Wayden Lane Bennett

I could talk for days and still never be able to fully express who he was or tell about all of our memories of him. But I have to start somewhere, so I guess I will start from the beginning.

I found out I was pregnant for Wayden October 11th, 2008.

I was a 19-year-old kid, I didn’t know anything about life.

I came from a very traumatizing childhood; all I knew was trauma and dysfunction.

The boy I was going to have a baby with was extremely abusive both physically and mentally… In fact on this very day, he tried to kill me because I found out I was pregnant,

we were living in my car due to him getting us kicked out of our home because of the abuse, and I told him we needed to get our lives together because my baby wouldn’t have a childhood, he would have to heal from like I did.

I told him things needed to change, and he didn’t like that.

He chased me down the street with a hunting knife in Peru Indiana,

He pushed me down, and was straddling me, just as he was about to stab me in the belly, attempting to stab the baby out of me…. an off-duty police officer saved my life and my baby’s life.

Fast forward to that spring,

I was the stereotypical battered woman,

I was young dumb and “in love”,

I just found out that....

I was about to have a BOY!

I didn’t want my little boy to grow up in a world without his dad….

That’s how I grew up and I didn’t want that for him.

I had a picture in my head of the perfect family…

Maybe this baby would change him.

So, I went back.

I stayed through more abuse, and I even married him.

On June 23rd, 2009 my ex was driving, and he was mad at me…

One thing about my ex, if he was mad at me…. and kicking, punching, biting, choking, or breaking my bones wasn’t accessible to him to do to me…. He often used vehicles that I was trapped in while he drove recklessly to try to hurt or kill me, even if that meant it also put him in danger.

I don’t remember what he was mad about that day, but when screaming and yelling at me, calling me every horrible name in the book, pouring my pop all over me, and grabbing my hair to slam my head into the dash wasn’t enough… he put my side of the car into oncoming traffic trying to kill me.

It threw me into early labor.

I almost lost my baby.

His umbilical cord was knotted and cutting off the blood flow to his heart.

Later that night, at 12:59 am on June 24th, 2009…

Wayden Lane was born…

6 pounds, 8 ounces, 20.5 inches long….

He was LOUD and vocal, beautiful….

He had a head full of about 3 inches of long dark hair…

and he was perfect.

I looked down at him when they plopped him on my chest, and when our eyes met for the very first time…

It was love at first sight.

For the first time in my 19 years of life…

I understood unconditional love,

Because when he looked into my eyes,

It was the first time I had ever felt true unconditional love.

I was just a 19-year-old damaged and broken girl, but this baby boy changed my life.

When Wayden was 5 days old, I took a shower without asking for permission first.

I got out of the shower to find my ex-husband swinging him in the air by his ankles and then he threw him on the bed like a sack of potatoes as my punishment.

I waited until he left that night, I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew I couldn’t risk my baby’s safety by staying another night with him….

So, I loaded my car with everything I could fit,

and Wayden and I left for good this time…

This was the first time WAYDEN saved my life.

Back then, I thought I was saving HIS life… Little did I know, he was the one saving mine.

So, because of HIM I finally left an almost 3-year relationship filled with abuse for good.

After I left my ex, I was so depressed.

I was heartbroken,

I was young and didn’t know how to raise a baby on my own,

I felt like I failed my baby already in his short life….

because in my damaged and broken mind,

having a bad dad was better than having no dad at all.

I came from a broken home, I went from age 5 to 18 without knowing my dad because of an ugly divorce, I came from a childhood filled with abuse and dysfunction thanks to my stepdad.

I didn’t know how to survive on my own with a baby.

The helplessness, the brokenness, and the depression consumed me.

Long story short, for the first 6 months of Wayden’s life I was a horrible mother.

I made friends with the wrong crowd, and it didn’t take long before

I became an alcoholic, when that wasn’t enough, I started taking those pills they promised would numb the pain…. When that wasn’t enough, I began snorting all kinds of pills.

