Nearly a year after a five-week-old baby died of traumatic injuries at Edmonton’s children’s hospital, police said his biological father has been charged with murder.
It was on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023, that EMS were called to a west end home near 156 Street and 95 Avenue on reports of an infant in medical distress.
Leviathan Puchalski, just five weeks old, was treated on scene and taken to the Stollery Children’s Hospital, where he was admitted to the ICU. The infant died of his injuries on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023.
Investigators from the Edmonton Police Service homicide and child protection units launched a suspicious death investigation.
An autopsy was done the next day but more testing was needed to determine the child’s cause and manner of death. That information was relayed in a news release about the suspicious death on Feb. 14, 2023.
Eleven months later, the medical examiner was finally able to say what happened to the child and, on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024, determined Leviathan died of abusive head trauma and the manner of death was a homicide.
Police said homicide detectives arrested George Russell Hulleman, 28, on Jan. 23. Hulleman now faces a charge of second-degree murder and an unrelated firearms charge.
Anyone with any information about this or any other crime is asked to contact the EPS at 780-423-4567 or #377 from a mobile phone.
Anonymous information can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online.