Eric Chaloux of KSTP 5 Eyewitness News opened his report with the kind of update no parent ever wants to hear. Police in Savage say they arrested a former day care worker in connection with the death of an infant who died after being dropped off at a child care center last fall.
Chaloux says investigators believe this was not an accident, not a sudden medical event, and not a mystery any longer. According to Savage police, the suspect confessed to suffocating two children at the day care.
The suspect, Chaloux reports, is 18-year-old Theah Loudemia Russell, a teenager who worked at Rocking Horse Ranch Child Care in Savage. Police say she admitted to intentionally suffocating an 11-month-old boy, Harvey Muklebust, and a second child, a four-month-old girl.
Chaloux delivered the details from outside Savage City Hall, where city leaders and law enforcement gave a public update. He said the mood was visibly emotional, and that “there were tears” in the eyes of a Savage police investigator as well as in the eyes of the mayor.
That part matters, because it shows how personal this became for the people investigating it. When even seasoned officers and city officials look shaken while speaking, you get the sense this case sat heavy on them for months.
And it sat heavy on Harvey’s family, too, as they waited for answers that were slow to arrive.
What Happened To Harvey Muklebust
Chaloux reports that Harvey Muklebust was just days away from his first birthday when he died in September after being dropped off at Rocking Horse Ranch. His death was described as mysterious at the time, the kind of tragedy that leaves families replaying every moment and asking what they missed.
At the press conference, Chaloux says, Harvey’s grandmother Julie Muklebust spoke about who Harvey was, not as a headline but as a person. “From the moment Harvey was born, he filled our world with sunshine,” she said, in a statement Chaloux shared.
Chaloux also quoted Julie describing the ongoing grief that doesn’t stop just because the news cycle moves on. “Harvey, every day we ask ourselves why it had to be you,” Julie said. “Every day we live with the pain of what happened to you.”
Those words don’t sound like a prepared sound bite. They sound like a family who has been living inside the same unanswered question since September.
Chaloux explained that Harvey’s family held tight to his memory while waiting for investigators to do what they do: interview people, gather evidence, and wait for lab results to confirm what suspicion alone cannot prove.
In cases involving day cares, that wait can feel unbearable. Parents are wired to believe daycare is the safe, boring place in a child’s day. When something goes wrong there, the shock hits differently, because it breaks a basic assumption people build their daily lives around.
The Suspect And The Timeline Investigators Built
Chaloux reports it took months for Savage police to reach this moment. Savage Police Chief Brady Juell said investigators spent months doing interviews, examining evidence, and waiting on lab results before making an arrest.
Chaloux says Russell had worked at Rocking Horse Ranch for only three weeks. That detail is hard to ignore. It suggests she was not a longtime staff member people knew well. She was new, a teenager placed in a setting where adults trust you with the most fragile human beings on earth.
Chief Juell, as Chaloux reported, said this case “has shaken our entire community.” It’s a simple sentence, but it fits. A daycare death touches everyone – parents, grandparents, staff, and even people who don’t have kids but still know what that kind of loss looks like.
Chaloux also reported that police suspected Russell early because she was caring for Harvey and the second child when both experienced medical distress at the center. But suspicion and proof are different things, and it took time to piece together the full story.
According to Chaloux, Chief Juell said they reached the point of having enough evidence to arrest Russell on Tuesday. After that arrest, Chaloux reports, Russell spoke again with detectives.
And that is when police say they got what they had been working toward: a confession.
The Confession Police Say They Got
Chaloux shared the most chilling part of Chief Juell’s remarks. Juell said that during questioning, Russell “confessed to intentionally suffocating the two children in an attention-seeking act.”
That phrase – “attention-seeking act” – is cold in a way that makes your stomach flip. It suggests a motive that isn’t rage, robbery, jealousy, or anything people normally attach to violent crime. It suggests the harm itself was used as a stage.
Chief Juell, quoted by Chaloux, said Russell gave “detailed descriptions” of how she carried out the attempts against the first victim’s life on two separate occasions.
And then, Chaloux reports, Juell made a point of being “perfectly clear” about the allegation involving Harvey. Juell said Russell confessed to the attempted murder of the first victim on two occasions, and “to the murder of Harvey Muklebust.”
Chaloux described this as a revelation that finally allowed police to tell Harvey’s family what happened.
