When Melissa Calusinski found Benjamin Kingan unresponsive in his bouncy chair at a suburban day care center on Jan. 14, 2009, his death later that day was a mystery.
It wasn’t yet clear that it would also become — in the eyes of the law — a murder.
It also wasn’t clear that the case would attract national attention. Or that — now a decade later — the events surrounding the Deerfield toddler’s death would continue to be debated: Was it intentional or accidental? Did Benjamin die of a skull fracture caused by Calusinski, a worker at the center, or of a pre-existing condition? Was her confession true or coerced? Did authorities withhold from Calusinski’s defense attorneys an X-ray of Benjamin that undermined their case? Read more >>