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Sitting in a tent one chilly Christmas night, Alexandra Eckersley complained that she felt a stabbing pain in her stomach.
Her boyfriend with whom she shared the tent, George Theberge, gave her medicine in a bid to remedy her distress.
But no amount of Ibuprofen would alleviate Eckersley pain: she was going into labor.
The 27-year-old gave birth in the middle of the woods in Manchester, New Hampshire, on December 25, 2022, as temperatures plummeted to 15F.
Covered in blood, Eckersley asked Theberge, 46, to check the baby’s pulse: the pair say they thought that the newborn was dead.
After leading first responders on a wild goose chase around a baseball field, a police officer eventually found the baby “cold, blue” and “covered in blood,” a court heard.
There was another surprise: the infant was also alive.
Edward Eckersley – or Teddy to his family – is now 19-months-old and living with his mom and grandmother, Eckersley’s defense lawyer Kim Kossick said in her closing argument on Wednesday.
July 25 marked the start of Eckersley’s trial at Hillsborough Superior Court where she pleaded not guilty to charges of assault, reckless conduct, falsifying evidence and endangering the welfare of a child.
Proceedings lasted four days, being wrapped up on Wednesday during which the prosecution called two police officers, an EMT, a nurse, a doctor and 911 dispatcher to the stand as witnesses.
The defense called two witnesses: an expert in clinical and forensic psychology, while Eckersley stood in her own defense. On Friday, the jury found her not guilty of two counts of second-degree assault but guilty of reckless conduct and endangering the welfare of a child.
Baseball and ‘broken hearts’
Eckersley is the adopted daughter of multi-millionaire baseball Hall of Famer, Dennis Eckersley. The Boston Red Sox star is one of the best closing pitchers in major league history.
Alexandra – who the family affectionately refer to as Ally – was adopted by ‘Eck’ and his second wife Nancy at birth.
Eckersley was first diagnosed with mental health conditions at the age of two. By six, she regularly visited various psychiatric facilities for behavioral issues.
At the age of 13, she was sexually assaulted by one of the boys at the centre, the court heard.
She had seen “countless therapists, doctors, psychiatrists, neurologists and child health advocates,” the family told Concord Monitor in 2019 in a joint statement.
By 2018, she became homeless and began living in a wooded area behind a closed liquor store on Storrs Street in Concord. Eckersley struggled with addiction and other mental health issues.
“Our hearts are broken. Unfortunately, in her situation, the issue is less about homelessness and more about mental illness,” the family added.
Forensic scientist Dr Matilde Pelaprat, the defense’s first witness, examined Eckersley’s medical records and described her as one of the most complex mental health cases she’d seen.
Labor pains
Eckersley and Theberge had no money, no food and no heat after they ran out of propane gas on Christmas eve.
In the days before going into labor in 2022, Eckersley had been using cocaine and marijuna, according to an affidavit obtained by WCVB.
After receiving $200 from her mother via a cash app, the pair spent it on Chinese takeout and, later, her stomach began causing her grief.
Eckersley gave birth after complaining to Theberge of pain that felt like a “knife stabbing into my stomach,” the court heard, as she stood in her own defense.
She only realized she was going into labor “when the baby came out of me,” she told Kossick ahead of closing arguments on Wednesday.
Eckersley testified that she didn’t look at the baby as Theberge “said there was no pulse”.
The Manchester woman was bleeding and attempts to call for help were futile as they couldn’t get any cell phone signal, the court heard.
The couple left the newborn to fend for itself in the middle of the woods during sub-freezing conditions as they went on the hunt for help.
Eckersley claimed to never have thought to bring the baby with them, telling her attorney that “I thought he was dead”.
“Ally had no no clue what was happening,” Kossick said.
On the journey, she expelled the placenta, with Eckersley believing the bloody afterbirth was a miscarriage of a second child, according to the lawyer.
After finally finding signal away from her camp and ringing a 911 dispatcher, an ambulance arrived.
Finding the infant
On the call, Eckersely had omitted another key piece of information: the baby was crying when it was born. Police were under the impression that the baby was dead.
She also didn’t reveal the precise location of the infant.
“She told me she didn’t know where the baby was. She said that it was somewhere in the middle of the woods and wasn’t sure exactly where,” Officer William Collins testified.
Prosecutor Alexander Gatzoulis said Eckersley intentionally led first responders to a different location in a bid to avoid getting in trouble for mentioning that the baby had stirred after its birth.
Eckersley admitted it was “correct” when Gatzoulis asserted to her that she “did not tell them where the baby was”.
“Essentially what you were telling them is that they could stop searching and you would get back to them if you found the baby,” the prosecutor added.
Gatzoulis said in his opening statement that she purposely misled first responders around a baseball field in freezing conditions.
Eckersley said she was scared of Theberge, who told her not to reveal the location of the tent, and admitted to making statements to the police she knew to be untrue.
Eventually, police found the baby near the Piscataquag River at Electric Street.
Authorities discovered the little boy lying there unclothed and suffering from hypothermia, struggling to breathe, according to the Manchester Fire Department.
“It’s here. Yeah, it’s here. It’s still moving,” one officer could be heard saying in body cam footage shared with the court.
The baby was transported to Catholic Medical Center where he received treatment, receiving light warming and CPR, Dr Brigid Linnan testified on the witness stand. Teddy weighed just four pounds.
“Allie did not commit a crime. She did not behave recklessly. She did not behave purposely,” Defense Attorney Jordan Strand said.
A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Teddy’s life now is far different from his birth. When asked about her son, Eckersley told that court that just that morning “he was walking around, giggling and laughing.”
