Was key evidence manipulated to help convict a day care worker of murder? Erin Moriarty reports. This episode originally aired on 1/18/25. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the background of Melissa Kaluzinski's case?
You may remember in 2009, Melissa Kaluzinski was working at a Lincolnshire daycare. She was given 31 years in prison for the death of a 16-month-old who was in her care. Since then, she and her supporters have been fighting back, calling this a wrongful conviction.
It hurts. She doesn't belong there. She's the kind of person that would take her shirt off her back and help other people. This is my baby. This is my youngest. I just want her home.
I used to work at the Minisubi daycare. I think it was definitely more than a job to her. The kids were her number one priority. I feel like the kids brightened her day.
Do you believe that Melissa Kaluzinski had anything to do with Ben Kingan's death?
Zero. She had nothing to do with it. I am Melissa Kaluzinski's current attorney. She loved Ben. Ben loved her.
And what she told the police was that she threw him to the floor.
Did you hurt that baby?
No, I did not. I would never do that.
You've got her isolated in a small room with these two men for hours.
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Chapter 2: How did Melissa Kaluzinski's confession impact her trial?
Zellner asked Dr. Saul Kasson, a psychology professor and leading expert on false confessions, to review the case. Dr. Kasson had first analyzed the interrogation back in 2016 when he was a CBS News consultant. He told us then and now that it appears police went into that room determined to get a confession.
The reason that we were called in in this incident is because Ben's skull was fractured. What we need to know right now is if this was done by accident, Or did somebody intentionally hurt him?
Her denials were emphatic.
And they plowed over all of them.
Remember, a detective reported that during the autopsy, the pathologist, Dr. Choi, told him that Ben had a skull fracture and that the injury was recent and was caused by another person using strong force. They did an autopsy on Ben. Yeah.
We're talking a skull fracture. There's sometimes accidents happen and I mean, they're unavoidable.
They launch into an accident scenario.
I did not drop him.
Did you lose your patience and hit him?
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Chapter 3: Was the evidence against Melissa Kaluzinski manipulated?
We think in this situation the other babies are screaming, crying.
And what she did.
He starts acting up and you get mad at him and you throw him on the floor. You throw on the floor? Yeah.
She needs to get out of there. She can't take it anymore.
I'm so sorry.
Okay, well, we understand.
The detectives who interrogated Melissa did not respond to our request for comment. Dr. Casson raises concerns about how long Melissa was in that room, approximately 10 hours, and how particularly vulnerable she was. About two and a half years before Ben Kingan's death, Melissa had reported she was raped.
She was enclosed in a small space, pinned down and sexually assaulted. Now she's pinned into the corner of her room. I can only imagine that while this would be normally stressful for the average person, it would be even more stressful for somebody with that history.
The defense recently had Melissa evaluated by a psychologist and psychiatrist. They diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder. They also assessed her as having borderline intellectual functioning. She scored at a 4.8 grade level in sentence comprehension. which could help explain why she believed she could go home, even after she had confessed to murder.
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