A 6-Year-Old Girl Was Found Buried in Kan. Backyard — and Adoptive Parents Knew She Was There for Years

A Kansas man has been sentenced in connection with the death of his 6-year-old adopted daughter, whose remains were discovered four years after authorities believe she was killed by his wife.

On Wednesday, Dec. 3, a Butler County judge ordered Joseph Schroer to serve 60 days in jail and four years of probation, according to local outlets KAKE, KWCH and The Wichita Eagle. If he violates the terms of his probation, he will have to serve a 14-month prison sentence, the outlets reported.

Schroer had previously entered a no contest plea to two counts of aggravated endangering a child and one count of Medicaid fraud for allowing his wife’s abuse of their children.

In August, his wife, Crystina Schroer, pleaded no contest to charges including second-degree murder, child abuse, making a false writing and theft. She is currently serving a 17-year prison sentence.

Authorities said the decomposed remains of 6-year-old Natalie Garcia — who was adopted by the couple in 2019 and renamed Kennedy Schroer — were found buried in the backyard of their Rose Hill home in September 2024, according to a disclosure order filed in the case.

Kennedy had actually disappeared in 2020, but Rose Hill police did not learn she was missing until they responded to a call that her mother was threatening to kill herself. An autopsy later concluded that Kennedy likely died of suffocation, and her death was ruled a homicide.

According to the disclosure order, Crystina initially claimed that one of her other children was responsible for Kennedy’s death. However, Kennedy’s sister later told investigators that in 2020, Crystina had forced Kennedy into a small box at night. When Kennedy continued to move, Crystina allegedly stacked blankets on top of the box and then placed a baby crib over it.

The sister said Crystina regularly forced the children into a small box if they moved too much at night. It was only after the sister cried in fear that Kennedy was dead that Crystina opened the box. Kennedy’s body fell out and appeared “blue,” the sister recounted.

“She buried her,” Butler County Attorney Darrin Devinney said of Crystina, according to KAKE. “She double-bagged her in trash bags, dug a hole on her own property, and buried her right outside the master bedroom.” He added that the couple then continued to sleep in that bedroom “for four years, right next to the corpse of that small child.”

Authorities said Crystina told the other children that Kennedy was in a mental hospital.

Investigators later learned from the couple’s adopted, biological and foster children that Crystina routinely starved and tortured Kennedy and the other young children. She allegedly kept cameras throughout the house to constantly monitor them, and prosecutors argued in court that she treated the children primarily as a source of income.

Joseph told authorities he did not know Kennedy had been killed. However, prosecutors said he “actively participated in the continued torture of other children in the home, in concert with his wife,” and accepted Medicaid payments while knowing Kennedy was no longer living in the home, The Wichita Eagle reported.