Reproductive rights group posts bail for murder suspect in ‘Baby Skylar’ case
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The woman arrested last year, accused of killing her baby and leaving the newborn in a trash can at Sky Harbor airport 20 years ago, is out of jail.
Annie Anderson, 51, was bailed out of jail by Repro Legal Defense Fund, a reproductive rights group.
Medical experts said the baby was alive until her mother suffocated her to death, which begs the question: Why did this group get involved in the case?
“It’s an interesting situation and a new twist in the case,” said criminal defense attorney Russ Richelsoph, who’s unaffiliated with the case but very familiar with the details.
It was back in October 2005 when a baby was found dead in a Phoenix Sky Harbor airport bathroom.
The medical examiner ruled the infant - dubbed “Baby Skylar” by police - was alive for 24 hours before she died by suffocation.
Nearly two decades later, DNA and genealogy helped lead detectives to the Anderson, who confessed. She told police she didn’t know she was pregnant, gave birth in a hotel bathtub, held the baby underwater because she didn’t know what to do, and then disposed of the body in an airport trash can before flying back home to Washington.
“It’s possible that the defense in this case is going to be that the medical examiner is wrong and that the baby was in fact stillborn,” said Richelsoph.
He said that may be something Anderson’s defense team has zeroed in on with their own experts and provided details of their findings to the very organization that would bail out the mother facing murder.
The bond receipt shows the Repro Legal Defense Team put up the money for her release in December. Their website shows they provide financial support for people fighting charges related to their pregnancy or abortion.
But this is a different case - dealing with the homicide of a baby already born.
“Prior to today, I hadn’t heard of this group and hadn’t seen a political group like this post a bond in this kind of case, so I don’t think it’s very common,” Richelsoph said.
He said it’s likely that defense attorneys may also look at Anderson’s confession to determine if it was valid, as confessions don’t always hold up well in a court of law.
But no matter what, there are still charges of child abuse and abandoning a dead body, in addition to murder, that the Repro Legal Defense Fund had to know before they posted hundreds of dollars in bail for the baby’s mom.
“I don’t know why they’ve gotten involved, and I don’t know what has been presented to them to convince them to get involved,” Richelsoph said.
True Crime Arizona has been asking the Repro Legal Defense Fund for a response about how they got involved with Annie Anderson, what about her case made them want to bail her out, and how they vet the cases they’re presented. They have not gotten back to us despite multiple emails and phone calls.
As of Tuesday, Anderson’s trial is now slated to start in June instead of next month.
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