Morinville foster mother charged with second-degree murder 21-month-old girl died after two days in coma

Morinville foster mother charged with second-degree murder

21-month-old girl died after two days in coma

BY BEN GELINAS AND PAULA SIMONS, EDMONTONJOURNAL.COM MAY 31, 2010 4:06 PM


Pallbearers bring out the casket after the funeral mass at Edmonton's Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples of a 21 month old girl, who died in foster care.
Photograph by: John Lucas, edmontonjournal.com
EDMONTON — A Morinville foster mother has been charged with the murder of a toddler in her care.

Christine Laverdiere, 34, appeared briefly in an Edmonton courtroom Monday, charged by RCMP with one count of second-degree murder in the killing of a 21-month-old girl who cannot be named under the province’s Child, Youth, and Family Enhancement Act.

The little girl’s biological family told The Journal she was taken from her mentally-ill mother and placed in foster care toward the end of January. Laverdiere was her primary foster parent when the girl was admitted to the Stollery on March 1 with unknown injuries. She died two days later.

Trevor Coulombe, who speaks Alberta’s department of children and youth services, says the woman, who appeared briefly in an Edmonton docket court Monday morning, was the girl’s primary foster mother.

But Coulombe declined to say how long the child had been living with the foster family, how long the family had been fostering, or whether there were other children living in the home.

“I can’t speak to case specifics,” Coulombe said.

Under the terms of the province’s Child, Youth, and Family Enhancement Act, the media is prevented from releasing details that could serve to identify a child in the care of Children and Youth Services.

Sources said at the time that the girl had been shuttled between her regular foster home and a second “respite” home in the days before she was hospitalized, meaning she was in the care of three different sets of adults right before she died.

Laverdiere, who is currently being held in custody without bail, will have her next court appearance in Morinville.

bgelinas@thejournal.canwest.com

psimons@thejournal.canwest.com

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