborn baby girl who was suffocated and abandoned at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.

 

[Ladyotm]

This news station has a photo of mom. She reportededly confessed the murder to Phoenix police. Well, go ahead and stop fighting extradition and face your consequences ! And she's a thief!

 

[Marysmith]

Wow. Love how she is cuddling a cat there but murdered a baby… awful!

 

[HmmMysterious]

I don't see much of a resemblance honestly. I would like to see a photo of Annie Anderson in 2005 to compare

 

[HmmMysterious]

This news station has a photo of mom. She reportededly confessed the murder to Phoenix police. Well, go ahead and stop fighting extradition and face your consequences ! And she's a thief!

Details from the video about Annie being a thief:

In 2022, Kelly Severson hired Annie Anderson to create a website for her art studio located in Arlington, Washington. She paid her $3,000, but Anderson simply pocketed the money and cut off contact with Severson.

“Then she just went ghost on me. Nothing else, I did not hear from her again. She blocked everything,” said Severson.
Anderson was furious when Severson reversed the $3,000 from her credit card. “She was angry, yelling at me. But they had reversed the $3,000 out of her account, and she was mad", said Severson.

Shortly thereafter, Severson's art studio was burglarized. She claims the thief captured on surveillance camera is Annie Anderson robbing the studio as revenge. But Arlington police can't confirm that.

Severson says that based on her experience with Anderson and her demeanor, she sadly isn’t surprised that she killed Baby Skylar.

“After knowing her and all the things she’s done to people and stuff, she probably did have something like that in her,” said Severson.

 

[SleutherGirl]

I don't see much of a resemblance honestly. I would like to see a photo of Annie Anderson in 2005 to compare

View attachment 486067View attachment 486068

I actually see a resemblance, but you do have to look past the age and the god awful haircut.

 

[Marysmith]

I actually see a resemblance, but you do have to look past the age and the god awful haircut.

I do too and the weight gain as well.

 

[ifindedout]

She also used both surnames (from early 2010s):

All Phase Contractors Inc · Stenberg Anderson, Leanne Sue · 7131 52nd St NE, Marysville, WA 98270

ALL PHASE CONTRACTORS INC (License #ALLPHPC883DT) is a contractor business in MARYSVILLE licensed by the Department of Labor and Industries of the State of Washington. The license was effective from March 30, 2012, expiring on March 30, 2014 and suspended on November 23, 2013. The license...

opengovwa.com

 

[Panniniclaus]

Maybe, just maybe, it would be easier to digest if this person went on and lived a good life, helping others etc. But no... bad people tend to just be bad people and never change. Jail is too good for her.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

There's a bit more of a resemblance when she was younger. I don't know if she's naturally blonde.

 

[HmmMysterious]

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There's a bit more of a resemblance when she was younger. I don't know if she's naturally blonde.

Parabon was 93% confident that her hair was blonde- maybe Annie dyed it

Police Predictions - Parabon® Snapshot® DNA Analysis Service

 

[Panniniclaus]

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There's a bit more of a resemblance when she was younger. I don't know if she's naturally blonde.

She had a consistently terrible haircut from early adulthood to present day.