Daughter of MLB great tells why she allegedly abandoned baby

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The adoptive daughter of MLB great Dennis Eckersley thought that her newborn son was dead before allegedly abandoning the baby in freezing-cold woods.

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Alexandra Eckersley revealed the disturbing details of what happened in the below-freezing New Hampshire woods on Christmas night in 2022.

She told the court on the first day of her trial that she didn’t know she was pregnant and that the baby had died. She also said that she had been suffering from multiple mental health problems at the time, including substance abuse disorder, according to NBC Boston.

At the time of the incident, Eckersley was homeless and living in a tent in the woods with her boyfriend, George Theberge.

After giving birth to her son, Eckersley, 27, was bleeding heavily and believed she had suffered a miscarriage, defence attorney Jordan Strand said.

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“Allie did not commit a crime. She did not behave recklessly. She did not behave purposely,” Strand said, according to the Union Leader. “She did not act with extreme indifference to the value of human life. She is innocent.”

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Strand argued the prosecution was treating Eckersley like a “typical person having a baby,” when she believed she had a miscarriage while also suffering a medical emergency from the blood loss.

“Allie was bleeding heavily and George Theberge told her the fetus did not have a pulse,” Strand said. “Allie was experiencing a life-threatening emergency.”

The couple tried to reach 911, but could not give cell phone service in the area, forcing them to walk to an arena. During the walk, Eckersley experienced after-birth but believed she had given birth to a second child.

When she eventually reached the emergency line, she told the dispatcher that she had given birth twice — once to a baby that had lived for less than a minute and another one that died immediately.

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Prosecutors argued Eckersley knew the baby was still alive and that once police arrived, she led the officers away from the tent.

“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,” Prosecutor Alexander Gatzoulis said. “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.”

Gatzoulis said the baby suffered respiratory distress and hypothermia from being out in the cold air that dropped to roughly minus-9C.

Eckersley eventually led the first responders to the tent where they discovered the newborn, who was “cold, blue, covered in blood but alive.”

According to reports, Eckersley admitted to having used cocaine and marijuana in the days before the incident.

She is on trial after pleading not guilty to charges of assault, reckless conduct, falsifying evidence and endangering the welfare of a child.

Dennis Eckersley played for 24 MLB seasons and is considered one of the best relief pitchers ever. He was inducted into the baseball hall of fame in 2004.

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