MLB Hall of Fame pitcher’s daughter faces murder charge after abandoning newborn on Christmas Eve after birth.
Alexandra Eckersley, 26, was arrested on Monday morning after police in Manchester received a complaint from a woman. who gave birth to a baby boy in the woods and left him out in the cold, according to Boston ABC affiliate WCVB TV.
When officers, firefighters and American Medical Response personnel arrived on the scene, Eckersley told them to search the tent where she gave birth. However, Manchester Fire District Chief John Starr told the station that the child has not been found.
“The search was difficult. It was dark, we had cold temperatures — about 18 degrees last night — and we weren’t getting accurate information,” Starr said.
Manchester Fire Chief Ryan Cashin told Boston Fox affiliate WFXT TV that the suspect gave several positions the child could be in and could not remember the child’s position.
“Several different areas were searched for the child before the mother finally claimed the child was in the tent where the mother lived,” Cashin told the station.
When the child was finally found, he was empty and struggling to breathe.
“As soon as the child was picked up, members of our fire department and American Medical Response took the child and immediately warmed him as warm as possible in the back of the fire engine and drove him to the hospital,” he Cashin said.
Eckersley allegedly told EMTs that she “had no idea she was pregnant and felt like she needed to go to the bathroom,” according to an affidavit.
She estimated that she gave birth to the baby late on Christmas night and told a detective that she left him alone in the tent because: “What do they tell you when a plane crashes? Save yourself first.
In the same affidavit, a The Manchester police officer said Eckersley appeared to be under the influence of drugs.
“The mother’s responsibility is to the child, and that responsibility has certainly been overlooked,” Cashin said. “There was no source of heat in the tent… It was obviously not open for the position of the child. She was very worried, very evasive.”
Emergency room technicians treated the baby, who was born six months premature, before transporting him to a local hospital. Manchester Police Chief Allen Aldenberg said Monday that the child is alive and well.
Eckersley was arraigned Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to various misdemeanor charges, including second-degree assault, endangering the welfare of a child, tampering with physical evidence and reckless conduct, according to Manchester ABC affiliate WMUR -TV.
Prosecutor Carl Olson asked that Eckersley be held in custody, arguing that she was already out on bond in a separate child endangerment case in Concord and had failed to appear for an October court date in that case.
But Eckersley’s attorney said he should have to be released on bail, adding that he called 911 after the delivery showed no signs of danger.
Eckersley is the adopted daughter of former MLB pitcher Dennis Eckersley, who is in the Hall of Fame for his work with the Oakland A’s and Boston Red Sox.
HuffPost reached out to him for comment, but he did not immediately respond.
In 2019, he and his wife, Nancy, told the Concord Monitor that “Allie” was diagnosed with a mental illness at age two and said her condition was “deteriorated considerably over the years, leading to multiple hospitalizations and eventually institutionalization.
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