Unraveling the Case Against Melissa

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Speaker 3 Hello, Melissa.

Speaker 3 It's been, boy, more than a decade since I first met you.

Speaker 3 When we first met, did you ever think you'd still be here this long? No.

Speaker 4 Why am I still in here?

Speaker 5 I just don't understand.

Speaker 6 You may remember in 2009, Melissa Kalyuzinski was working at a Lincolnshire daycare.

Speaker 7 She was given 31 years in prison for the death of a 16-month-old who was in her care.

Speaker 6 Since then, she and her supporters have been fighting back, calling this a wrongful conviction.

Speaker 9 It hurts.

Speaker 2 She doesn't have blind hair.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 2 I just want her home.

Speaker 4 I used to work at the Mini Subi Daycare.

Speaker 4 I think it was definitely more than a job to her.

Speaker 4 The kids were her number one priority. I feel like the kids brightened her day.

Speaker 3 Do you believe that Melissa Kalyusinski had anything to do with Ben Kingen's death?

Speaker 12 Cero. She had nothing to do with it.
I am Melissa Kalyazinski's current attorney. She loved Ben.
Ben loved her.

Speaker 14 And what she told the police was that she threw him to the floor.

Speaker 15 You threw him on the floor? Yeah. Show us how hard you threw him on the ground.

Speaker 3 Did you hurt that baby? No, I did not.

Speaker 5 I would never do that.

Speaker 12 You've got her isolated in a small room with these two men for hours.

Speaker 12 She's trying so hard to be the good girl, the compliant girl.

Speaker 12 She's not equipped to deal with a situation like that.

Speaker 15 We're not going anywhere until we get the facts here.

Speaker 5 The only way for me to get out was to make a confession, a false confession.

Speaker 3 Is there any evidence that corroborates the confession that Melissa made?

Speaker 12 Zero.

Speaker 14 We would never take someone to trial with just a confession. This child had a fractured skull.
There was extensive injuries to this child internally. It's clear that she killed Benjamin.

Speaker 3 Do you believe there was a skull fracture? No.

Speaker 13 There is no fracture.

Speaker 12 The evidence had been manipulated.

Speaker 17 If I take these sliders here, you can manipulate this photo.

Speaker 18 So somebody went in and they altered the contrast to make it look like that on screen.

Speaker 3 Somebody took x-rays that were completely clear and turned them into unreadable images.

Speaker 17 Yes, I can't think of an innocent explanation.

Speaker 3 So you're saying that either the prosecutor's office or the coroner's office, but somebody representing the state did this.

Speaker 2 Yes. Yes.

Speaker 8 A former daycare worker convicted of killing a toddler tries again today to be released from prison.

Speaker 6 Her case was before the prisoner review board in an effort to get clemency.

Speaker 2 People, I have to know the truth. I have to keep pushing fight no matter how much it hurts.

Speaker 11 I want people to know I'm innocent.

Speaker 19 Erin Moriarty reports unraveling the case against Melissa.

Speaker 3 Melissa Kalyasinski has served 16 years of a 31-year prison sentence for the death of Benjamin Kingen, a 16-month-old whom she cared for at an Illinois daycare center.

Speaker 3 She has long insisted she is innocent.

Speaker 5 This is not where I belong. I'm going to continue to fight no matter what because I did not do this.

Speaker 3 We've been covering this case for more than a decade. And over the years, Melissa's appeals have failed.
But she and her attorney, Kathleen Zellner, are not backing down.

Speaker 3 Now they're taking their fight out of the court system and straight to the governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, and his prisoner review board.

Speaker 12 We're asking them to declare that she's actually innocent and release her. We are also saying commuter sentence.

Speaker 3 The story began on January 14, 2009.

Speaker 3 Melissa, then 22 years old, was working as a teacher's assistant at the Minnie Subi Daycare in Lincolnshire.

Speaker 3 an affluent suburb of Chicago.

Speaker 3 Ben Kingen attended daycare there along with his twin sister and their two older siblings.

