The Connecticut medical examiner has ruled the death of a 15-month-old boy who was left in his father 's car in July a homicide . The cause of Benjamin Seitz 's death was hyperthermia because of environmental exposure , the state medical examiner said on Wednesday . On July 7 , Kyle Seitz was supposed to drop his son off at day care in Ridgefield , Connecticut , but the drop-off never occurred , his wife , Lindsey Rogers-Seitz told CNN last month . Seitz drove to work , and at the end of the day he went to pick Ben up at day care , only to realize he was not there . That was when Seitz found his son in the car . He rushed the child to the hospital , but Ben had died . A grieving mother 's mission to stop hot car deaths . No criminal charges have been announced in the boy 's death , but state prosecutors said Wednesday that the criminal investigation is `` ongoing . '' `` The autopsy report is one factor to be considered by the state 's attorney in the evaluation of the incident once the investigation is complete , '' a statement released by State 's Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky said . Neither prosecutors nor Ridgefield Police provided further comment . Despite the medical examiner 's ruling , the decision about whether to press criminal charges is made by the state 's attorney , said CNN Legal Analyst Paul Callan . `` The use of the word 'homicide ' in an autopsy report , though often seen in connection with criminal cases , does not necessarily mean that criminal charges will be lodged against the father , '' Callan said . `` In legal parlance , the term means that death was caused by another human being rather than by strictly natural causes , '' he added . Benjamin Seitz 's death came in the wake of the June case of 22-month-old Cooper Harris , whose death after being left in a hot car in Georgia drew international attention . His father , Justin Ross Harris , pleaded not guilty to murder and child cruelty charges after leaving Cooper in the backseat of his car for an entire workday in the sweltering heat . Harris said he forgot the child was in the car . Investigators say he researched how hot a car needs to be to kill a child , and that while his son was dying in the parking lot , Harris was sending explicit text messages to several women . Should the government step in to prevent hot car deaths ? According to child advocacy group KidsAndCars.org , 44 children died of heatstroke in cars in 2013 , and more than 500 have died in hot cars since 2000 . In the wake of his death , Rogers-Seitz created a blog called `` The Gift of Ben , '' which she has said she is using to bring attention to the number of children who die of heatstroke in cars and to press for action to save lives . About 50 % of cases involving deaths of infants abandoned in automobiles result in criminal charges , Callan said , adding that each case is `` highly individual . '' `` The criminal law generally does not punish for accidental events absent evidence of gross negligence , recklessness or a depraved indifference to the value of human life , '' Callan said . Seitz family attorney Bob Gulash told CNN he could not comment on the ongoing investigation . In a post from August 15 , Rogers-Seitz wrote that she `` realized the hardest part of this journey is not that we believe we can not live without you , Ben . It is that we know and feel we have a long life ahead of us , and we must live it without you physically in our arms . '' The post ends : `` We miss and cherish you Benjamin . ''
Fifteen-month-old Benjamin Seitz was left in his father 's hot car on July 7 . Legal analyst : Finding means death was caused by human action , not natural causes . Prosecutors say a criminal investigation is still ongoing .