Tips are beginning to trickle in to police as they investigate the death of a newborn girl in the northwest community of Bowness on Christmas Eve.
Still, police confirm they have not yet been able to identify the baby’s mother.
According to police, the infant was abandoned near a city recycling depot and may have been alive when she was left.
“It’s important to look at — with some sympathy — the thought process that might have been going on here,” forensic psychologist Dr. Patrick Baillie told Global News Wednesday.
“I suspect that you have a mother who, in a moment of desperation, made an unfortunate decision without having other resources that she perceived being available to her,” he said.
Baillie said the mother may have felt she had no other option.
“I understand the sense of, ‘she should have known better,’ but I think it’s important that we take a moment to pause and see what her circumstances may have been before we jump to the conclusion that there was anything evil or malevolent about this,” he said.
Calgary does not have a safe drop location for mothers to safely and anonymously leave infants, like other cities such as Vancouver and Edmonton have.
The Edmonton program, called “Angel Cradle,” is run by Covenant Health.
There are currently no programs run by Alberta Health Services in the province.
In four years of operation, Edmonton’s drop site has only been used once.
But it’s an option that could have saved a Calgary baby’s life this Christmas, Baillie said.
“That feeling of being completely overwhelmed and not knowing what to do — it’s not surprising that these sorts of stories get told,” Baillie said.
“If we had more resources available…maybe we wouldn’t need to hear about these stories at all.”
Police said the cause of death remains undetermined. An autopsy Tuesday revealed no trauma to the baby, but further tests are still being conducted.
Police said the little girl had a light complexion and dark hair.
Anyone with information on the incident or the identity of the newborn’s mother is asked to call Calgary police at 403-266-1234 or to contact Crime Stoppers.
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