Nearly 20 years ago, a woman was arrested for allegedly leaving her dead baby in a bathroom trash can at a Phoenix airport.
Annie Anderson, 51, of Washington, was arrested in connection with the Baby Schuyler case based on DNA and genealogy evidence.
Baby Skyler was found hidden in a black bag inside a bathroom trash can at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport’s Terminal 4 on October 10, 2005. Airport security guards discovered an abandoned baby while searching for a lost laptop. According to WCAX.
“They ended up taking something heavy out of the bag, a black bag,” said Troy Hillman, a former cold case detective who worked for the Phoenix Police Department. I told the AZ family. “They found a dead newborn baby in the bag.”
Baby Skyler was found wrapped in a hotel towel, but police were unable to locate him after searching three of the chain’s buildings using surveillance footage and guest lists.
“She was literally just welcomed into this world and then she was killed. It was really scary,” Hillman said.
According to WCAX, the medical examiner found the infant died of asphyxiation and ruled it a homicide.
Skyler was less than 24 hours old. ABC15 reported.
They built up what the woman looked like, but that didn’t help move the case forward.
Shortly thereafter, DNA and genealogy revealed a possible match, with the case remaining unsolved until 2021.
According to ABC 15, police obtained a warrant to search Anderson’s home in Washington in January 2022, and Anderson’s admission confirmed that she was Baby Schuyler’s mother.
Police do not believe the father was involved in the crime, local newspapers said.
Anderson is charged with first-degree murder and was taken into custody in Washington on Tuesday. She will be handed over to Phoenix.
Hillman believes Baby Skyler would have gone unnoticed had the businessman not lost his laptop that day.
“It was almost divine intervention,” he said.
“It still really hurts me,” he said of the woman’s alleged behavior. “It didn’t have to be this way. Someone needed to explain why they did what they did.”