If you’ve ever watched a family sit through months of uncertainty after a sudden death, you can understand why answers matter, even when the answers are horrific. Grief is heavy, but unanswered grief can feel like a locked door you can’t stop rattling.
Still, a confession doesn’t automatically end a case. It starts a new phase, where investigators, prosecutors, and defense attorneys will test every detail in court.
A Pattern That Investigators Say Was Hiding In Plain Sight
In addition to what Chaloux described in the live report, Chief Juell also laid out reasoning behind the arrest that goes beyond one incident. Chaloux’s reporting said investigators learned of multiple incidents and saw a pattern forming over time.
Police said there were three separate incidents involving two children, and that Russell was connected to all of them. According to the details shared in the case update, investigators believed Russell had the last contact with the children before each incident and then behaved suspiciously afterward.
Chief Juell also described Russell as someone who had shown “attention-seeking behavior” in the past, including reports of intentionally setting fires, erratic behavior toward other children, and even calling 911 for incidents that were not real.
If that background is accurate, it raises a hard question that communities always ask after tragedies like this: why was this person in a role caring for children at all?
That question often collides with another reality: daycares and child care centers, like many industries, are under staffing pressure. They need people, they hire young workers, and sometimes warning signs don’t show up clearly until something terrible forces everyone to look backward.
But “pressure to hire” is not an excuse. It’s a vulnerability. And in a job like this, vulnerabilities can get children hurt.
The Family’s Promise And The Community’s Anger
Chaloux ended his report with Julie Muklebust’s words, and it’s worth sitting with them because they speak for more than one family.
Julie said Harvey will never be forgotten. “We promise that every day we will say your name,” she said. “Every day we will continue to fight for you. And in the end, we will make sure that justice has been served.”
That is what families say when they are thrown into a legal system they never wanted to learn. They start talking like advocates because they feel like that’s the only way to keep their loved one present in the world.
And yes, there’s anger here. There’s going to be anger from parents who used that daycare, from parents who use any daycare, and from anyone who hears “infant” and “suffocated” in the same sentence.
It’s hard to even process the idea that the suspected motive was attention. If police are right, then this wasn’t an accident that spiraled. It was a choice, repeated.
That kind of detail doesn’t just break hearts. It changes how a community trusts.
What Happens Next In Court
Chaloux reported that Russell did not have an attorney listed in online records at the time of the broadcast. He also said the Scott County prosecutor planned to file charges the next morning.
Chaloux specifically named that timeline: charges expected Thursday morning, and Russell expected to face a judge Friday morning.
The prosecutor, Ron Hocevar, told Chaloux that the county was working to bring formal charges. At the time of Chaloux’s report, Russell was being held in the Scott County Jail on suspicion of second-degree murder.
That “suspicion” wording matters. Until charges are filed and proven, the case is still in the legal stage where allegations are tested. The public may feel certain after hearing a confession was reported, but court is where confessions are examined for context, consistency, and legality.
If the confession holds up, the case will likely shift toward why it happened, what the system missed, and what changes the community demands from child care oversight going forward.
A Larger Problem That This Case Forces Into The Open
Chaloux’s story is about one daycare, one suspect, and two families whose lives were ripped apart. But stories like this always crack open a bigger, uncomfortable truth: the childcare system runs on trust, and trust is fragile.
Parents drop off their kids because they have to work. They rely on background checks, training requirements, licensing rules, and staff supervision to be more than paperwork.
When a case like this hits, people start asking whether rules are actually being enforced, whether staff are being properly watched, and whether warning signs get ignored because everyone is busy trying to keep the doors open.
The sad part is that many centers do everything right, every day, quietly. But one horrific case can stain an entire industry in the public mind, because the stakes are too high to shrug off.
And if the allegations are true, the damage isn’t only the loss of Harvey’s life. It’s the ripple of fear that spreads to every parent who now wonders, in a way they didn’t before, what’s happening behind the locked doors of drop-off time.
That is why Chaloux’s report landed so hard. It wasn’t just news. It was a gut punch.
A former park ranger and wildlife conservationist, Lisa’s passion for survival started with her deep connection to nature. Raised on a small farm in northern Wisconsin, she learned how to grow her own food, raise livestock, and live off the land. Lisa is our dedicated Second Amendment news writer and also focuses on homesteading, natural remedies, and survival strategies. Lisa aims to help others live more sustainably and prepare for the unexpected.
