Saskatoon police confirm they got a tip about the whereabouts of a 16-year-old girl accused of killing a six-week-old infant a day before his death.
Officers found the injured baby boy at a home in the city on Sunday morning.
The baby died in hospital and the teen was charged with second-degree murder and escaping lawful custody.
A cousin of the baby’s mother says she called police Saturday at 3:33 p.m. notifying them that the 16-year-old girl was with a member of their family.
She says she told police the accused girl's name and that the girl told them she had escaped from an open-custody facility.
Saskatoon police got a call from the facility shortly after the girl ran away at 12:45 a.m. Saturday and broadcast her name and description to cruisers.
Alyson Edwards with Saskatoon police said the cousin told police of two possible locations where the teen might be found. But because she couldn't confirm which one the teen was at, police did not send a car and asked the cousin to call back when the girl was at a certain location.
Edwards said no further phone calls were received from anyone in the family following the initial tip.
The cousin said she did see the girl again while at her sister’s home, but she didn’t phone police because she felt the call-taker wasn’t taking the matter seriously.
Edwards said based on the call, the taker asked the required questions.
Saskatoon police are looking into whether all procedures were followed correctly in the handling of the call.
The boy's maternal grandfather has said his daughter met the girl downtown and realized that she had nowhere to go. He said the teen was "lost to society and the world," so his sympathetic daughter brought her home.
The accused was sentenced last December to 10 months in open custody for break and enter, arson, assault causing bodily harm, assault with a weapon and robbery with a weapon. She was also to serve five months of community supervision after her time in custody.
