MORINVILLE — The biological mother of a 21-month-old toddler who died in foster care is taking little solace in the laying of second-degree murder charges in the case Monday.
“Nothing can be replaced, not the sun, not the stars, and never the moon or a child,” the grieving mother said in reading a poem she recently penned.
“By taking my baby’s body, (they) have taken my heart. I feel angry.”
The woman cannot be identified because it would identify her daughter, who was in the care of the province.
Morinville RCMP said Monday they have charged a woman in the child’s death.
The accused appeared in Edmonton provincial court Monday morning but the child’s biological mother was not in attendance. The accused is scheduled to appear in Morinville court June 24.
“I don’t think it would be a very good thing for me to meet that person,” said the mother.
She said she could not bear the thought of seeing the face of the person who may have taken her child’s life.
“She was a beautiful and good girl; she was happy all the time,” she said.
“This is not just hurting me, it is hurting my entire family. My daughter died a violent death.”
The mother of the toddler received a call that her daughter was being flown to the Stollery Children’s Hospital by air ambulance in critical condition on March 1. She died two days later.
The mother has said her daughter shouldn’t have been in the foster care home in Morinville, 30 kilometres north of Edmonton.
The Ministry of Children and Youth Services is doing its own investigation.