A 27-year-old woman who left her newborn son in freezing temperatures after giving birth in the woods has told the court that she believed her son had died immediately after birth. Alexandra Eckersley gave birth to her son on December 25, 2022, in New Hampshire, America.
At the time, Eckersley was homeless and living in a tent in the woods with her boyfriend.
She is facing charges of assault, reckless conduct, falsifying evidence and endangering the welfare of a child. She pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Her trial started on Thursday.
News Centre Maine reported that her defence attorney, Jordan Strand, told the court that Eckersley was not aware of her pregnancy due to her struggles with substance abuse and mental health issues at the time.
“She was in a heightened emotional state, not thinking clearly, and suffering from symptoms of her bipolar disorder, a condition she was diagnosed with as a child,” Strand was quoted as saying.
The publication reported that Strand further told the court that there was no cellphone service in the woods, and Eckersley walked to a location where she could make a call.
It was reported that on her way, Eckersley experienced afterbirth but thought she had delivered a second child. When she called emergency services, she told 911 that she had given birth to two children—one who lived for less than a minute and the other who died immediately.
The prosecution is adamant that Eckersley deliberately left her newborn to die in the freezing weather, arguing that she failed to inform the emergency team that the baby was still alive when she gave birth.
“Nearly after an hour after she gave birth, she told them a new fact for the first time, the baby was crying when she gave birth. This completely changed the landscape of the search and increased everyone's urgency because now they were looking for a baby, and not a corpse,” prosecutor Alexander Gatzoulis was quoted as saying.
Eckersley eventually led police to the tent where the baby was found cold, blue, and covered in blood, but still alive.
On Monday, a nurse who treated the newborn when he arrived in hospital, took the stand and told the court that child weighed almost 2kg.
The nurse testified that when the baby arrived at the hospital, he had flaccid arms and legs and was covered in blood and dirt.
“The first responder had him in her hand and was performing one-handed compressions while walking into the trauma bay," she said in her testimony.