Speaker 5 I came to work and I saw Ben. He was fine, normal, happy, playful.

Speaker 3 Late that afternoon, after the kids were fed a snack and cleaned up, Melissa says she put Ben down on the carpet and he crawled into his bouncy seat on the floor.

Speaker 5 He's sitting in his bouncy chair. playing with his blanket and he was

Speaker 5 starting to kind of fall asleep, was normal.

Speaker 3 The teacher working with Melissa stepped out of the room briefly, leaving Melissa alone with the child.

Speaker 3 That's when Melissa says she noticed something wrong with Ben.

Speaker 2 He didn't look right.

Speaker 5 I took his little hand and I touched his hand, and I'm like, Ben, Ben.

Speaker 5 He did not wake up at all.

Speaker 5 I saw orange foam coming out of his nose,

Speaker 2 and um,

Speaker 2 I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 Melissa called for help. Her older sister, Crystal Kalyuzinski, also worked at the daycare at the time.

Speaker 2 I hear on the intercom, someone help me, help me, help me.

Speaker 11 I ran in and started CPR immediately.

Speaker 3 What's that like for you, Crystal?

Speaker 2 I dream about it a lot.

Speaker 12 Like I see it in my, you know, my head.

Speaker 3 911 was called. I have a child who was

Speaker 3 foaming, who's not breathing. Paramedics responded.

Speaker 3 Ben was taken to the hospital. He was pronounced dead an hour later.

Speaker 5 Me and my sister fell to the floor and

Speaker 2 we're just bawling.

Speaker 5 What happened to him and how?

Speaker 5 I don't understand.

Speaker 3 An investigation was launched. According to this police report, during an autopsy, the pathologist, Dr.

Speaker 3 Yupal Choi, told a detective that he observed a skull fracture, extensive bleeding inside Ben's head, and that the injury was caused by another person using strong force

Speaker 3 within hours prior to Ben's death.

Speaker 3 And yet, Ben had no cuts or obvious wounds on the outside of his body, no serious bruises. The pathologist listed the autopsy as pending further studies.

Speaker 3 Police brought in the daycare workers who had been with the toddler on the day of his death. Somebody did something careful, determined to find out what happened to Ben.

Speaker 3 After Melissa was read her rights,

Speaker 3 detectives began pressing her for answers.

Speaker 15 I have a good idea that you've seen what happened or you were involved with what happened because you were the only one in the room at the on-site of this.

Speaker 3 Melissa denied over and over again, more than 60 times, doing anything to Ben.

Speaker 15 I never put my aunt.

Speaker 15 I did not drop them.

Speaker 3 But the detectives didn't stop. You're there.

Speaker 15 It's not like there were 50 people in that room with you.

Speaker 3 All these years later, Melissa still remembers what it was like being in that room.

Speaker 5 They weren't listening to anything. I said.

Speaker 3 After nine hours under pressure and without an attorney, melissa changed her story she said she thought if she told the investigators what they wanted to hear they would let her go home we're not going anywhere until we get the facts here the only way for me to get out was to make a confession a false confession i wasn't thinking At all.

Speaker 3 You weren't thinking of the consequences of doing something like that? No.

Speaker 5 All I could think about was just going home.

Speaker 15 He starts acting up

Speaker 15 and you get mad at him, and you throw him on the floor. You throw him on the floor?

Speaker 21 Yeah, really hard.

Speaker 3 When Melissa was taken to another station for booking, she repeated the same story to another investigator.

Speaker 3 After spending 14 hours with police,

Speaker 3 Melissa Kalyuzinski was arrested for the murder of Benjamin Kingen.

Speaker 3 Even though she almost immediately took back the story, she told police.

Speaker 5 No, I'm innocent.

Speaker 3 Melissa's parents, Paul and Cheryl Kaluzinski, still remember receiving the news.

Speaker 9 And I said, what?

Speaker 3 Did you think possibly

Speaker 2 she had hurt this baby? Nope, nope.

