A Calgary father has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the 2018 death of his three-month-old son.

29-year-old Anthony Karl Kurucz was arrested at the Calgary airport and now faces second-degree murder charges.

On the afternoon of Thursday, April 25, 2018, emergency crews were called to Atlanta Crescent Southeast, in the community of Acadia, following reports of a child in medical distress.

Fire crews and EMS located an unconscious three-month-old boy. The infant was transported by ambulance to the Rockyview General Hospital in critical, life-threatening condition. He died as a result of his injuries two days later.

Investigators determined the boy had been alone with his father at the time and the boy's injuries were not accidental.

They said the child's injuries were not consistent with the events described by the father. That is when the child abuse unit began investigating.

it took 17 months for investigators looking into the case to bring charges. Mount Royal University criminal justice studies professor Doug King says that's not unusual in homicide cases involving parents and children.

"There is a societal, a kind of cultural belief, that parents couldn't intend to kill their own children," King said, "and so often times that means the evidence you present has to be more compelling. It has to have no open-ended possibility."

King says another factor is what's known as the Jordan Decision. That Supreme Court ruling sets a 30 month time limit from when charges are laid to the projected end of the trial.

"That has put pressure on the police for really difficult cases to take time to complete the investigation fully before charges are laid," he says. "You don't want to run into a Jordan situation where the trial takes forever and the person is 'punted' on the basis of the time."

Kurucz was in court Monday for a bail hearing. That application was denied. He will be back in court on October 21st.

Police say they will not be releasing the name of the 3 month old boy who died, because that would identify the mother.

They stress she had no involvement in the child's death.