The tragic reason why Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley’s daughter allegedly left her newborn baby to die in the woods amid freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve 2022 has been revealed.
Alexandra Eckersley, 27, thought her son died almost instantly after giving birth inside a tent in the New Hampshire woods, her attorney Jordan Strand said during opening statements at her trial Thursday.
She noticed Eckersley was bleeding profusely and after the baby was born, her boyfriend, George Theberge, said she had no pulse.
Prosecutors say she then abandoned the child and misled police about the newborn’s whereabouts.
Alexandra, who was adopted by the famed pitcher and his former partner Nancy O’Neill in 1996, now faces charges of endangering the welfare of a child, reckless endangerment, second-degree assault and tampering with physical evidence.
Alexandra Eckersley, 27, is facing trial for allegedly abandoning her newborn son and misleading police about the baby’s whereabouts.
She has pleaded not guilty to the charges, with her lawyers arguing that she did not know she was pregnant and that she suffered from substance abuse disorders as well as bipolar disorder, which she was diagnosed with as a child.
“He was in an altered emotional state, he was not thinking clearly and he was suffering from symptoms of bipolar disorder,” Strand said.
He said Eckersley and George Theberge, who had been living in a tent in the woods for years, had no cell phone service to call for help and began walking toward an ice rink.
Along the way, Eckersley experienced a placenta, but thought she had just had another child, Strand said Thursday.
Eckersley would later tell the 911 operator that she had given birth to two children, and that one had lived less than a minute, while the other died immediately.
But when police arrived at the scene, Eckersley allegedly misled police for 73 minutes, telling them she would bring them the baby, who she said was born near the West Side Ice Arena around midnight.
Eckersley had given birth to the child inside a tent she shared with her boyfriend amid freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve 2022.
Eckersley claimed she did not know she was pregnant and gave birth in the store with her boyfriend, George Theberge, present.
Officers eventually found the baby lying on the floor in the tent she shared with Theberge, next to the bed after they “noticed a trail of blood that appeared to be running down the side of the bed,” according to the police report, viewed by the Boston Globe.
Police said the baby was found “naked” and having difficulty breathing in temperatures that reached 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
The police report also states that Eckersley was found wearing blood-stained clothing and under the influence of drugs.
Asked why she hadn’t taken her baby to the bridge to meet with police after making the 911 call, she replied: “What do they tell you when a plane crashes? Save yourself first.”
Eckersley was later hospitalized and booked by officers, while her baby was rushed to Catholic Medical Center before being airlifted to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
Eckersley has pleaded not guilty, as her lawyers argued that she did not know she was pregnant and that she suffered from substance abuse disorders as well as bipolar disorder.
Eckersley later stated that Before police arrived, she and Theberge agreed they would not take officers into their tent for fear they would tear it down and take it away, leaving them without shelter for the winter.
“Eckersley admitted that she had a conversation with George in which they agreed to tell police that the incident occurred at the soccer fields so that police would not find and take their tents,” police said in Alexandra’s arrest report.
Eckersley said it would be very difficult to survive if they had lost their tent due to the freezing temperatures during the winter in Manchester. Eckersley said that is the reason they turned off the propane heater.
Prosecutor Alexander Gatzoulis now argues that Eckersley intentionally kept first responders away from the baby because she didn’t want to get into trouble.
“Almost an hour after giving birth, she told them a new fact for the first time: The baby was crying when she gave birth,” she told jurors Thursday as she played body camera footage of first responders discovering the newborn.
“This completely changed the landscape of the search and increased the urgency for everyone, because now they were looking for a baby and not a dead body.”
Theberge was also subsequently arrested and was sentenced last year to a minimum of one year in prison for endangering the baby’s life.
Eckersley’s attorney, Jordan Strand, said in her opening statement Thursday that her client thought the baby had died.
He added that the defense can argue Eckersley’s history of mental illness and substance abuse, “but none of that negates her intentional actions here in lying about where the baby was and leading the search party away from her son for over an hour.”
Strand, however, argued that Eckersley had tried to tell first responders where the baby was when they first arrived at the scene, but no one listened to her.
“No one crossed the bridge where he told the office the fetus was,” the lawyer said. according to WMUR.
‘Instead, they put a lamp on Allie’s forehead and followed her around, bleeding through her clothes, experiencing everything a person experiences after giving birth.’
Eckersley has since been reunited with her son, after attending rehab.
Eckersly has since been reunited with her son, after attending rehab.
Her attorney, Kim Kossick, said Eckersley had been sober since the day she gave birth and that they both now live with family in Massachusetts.
“She’s done everything she’s supposed to do,” Kossick said. he told WMUR in March. ‘She has gone to treatment. She has done everything that was asked of her.
“That’s why he has been reunited with his son. He has been in rehabilitation and has received all the counselling.”
Meanwhile, Theberge, who was also arrested after her birth, was sentenced last August to a minimum of one year in prison for endangering the baby’s life.
He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of child endangerment after reaching a deal with prosecutors.
Theberge also received an additional six months behind bars for a probation violation stemming from his arrest and a drug charge.
Eckersley’s trial is expected to last five days and will include testimony from Theberge.
Eckersley is the daughter of Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley and his former partner Nancy O’Neill.
His father, Dennis Eckersley, nicknamed ‘Eck’, was an American professional baseball pitcher and former commentator.
Between 1975 and 1998 he pitched in MLB for the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals.
The 69-year-old rose to prominence after becoming the first of two pitchers in Major League history to have both a 20-win season and a 50-save season in a career.
He played 24 seasons and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2004.