Kansas woman Jacqulyn Kirkpatrick gets 31 years in jail for killing boyfriend’s toddler
KANSAS CITY, KANSAS: A woman has been given just over 31 years behind bars for abusing and murdering the three-old daughter of her boyfriend. Jacqulyn Kirkpatrick was sentenced on Monday, December 20, in Wyandotte County after being convicted of one count of second-degree murder, one count of the abuse of a child under the age of six, and two counts of interference with the police.
The 35-year-old has also signed a plea deal under which she will have to against her boyfriend, Howard Jansen III, who was the father of the victim – Olivia Jansen. The pair were charged last year in July as it was revealed that they were behind the abuse and murder of the little one. Initially, the father of the child said that she vanished early on July 10, 2020. Jansen III claimed that when he woke up at 5.30 am that day, he saw Olivia was missing and the back door open.
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However, the accused father failed to keep his story consistent over the course of the day. Officer T J Tomasic said at a press conference after the arrests, “We have had several stories throughout the day. None of them made very much sense.” Later, that evening, cops discovered the toddler’s bruised body clad in pajamas in a nearby shallow grave. The charging papers stated that after being examined by a coroner, it was discovered that Olivia died of a brain hemorrhage sometime on July 9 or 10.
During Kirkpatrick’s plea hearing, it was also alleged by the prosecutors that the woman used to keep the victim locked inside a dog kennel or asked her to stand without moving in a corner for longer times. Other kids living in the same house with Kirkpatrick and her boyfriend claimed that they often saw the former one shoving Olivia by the back of the head, including into walls.
Reportedly, when the little girl died, her biological mother was in jail on unrelated charges. But both her maternal and paternal grandparents knew about the abuse and also tried to intervene by informing the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF). Her maternal grandmother Vickey Saindon had said in 2020, “I just wish whenever we called DCF they would have done something about it. Because we’ve called them and KCK police to do welfare checks on that child.”
Howard Jansen III's stepmother, Elisabeth Jansen, also stated, “I want them to pay for what they did to her. This has been going on for months and it didn't have to.” She mentioned, “She was always so unhappy to go home. She would frown and say, 'You love me? You’re not mad at me? I come back? I come back?' (sic) and I told her 'I will hurt anybody who that keeps you away from me.'” And, his father Howard Jansen II added: “Torture, torture, they kept her from us. We called DCF. We knew it was bad but we didn't know what we are learning now.”
Meanwhile, the DCF has yet not released its report or anything on Olivia Jansen’s probe, citing the pending trial of the victim’s father. The date of the Jansen III trial has not been decided yet.