Father of slain 3-year-old Olivia Jansen sentenced to 29 years in Kansas prison
Howard Jansen III, a 30-year old man whose daughter’s killing touched off an internal investigation of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, was sentenced on Friday to 29 years in prison for her murder.
Olivia Jansen was found dead on July 10, 2020
Jansen pleaded no contest last month to charges of second-degree murder, child abuse, aggravated child endangerment and interfering with a law enforcement investigation. He was sentenced during a hearing Friday in Wyandotte County District Court, according to the district attorney’s office.
The judge ordered that Jansen serve 272 months on the murder charge, followed by 76 months on the other five felonies. The sentences are set to run consecutively.
Jacqulyn Kirkpatrick, Jansen’s girlfriend, admitted to her role in the killing with a guilty plea last year. She was sentenced to 31 years.
Olivia was found dead on July 10, 2020, the day her father called the authorities that morning to report her missing, prompting a large local search effort. Her body was discovered hours later in a wooded area in the 3400 block of Steele Road, roughly a mile away from her father’s home.
A medical examiner’s report later showed that Olivia had signs of physical abuse, including a small cut on the back of her head, and died of a brain bleed, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The death of such a young child stunned the Kansas City, Kansas community. In the wake of the girl’s killing, family came forward to say that they had expressed concerns about her safety to child welfare.
A Star investigation later found that a social worker with the Kansas child welfare agency had been in contact with the girl three days before her death. The agency was investigating a claim that the little girl might have been in danger based on suspected drug use by her father and his girlfriend, with whom the child was living at the time.
Officials with the state agency found that its staff had followed the policy. The report made did not contain allegations of physical abuse, according to the agency, and no signs of physical danger were observed during the first contact with Olivia.
