Melissa Calusinski 'Ready To Come Home,' Father Says

(CBS) -- Two X-ray images could drastically change the life of two families.

One, the father of a woman convicted of murder. He saw them on CBS 2 Tuesday night.

For the parents of young Benjamin Kingan,this re-opens old wounds and raises new questions.
If not murder, why and how did their son die?

CBS 2's Marissa Bailey sat down with Melissa Calusinski's father who says today's developments restore his faith in the justice system.

The entire Calusinski family has waited 6 years, 7 months and two days for a glimmer of hope in their daughter's case. Today was that day.

"Why would somebody withhold evidence and keep my little girl in jail?" Paul Calusinski said.

That evidence: two newly found x-rays that show no skull fracture in 16-month-old Benjamin Kingan's head.

Based on the new X-rays, the Lake County coroner today changed Kingan's cause of death to "undetermined."

"These were unknown to the defense prior to the trial and during the trial," said Lake County Coroner Dr. Thomas Rudd.

Melissa Calusinski initially maintained her innocence, but after 9 hours of interrogation she told investigators she hurt the little boy.

Calusinski later told her attorney it was a forced confession and her dad says he's believed her from day one.

"Everything about my daughter... you can see that she would never harm a bone on anybody's body at all," Paul Calusinski said.

The father of five says he still has faith in the justice system and can't wait to see his daughter.

He says he's confident today is the first day of the rest of her life.

"She's ecstatic," Paul Calusinski said. "She's ready to come home. She's knows that from the very beginning she didn't do this... and she's maintaining her innocence. She's ready. They just gotta take and bring her home."

The Lake County state's attorney says they're reviewing the documents but as of Wednesday afternoon they don't plan to speed up the process to get Melissa out of jail.

Little Benjamin Kingan's family tells CBS 2 they have "no comment" on the new findings.

CBS 2 legal expert Irv Miller says he believes Calusinski should be let out of jail while the court figures out the rest.

"This woman's doing a time based on what the coroner says...didn't even occur this was not a crime, this was not a murder," Miller said.

Miller believes this major reclassification from homicide to undetermined, "gets the clock ticking faster."