RIDGEFIELD — The father of a boy who died Monday after being left unattended in a car all day normally dropped the toddler off at day care before grabbing coffee and heading to work.
But on Monday Kyle Seitz went straight to the coffee shop and then to work, apparently forgetting the 15-month-old Benjamin in the back seat, sources familiar with the investigation have told the News-Times. Police only identified Seitz’ place of work by its address, 38 A Grove St.
Seitz went out for lunch during the day without noticing the boy in the back, the sources said.
Not until after work, when he went to get his son at day care, did he realize that the boy had been in the car all day, sources said. Without calling police or 9-1-1, Seitz drove straight to Danbury Hospital, where the boy was pronounced dead about 6 p.m.
As the inconsolable father grieved, hospital personnel called Ridgefield police, the sources said.
The boy’s mother meanwhile had gone to the Ridgefield police station, though it was not clear how she knew something was wrong, the sources said. Not until she arrived at the hospital was she told of her son’s death.
The family, which lives in Ridgefield, has two older daughters, the sources said. A knock at the family home Wednesday went unanswered.
Ridgefield police, who have declined to provide key details of the case, have been joined in the investigation by the State Police Western Connecticut Major Crime Squad and the state attorney’s office in Danbury.
The Ridgefield death closely follows two others in Connecticut where parents were charged with risk of injury to a minor, one in Orange and one in New London, though neither case was fatal.
Police have declined to discuss possible charges in the Ridgefield case.