Speaker 10 She is the kind of person that would never, permanently, never

Speaker 10 put her hand on someone else's child.

Speaker 3 But Melissa had told investigators that she did.

Speaker 3 And after that, the manner of death on Ben's death certificate was listed as homicide. Law enforcement announced they had solved the case.

Speaker 22 Ms. Kalzinski admitted to police that she had taken the infant boy and thrown him on the ground.

Speaker 11 And they made her look like a bad person.

Speaker 11 And she's not that type of a person.

Speaker 3 Melissa's family would make it their mission to clear her name.

Speaker 11 My parents sold everything that they had.

Speaker 19 I put all my effort into getting her free.

Speaker 3 They had no idea how much of a fight they were in for.

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Speaker 14 He was a very healthy baby, just a happy, happy little boy.

Speaker 3 In November 2011, nearly three years after the death of Ben Kingen, Melissa Kalyuzhinski went on trial for murder. The state argued that Ben was a perfectly healthy toddler leading up to his death.

Speaker 3 Matthew DiMartini and Stephen Scheller prosecuted the case.

Speaker 3 How would you describe what the parents have gone through?

Speaker 13 When somebody takes your child from you, I don't think there's any words to describe what they have gone through.

Speaker 3 Dr.

Speaker 3 Choi, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy, testified about that skull fracture he said he had seen and how he believed the child's injury was recent and consistent with having been thrown to the floor by someone.

Speaker 3 But Melissa's trial attorney, Paul DeLuca, told the jury about a head injury. Ben had previously received.
It was noticed at the daycare three months earlier.

Speaker 24 Melissa was not even working there at the daycare center.

Speaker 3 After Ben's death, multiple people, including daycare teacher Nancy Callinger, told investigators about it.

Speaker 3 But prosecutor Stephen Scheller argued that the earlier injury was insignificant.

Speaker 14 The pediatrician actually examined Benjamin's head. It felt around,

Speaker 14 said there was no issues, that mom should just keep an eye on him. Ben never had an issue after that.

Speaker 3 That's not what defense experts said.

Speaker 3 They noted that after the injury, there were possible signs of head trauma. Medical records showed that in the days after the injury, Ben was lethargic and had a persistent fever.

Speaker 3 And another daycare employee, Holly, who asked that we identify her by her first name only, testified for the defense about the last time she saw Ben, two days before his death.

Speaker 4 Melissa walked into the room and she was holding Ben, and she said, like, he's not feeling well. And it was almost immediately after she said that

Speaker 4 he

Speaker 4 threw up like everywhere.

Speaker 3 The next day, one day before he died, Ben was kept home from daycare. Prosecutor Matthew DiMartini argued it was a stomach bug or a winter cold.

Speaker 13 He was given pediolite and put to bed. He woke up the next day and he was fine.

Speaker 3 But the defense maintained that Ben's prior injury was so serious that any new impact could have had major consequences. And Ben did have a habit of throwing his head back.

Speaker 4 He would be sitting. on the ground and he would just kind of lunge his body backwards and hit his head.
You know, know, I guess you'd call it like he was a headbanger.

Speaker 3 Nancy Callinger recalled that Ben had done that twice on the day of his death.

Speaker 15 I put him on the floor

Speaker 15 and he immediately threw himself on the floor.

Speaker 15 And then I walked towards the sink and he took himself again.

Speaker 3 Prosecutors insisted that Melissa had hurt Ben.

Speaker 14 This child did not. explode or implode on his own.

Speaker 3 And they pointed to her confession.

Speaker 14 She became frustrated holding Ben. She threw him to the floor.

Speaker 3 Prosecutors told the jury that the fall was so severe, it caused that skull fracture. At trial, they mentioned a skull fracture more than 30 times.
But was there one?

Speaker 3 While most of the experts who testified from both sides agreed there appeared to be a fracture in autopsy photos, One defense expert said she couldn't say for sure.

