Woman accused of murder, abandoning baby at Sky Harbor airport faces mid-April extradition
Maricopa County authorities have until mid-April to extradite a woman accused of the 2005 murder of her newborn baby, officials said.
A woman accused of abandoning her newborn baby in a trash bin at Sky Harbor International Airport nearly 19 years ago was arrested at her home in Arlington, Washington, in December according to court records. The cause of death was suffocation, according to Phoenix Police Lt. James Hester who declined to say how the child died that way.
Documents show Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed the warrant of arrest and extradition for Annie Anderson on Feb. 27.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office told The Arizona Republic that a Washington judge informed MCSO that the agency has until April 15 to extradite Anderson.
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Phoenix police first announced the arrest of 51-year-old Annie Anderson on Feb. 20. Anderson was charged on suspicion of first-degree murder in the Oct. 10, 2005, death of her newborn daughter, named Baby Skylar by authorities, according to police.
Police accused Anderson of discarding Baby Skylar — a full-term baby with its umbilical cord still attached — in a Sky Harbor women's restroom trash can.
The baby was recovered on the east end of the second floor of Terminal 4, according to reporting by The Arizona Republic at the time. Detectives on the case had determined she was delivered elsewhere and then discarded at the airport as there was no blood or other indication the child had been born there, The Republic's reporting noted.
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Baby Skylar was found wrapped in newspapers and a wet towel, stuffed in a plastic bag with red Marriott hotel lettering, according to Hester. Detectives scoured Marriott hotels in the area but were unsuccessful in finding a suspect, Hester said. The crime scene DNA was also put in CODIS, the FBI's DNA database, but no match was found, Hester added.
Documents from Snohomish County Superior Court say the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office contacted the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office at around 2 p.m. on Dec. 21, 2023, to ask for help in finding and arresting Anderson.
The detective, who was also assigned to the U.S. Marshal's Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force, visited Anderson's home located just east of the Arlington Municipal Airport with several other task force members.
Documents stated an officer in plain clothes contacted Anderson, who answered the front door, and told her there was an issue with her car that was parked on the street. Anderson left her home to check out the car when two other officers arrested Anderson and took her to Snohomish County Jail where she was booked on first-degree murder, child abuse, and abandonment or concealment of a dead body.
Sgt. Monica Bretado, an MCSO spokesperson, said the agency "does not release any information on extraditions for safety reasons."
Reach the reporter Perry Vandell at perry.vandell@gannett.com or 602-444-2474. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @PerryVandell.
Reporter Jose Gonzalez contributed to this article.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Woman arrested in cold case where baby found in Sky Harbor trash can awaits extradition
