Kansas Father Sentenced After Child’s Remains Found
A Butler County judge on Dec. 3 sentenced Joseph Schroer to 60 days in jail and four years of probation after he pleaded no contest to criminal charges tied to the death and concealment of his 6-year-old adopted daughter. If Schroer violates probation, he faces a 14-month prison sentence, local outlets reported (KAKE, KWCW, The Wichita Eagle).
Charges and Sentences
Prosecutors say Schroer entered no-contest pleas to two counts of aggravated endangering of a child and one count of Medicaid fraud for permitting his wife’s abuse and continuing to collect benefits after the child was gone. His wife, Crystina Schroer, previously pleaded no contest to charges that included second-degree murder, child abuse, making a false writing and theft; she is serving a 17-year prison sentence.
Discovery and Autopsy
Authorities recovered the decomposed remains of the couple’s adopted daughter — born Natalie Garcia and renamed Kennedy Schroer after her 2019 adoption — buried in the family’s backyard in September 2024, according to court records and a disclosure order obtained by PEOPLE. Investigators believe Kennedy was killed in 2020. An autopsy determined Kennedy likely suffocated and ruled the death a homicide.
Siblings’ Accounts and Allegations
Rose Hill police say they did not know the child was missing until officers responded to the family home after receiving a report that the mother was threatening suicide. During the investigation, multiple adopted, biological and foster children in the home told investigators that Crystina routinely starved and tortured Kennedy and other young children, monitored them with cameras throughout the house, and portrayed the children largely as a source of income.
"She double-bagged her in trash bags, dug a hole on her own property, and buried her right outside the master bedroom," Butler County Attorney Darrin Devinney told KAKE. "That master bedroom ... where they continued to sleep for four years, right next to the corpse of that small child."
One sibling told investigators that in 2020 Crystina placed Kennedy in a small box and, when the child continued to move, added blankets and then a baby crib on top of the box. The sibling said Crystina would force children who moved at night into the small box; after the sibling cried out that Kennedy was dead, Crystina opened the box and Kennedy fell out appearing "blue," according to the disclosure order.
Prosecutors’ Case Against Joseph Schroer
Joseph Schroer told police he was unaware that Kennedy had been killed. Prosecutors countered that he "actively participated in the continued torture of other children in the home, in concert with his wife," and that he continued to accept Medicaid payments while knowing the child was no longer living in the house (The Wichita Eagle).
Resources
If you suspect child abuse, contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or visit www.childhelp.org. Calls are toll-free, confidential and available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
Reporting compiled from PEOPLE, local Kansas outlets (KAKE, KWCW) and The Wichita Eagle.