Speaker 3 And according to Melissa's attorney, Paul DeLuca, the x-rays the prosecution had provided before the trial were unreadable.

Speaker 24 Before trial, I said, do we have any better images? And it was no.

Speaker 3 The state's final witness, pathologist Dr. Manny Montez, gave the most vivid and damaging testimony at trial.
He said he examined the body and felt the fracture with his bare hands.

Speaker 24 Dr. Montez said he put his finger in the skull and threw the fracture.
I mean, it was devastating.

Speaker 3 The jury deliberated for seven hours before convicting Melissa Kalyusinski of aggravated battery of a child and first-degree murder.

Speaker 5 My heart sunk. I know I didn't do this.

Speaker 3 Melissa's family remained determined to prove her innocence.

Speaker 9 I didn't accept the verdict. I knew it was wrong.

Speaker 3 And in 2012, a year after the conviction, Dr. Thomas Rudd, the then newly elected Lake County coroner, agreed to review the autopsy evidence at the urging of Melissa's trial attorney.

Speaker 25 I saw a membrane, and I thought, my God.

Speaker 3 What do you mean when you say you saw a membrane?

Speaker 25 You see a scab similar to what forms on your skin, except it's in the brain.

Speaker 3 This is a slide of a part of this infant's brain. Correct.

Speaker 25 By definition, if you have a membrane, you have an old injury.

Speaker 3 At Melissa's trial, Dr. Choi had told the jury he observed no sign of an old injury.
But according to Dr. Rudd, Dr.
Choi had simply missed it. He called in Dr.

Speaker 3 Nancy Jones, a well-regarded pathologist, for a second opinion. And she agreed with Dr.
Rudd and noted that the old injury had been healing for about two or three months.

Speaker 3 a timeframe consistent with that bump on Ben's head that was noticed at daycare.

Speaker 13 How How they let that go is beyond me.

Speaker 3 Like the defense experts at trial, doctors Jones and Rudd believe that the old injury was further exacerbated by Ben's head banging.

Speaker 25 The added fluid of the recent injury pushes that brain down and shuts down the breathing system. That is the cause of the child's death.
It was the old injury. The old injury was massive.

Speaker 3 Dr. Rudd phoned the now retired Dr.
Choi, who signed a sworn affidavit conceding that he had missed that Ben had suffered an old injury.

Speaker 3 But he crossed out the word significant, and when asked if he would have changed his testimony at trial, Dr. Choi said, no.

Speaker 13 There's no indication that anything in there is significant.

Speaker 3 But Dr. Rudd suspected that Dr.
Choi may have also been wrong about another major issue in the case, that alleged skull fracture.

Speaker 25 What should have been done was that whole section should have been cut out to look under the microscope to see if, in fact, it is a skull fracture.

Speaker 2 And they didn't.

Speaker 3 Dr. Rubb believed what Dr.
Choi and the other medical experts thought was a skull fracture may have instead been a normal part of Ben's growing skull, but he couldn't prove it.

Speaker 3 Then in 2015, Melissa's father said he received an anonymous call that there was a set of x-rays at the coroner's office that had never been turned over to the defense.

Speaker 3 When Dr. Rudd's staff searched the computer archives, they came across these startling images

Speaker 3 that were never shown at trial.

Speaker 13 I was dumbfounded.

Speaker 25 There's definitely no skull fracture here.

Speaker 25 I've shown this to various pathologists and a radiologist. They have all called me and say there's no skull fracture in this child at all.

Speaker 3 In 2015, four years after Melissa Kalyuzinski's conviction and shortly after those clear x-rays of Ben Kingen were found, Dr.

Speaker 3 Rudd changed the manner of death on Ben's death certificate from homicide to undetermined.

Speaker 3 By this point, Defense Attorney Kathleen Zellner had taken on Melissa's case.

Speaker 12 I don't know of a case in America where someone's serving a 31-year prison sentence for a death that was undetermined.

Speaker 3 Zellner, who has built a career on getting the wrongfully convicted out of prison, was intent on getting Melissa's conviction overturned.