I never did this stuff with Wayden in my care, I was atleast smart enough about that… but that meant I pawned Wayden off on my mom for the first 6 months of his life.

Right before he turned 6 months old, I OD’d.

I snorted an array of pills.

I should have died.

I don’t know how I didn’t.

It was after this happened that my mom told me to get my shit together or she would take full custody of my son.

So, for a second time in his short life… Wayden saved me.

I detoxed on my grandma’s 1 bdrm apartment floor in Wolcottville with a 6-month-old teething baby…

but I did it.

I got clean and I stayed clean for HIM..

It was only a short time later that I met Ron.

Our friendship quickly turned into a relationship even though I swore against it.

Our relationship was fast, everyone around us thought we were crazy…. We probably were… we got married after only a short time of dating…

I guess when you know, you know and for the first time in my life I realized home isn’t always a place… sometimes it’s a person, and with Ron, for the first time in my entire life I felt at HOME.

He was so good to not just me,

But he was so good to Wayden.

He loved Wayden.

I think watching him fall in love and care for my baby is what made me fall head over heels for him as fast as I did.

He taught Wayden how to crawl and walk,

When Wayden would take off with his chew can and try to chew like his Dad,

Ron took an empty chew can, threw a couple of pennies in it, super glued and taped the lid on,

and when Ron would pack his chew can, Wayden would grab his and try to pack his can too.

He idolized his dad.

His first word was DADA..

I was so jealous.

Ron adopted Wayden shortly after we were married, and we went on to have more kids…..

My relationship with each of my kids is different, I adore them all with all of my heart… each and every one of the… but here we are, I am writing this because of what happened to Wayden.

Wayden was my first,

the one who made me a mom…

The one who made me grow and become the person I am today.

You see,

Wayden got the bad mom.

The broken mom.

The damaged mom.

The abused mom.

The addict mom.

The drunk mom.

The toxic mom…..

yet he loved me anyways….

He made me become a better person and a better mom for him and his siblings.

Because of him,

his siblings got the good mom,

the healed mom,

the clean mom,

the happy and mentally healthy mom.

He did that.

He made me who I am today.

And he saved my life not once, but twice before he was even a year old.

I think that plays a huge role into how our relationship became so close and strong.

He became my best friend.

If you ever watched Gilmore Girls…

Wayden was my Rory.

Wayden was all boy!

he was such a goofy kid, he was LOUD, even when he was quiet, his presence was so very loud… He walked into the room, and everyone knew Wayden Bennett was there.

He thought his farts were hysterical and he said his B.O was his “secret weapon” to keeping the ladies away.

He hated showers, school, chores, and homework…

He LOVED his Little Debbie snacks, Big Macs, and Dr. Pepper.

He loved sleep, I was always getting calls from his teachers about him falling asleep in school. He also loved to cuddle with me and take naps with me on the couch.

He loved sports… football, baseball, basketball and golfing.

I don’t think there was a sport that he didn’t try and wasn’t instantly great at..

Football quickly became his passion and his motivation to get up and go to school every day, to not give the teachers attitude and to get good grades…

He wanted to become an architectural engineer since the age of 6.

He said that since he loved designing things with Legos,

this would be his dream job, to design buildings.

He said he was going to get a full ride to college with scholarships by playing football…

I think he could have too, that’s just another thing that we will never know.

He loved to draw.

He was very artistic, and I plan to have some of his drawings tattooed on me.

He loved music.

My house was ALWAYS loud with music, and I was always yelling at him to turn it down.

Any genre, although recently his favorites seemed to be rock and rap.

His favorite songs were “Cut the Cord” and “Highway to Hell”.

He loved to write… whether it was short little stories, or songs, he was always writing.

Like most boys his age, he was addicted to video games.

Ron and I had to shut the Wi-Fi off to the house at night just so the boy would get some sleep.

He and his siblings would play and bond over Roblox together.

He was an amazing brother… whether the other kids needed somebody brave enough to defend them against their bullies, or he was picking on them, pulling their loose teeth, teaching them how to ride without training wheels or helping them with homework… he was an amazing brother.

