The daughter of Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley is on trial accused of abandoning a newborn baby in the cold

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The trial began Thursday for the daughter of Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley, who is accused of abandoning her baby after she died in subfreezing temperatures on Christmas night 2022 forest was born.

Lawyers for 27-year-old Alexandra Eckersley said she didn't know she was pregnant, thought the child had died and suffered from a substance use disorder and mental health problems.

She was homeless at the time and gave birth in a tent in New Hampshire. Prosecutors said her son was left alone for more than an hour as temperatures fell to minus 9.4 degrees Celsius and he suffered from shortness of breath and hypothermia.

Alexandra Eckersley pleaded not guilty to charges of assault, reckless conduct, tampering with evidence and endangering the welfare of a child.

She was bleeding profusely and thought she had suffered a miscarriage, defense attorney Jordan Strand said during opening arguments in the Manchester trial. A friend who was with her said the baby had no pulse, Strand said.

“She was in a heightened emotional state, unable to think clearly and suffering from symptoms of her bipolar disorder,” Strand said.

Strand said the couple had no cell service to call for help and ran to an ice rink. Along the way, Alexandra Eckersley experienced a afterbirth, but thought she was having a second child. She told a 911 operator that she had given birth to two children, one of whom lived less than a minute and the other who died immediately, Strand said.

She told the dispatcher and police where she lived and pointed to the area that was on the other side of a bridge. But police ignored what she told them, Strand said. She was also afraid to return to the tent because her boyfriend, who had left the tent when police arrived, told her he didn't want anyone there anymore, Strand said.

The man arrested with Alexandra Eckersley was sentenced to a year in prison last August after pleading guilty to child endangerment and was expected to testify at her trial.

Prosecutor Alexander Gatzoulis said Eckersley intentionally led first responders to another location because she didn't want to get in trouble.

“Almost an hour after birth, she told them a new fact for the first time: the baby cried when it was born,” Gatzoulis said. “That completely changed the landscape of the search and increased everyone’s urgency because now they were looking for a baby and not a body.”

She eventually led the police to the tent. The baby was found, cold, blue, covered in blood – but alive, Gatzoulis said.

He said the defense may discuss Alexandra Eckersley's mental illness, “but none of that negates her deliberate actions here in lying about the baby's whereabouts and leading the search party away from her child for well over an hour.”

Since the beginning of the year, she has been living full-time with her son and family in Massachusetts.

The Eckersley family released a statement shortly after her arrest saying they were unaware of her pregnancy and were in complete shock. The family said she had suffered from “severe mental illness throughout her life” and they had done their best to get her help and support.

Dennis Eckersley was drafted out of high school by Cleveland in 1972 and played 24 seasons for Cleveland, Boston, Chicago, Oakland and St. Louis. While playing for the Oakland Athletics, he won AL Cy Young and MVP awards in 1992. After his playing days, Eckersley retired from broadcasting Boston Red Sox games in 2022.