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Airport bathroom where Baby Skylar was found, coffin victim was buried in, and sketch of victim’s mother produced by Parabon Labs (KPHO screenshots)
ALT: ‘She literally was welcomed into the world only to be murdered’: Mom of newborn found stuffed in airport trash arrested
ALT II: Mom in town for ‘real estate boot camp’ sneaked murdered newborn into Arizona airport, stuffed baby in bathroom trash then boarded flight out of state: Police
A 51-year-old woman has been arrested for allegedly bringing her murdered newborn with her to an Arizona airport, stuffing the child’s remains in a women’s restroom trash can, and then hopping on a flight out of state.
Annie Anderson was taken into custody in Washington state and awaiting extradition back to Maricopa County where she has formally been charged with one count of first-degree murder in the tragic 2005 slaying of her daughter, who came to be known as “Baby Skylar.”
The Baby Skylar case began on Oct. 10, 2005, when a newborn infant was found dead inside of a trash can bathroom in Terminal Four of the Sky Harbor International Airport, Sergeant Rob Scherer of the Phoenix Police Department’s Public Affairs Bureau said during a Tuesday news briefing on Anderson’s arrest.
When they arrived at the scene, they found a female newborn wrapped in newspapers and a white towel, stuffed in a plastic bag with red “Marriot” lettering. The child was pronounced dead at the scene.
The homicide unit responded to the scene and opened what became an extensive investigation into the child’s death. When all leads were exhausted, the case was handed to the cold case homicide unit. That unit, in 2020, began working with the FBI Violent Crime Task Force which “directly resulted in the identification of the mother and suspect in this case,” Scherer said.
Police said the evidence gathered in the case showed that Baby Skylar likely was not born at the airport. Rather, they believe she was born and killed elsewhere, then brought to the airport by Anderson, who dumped the newborn’s body in a bathroom trash can before boarding a plane and flying out of the state. Investigators were able to collect DNA evidence from the child’s mother, which was entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which is a series of national DNA databases maintained by the FBI.
A retired detective who worked on the case told Phoenix CBS affiliate KPHO that Baby Skylar’s body was likely only discovered because a businessperson who was at the airport that day reported losing his laptop, resulting in security and housekeeping performing a search of the terminal, including the terminal trash bins.
“They ended up pulling something heavy out of the bag, a black bag. Once they kind of investigated what that was, they found a deceased newborn inside the bag,” retired detective Troy Hillman told the station. “She literally was welcomed into the world only to be murdered. It was just horrific.”
The Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner performed an autopsy on Baby Skylar on Oct. 12, 2005 and determined the manner of death was a homicide and the cause of death was suffocation. The child was believed to have been alive for about 24 hours before she was killed.
Investigators said that they were able to link Anderson to the case through advancements in investigative genetic genealogy. Detectives used publicly available databases to identify matches and possible family members of Baby Skylar. Authorities emphasized that investigative genetic genealogy is not used to prove guilt at trial, it simply generates leads for investigators to follow.
The DNA evidence was sent to Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia-based company that is nationally renowned for helping law enforcement crack cold cases through advanced forensic testing and mapping techniques.
After Annie Anderson came back as a possible match, authorities were also able to confirm that at the time the newborn’s body was found, she was in the area for a “real estate boot camp.”
“When confronted, Annie Anderson identified herself as the mother of the victim and provided an account of what occurred,” police said during Tuesday’s news conference.
Police would not go into the specifics of Anderson’s statement to detectives so as not to compromise prosecution, they said Tuesday.
Prompted by a reporter, police noted that they have identified the victim’s father and said there is no evidence that he was involved in Baby Skylar’s death.
It was not immediately clear when Anderson would be extradited back to Arizona.
