A baby has died after his dad drove the family car three times over the course of a day — before noticing the 15-month-old dead in the back seat.
US man Kyle Seitz allegedly forgot to drop off his baby son Benjamin Jacob Seitz at day care on the way to work on 7 July, after missing the turn-off to the infant’s daycare and stopping off to get coffee on the way to work instead, according to FoxCT.
Software programmer Seitz later drove to get lunch without noticing his son in the car, the arrest warrant indicates.
After work, Seitz went to collect his son from day care — only to be told by staff that Benjamin — or “Benjabear”, as his parents sometimes called him — had not attended that day.
The warrant says Seitz then “walked out heading to his car in the parking lot and began walking faster”.
He found the motionless body of his son in the rear-facing carseat in the car’s back seat, The Courant reports.
NY Daily News reports that the state’s medical examiner’s office ruled in August the death was a homicide, caused by hyperthermia.
Seitz turned himself in to police this week after learning there was a warrant for his arrest and has been charged with criminally negligent homicide.
Seitz’s wife Lindsey Rogers-Seitz — who has said she believes it was a tragic accident, according to news.com.au — has written about her grief over losing Benjamin on a blog called The Gift of Ben.
“I long to see him again, his soft skin, his smile, his belly laugh, to hold him and call him my little ‘buoy’ — my Benjabear — and to wipe his long curly hair out of his face and say, softly, ‘You’re too pretty to be a boy,’ then to kiss his cheek, ” Ben’s mother writes on the blog.
“Just one more time. I wasn’t ready to let go.”
Mrs Rogers-Seitz is now an advocate to raise awareness of the dangers of leaving children in hot cars.
“I’ve shed more tears in the past 4 months than the better part of my entire life,” she writes in a post dated 4 November. “I don’t have Ben physically anymore, but he is spiritually around me every day.”
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Top Comments
I don't doubt that accidents happen and we are all human so I suppose you never know what could happen - easy to say I would never do this (which I admit I have said in the past). My issue with these incidents is why does everything have to be turned into a syndrome or the like? Why is it that an accident has to be blamed on some sort of medical diagnosis. I think that looking at it as something more than an accident leaves the door open for people with more sinister motives to use it as an excuse.
What are you talking about? The only "diagnosis" mentioned is hyperthermia, which quite literally means high temperature and is referring to the child.
She is referring to the 'forgotten baby syndrome' used now as a term to discribe parents actions when this situation occurs!
Not what I meant. I'm talking about the whole syndrome thing. I may not have expressed myself very clearly.
My Aunt once left her infant daughter in the baby capsule of a shopping trolley at the local supermarket. Distracted by her two older kids and a carload of groceries. The kind store manager took the baby inside and cared for her until my Aunt returned ten minutes later.
That was the 80s; these days she probably would be reported for neglect!
I understand that type of forgetfulness it was only 5 mins n I had my 2 year old twins with me, who kept me busy.. ..I have done that once but unlike that of cooper harris which seems to me to be very intentional. ...how sad..but at that age I have taught my kids how to release themselves out of the restraints because of a car accident where I was knocked out...how sad that a young child died