In a tragic case that has gripped Kansas, a local man, Joseph Schroer, has received a sentence related to the untimely death of his adopted daughter. His legal troubles stem from charges of aggravated child endangerment and Medicaid fraud, which he faced after pleading no contest in October. Schroer admitted to allowing his wife, Crystina Schroer, to mistreat their adopted children, according to reports by KAKE.

On December 3, a judge in Butler County handed down a sentence that includes 60 days of incarceration, followed by a four-year probation period. Schroer faces the possibility of serving an additional 14 months in prison if he fails to adhere to his probation conditions, as noted by the news outlet.

During the sentencing hearing, a visibly distraught Schroer expressed his remorse, stating, “I am completely broken. What my family has been through, what we have lost is profound. Worst of all, by my own actions, I have dishonored my family with my incompetence.”

The case took a grim turn back in September 2024 when officers from the Rose Hill Police Department uncovered the body of 6-year-old Kennedy Schroer, originally named Natalie Garcia, buried in the family’s backyard. This heartbreaking discovery, detailed by KWCH, has left the community in shock and mourning.

In September 2024, Rose Hill Police Department personnel searched the Schroers’ backyard, where they discovered the buried body of their 6-year-old adoptive daughter Kennedy Schroer (named Natalie Garcia at birth), according to KWCH’s reporting. 

Authorities believe Kennedy died in November 2020, with the Schroers continuing to live at the home for nearly four more years before her body was found, per the outlet. (A cause of death could not be determined, but investigators reportedly suspected she died from suffocation.) 

Oxygen has reached out to Rose Hill Police Department and Butler County Attorney’s Office for additional comment but has not yet heard back. 

This comes one month after Crystina was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison, after she pleaded no contest to second-degree murder, child abuse, making false information and welfare fraud, according to The Witchita Eagle. 

Authorities believed the couple’s actions likely surrounded Crystina’s multimillion-dollar gambling addiction, the outlet reported. 

“As we have said from the beginning, while speaking for the dead we must also protect the living,” Rose Hill Police Chief Taylor Parlier said in a Dec. 3 statement, per KAKE. “These sentences can never be sufficient for the pain and loss these two people created, but it ensured the surviving victims would not have to undergo a blistering cross examination all while reliving their abuse again and again.”