Speaker 3 And in 2016, Melissa was granted an evidentiary hearing to present what Zellner argued was new evidence before Judge Daniel Shanes, the same judge who presided over Melissa's trial.

Speaker 12 The new evidence was that the images that had been given to Paul DeLuca had been darkened.

Speaker 3 Remember, the state gave Melissa's trial attorney, Paul DeLuca, a disc containing these dark, unreadable x-rays before trial. At the evidentiary hearing, Dr.

Speaker 3 Rudd testified about finding the clear x-rays, x-rays that he and other defense experts said showed no skull fracture. X-rays that Zellner argued would have changed the outcome of Melissa's trial.

Speaker 12 The skull fracture was the pivotal point in the state's case to convince the jury it was a homicide.

Speaker 3 But at the evidentiary hearing, prosecutors argued that this wasn't new evidence in the case.

Speaker 3 They said the discs provided to DeLuca had software that could enhance the x-rays and that he simply didn't do enough to brighten them. DeLuca says he couldn't even open the software.

Speaker 24 I call in a secretary, call in somebody else in the office. No one could get any better images.

Speaker 3 Zellner, with the help of an imaging expert, argued that it didn't matter what DeLuca did, that the x-rays that that he had been given had been modified and were inferior to the ones on the coroner's office computer.

Speaker 3 She also called a witness whom she believed raised more questions about the prosecution's case, Paul Foreman, the deputy coroner during Ben Kingen's autopsies.

Speaker 3 Foreman disputed the testimony of one of the most important witnesses at Melissa's trial, Dr. Banny Montez.

Speaker 3 Remember, Dr. Montez was the state's final witness who testified that he felt a fracture in Ben Kingen's skull.

Speaker 3 But Foreman, who said he was there when Montez came to the coroner's office, testified that Montez never physically examined Ben's body or actually touched the child's skull.

Speaker 3 Could he have somehow gone in and looked at Ben's body, examined the body without you knowing?

Speaker 2 No, I was with him from the moment he came in the door to the moment he left.

Speaker 3 The state tried to discredit Foreman by questioning his memory as well as his mental health. Foreman told us he had been treated for bipolar disorder and depression.

Speaker 2 Well, it was a personal attack.

Speaker 3 But Foreman wasn't the only defense witness who raised questions about Dr. Montez's testimony.
Dr.

Speaker 3 Robert Zimmerman, a renowned pediatric neuroradiologist who examined the readable x-rays, testified that if that skull fracture had existed, it would be clearly visible.

Speaker 13 It wasn't there on the x-ray, so I don't think you could have actually seen it.

Speaker 3 But prosecutors stood by their trial witnesses, Dr. Montez and Dr.
Choi, who said they saw and felt a skull fracture.

Speaker 3 We reached out to both doctors for this broadcast, but they did not respond to our requests for comment.

Speaker 3 When the evidentiary hearing ended, Judge Shanes ruled against Melissa.

Speaker 26 She was dealt a devastating setback today in court. That's when a judge ruled she would not get a new trial.

Speaker 3 In his ruling, Judge Shane stated that he didn't find Paul Foreman's testimony regarding Dr.

Speaker 3 Montez credible, and he agreed with the state that Paul DeLuca could have brightened the x-rays and made them readable.

Speaker 3 It was another letdown for Melissa and her family.

Speaker 2 You clearly made a mistake.

Speaker 5 I just don't understand.

Speaker 3 Zellner appealed the ruling, but again, a disappointment. And then, four years later, in 2022, there was a development that few saw coming.

Speaker 3 Eric Reinhart, a new state's attorney in Lake County, the county where Melissa was convicted, had taken office. Zellner says he wanted more information on the discrepancy over the x-rays.

Speaker 3 So he recommended she retain the digital forensics company, Garrett Discovery.

Speaker 12 We paid for him, but he recommended him.

Speaker 3 Andrew Garrett is the CEO of Garrett Discovery. Brian Bowman is a digital forensics expert who works for him.

