patrick.net

Fri, January 16, 2026

A daycare employee in Minnesota confessed to suffocating an eleven-month-old boy to death and attempting to kill a four-month-old girl last fall and is now being charged with second degree murder, and first and third degree assault.

Savage Police Chief Brady Juell shared that the daycare worker, Theah Russell, 18, confessed to “intentionally suffocating " the two babies in an “attention seeking act” when she was arrested on Tuesday.

“She provided detailed descriptions of how she carried out the attempts against the life of the first victim on two separate occasions, and she confessed to the murder of Harvey Muklebust,” Juell said during a press conference.

Police visited Rocking Horse Ranch daycare center on September 22, 2025 to respond to a 911 call reporting that a 11-month-old child, now identified as Harvey Muklebust —was not breathing. Muklebust was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Just hours before that 911 call was made, a four-month-old infant was found with blood around her nose and mouth, but police were not called for that incident.