I remember that case, if we're thinking of the same one. It took place in Kincardine, and involved the death of Dustin Bowers, age 11 months. His mother Julie Bowers was charged in his death and said that he was abducted from the car while she went into the store. However, at no time did Julie Bowers ever confess to having abandoned the child (who was indeed found in a snowbank the next day). She was acquitted after a very sensational trial in Toronto.
What is even more horrifying (if such were possible) is that the boy was almost certainly alive when found by the police, and was left lying in the snow for another two hours, then put in a body bag. The expert pathologist testified that he may in fact have suffocated in that bag, and that he might have been successfully revived had he received prompt medical treatment in hospital. Young children are generally the only ones able to be fully recovered from severe hypothermia but they must be gradually rewarmed under special conditions.
The coverage by the Toronto Star was extensive but is not online. The case came to attention again after the debacle of the horrendous misdeeds of now-disgraced pathologist Dr Charles Smith began to attract the attention of the Association for the Defense of the Wrongly Convicted. Dr Smith's sensationally unprofessional and ignorant work in Dustin's case was an early indicator of his complete incompetence. Unfortunately, it did not prevent him from going on to wreck hundreds of lives and cause the conviction of more than a dozen innocent people whose children actually died of natural causes.
We will probably never find out what exactly happened to little Dustin. Someone, certainly, knows. It occurred to me that, if it wasn't the mother, it may have been someone playing a "prank" or with a vendetta against her or the family. Once things turned serious no one would talk.
A couple of writers following up on Dr Smith's crimes have written summaries of the case; I append two links here:
http://netk.net.au/Smith/Smith27.asp
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2008/02/bowers.html
There's some overlap, but each writer proves some unique details which might interest you.
Hopefully, the need for prompt intervention in cases of hypothermia is better understood today. As the saying goes, a person is not dead until they are "warm and dead." Vital signs are almost completely absent in a severely hypothermic person, but in many cases they can be revived, and children are more likely to recover with no brain damage than older people.
This case in Alberta is terribly gut-wrenching for similar reasons, though the story behind it is yet to be learned.
