Warning: Graphic content
Police say that they are working to determine whether a newborn found dead inside a Brampton home was alive at the time of their birth.
Officers were dispatched to a home in the area of Kennedy Road North and Williams Parkway shortly before 8:30 p.m. on Sunday after a resident discovered the remains of an infant and contacted police.
The infant was found inside the residence shortly after officers arrived and confirmed to be dead, police say.
A 23-year-old woman, who is believed to be the child’s mother, subsequently sought medical attention at a local hospital. She was later arrested at that location and charged with concealing the body of a child after birth.
“The working theory is the birth happened there (in the home) but to your point it could have happened somewhere else and that is part of what we have to piece together now and whether or not she knew about the pregnancy, we just don’t know,” Const. Tyler Bell told reporters at the scene on Monday afternoon. “We have seen cases in the past where it is a surprise.”
Bell said that he is not prepared to speak to whether the charges in the case could be upgraded until a post-mortem examination is conducted.
He said the Special Victims Unit will be overseeing the investigation into “cause and manner of death,” including whether the child was born alive or deceased.
“We are not entirely sure the sequence of events. When the child was delivered or born for lack of a better word is to be determined,” Bell said. “What we think happened is that the female who has been arrested and charged sought medical attention where we located and arrested her while the child remained at the home so there is a bit of a separation there.”
Bell said that the discovery of the child was a “horrific scene” to stumble upon for first responders and efforts are already underway to support those who may be struggling.
He said that while cases like this one are “rare,” they are not unheard of.
“We have seen cases like this sadly across the country. While rare these investigations do happen, they are very, very specific and require the utmost sensitivity to understand the complexities of the psychological aftermath of birth, especially in cases where the mother may have not known she was pregnant,” he said. “We don’t know if that is the case here but that is definitely on top of the minds of investigators.”
