$10,000 reward offered in Krnak murder case

By Lisa Majors-Duff

The family of Allen Krnak, 55, his wife, Donna, 52, and their 21-year-old son, Thomas, is offering the reward to anyone who can provide them with "information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the disappearance or deaths" of their loved ones.

The Krnak family was last seen in 1998 leaving their home in Helenville, Wis., for a Fourth of July weekend getaway to their cabin near Coloma, Wis., about an hour's drive north. Their black and white cocker spaniel, "Hunter," disappeared with them.

Jackson County law enforcement officers unknowingly became involved in the case of the missing Krnak family when a hunter discovered skeletal remains in the woods near Moses Creek in December 1999. An engraved wedding band and dental records finally led investigators to identify Allen Krnak this January.

The Krnak's 32-year-old son, Derek Anderson, has been charged by the Jackson County Sheriff's Department with the murder of his father. Anderson, who legally changed his named from Andrew Krnak just days after his family disappeared, is a Western Carolina University graduate familiar with the Moses Creek area, officers say.

Investigators with the Jefferson County (Wis.) Sheriff's Department suspected Anderson in the disappearance of his family but were never able to charge him without the bodies. Instead Anderson was convicted in 1999 of defrauding the federal government to obtain student loans and began serving a 17-month prison term in Minnesota in October of that year.

Anderson was arrested for first-degree murder Feb. 1 at the Milwaukee halfway house where he'd been living since his release from prison. Since then he has been fighting extradition back to North Carolina. He is scheduled to appear in court in Wisconsin again on March 2, at which time local law enforcement are hopeful that a warrant from N.C. Gov. Mike Easley's office will be submitted requesting Anderson's return to Jackson County.

A team of searchers combed the Moses Creek woods for several days after investigators identified Allen Krnak. The intent of their search was to locate the bodies of Anderson's mother and brother. So far the two have not been found.

The investigation is continuing, said Lt. Darrin Young with the Jackson County Sheriff's Department. Requests have been made for information from the intelligence agencies in Arizona, Louisiana, Tennessee and Georgia, states Anderson is known to have spent time, in an attempt "to establish a pattern of violent tendencies," Young said. At least one assault charge has been uncovered in Arizona, where Anderson applied for financial aid to attend the University of Arizona in Tuscon, he said. Other charges on Anderson's record include breaking and entering, speeding and DWI.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call either the Jackson County Sheriff's Department at 586-4480 or the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department at 1-800-675-7310.

Back to Archive: 02/22/01.