Speaker 3 They concluded the x-rays were manipulated by someone using a software tool used to view x-rays. How did Paul DeLuca, the defense attorney, end up with these very dark pictures?

Speaker 17 I can show you. So if I take these sliders here,

Speaker 17 and I drag them all the way down or all the way up, you can manipulate this photo. So somebody went in

Speaker 18 and they altered the contrast to make it look like that on screen and then exported that file on the coroner's computer.

Speaker 20 On the coroner's computer.

Speaker 3 Bowman agrees there was little DeLuca could do.

Speaker 27 The defense counsel could have adjusted some of the contrast on the JPEGs that they were given, but they couldn't make the images bigger and they wouldn't be able to go in and zoom into the depth and have the clarity of the image that the original is.

Speaker 3 But if Ben Kingen's X-rays were manipulated, who did it? In their report, Garrett and Bowman pointed to the state.

Speaker 3 You put in here, the state adjusted the settings of the images that resulted in black, washed-out images. You're saying that

Speaker 3 either the prosecutor's office or the coroner's office, but somebody representing the state did this.

Speaker 2 Yes, yes.

Speaker 17 This is not a kiosk computer sitting in a lobby. This is in their custody and control.
You have to be in the coroner's office to get access to this.

Speaker 19 What do you make of Garrett Discovery's findings? Chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and X.

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Speaker 3 In late 2022, when Lake County State's Attorney Eric Reinhardt met with the forensic experts, experts he recommended, and learned of their findings, attorneys Kathleen Zellner and Paul DeLuca were also there.

Speaker 12 Eric was just indignant. He was saying whoever had done this manipulation should be held accountable.

Speaker 12 I believed after the meeting that he believed in Melissa's innocence and he was going to try to rectify this.

Speaker 24 I thought he was going to do something about it.

Speaker 3 But nothing happened, say Zellner and DeLuca.

Speaker 3 And as the months stretched on, Zellner decided to also look more closely at Melissa's confession.

Speaker 12 That's the only evidence against her. There's nothing that tips this as being a homicide.
Absolutely nothing.

Speaker 3 Zellner asked Dr. Saul Kassen, a psychology professor and leading expert expert on false confessions, to review the case.

Speaker 3 Dr. Kassen 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.

Speaker 15 The reason that we were called in in this incident is because Ben's skull was fractured. What we need to know right now

Speaker 15 is if this was done

Speaker 15 by accident or did somebody intentionally hurt him?

Speaker 15 Yeah,

Speaker 15 I would never put my hands on it.

Speaker 1 Her denials were emphatic.

Speaker 15 I never put my hand on the child ever.

Speaker 20 And they plowed over all of them.

Speaker 15 You know what? Medical evidence, it just doesn't lie.

Speaker 3 Remember, a detective reported that during the autopsy, the pathologist, Dr.

Speaker 3 Choi, told him that Ben had a skull fracture and that the injury was recent and was caused by another person using strong force.

Speaker 15 They did an autopsy on Ben. Yeah.
We're talking a skull fracture. There's sometimes accidents happen and I mean they're unavoidable.

Speaker 20 They launch into an accident scenario.

Speaker 15 I did not drop him. Did you lose your patience and hit him? No.
Did you push him into a wall?

Speaker 3 After nearly six hours with investigators.

Speaker 15 You didn't come to work that day with the intent of hurting anybody.

Speaker 3 Melissa told them it was an accident.

Speaker 19 Did you drop the baby?

Speaker 2 Yes, I wasn't paying attention.

Speaker 16 He flipped out of my hands.

Speaker 3 But that didn't satisfy the detectives who had left the room periodically to phone Dr. Choi.

Speaker 15 That story you're giving us is a load of shit. There's no way, no way, that that would have caused that traumatic of of an injury.

Speaker 15 All you need to do is tell us the truth and we're done.

Speaker 20 They're not saying nothing will happen to you, but it's implied.

