Baby’s body likely in trash

A team of police and other experts spent Monday afternoon sifting through garbage at the Saskatoon landfill, searching for the body of a newborn baby police believe was dumped in a garbage container more than two weeks ago.

"We need to find this body," Saskatoon Police Services spokesperson Alyson Edwards said.

"I think we’re all hopeful, but it’s not going to happen right away."

The 17-year-old mother delivered a baby during the Thanksgiving Day weekend Oct. 9-11, Edwards said. Police believe she placed the baby in a garbage bin outside her family’s home in the northeast section of the city. A city sanitation crew took the body, along with the other contents of the garbage can, to the Saskatoon landfill, where the load was dumped.

It’s unclear whether the baby was dead or alive at the time of birth or when it was placed in the trash.

Police were alerted to the case as a result of various tips received Oct. 27, but would not say whether the mother or others notified them. They did say they have interviewed the teen.

The Saskatoon Police Service identification unit, along with patrol officers, University of Saskatchewan forensic archeologist Ernie Walker and a cadaver dog from the Calgary Police Service, began the search at the landfill on Monday afternoon. The search has been narrowed to an area 100 metres by 100 metres, Edwards said during a news conference Monday at the landfill entrance.

The search is occurring in three stages, she said. First, the dog sweeps the area for any scents or signs of the body. If nothing is discovered, team members slowly walk side-by-side conducting a grid search. If nothing is found during that stage, a front-end loader will clear a layer of garbage and the process will be repeated. Based on the estimated accumulation of garbage since the incident, searchers may have to look to a depth of more than two metres, Edwards said.

The recent snow makes the search even more difficult, and the search is expected to last throughout the week, she said.

A pair of law professors said there are a wide range of potential charges in the case. The Criminal Code of Canada outlines three types of homicide — murder, manslaughter and infanticide. A murder conviction requires the perpetrator to intend to kill. Manslaughter charges are laid when the accused causes the death of another person but does not necessarily intend it. Infanticide charges, which have been laid only a handful of times in the last 30 years in Saskatchewan, is reserved for new mothers who kill their babies when their mind is "disturbed," said University of Alberta law Prof. Sanjeev Anand, author of an Alberta Law Review paper on infanticide published earlier this year.

Infanticide convictions can result in a maximum five-year prison term, but those convicted often receive sentences of probation in the community.

There are also many lesser charges if police and prosecutors cannot prove a woman knew her baby was alive at birth, or if the baby was stillborn, said Anand and University of Saskatchewan law Prof. Tim Quigley.

Concealment of birth, offering an indignity to a body, failing to obtain assistance in childbirth and failing to provide the necessities of life are all criminal offences.

When asked about the case by reporters Monday, Social Services Minister June Draude said she personally supports the concept of "save havens" for mothers to abandon their babies at locations such as hospitals. The Saskatchewan Party government is likely to move on the issue before the next election, she said.

The government has been looking at the idea for some months and it is also being reviewed by the child welfare review panel struck by the government.

"I believe that any time that there is a parent or mother so desperate that they don’t know what to do with a child, we have to open every avenue we can to make sure we can save a child," she told reporters at the legislature.

The province’s Child and Family Services Act provides opportunities for parents to surrender children to services such as police, a hospital or social services, said the minister.

But the prevalence of the problem suggests something more may need to be done, such as allowing for anonymity, said Draude.

"If being able to drop that baby off and not have to give their name is the reason why people aren’t doing it, then we have to open that door," she said.

Draude said it was uncertain whether legislation would have to be enacted or a simple policy change could allow for such a measure to be implemented.

– Cases of abandoned infants in Sask.

Oct. 2, 2001 — A 14-year-old girl wraps her newborn in a blanket and leaves the baby in the bush behind her home on the Big River First Nation. She pleads guilty to infanticide. Citing her history of sexual abuse, including the incident that caused her pregnancy, as well as her "disturbed" state at the time of birth, the judge sentences her to two years of probation.

Feb. 3, 2007 — A Saskatoon man looks out the back door of his Lawson Heights home after his dog will not stop barking and clawing to get out. He discovers a newborn, wrapped in a sleeping bag, on the doorstep at 10 a.m. with temperatures of about -30 C. The baby had been placed there about 15 minutes earlier by her 18-year-old mother, who did not ring the doorbell or otherwise notify the homeowner or authorities. The baby suffered severe hypothermia but survived. The woman was ordered to get counselling but was not charged.

May 21, 2007 — April Dawn Halkett, 20, delivers a baby in the washroom of a Prince Albert department store and leaves. The baby is discovered in the toilet and survives. Saying she thought the baby was dead, Halkett was acquitted of child abandonment. The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal heard the Crown’s appeal of the case last month and has reserved its decision.

Feb. 28, 2008 — An intoxicated Natacha Araya abandons her six-month-old baby outside in a stroller in Regina. A passing motorist notices the stroller and rescues the baby minutes later. Araya was sentenced to five months’ probation for failing to provide the necessities of life for her child. Her other two children were seized but have since been returned to her.

May 18, 2010 — Angela Vermeulen delivers a baby in a Weyburn home and allegedly dumps it in the garbage when she realizes it is dead. She has been committed to stand trial on a charge of disposing of the dead body of a child. No date has been set.

Nov. 1, 2010 — Police begin searching the Saskatoon landfill for the body of a baby allegedly dumped in a trash bin by her mother two weeks earlier. The 17-year-old girl has been questioned, but police are not saying whether the baby appeared to have been born alive.