Child molester and murderer says he killed isle 7-year-old

SAN JOSE, Calif. » Convicted felon Curtis Dean Anderson pleaded guilty yesterday to the 1999 kidnapping, molestation and murder of a former Hawaii girl, 7-year-old Xiana Fairchild.

Anderson, 44, already is in prison serving a 251-year sentence for kidnapping and sexually assaulting another Vallejo, Calif., girl in 2000. In May he pleaded not guilty to the charges in the Fairchild case. His trial was set for early next year.

Prosecutor Charles Constantinides said Anderson pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping and child molestation and was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. "He's never flat-out said, 'Yeah, I did it,' before," Constantinides said.

Fairchild disappeared while on her way to school in December 1999. Her fate remained a mystery until her skull was discovered more than a year later.

After Anderson was arrested in 2000 on charges he kidnapped another girl, he boasted to reporters that he killed Fairchild. He told one reporter he drugged her, then put her body in a bag and tossed it down an embankment, investigators said. But they could not corroborate his stories until recently.

Anderson also tried to extort weekly payments from Fairchild's great-aunt Stephanie Kahalekulu in exchange for guaranteeing her safety, investigators said.

Fairchild was raised by Kahalekulu in Hawaii and Colorado before moving to Vallejo six months before her disappearance.