Plan to Bury Baby Discarded in Recycling Bin Hits Snag

There’s another crack in Macomb County’s breaking heart.

County officials, business and complete strangers have rallied around Henry Alexander Macomb, the name unofficially given to the newborn authorities say lived for two days in a garage before his Christmas Eve death, then was hidden away in an outside storage shed before mysteriously turning up weeks later in a recycling Dumpster in Roseville.

The local Kaul Funeral Home in Roseville is paying for the the funeral and burial in Resurrection Cemetery over in Clinton Township. Rizzo Environmental Services and the Clinton Township Firefighters Association Local 11381 will buy a headstone for the tiny baby’s grave.

All that and more kindness, and then this:

To give the baby the dignity in death that was robbed from him what authorities said was likely a traumatic two-day life full of suffering, they will have to get the permission of Angela Alexie, 24, the woman they allege caused his death.

“There are some legal hoops,” Roseville Police Chief James Berlin told the Detroit Free Press.

Though cumbersome, the legal mechanisms are in place for the funeral services to take place as planned, said Peter Ellsworth, a Lansing lawyer who has represented the Michigan Funeral Directors Association for three decades.

Local authorities plan to reach out to Alexie as next of kin. If she waives her right to make funeral arrangements and no one else steps in from her family – her parents and a sister reportedly live in the area – local officials could quickly petition the court for permission to give the baby a funeral.

Courts usually move swiftly in such instances, Ellsworth said.

Related:

• Mom Charged in Death of Newborn Found in Recycling Bin
• Police Arrest Woman in Death of Newborn Found in Recycling Bin
• Prosecutor: Mom Can’t Remember Where She Left Newborn
• Police: Link Between Dead Baby in Dumpster, Mom Who ‘Can’t Recall’ Newborn’s Whereabouts?

The baby, who authorities think was born Dec. 22, wasn’t found until Jan. 14. Berlin told The Detroit News the horrific case has been “very personal” for the officers under his command, and they need the closure of a funeral.

“It just sickens me to such an extent,” Berlin said. “I am glad that we found her and got her off the streets so it couldn’t happen again. We have closure here. But it has become very personal for a lot of the guys. This one is going to be a hard one to put behind us. The next thing is to bury this poor child.”

“She’s Not a Bad Person”

Authorities are awaiting autopsy results, but think the full-term baby died of exposure and neglect. The umbilical cord was still attached, which authorities said suggests he may have been discarded shortly after his birth.

It wasn’t the first time Alexie gave birth alone, according to reports. Her three other children are in foster care, Berlin previously said. Chronically homeless, she “lives wherever her head hits the pillow,” Berlin said. Alexie told the judge during her arraignment earlier this week that she’s never had a job.

Amid all that swirling, just-been-kicked-in-the-gut sadness, some are finding room in their hearts for some empathy for Alexie.

“She’s not a bad person,” said Tarah Bartram, 24, of Roseville. Bartram said she’s known Alexie since the two were 10th graders at East Detroit High School in Eastpointe.

A high school dropout, Alexie “has a lot addictions and issues with her family,” Bartram said. She was on and off medications, in and out of relationships, and poured out her angst on Facebook, posting last fall:

“I don’t know about you but I have thought about running away more often now as an adult then when I was a kid.”

Bartram said she wishes Alexie had reached out to her and other friends.

“If she would have called us, we would have come and gotten her and she would have gotten the help she needed,” she said.

Instead, as mothers themselves, they’re left with some anger as they struggle to understand.

“We are trying to figure out what we can do, but we are all really mad because we all have kids,” said Bartram, the mother of two. “What she (is accused of), it is a really bad thing.”

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