Cops: Calif. couple kept toddler's body in suitcase, freezer

NAPA, Calif. - A mother and her boyfriend arrested for allegedly killing the woman’s 3-year-old daughter told arresting officers they kept the girl’s body in a suitcase in a freezer for three days before later placing the body on a bed and fleeing, according to a police report obtained by CBS SF Bay Area.

The Napa County District Attorney’s Office Tuesday afternoon charged Sara Krueger and Ryan Warner with the murder and deadly assault of Kayleigh Slusher in their Napa apartment.

Krueger, 23, and Warner, 26, did not enter pleas in Napa County Superior Court Tuesday afternoon to the murder and assault charges, Napa County District Attorney Gary Lieberstein said, reports the station.

The couple waived their right to a preliminary hearing within 10 days. Their next court date is scheduled for Feb. 25. 

Krueger and Warner face 25 years to life in prison on each of the two charges — murder with malice aforethought, and assault on a child with force producing great bodily injury causing death, Lieberstein said. 

The two are being held without bail in the Napa County jail.

Lieberstein said the murder was committed on or about Jan. 30.

The girl’s body was found on a bed in Krueger’s and Warner’s apartment around 1 p.m. Saturday after a neighbor asked police to make a welfare check, Napa police Lt. Debbie Peecook said, reports the station.

Kayleigh suffered blunt force trauma and appeared to have been sexually assaulted, Peecook said, according to the station.

Napa police Capt. Jeff Troendly said Tuesday afternoon that Krueger and Warner told police investigators they kept Kayleigh’s body in a freezer before they put it on a bed in the apartment and left, reports the station.

Krueger and Warner were reportedly seen leaving the apartment with luggage around 10 a.m. Saturday. Neither one had a car and attempts by police to contact them by cellphone were unsuccessful, Peecook said.

Information about the couple was released to the media, and police received an anonymous tip from a citizen who saw them at a restaurant in El Cerrito on Sunday, reports the station.

BART Police Department officers contacted the couple at the El Cerrito del Norte BART station at 11 a.m. Sunday. They were detained and Napa police picked them up, interviewed and arrested them. Both were then booked on the two charges in the Napa County Detention Center.

Kayleigh’s father, 33-year-old Jason Slusher, is serving three years in San Quentin State Prison for attempting to evade a police officer while driving recklessly in Napa County, reports CBS SF Bay Area.

Troendly said police visited Krueger and Warner’s apartment on Jan. 29, just a day before Kayleigh is believed to have been killed, after someone called to express concerns that Krueger was under the influence of drugs, was not feeding her daughter and was allowing anybody to stay at the apartment.

Police found no signs Krueger was under the influence or that Kayleigh was in danger, Troendly said.

Between June 2012 and Feb. 1, the day the toddler was found dead, police received 14 calls for service at the apartment, Troendly said. The calls were reportedly about unwanted or suspicious people at the apartment, vandalism, petty theft and harassing phone calls but not for violence.

An autopsy on Kayleigh was performed Monday. The cause of death is pending toxicology tests and further analysis, Troendly said.