A Kansas City father and his girlfriend are charged with murdering the man’s 3-year-old daughter, whom he reported missing to police over the weekend.
On Sunday, the Wyandotte County District Attorney announced charges against Howard Jansen, 29, and Jacqulyn Kirkpatrick, 33, following the discovery of Olivia Jansen’s presumed remains earlier that weekend, Kansas City’s Fox 4 reported.
“We are deeply saddened to announce that in the last 30 minutes our officers have discovered a body in the 3400 block of Steele that we believe to be that of missing 3-year-old Olivia Jansen,” Kansas City police said on Facebook Friday. “… This is not the outcome we wanted, in fact it is the worst outcome.”
Howard Jansen walked into the Kansas City Police Department building at 8:30 a.m. Friday to report the girl missing, police said in a formal press release. Her presumed remains were found around 5:30 p.m. that night.
Howard was taken into custody Friday — shortly after Olivia’s presumed remains were discovered — while Kirkpatrick was arrested the following day, according to Fox 4.Howard is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child endangerment, and criminal desecration and Kirkpatrick faces the same charges, local outlet KSHB reports.
Both Howard and Kirkpatrick are currently incarcerated at the Wyandotte Detention Center, according to a review of online jail records. It is not clear if they’ve obtained attorneys available for comment.
The case is still under investigation and court documents detailing the allegations against Jansen and Kirkpatrick have not yet been released. However, Olivia’s extended family have condemned Howard and Kirkpatrick for their alleged actions, claiming that Olivia was being abused by her father.
“I’m glad its first-degree murder, wish it was capital murder, but I wish it could be more,” grandmother Elisabeth Jansen told local outlet KMBC. “I want them to pay for what they did to her. This has been going on for months and it didn’t have to.”
The grandmother said Olivia was not happy with her father.
“She was always so unhappy to go home,” Elisabeth told KSHB. “She would frown and say, ‘You love me? You’re not mad at me? I come back? I come back?’ and I told her ‘I will hurt anybody who that keeps you away from me.’”
Police said if anyone has any information related to this case, they are asked to reach out to the KCKPD at 913-596-3000, the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS, or to message the department on Facebook.