Speaker 3 After nine hours in that room, the investigators were finally getting Melissa to tell a story that could account for a skull fracture.

Speaker 15 You were angry. I was angry and aggravated.
Show us how angry you were and show us what happened and let's just get this over with and move on. Okay.
So I got angry? Yeah. And I went, boom.

Speaker 15 I'm going to tell you something right now.

Speaker 15 This is very specific. This is going to leave a specific mark.
Like a fracture.

Speaker 3 Then they gave Melissa a scenario of why she got angry.

Speaker 15 We think in this situation, the other babies are screaming, crying.

Speaker 3 And what she did.

Speaker 15 He starts acting up

Speaker 15 and

Speaker 15 you get mad at him and you throw him on the floor.

Speaker 15 You throw him on the floor? Yeah.

Speaker 20 She needs to get out of there. She can't take it anymore.

Speaker 15 I'm so sorry. Okay, well, we understand.

Speaker 3 The detectives who interrogated Melissa did not respond to our request for comment. Dr.

Speaker 3 Casson raises concerns about how long Melissa was in that room, approximately 10 hours, and how particularly vulnerable she was.

Speaker 3 About two and a half years before Ben Kingen's death, Melissa had reported she was raped.

Speaker 20 She was enclosed in a small space, pinned down and sexually assaulted. Now she's pinned into the corner of a room.

Speaker 20 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.

Speaker 3 The defense recently had Melissa evaluated by a psychologist and psychiatrist. They diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Speaker 3 They also assessed her as having borderline intellectual functioning.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 15 I'm just kind of curious how long much more. Now looking around the phone right now.
We're trying to get this done as quickly as possible.

Speaker 15 She goes, I just want to go spend time with my parents and my puppy. Let me get

Speaker 20 She had no idea what was happening. The confession, in my mind, is worthless.
There are multiple reasons why she might have given this confession. This isn't just a vulnerable suspect.

Speaker 20 It isn't just interrogation tactics that are highly deceptive.

Speaker 2 It's both.

Speaker 3 The jury at Melissa's trial heard about her low IQ, but the judge would not allow a false confession expert to testify. Zellner believes that testimony might have changed the verdict.

Speaker 3 If Melissa Kalyazinski had not walked into that room as she had insisted on attorney, would she be imprisoned?

Speaker 12 No, absolutely not. They had absolutely nothing.
There's no eyewitness. There was no video.
The reason Melissa Kalyusinski got charged is she confessed.

Speaker 3 But if Melissa didn't harm Ben Kingen, what happened to the toddler? It raises more questions about that earlier injury, injury, the one that was discovered at the daycare months before his death.

Speaker 3 Several employees there remembered a co-worker. She was working there at the time

Speaker 3 that happened. Her name was Brenda.
What I believe, I only heard, I didn't see anything, is that she put him in the crib and I believe he threw himself back. She quit the day after.

Speaker 3 Brenda didn't testify at Melissa's trial, and the defense was never able to track her down.

Speaker 3 But we did. A number of people have said that Ben was hurt when he was with you.

Speaker 3 Melissa Kalyuzinski was interrogated for hours about the injury Ben Kingen received just before his death.

Speaker 3 But what about the daycare worker who was reported to be with Ben a few months months earlier when he got a lump on his head?

Speaker 3 She didn't return our calls, but when we located her, she agreed to speak to us on the condition we obscure her face and identify her only by Brenda, her first name.

Speaker 3 On October 27th, 2008, there was a report of an injury on Ben King. And do you remember that? No, I don't.

Speaker 3 The way it's been described is from some people is that Ben Ben was with you and you were putting him in the bed. They heard a bump and then he had a bump on the back of his head.
No.

Speaker 3 Did that happen with you?

Speaker 5 No.

Speaker 3 But you did stop working the very next day? I did.

Speaker 3 I was just kind of tired of being there. I don't recall a bump and I don't recall ever bumping him.
So do you say it didn't happen or you don't remember it? How it didn't happen.