He was the oldest boy.

He had a big sister 3 years older than him who came into our lives with his daddy.

His little brother was 19 months younger, and his younger sisters were 3 and 4 years younger.

He and his brother were best friends, their bond reminded me of the bond that twins have.

He was very protective of his siblings, and he took his job of big brother seriously…

nobody messed with any of them but him!

He was the one that made me a Mama.

He was my best friend, and I was his.

I called him my “SONshine”… but I also called him my “karma” ….

In other words, He was hell on wheels….

But I understood him better than anyone else.

We had a bond unlike any other.

He looked and acted just like me,

I think that’s why I understood him so well because he was me made all over….

We could (and did) stand nose to nose arguing with each other, we would both storm off to our rooms and cry… only for one of us to swallow our pride and go to the other with “I’m sorry” and cuddles.

We drove Ron crazy together… but I think he loved it.

Even at 13 he loved to crawl in my lap or up next to me and cuddle with me.

I loved our Starbucks dates and our trips to the store because I was always too chicken to go by myself, so he went with me. We found ourselves getting in trouble with our shopping sprees… he was a bad enabler.

He was definitely a mama’s boy….

But he idolized his dad.

That man was everything Wayden hoped to become.

Every chance he got he was with him, driving him bonkers, misplacing his tools, repeating his bad words and inappropriate jokes, and mimicking his every move.

Ron especially “LOVED” it when he would steal all of his Harley Davidson t-shirts that were 3 sizes too big… now that he isn’t here to do it, I see how much Ron actually misses it.

His dad showed him his whole life how to be a good man.

How to treat a lady.

How to take care of his family.

How to work hard for everything he wanted and needed and to provide for those you love.

He even showed Wayden how to drive his Harley Davidson CVO Road Glide…. At 13!!!

Their bond was amazing, and I loved watching Wayden doing everything he could to learn how to be just like his Dad.

Every chance he got; he was on the motorcycle with his dad.

If I stayed home or rode my own motorcycle he always rode with his dad.

Wayden used to be lowkey scared of the motorcycle,

He would hold on to Ron’s beltloops and was always telling him to go slow.

Something changed last summer though,

He became more adventurous and even begged his Dad to do wheelies.

A couple of months before Wayden was killed, he began searching for cheap motorcycles… he wanted to buy one for no more than $1,500, he told me he WANTED one that needed work, so that he and his dad could work on it together and make it ready for his 16th birthday.

Wayden always loved to help people.

We often found him shoveling the elderly neighbor's driveway in the winter or mowing the elderly neighbor's lawns in the summer.

Whenever Ron was working on a car or his bike,

Wayden was there tools in hand ready and excited to help.

Whenever I bought furniture that needed put together,

that was Ron and Wayden’s job… I have dozens of pictures of them building things together. He always weaseled his way into helping me paint the walls or cook dinner…

He loved to make eggs and grilled cheese, and he was GOOD AT IT!

Anytime we had any kind of a project going on,

from the age of 8 months old when he attempted to help his dad build his highchair…

To filling holes in the walls, helping us paint, helping us lay new flooring down, or even mow the lawn…

He loved to help.

October 1st, just a normal Saturday after Wayden’s football game.

He got home and asked me if he could stay the night with his best friend Ryly.

He was supposed to go with his dad but he really wanted to go stay with Ryly.

He and even Ryly’s stepmom, Fawn bugged me til I said yes, Fawn even promised me,

“he’ll be fine”.

I was going out of town 4 hours away to visit my sister, and for some reason I was leery of him staying the night… I think maybe intuition was trying to warn me, I don’t know.

I walked by his bedroom and saw all of the clean clothes that I had just folded and put in his room for him to put away the day before after working 12 hours on third shift…

They were all over his bedroom floor.

I instantly started at him about it until he got upset and then pointed out that he hadn’t even been home so it had to have been one of his siblings.

