Benjamin was 15 months old at the time. ‘My heart has forgiven him,’ says Lindsey Rogers-Seitz in the recently released ‘The Gift of Ben’
It was July 7, 2014. Kyle Seitz, a 36-year-old software programmer from Ridgefield, Connecticut (USA), was getting ready to start his routine. She’s supposed to leave her 15-month-old son Benjamin in kindergarten, before stopping in a cafe for a coffee and going to work. At 5pm that afternoon, when the father arrived at school to pick up the boy, staff informed him that Ben was not there. The child had never arrived at the institute.
In shock, Kyle scanned the building from room to room. To his surprise, however, when he got back to his car, he found out Benjamin was still strapped to the car seat. The father had forgotten to leave the child in kindergarten and Ben has been in the vehicle since morning, on a day when the temperature reached 30°C.
Kyle tried to wake the baby up before rushing to the hospital, but she was already lifeless when she arrived at the care unit. The boy’s mother, 35-year-old Lindsey Rogers-Seitz, was organizing dinner and texting her husband, who has not returned. “She wasn’t like him,” the woman said The mail.
Lindsey then received a call from daycare, informing her that Ben hadn’t been there. “I went to the station and had an anxiety attack in the parking lot,” she told the vehicle. She arrived at the scene, she asked the officers if there was anything she needed to know about her family and they said they would take her to the hospital. There, Lindsey heard what she feared most: “she didn’t make it.” The mother recalls the painful moment with details in the book Ben’s gift recently released.
The investigation of the case
The Connecticut coroner ruled Benjamin’s case a homicide in August 2014. After a four-month investigation, in November of that year, Kyle was indicted. The father filed an application, which was granted by the judge, who helped him do it avoid prison. “I cannot punish you any more than you have already been punished,” said Magistrate Kevin Ross.
Lindsey was cleared early in the investigation. Even so, there was the possibility that the couple’s daughters, Kaylyn and Riley, aged 8 and 5 at the time, would be taken by the State Department of Children and Families (DFC, in its acronym in English), which requested access to the mother’s medical records. .
The mother suffered from mental illnesssuch as bipolar disorder and depression. “There were two traumas: the first, the loss of Ben and the second the immediate result of the DCF,” Lindsey said. “As soon as they found out I was bipolar, they came looking for me too,” she said.
The woman was grieved as the authorities questioned her parental rights and her husband awaited trial. “I’ve almost hit rock bottom,” she told the The mail. At that time, the family members left the town of Ridgefield and moved to Colorado Springs, where they decided to start their lives over and stayed for five years.
Forgiveness
Lindsey’s forgiveness for her husband was posted in Ben’s gift. “It was a moment that will stay with us for life,” she wrote in the book. “It’s been an eight-year journey. I think the moment I found out Ben passed away, my heart forgave him. But it took a long time for my mind to figure it out“, he said.
For Lindsey, a lot of people focused on Kyle’s responsibility, but she also felt guilty. “You always ask yourself, ‘Could I have done something different to save him?’ And if that were the case, Ben would be 10 now.”, accounts. “When I see my friends’ kids on Facebook, what they’re doing, going to school, playing sports and stuff like that, it’s really hard,” she writes.
Nearly a decade after the incident, Lindsey, 44, lives with Kyle and their daughters in Morrisville, North Carolina. According to her, they have finally found peace. “There are still cracks and remnants that I’ll never be able to get rid of. However, being around girls brings me joy. It’s a peace that I probably haven’t had in a long time,” she says.
Source: Terra
Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.
