Baby abandoned near P.E.I. church haunts community
It was a chilly Sunday afternoon last month when the caretaker at Birch Hill Free Church of Scotland in Mount Albion, P.E.I., wandered up the hill to turn on the heat before the church service later that evening.
That's when he made a disturbing discovery on a snow-covered bench outside the church.
"He discovered a child on the bench. It was wrapped in some cloth," explains Rev. Kent Compton, the pastor at the church, to As It Happens host Carol Off. "It was shocking. [The caregiver] got his wife, and they called the RCMP right away."
The infant was dead. And despite a police investigation that is now more than a month old, who left the child there and why remains a mystery.
People have been showing their care and concern, and we want to reflect that in our church service and bring this to a positive conclusion- Reverend Kent Compton
Police are treating the case as a homicide investigation, but they have said little else. They have not released the sex of the child, its age, or the cause of death.
"They said it was a full term child, but they couldn't say whether it was a week or a couple days old. There were no marks of trauma on the body."
Rev. Compton says the child was wrapped in a cloth that was embroidered with a picture of frog.
Police have released the image in hopes someone might recognize it.
Residents are speculating about how and why the child ended up on the church bench.
"My guess is that because it was put beside a graveyard that it was dead at the time [it was left there]," Rev. Compton says. "But the other option is that it was left where they knew people would be coming to church and people might find it alive at the time."
He adds that police have been looking for mothers who recently gave birth but do not have a child ... but so far, they've come up empty. That's led to speculation that someone from outside P.E.I. left the child. But Mount Albion is an hour from Confederation Bridge, and many other churches or open spaces would be closer.
"It's been a tragic thing. People have expressed their sorrow to me at how upsetting it's been," Rev. Compton says. But he adds that people have also approached him offering to help cover the cost of a proper funeral and burial. They've even given the baby a name: Baby Albion. The child will be buried at the church on May 30.
"We are always considering the providence of God, and we believe in the dignity of this little child. People have been showing their care and concern, and we think that's a reflection of God's care and concern for the child. We want to reflect that in our church service and bring this to a positive conclusion."