My son's body was taken into custody by a forensic team

I was called by the police

We were not allowed to say goodbye because it was an unnatural death. The most painful moment ever. I was not allowed to kiss him, not allowed to hug him, nothing at all, nothing. His body had been taken by the forensic team. We went to collect our belongings at the Ronald McDonald House and then we headed home. Just as we left the hospital, I was called by the police. They were waiting for us at the hospital, but we had already left. Now they were coming to our house. This was to confiscate our phones. The next day we had to report to the police station.

We were interrogated and the media was full

The following morning at 10 a.m., we heard that they were going to conduct a forensic investigation in our house. When I came out of my interrogation and got my phone back, it was blowing up with notifications. All the newspapers were full of it. Shortly after, the media was at our house and everyone was already spreading stories about what might have happened. It stirred up so much emotion and anger in me. Meanwhile, I also received a call from a child protection service. The two other children could no longer live with me; they had to go to their grandparents immediately. Fortunately, they were allowed to go there, it was familiar.

A private funeral

Days followed with much sorrow and a lot of arrangements for the funeral. But also uncertainty: “When will my little man come back and can I see him again?”. After three days I was finally able to see him, touch him, and dress him. The day of the funeral we kept it private due to media attention. It was beautiful, exactly as I wanted.

The research conducted a thorough investigation

The weeks that followed were intense and very emotional. We were still subjected to a lot of interrogations. All I could think was: “They've got it wrong”, but when I expressed that, they were not satisfied. We were constantly being watched, it turned out later. The detectives visited us every day and monitored all our actions.

The cat's out of the bag

On May 3rd, we were allowed to pick up the children because we were going to do something fun with them. When my ex-partner called, I quickly went home. There we were told that we had to report back the next day. Something inside me said that something was not right, was I seeing everything clearly? When they were gone, I told my ex-partner that this was his last chance to be honest. And then it came out: “I did it,” he said. The ground fell away from under my feet. Someone you love so much, whom you trust, and then lies about everything for so many weeks. Why? Why our little one? The little guy who couldn't defend himself?

My ex has been arrested

He was arrested on the same day. To this day, he is still in custody and there have been three pro forma sessions which he has not attended even once... The substantive hearing is not until June or July of the next year. It's indescribable how surreal it all is…

TO BE CONTINUED

CYNTHIA