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"Anderson had appealed his extradition to North Carolina on numerous fronts, both state and federal," said Lt. Jimmy Clawson of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department. "I was notified last week by Assistant District Attorney Monica Leslie that he has dropped his appeals and is ready to return."
"The Court of Appeals in Wisconsin had issued an opinion, saying everything (concerning Anderson's extradition) was OK," Leslie said Tuesday. "He would have had an opportunity to appeal to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, but he chose not to."
Once Anderson arrives in Jackson County, he'll be served with a first-degree murder indictment, Leslie said. Having already been appointed an attorney, Steve Lindsay of Asheville, Anderson is scheduled to appear in court during the Feb. 17 session, she said.
More than 60 law enforcement officers from both Jackson County and Wisconsin's Jefferson County combed the Moses Creek woods in Caney Fork for several weeks early in 2001 after state medical examiners determined the remains found the previous December were those of Allen Krnak.
After identifying the elder Krnak, investigators searched the woods for evidence of his wife, Donna, and their younger son, Thomas, all of whom had been missing since the 1998 Fourth of July weekend. While no additional human remains were found, authorities did uncover the remains of the family's cocker spaniel, along with a 14-karat gold wedding band with the initials "DKW & AFK."
Anderson, who Milwaukee authorities had suspected in his family's disappearance, was living in a Milwaukee halfway house at the time of his arrest for murder. Efforts to return him to North Carolina through the governor's office were fought by Anderson's public defender, Neil McGinn.
While North Carolina has a death penalty and Wisconsin does not may have played into Anderson's decision to fight extradition, it could not be used as a legal reason to resist returning to North Carolina, McGinn said.
"It's certainly a factor in why (Anderson) would want to resist (extradition). Wouldn't you?" McGinn said in a June 2001 interview.
A decision on the part of the District Attorney's Office on whether or not to seek the death penalty against Anderson has not been made, said Leslie.
"We will be making that decision before the Feb. 17 session," she said.
Local authorities believed extradition would be sped up after a Jackson County Grand Jury indicted Anderson on a charge of first-degree murder in February 2001. But Anderson and his defense attorney successfully used the court system to resist returning to Jackson County until last week.
At the time of Anderson's indictment, Jackson County investigators said they had evidence placing him most recently in Western North Carolina in 1998. Prior to that, he was known to have been in the area in 1996, two years following his graduation from Western Carolina University. While in school in Cullowhee, Anderson lived on campus in Reynolds Dorm and off campus in Alpine Apartments.
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Anderson