The trial of a woman charged with murdering her child last summer has been postponed.

Justina Ellis, charged with the death of her seven-week-old daughter, was scheduled to stand trial this week.

In a Yukon Supreme Court hearing Tuesday, the day before her trial was set to begin, the date was pushed forward to October.

Ellis, 23, is now scheduled to make her first formal appearance in court on Oct. 6, when she will enter her plea, according to court records.

Her three-day trial will be held Oct. 24-26 in Whitehorse.

The young mother is charged with second-degree murder after the body of her infant daughter, Samara Olson, was found in a garbage can in August 2004.

She contacted Dawson RCMP just before 2 a.m. to report that her daughter was missing. She told police she had been searching for the child for an hour without success.

After a 6 1/2-hour search, Ellis is reported to have led police to the infant's body, in a trash can outside a restaurant a few blocks from her house.

Although she was living with her common-law husband at the time of the child's death, he is not implicated in the crime.