Days after the daughter of former Boston Red Sox pitcher Dennis Eckersley gave birth to a baby boy in the woods of Manchester on one of the coldest nights of the year, the family announced their plans to file for guardianship of the child.

On Christmas night, Manchester police and fire said they were notified of the birth and searched an area near the West Side Arena for more than an hour before Alexandra Eckersley, 26, led them to the infant’s actual location in a tent near a baseball field.

Eckersley was arrested and charged with one count of felony reckless conduct, falsifying physical evidence, second-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child. She is being held on a $3,000 cash bail pending a hearing at a later date. Her boyfriend, who police later identified as George Theberge, was not immediately charged.

“We are utterly devastated by the events that unfolded on Christmas night when our daughter, Allie, delivered a baby while living in a tent,” the family wrote in a statement. “It is heartbreaking that a child was born under such unthinkable conditions and in such tragic circumstances.”

The family had no prior knowledge of Eckersley’s pregnancy and learned of the birth through news outlets, the statement said.

“The baby did live and that is one of the reasons the family is filing [for guardianship]; they want more information,” said Eric MacLeish, the family’s attorney, in a phone interview with the Monitor. “We understand the baby is at Dartmouth-Hitchcock [Medical Center] and is improving.”

He could not comment on the baby’s name but said he has heard the family chose one for him.

Now separated and living separate lives across the country from one another, Nancy and Dennis Eckersley adopted Allie at birth. At the age of two, Eckersley began to show signs of mental illness which progressed significantly as she aged. By the time she turned 20, she had fled the family home in Massachusetts and relocated to New Hampshire where she has lived homeless since.

Nancy is working directly with MacLeish to gain guardianship of the child, he said. He could not comment on Dennis’s involvement but said the family is working together, despite his relocation to California.

“Though it is painful to share, we feel it necessary to offer greater context of Allie’s circumstances and background,” the family wrote. “Allie has suffered from severe mental illness her entire life and was hospitalized numerous times for her illness and lived in several residential programs. Once Allie became an adult there was even less we could do because she was legally free to make her own decisions as long as she was not a danger to herself or others.”

“As in many states, the mental health system in New Hampshire is broken,” the statement read. “The state hospital used to have 2,500 psychiatric beds. Now, there are less than 200 for more than 1.4 million residents and the state was forced to eliminate another 48 beds this fall because of staff shortages. Without adequate inpatient beds for crisis, treatment and stabilization, a state mental health system fails.”

“We have always offered Allie a path home but she has made other choices. We hope Allie now accepts the treatment she desperately needs for her mental health issues,” the statement continued. “We also hope that all those who have heard this tragic story withhold judgment about our daughter until all facts come out.”

On the night of the birth, Manchester police found the baby boy still alive and breathing inside a tent made of tarps on the floor of the sleeping area. He was first taken by ambulance to Catholic Medical Center and then taken by helicopter to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon for treatment of hypothermia after laying exposed for over an hour in 15-degree temperatures. Doctors determined the baby weighed around 4.4 pounds and was about three months premature.

Eckersley told police and fire she didn’t know she was pregnant and felt like she had to go to the bathroom before giving birth just after midnight. But, according to a close friend of Eckersley’s, she knew she was pregnant and told her friend a week prior to the incident that she was around five months along, police said.

When Eckersley first moved to Concord in early 2018, she had ambitions to go to college and join the medical field to help people like her that struggle with mental health, she said in an interview with the Monitor in 2019. She said it was her passion to crush the stigma surrounding mental illnesses.

“We thank you for your prayers and support for this beautiful, innocent baby boy,” the family said in their statement. “We hope people understand what an agonizing situation this is and we respectfully ask for privacy.”

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