Childcare Worker Arrested For Suffocating Children for Attention
Written by admin on January 17, 2026
An 18-year-old Minnesota day care worker has been arrested for the death of an 11-month-old baby in her care at the Rocking Horse Ranch childcare center.
Police said that Theah Loudemia Russell admitted to suffocating Harvey Muklebust last September and reportedly told investigators she did so as an attention-seeking measure, the Prior Lake News Compass reports.
The investigation began on September 19 when police were called to assist after a 4-month-old girl was found not breathing and with blood and foam near her nose and mouth. The girl was taken by her parents to a hospital, where she was assessed and released. She had no further issues over the weekend.
But when the girl returned to the childcare center on Monday, she was again found not breathing and was taken again to a hospital.
Two hours later, Russell herself called 911 to say that that another child — Muklebust — wasn’t breathing. Police and medics tried to revive the boy before taking him to the hospital, where he died at about 11:30 a.m.
“A clear pattern emerged,” Savage Police Chief Brady Juell. “She had last contact with each of the affected children immediately prior to these events.”
As investigators began to look into Russell’s background, they found a troubling pattern of attention-seeking behavior, which included calling 911 to report “nonsensical” incidents and hanging up, starting fires at a church camp, and behaving erratically toward other children.
Police arrested Russell on Tuesday, and she confessed to intentionally suffocating the two children as an attention-seeking act and provided details of how each was carried out, including the murder, Juell said.
Russell had worked at the day care center for just three weeks. The center lost its license and remains closed, although it is appealing the closure decision.
Russell is charged with murder for Muklebust’s death and assault for the child who survived.
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[Featured image: Theah Russell/Scott County Sheriff’s Office and Harvey Muklebust/GoFundMe]