He was right…

He wasn’t home,

it had to have been one of his little sisters shoving the clothes off his bed to sleep on it.

I told him he was right and that I was sorry…

but that I expected those clothes to be put away by the time I got home the next day.

He told me not to worry he would get it cleaned up before I got home.

He gave me a hug and a kiss before I left and he said

“I love you Mom, be safe!” and then he left with Ryly’s stepmom Fawn, and I drove away.

That was the last time I saw my son alive.

Those were the last words he ever spoke to me.

“I love you Mom, be safe!”

Ironic how HE was telling ME to be safe… yet he was the one who ended up dead that night.

The call that every parent fears, the call that no parent ever wants to get…

I got that call.

I will never forget that call… the confusion, the shock, the pain….

it haunts me….

Asking my husband why they were even walking on that road, I would have NEVER let them walk on that road!!!….

“Where was Fawn?!”

He didn’t know, he couldn’t give me any answers…

Listening to my husband screaming “Oh God that’s my SON Oh God NOOOO”

What took me 4 hours to get to where my sister lives,

took me 2 hours and 20 minutes to get to my baby at Parkview North.

But it wasn’t fast enough.

I wasn’t fast enough.

I remember thinking the worst possible news would be lots of broken bones.

Maybe he was paralyzed even.

It never actually occurred to me that he could be gone.

I guess I always thought that if one of my babies were to ever die,

I would KNOW it instantly when it happened…

you know, that bond between a mother and her babies…. Surely, I would KNOW if one of them ceased to exist….

I didn’t know.

So, he couldn’t have been gone… right?

I had to hurry because he was probably so scared and in pain and needed his Mama...

I'll never forget racing into that hospital, running through the hall of the pediatric ICU as staff turned and looked at me with sadness in their eyes.

I had no idea where I was going,

but it's like my heart knew exactly where my baby was at…

The sight of my baby boy laying on that bed hooked up to a machine breathing for him,

tubes and IV's everywhere…. There were so many!

I glanced up and I see Ron,

The look of Ron standing over his oldest son's broken body.

I've never seen my giant of a husband look so fragile, so broken, so frail, so SMALL..

The only time in 13 years I had ever seen my husband break down and sob was when his Mawmaw died….

Here he was, standing over his oldest boy… and he was weeping…

Just the sight of both of my broken guys…

It broke me.

I started to regain composure after a few minutes and just started spewing so many questions... I didn’t even know which one the Dr. was…

Then the Dr who took care of Wayden,

she steps forward.

I don't even remember what she said,

It felt like an out of body experience…like I was watching a scene from Greys anatomy…

something along the lines of "the injuries to his brain were too significant" and something about hemorrhaging and there not being anything else they could do.

The floor crumbled beneath my feet.

I was sobbing so hard I was choking and couldn't breathe.

The room started spinning as I began to overheat.

I vaguely remember her and Ron taking off my layers and telling me to breathe as I was broken and sobbing on the floor of my baby's pediatric ICU room.

I think they made me breathe into a paper bag.

I don’t know how long I was broken on the floor, but once I could breathe again enough to,

I asked to lay down with my baby…

I crawled in that little hospital bed with him,

I held him all night, rubbing his face, singing to him:

"You are my SONshine, my OLDEST SONSHINE….. you make me happy, when skies are grey…. You’ll never know dear; how much I love you…. PLEASE DON’T TAKE MY SONSHINE AWAY…"

I laid there begging him to show the Dr’s they were wrong…

He was my mini…

We were both so bullheaded and stubborn,

If anyone could pull through this, it was him.

I continued to believe he would fight this and be ok,

Until they showed me the scans.

The next morning, they did that breathing test on him, and he failed.

I still believed he was going to pull through this!!!

That’s when the nurse asked if I had seen his brain scans… I told her "no", she asked if I wanted to see them to which I eagerly said "YES"…. and then showed me the scans,

She showed me what a normal brain looked like, and then she pulled up his.

As soon as I saw his after seeing what a normal brain looked like…. I instantly knew.

He was gone.

