Alexandra Eckersley’s long history with mental illness played a major role in her becoming homeless and estranged from her adoptive parents, Nancy and MLB Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley.
Alexandra made headlines this week after Manchester police allegedly discovered her newborn baby boy unclothed and freezing in 18-degree weather in a dark wooded area in Recent Hampshire early Monday. The 26-year-old, who stays hospitalized after giving birth within the woods, was initially facing one count of felony reckless after allegedly lying concerning the baby’s whereabouts during a police search.
On Tuesday, Alexandra was arraigned over the phone and informed that she is facing additional charges of endangering the welfare of a baby, second-degree assault with extreme indifference and falsifying physical evidence.
In keeping with an affidavit cited by WCVB, Eckersley told police she didn’t know she was pregnant and admitted to using cocaine and marijuana in the times before the infant’s birth.
Prosecutors said Alexandra’s mother, Nancy, told them that she and Dennis, her ex-husband, offered their daughter drug treatment for years, which she refused and selected to be homeless.
“That they had an open offer for her to come back home on the condition that she go to treatment for drug use, and he or she obviously made the alternative to not,” assistant Hillsborough County attorney Carl Olson said.
Because the daughter of a multi-millionaire MLB legend, many would imagine that Alexandra lives a lifetime of luxury, with the world at her fingertips. But that’s removed from her reality, especially after leaving the Eckersley family home in Massachusetts in late 2017, in keeping with a heart-wrenching article within the Concord Monitor, an area newspaper within the capital of Recent Hampshire.
“At age two Allie was diagnosed with mental illness, which worsened considerably through the years, resulting in multiple hospitalizations and eventually institutionalization,” the Eckersley family said in a press release to the outlet in May 2019, when columnist Ray Duckler interviewed Alexandra about her experience being homeless in Concord.
“Our hearts are broken. Unfortunately, in her situation, the problem is less about homelessness and more about mental illness. We proceed to hope Allie seeks the mental health treatment she desperately needs so she will get her life back on course.”
The Eckersley family added that Alexandra has seen “countless therapists, doctors, psychiatrists, neurologists and child health advocates.”
On the time, Alexandra was described as living within the “still-bare woods behind the closed liquor store on Storrs Street” along with her boyfriend, while coping with bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety. She said within the 2019 interview that she and her boyfriend were searching for an additional campsite after police gave them per week to relocate attributable to trespassing on private property.
“After I was in Mass., before I moved up here, I didn’t learn from any of my mistakes,” Alexandra said. “I didn’t realize they were mistakes and that I had to confess that and take those responsibilities. They’re mistakes that I don’t really need to say.”
Alexandra claimed to the outlet that her biological father was controlling and mean to her mother, which led to Nancy and Dennis adopting her at birth.
For the reason that age of 6, Alexandra said she bounced from one facility to a different for mental health and behavioral trouble — with one incident leading to a hospital lockdown.
When she became homeless, Alexandra slept in a tent during her first winter, with a heater and cots, adding that she would sometimes couch surf.
When asked about his daughter’s homelessness and bipolar disorder, Eckersley declined to handle the matter with Duckler on the time the article was published.
Eckersley’s current wife, Jennifer, did email Duckler, saying, “As you possibly can imagine that is an incredibly private and painful situation. Dennis and Nancy decline chatting with you about it, because it’s just too painful.”
She did, nonetheless, provide a press release from Nancy and Dennis.
“As a family, now we have been dedicated to her health and wellbeing,” it read. “We have now given her unconditional love, nurturing and support. We have now left no stone unturned in searching for the assistance, resources, programs and professionals she has needed throughout her life.
“Once she became of legal age our ability to intervene on her behalf became way more limited.”
Alexandra, nonetheless, disputed the support she received from her family in the course of the interview, claiming that Dennis, specifically, fixated on her homelessness.
“He found a technique to bring my homelessness in each conversation,” Alexandra said. “What I’ve wanted my entire life is to be accepted by my circle of relatives. In my own residence, I felt like an outsider, an outcast.”
In the course of the interview, Alexandra explained that she had been working to raised herself, telling Duckler that she had recently “checked right into a Riverbend supported emergency unit to get back on course… Went there by myself.”
Duckler wrote that Alexandra had asked him to let her family find out about her progress. On the time, she was taking her meds and had food stamps.
Within the 2019 interview, Alexandra said she desired to attend college and join the medical field to work in mental health, give back and use her experience to assist others.
“Money doesn’t matter,” Alexandra said. “Homelessness can occur to anyone.”
Although her parents were supportive in attending her events, and were blissful about things similar to highschool prom, Alexandra said those things didn’t “outweigh the bad” parts.
In February 2019, Alexandra recalled telling her parents over the phone that she had been accepted to 2 colleges, Recent Hampshire Technical Institute and Granite State College, but didn’t get the excited response she hoped for, as they only focused on her being homeless.
“I do know they do,” she said, acknowledging that her parents love her. “But I don’t wish to take the straightforward way out simply because I need a house and an education.”
In the course of the arraignment Tuesday, prosecutors said Alexandra’s baby boy, who weighs just 4 kilos, was intubated at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover. On Monday, Manchester Police Chief Allen Aldenberg said the infant boy was improving, WCVB reported.
Judge Diane Nicolosi said Eckersley could possibly be released on $3,000 money bail, on the conditions that she has no contact with the kid or anyone under the age of 18 — and he or she must live in either a sober facility with a parent, or at a residence approved by the state.