Father drove three times without noticing dead toddler in back seat

A US father whose 15-month-old son died after being left in his car on a hot day drove three times before realising that the boy was dead in the backseat, a court has heard.

Kyle Seitz, of Connecticut, left son Benjamin in the car for seven hours on a 31-degree day after forgetting to drop him off at day care on July 7, FoxCT reports.

The boy died of hyperthermia but it would be hours before his father noticed that he was even in the car.

Seitz has been charged with criminally negligent homicide and faces up to one year in jail.

According to his warrant read before the court yesterday, the software programmer's first stop was a café, shortly after missing the turn-off to Benjamin's day care on the way to work.

After work, he drove to the day care only to be told that his son was never dropped off that morning.

He then returned to his car where he found his son's "motionless" body strapped in his rear-facing child safety seat, The Courant reports.

Seitz rushed Benjamin to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The father turned himself into police a week later after learning a warrant had been issued for his arrest.

Seitz's wife Lindsey Rogers-Seitz told reporters that she had forgiven her husband for the "tragic accident", describing him as an amazing father to their remaining two daughters, aged 6 and 8.

"I love my husband," she said. "Of course I forgive him. But it doesn’t mean that our lives aren’t different now. So we have to move forward with a new, different reality for us, and it’s always going to be that way."

The trial continues.

Author: Chloe Ross, Approving editor: Martin Zavan
Source: FoxCT, The Courant