‘It's hard to process something like this’: Kansas father accused of murder after baby dies in house fire

Police in Kansas took a father into custody and charged him with murder after his infant died in a house fire.

On Feb. 13 around 1 a.m., firefighters put out the blaze at a home in Shawnee and found the baby's body.

The child’s father, 28-year-old Nicholas Adam Ecker, was arraigned on Feb. 15 for first-degree murder and aggravated arson with risk of bodily harm. He was being held on a $1 million bond.

“It's hard to process something like this,” family friend Cory Holmes told KMBC-TV about the baby’s death and Ecker’s arrest. “Just shock and awe, I'd never see anything like this happen to this family.”

According to the station, before the fire, Ecker allegedly violated a protection order the child's mother had against him.

On GoFundMe, the baby’s aunt shared photos of the alleged victim, who she said was a boy named Junior.

“Junior was so precious and such a good boy!” the aunt wrote, noting the child, who was reportedly born in 2020, was his mother’s “best friend and helped her go through hard times.”