Rose Hill police say the adoptive parents of a girl who was found buried in a back yard have now been arrested for the girl’s death.

Police released a statement saying 50-year-old Crystina Elizabeth Schroer was arrested for first degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, four counts of child abuse and torture, felony theft, forgery, Medicaid fraud and desecration of a corpse.

Charges against 53-year-old Joseph Shane Schroer are four counts of child abuse and torture, liability for crimes of another, interference with law enforcement, felony theft and Medicaid fraud.

The body of six-year-old Kennedy Jean Schroer was found in September, 2024 after a call was made to 911 regarding a home in Rose Hill.   Investigators found a trash bag buried underground in the back yard with the child’s remains inside.   An autopsy from the Sedgwick County Forensic Science Center found in November that the girl’s death was caused by suffocation and the manner of death was homicide.

Police said the girl’s birth name was Natalie Garcia, and Kennedy Jean Schroer was her adopted name.  It’s believed that she died in November, 2020.

Rose Hill police were assisted in the investigation by Andover police detectives, Butler County Sheriff’s deputies and investigators, and the Butler County Attorney’s Office, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI, Wichita Satellite Office), FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU, Quantico), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Kansas Attorney General’s Office Medicaid Fraud Division, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) investigation division, the Exploited and Missing Children’s Unit (EMCU), and civilian experts in the fields of trauma and abuse.

Formal charges are pending with the Butler County Attorney’s Office.