Speaker 3 Brenda has never been charged with harming Ben Ben intentionally or accidentally. But attorney Kathleen Zelmer is adamant that Ben sustained a serious injury that day.

Speaker 12 I think that his parents were misled by the daycare center about that incident.

Speaker 3 And according to these police reports, it wouldn't be the first time that the daycare allegedly tried to cover up the seriousness of a child's injury.

Speaker 3 The daycare was shut down by state authorities shortly after Ben died.

Speaker 3 In April 2024, more than 12 years after Melissa's conviction, with no success in the court system, Zellner filed this clemency petition asking Illinois Governor J.B.

Speaker 3 Pritzker to exonerate Melissa or release her for time served.

Speaker 12 I believe this is her best chance. for freedom.

Speaker 3 Before a scheduled hearing, Lake County State's Attorney Eric Reinhart spoke to an attorney representing Ben Kingen's family.

Speaker 3 And then he wrote this letter to the prisoner review board, stating his office strongly opposes Melissa's clemency petition. Were you shocked by that?

Speaker 2 Totally.

Speaker 12 I believe he thinks in his heart that she's innocent.

Speaker 3 Reinhardt would not do an on-camera interview or speak to us on the record, but in that letter to the board, he stated that there is no new evidence in the case and that Melissa's petition for clemency does not establish innocence.

Speaker 3 On July 9th, 2024, Zellner went before the prisoner review board to make her case for Melissa's freedom.

Speaker 16 What we want to do today is focus on who is this person and how did she end up in the position that she's in, convicted of the person-brained murder of a child.

Speaker 3 But also they are making an impassioned plea for Ben Kingen's parents.

Speaker 16 My name is Amy Kingen and I am here with my husband Andy.

Speaker 16 We are the parents of England Kingen who was murdered when Melissa Kalyusinski threw him to the ground at Creatus Hall.

Speaker 16 Because of her actions, Andy and I are adamantly opposed to Melissa Kalyucinski's release.

Speaker 16 We continue to read about how there's no justice for Melissa, but where is the justice for Beth and for Andy and myself and our surviving children?

Speaker 16 We hope that you as the prison review board and the governor will deny her petition for clemency.

Speaker 3 Amy and Andy Kingen declined our request for an interview.

Speaker 3 Following Amy's statement, Zellner was then given the chance to respond.

Speaker 16 There is no question that the death of a child is probably the worst thing that could ever happen to a parent. But the only way that a parent is closed is with the truth.

Speaker 16 And the truth has not come out in this case. I know that she is innocent.

Speaker 3 After the hearing, it was up to the prisoner review board to make a confidential recommendation to Governor Pritzker. as to whether Melissa should be released.

Speaker 3 If you had a chance to talk to Governor Pritzker yourself,

Speaker 3 what would you say?

Speaker 4 I would say, just please look at my case.

Speaker 12 I didn't do this.

Speaker 3 Holly, who worked at the daycare with Melissa, believes her, so much so that she wrote this letter to the governor.

Speaker 4 From the time Melissa was arrested for Benjamin's murder, I have always thought she was innocent. The evidence does not point to Melissa.

Speaker 4 I can only imagine

Speaker 4 how Ben's family gonna feel knowing that I'm

Speaker 4 saying Melissa's innocent. But an innocent person should not be in jail.

Speaker 3 When we first met the Kalyazinski family back in 2014, five years after Melissa's arrest, they still had her bedroom set up.

Speaker 3 Today, that room is still set up just as it was.

Speaker 3 Paul and Cheryl Kalyuzinski haven't given up hope that their daughter will be home soon.

Speaker 19 She's daddy's little girl.

Speaker 2 We did have a seat again.

Speaker 10 And we're just going to keep on until

Speaker 3 she comes home.

Speaker 19 The Prisoner Review Board made their confidential recommendation to Governor Pritzker in January 2025. There is no deadline for the governor to act.

Speaker 29 Join me Tuesday for post-mortem from 48 Hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case.