Woman busted for murder of baby found dead in Phoenix airport bathroom nearly 20 years ago
A woman was arrested for allegedly leaving a dead baby in the bathroom trashcan inside a Phoenix airport nearly 20 years ago.
Annie Anderson, 51, of Washington, was arrested after being connected to the Baby Skylar case through DNA and genealogy evidence.
Baby Skylar was found stashed in a black bag inside a bathroom trash on Oct. 10, 2005 in Terminal 4 of the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.
Airport security had been searching for a missing laptop when they discovered the discarded baby, according to WCAX.
“They ended up pulling something heavy out of the bag, a black bag,” Troy Hillman, a retired cold case detective that used to work for the Phoenix Police Department told AZ Family. “They found a deceased newborn inside the bag.”
Baby Skylar was wrapped inside hotel towels, but the police were unable to determine which location after searching three of the chain’s buildings through surveillance footage and guest lists.
“She just literally was welcomed into the world only to be murdered. It was just horrific,” Hillman said.
The coroner found that the baby had died from suffocation and ruled it a homicide, according to WCAX.
Skylar was less than 24 hours old, ABC 15 reported.
They constructed what the woman may have looked like, but it did not help the case move forward.
Shortly after, the case went cold until 2021, when DNA and genealogy led them to a possible match.
Police got a warrant to search Anderson’s home in Washington in January 2022 and confirmed she was the mother of Baby Skylar after she admitted it, according to ABC 15.
Police do not believe the father was involved in the crime, according to the local outlet.
Anderson faces first-degree murder charges and was in custody in Washington on Tuesday. She will be extradited to Phoenix.
Hillman believes that Baby Skylar would have gone unnoticed if the businessperson had not lost their laptop that day.
“It was almost divine intervention,” he said.
“That just kind of burns at me to this day,” he said of the woman’s alleged actions. “This didn’t have to be this way, and somebody needed to explain why they did what they did.”
