Remains identified as those of missing Wisconsin man

Man's son charged in his father's death

By Lisa Majors-Duff

Allen Krnak

The skeletal remains of a man found the Moses Creek section of Caney Fork community a little more than a year ago have been identified as belonging to a Wisconsin man missing since July 1998.

The remains of Allen Krnak, 55, were discovered by hunters in the Roy Taylor Forest in December 1999. After an autopsy on the remains determined the man's death resulted from a blunt-force trauma to the head, the Jackson County Sheriff's Department started a murder investigation, which included periodic calls to the public for assistance in identifying the man.

One of the clues found at the scene, a 14-karat gold wedding band with the initials "DKW & AFK," eventually linked the Jackson County remains with the missing Krnak, said Lt. Darrin Young of the Sheriff's Department. Local law enforcement investigators were alerted to a missing persons investigation being conducted by the Jefferson County (Wis.) Sheriff's Department near Milwaukee by the FBI's Violent Crime Apprehensive Program.

Donna Krnak

After investigators compared notes, Jefferson County officials forwarded the missing Krnak's dental records to the N.C. Medical Examiner's office in Chapel Hill, where a positive identification was made in early January, Young said.

Though local law enforcement officers have been investigating the murder since December 1999, Jefferson County officers have been looking for Krnak, his wife, Donna, and their 21-year-old son, Thomas, since the family was reported missing in July 1998. While the couple's other son, Derek Nicholas Anderson, formerly Andrew Krnak, was suspected in the family's disappearance, he was never charged.

That changed when Allen Krnak's remains were identified in an area Anderson was known to visit during his years as a student at Western Carolina University. Anderson, who was living at a Milwaukee halfway house following his recent release from federal prison, was charged with first-degree murder Feb. 1 after Jackson County Sheriff Jim Cruzan obtained a warrant from the Magistrate's Office based on the facts of the case.

Thomas Krnak

Anderson, who legally changed his name just days after his family was reported missing, is being held in the Milwaukee County Jail, where he will remain at least until an extradition hearing set for March 2. According to Young, work began Tuesday to secure a extradition warrant from North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley to be sent to Wisconsin Gov. Scott McCallum. Local authorities have a May 1 deadline to bring Anderson to North Carolina, after which he could be released, Young said.

More than 60 law enforcement officials and searchers combed the steep slopes of the Roy Taylor Forest beginning Jan. 31 and continuing through the weekend, looking for signs of the remaining two members of the Krnak family. In addition to investigators with the local Sheriff's Department, Sheriff Orval Quamme of Jefferson County, Wis., and two of his detectives joined the search effort after making the 13-hour drive from Wisconsin to Western North Carolina.

Orange paint and flags mark the precise locations where murder victim Allen Krnak's remains were located more than a year ago. Law enforcement personnel were back in the area last week searching for clues in the disappearance of Krnak's wife and younger son. His older son, Derek Anderson, was arrested Feb. 1 in Milwaukee and charged with his father's murder. - Herald photo by Lisa Majors-Duff

Others included FBI agents from Asheville and Knoxville, Tenn., and the FBI's Evidence Recovery Team of Charlotte, an anthropologist from the University of Tennessee, N.C. Wildlife officers with cadaver dogs, a Franklin police dog, a specialized search and rescue team from Haywood and Henderson counties, and the U.S. Forest Service. Additional evidence collected during the four-day search has been turned over to the FBI, Young said.

Even though the search has been expanded in the national forest, none of the evidence collected so far indicates that the remaining two family members will be found near where Allen Krnak's bones were discovered, Young said. "Chances are that the other two are not here," said Young, who speculated that the bodies of Donna and Thomas Krnak "could be anywhere in the 800 miles between here and Wisconsin."

"(Anderson) was confident that this body would not be found," the detective continued, explaining that the environmental conditions of the Roy Taylor Forest in the time after it was dumped helped in the body's decomposition. There was also evidence, he said, that the body, after being rolled down a steep embankment, was discovered by animals, most likely bears, that carried parts several feet away.

Also discovered in the woods near Krnak were the remains of a dog, which could be those of the family pet, though that has not been determined, Young said.

"It's known that (Anderson) did not like the dog," said Young. "It didn't get along with his cat."

Conflicts between the Krnaks and their oldest son led Wisconsin investigators to suspect Anderson when his father, mother and brother were reported missing. Other members of the family filed the missing persons report after the Krnaks did not reach their Fourth of July destination - the family's cabin about a hour north of their home - and then did not return home. When questioned by Wisconsin authorities, Anderson denied any knowledge of his family's whereabouts, Young said.

Jackson County investigators say they have evidence that places Anderson in Western North Carolina, though not necessarily Jackson County, as recently as 1998. His last known activity in Jackson County took place in 1996, though Young declined to comment further on why Anderson might have been here at that time.

Anderson graduated with honors from Western Carolina University in 1994 and entered the university's graduate program that fall. He withdrew from the program in November 1994 and registered again as an undergraduate student the following year. While in Cullowhee, Anderson lived on camups in Reynolds Dorm and off campus in Alpine Apartments, Young said.

According to published reports in Wisconsin, Anderson was jailed in July 1999 for defrauding the federal government on applications for college loans. His 17-month federal sentence began after he finished serving a 15-month sentence for a conviction on breaking and entering and larceny.

While in North Carolina, Sheriff Quamme described Anderson as a "con-type" person, citing as examples his efforts to change his name, obtain a new Social Security number, pass a GED test after receiving a high school dipolma, and lying to get federal education grants.

Sheriff Cruzan gives all the credit for solving this case to the members of the department's detective division. "If it hadn't been for the tenacity of the Jackson County detectives and their determination to find out who the body was, we would not be where we are right now," Cruzan said. "They're like bulldogs, they just won't quit."