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It's been a year since Kate Osburn's world was forever altered by a knock on her front door.
May 14, 2022, was the day two Waterloo regional police officers came to her Guelph home to deliver the tragic news that her eight-year-old son Charlie had been found dead in a Cambridge home and that his dad was missing.
"I have been in agony ever since," Osburn wrote on a GoFundMe page set up by a friend in the days following her only son's death.
"That night, undercover police officers were posted outside my home and I went to bed shattered, in shock and despair. The following week was full of conversations with the police, the coroner, and the funeral director. At the end of that week I was sobbing over the body of my little boy, unprepared for how cold his hands would be when I reached out to hold them, wishing I could crawl into the casket beside him."
Charlie's body was discovered under suspicious circumstances at a home on Townline Road in Hespeler where his father Curtis Hesselink lived.
Police launched an immediate search for the 41-year-old that Saturday in May, appealing to the public for help as they deployed helicopters, drones and an underwater search team to comb the Speed River, and nearby woodlots, until a week later his body was found near Milton.
Police said Curtis had taken his own life, later saying Charlie's death was a homicide investigation.
Now, on the anniversary of her son's death, Osburn is speaking out about the tragedy for the first time since the investigation began with the hope that sharing memories of her son can provide some degree of healing.
"It is a relief to finally be able to speak out," Osburn told CambridgeToday in an email, adding that the "restraints of the investigation" impeded the usual community outpouring that comes from these types of tragedies.
She said it would mean a lot to her to know the community cares and is asking everyone who knew Charlie or was impacted by his death to join her in honouring her son's memory in a candlelight vigil May 13.
Although Osburn wouldn't elaborate on her relationship with Charlie's father, she said she and Hesselink were separated at the time of the incident.
From the outside, the situation draws obvious parallels to the case of Keira Kagan, the four-year-old girl who was found dead along with her father Robin Brown at the base of a cliff at Rattlesnake Point Conservation Area in Milton in February 2020.
An inquest into Keira's death concluded Brown likely killed his daughter before dying by suicide.
The girl's death prompted an inquest by the Office of the Chief Coroner after Keira's mother, Jennifer Kagan-Viator said lawyers, case workers and judges involved in the family's bitter custody dispute failed to heed the warning signs about Brown's state of mind.
That inquest resulted in Keira's Law, passed April 18 by the Senate, which when fully implemented will require federal judges to be trained on intimate partner violence and coercive control when issuing decisions.
Osburn didn't want to answer questions related to how the system handled her family's situation, saying instead that "this is a time for Charlie to be honoured and remembered."
Instead of agreeing to an interview with CambridgeToday, Osburn provided the following statement and asked that it be included in its entirety.
"May 13th is the one year anniversary of my son Charlie’s death and we are grieving the loss of a little boy who was vibrant and kind. He was hilarious, thoughtful, tenacious, curious, sweet and bold. He was loved by everyone who met him. He was beautiful and his heart shone so brightly.
"There are two parts to this grief we hold for Charlie. There is the fact that he is gone and we miss him terribly. And there is the fact that he died by violence. It is difficult to hold these two parts. We must reckon with the violence because Charlie deserves the truth to be known. We must reckon with the loss because Charlie deserves to be remembered.
"In the face of such a horrific loss, it can be hard to know what to do and what to say. What we can do is come together to remember a beautiful little boy who was everybody’s best friend. So I am extending an invitation to the community and to anyone who felt connected to Charlie or who feels impacted by his loss to join me on the night of May 13 in lighting a candle in Charlie’s memory, taking a picture, and posting it to #CharlieInOurHearts. In this way, Charlie’s spirit will not have to face the darkness of this terrible night alone and his life will be remembered.
"To those who attended the funeral of Curtis Hesselink, and to those who trivialize his actions, I kindly ask that you be considerate of the extreme distress it would cause me to see you participate and request that you refrain from joining this vigil."
Osburn said the police investigation pointed to premeditation in her son's death and that Curtis was responsible even though police have yet to determine a cause of death.
“We continue to wait for the coroner’s report to determine cause of death. However, as a result of the investigation, we have determined the manner of death to be a homicide," said Cherri Greeno, director of corporate affairs for Waterloo Regional Police Service, in an emailed response to CambridgeToday.
"We are not looking for any suspects.”
Osburn said although Charlie died in Cambridge, he attended school in Guelph and she lives in Guelph.
"So, while the incident occurred in Cambridge, it is the Guelph community that has been impacted," Osburn added.