He really wasn’t pulling through this,

because he was already gone.

One minute he was walking with Ryly, back to Ryly's house from the Lake James Christain Conference Center where they were playing ball. Walking, laughing, have the time of their lives as 13 and 12 year old boys.... they were even walking on the right side of the white lines... but it didn't matter because Hope Richmond was drinking and driving, speeding and went off the road and plowed into my son, his body crashing into the middle of her car, hitting Ryly with a glancing blow with the side mirror and throwing him into a 12 foot ditch. You ran and Wayden's broken body slid up your car hood, up your windshield, and flopped off the top of your vehicle with such force from the speed of you running, the impact of his head slamming into the ground on the side of the road broke his Clivus and left him braindead. His best friend Ryly crawled out of that 12-foot ditch to sit beside his now brain-dead best friend while dazed and confused himself from the concussion he sustained, waiting for help to arrive.

One minute they were carefree little boys, living their best lives...

the next one of those boys, his life ended, the other, his life was forever changed.

On Oct. 3rd at 10:09 in the morning,

Hearing the Dr. say those words…

“Time of death, 10:09am”

I died.

Do you know what it feels like to feel your heart AND soul leave your body…

yet you still live???

I do.

Everyone on that floor heard how it sounded as my heart and my soul left my body…

My heart and my soul left with my SONshine…

My body just forgot to stop breathing.

Now I’m just a shell,

I do not live, I merely exist in this HELL called life, waiting and praying that death will claim me soon too so I can be reunited with my SONshine again.

To so many people the 1st of a month is a new beginning.

A hope…. GOD, I HATE that word now!

Because of YOU, Hope!!!

The 1st is a chance to start over again and make something new.

For me, the first of the month now represents death.

October used to be my favorite month,

It was October that I found out I was going to be a MOM, HIS Mama…

Tragically, the same month that gave me my son,

is the month that my son was taken from me.

I hate October.

I hate the first.

It is the end.

The only thing new the first of the month now brings me is a new set of days that I will no longer see, hear, smell, hold, kiss, annoy, embarrass, snuggle, or even nag my son.

It is a new set of milestones missed,

the beginning of the end.

My baby is GONE.

It has been 576 days (as of 4/28/24) since the worst day of my life.

And yet, it still feels as recent as yesterday.

I'm not sure how I have managed to breathe without him for so many days,

and the thought of breathing without him for the rest of my life makes me physically nauseous, my heart quite literally PHYSICALLY HURTS!

576 days ago today his last words to me were "I love you mom, be safe!",

I wonder if he knew in his last moments how much I loved him.

I am 34 years old,

I shouldn’t have outlived my baby boy.

I should not have ever had to find out how much my son’s funeral was going to cost.

I should not know that this 13-year-old boy who was MY size…. His ashes fit in a 6-inch by 6-inch box.

I am 34 years old, and I pray I do not live a long life.

I no longer daydream of growing old, sitting in matching rocking chairs next to my husband on a wraparound porch as we watch our children, grandchildren, and even great grandchildren…

Instead, I pray death comes quickly,

Every day I live is another day closer to being with HIM again.

The pain this woman, HOPE RICHMOND, has brought my family is unimaginable.

I have never been a suicidal person yet in the last 576 days,

I have had a plan 3 times and my husband has had to fight to pull me back.

I have watched my children suffer and how do I comfort them?

How do I make them understand why this woman wasn’t charged with a charge stating she KILLED their brother?

How do I make them understand why she was allowed to be free for 289 days and continue to drink and live her life as if she didn’t just kill Wayden.

How do I make them understand that she just got a slap on the hand because it seems like the judicial system does not care about Wayden, they let her out on bail for a mere 16k… I guess that’s all my son’s life was worth. They sentenced here to a whopping 12 years even after the Dr took the stand and explained that it was upon the SECOND impact, the impact he sustained when she RAN that killed him. She killed my sweet boy while committing a crime (Hit & Run & Drunk Driving) and there was medical proof so she SHOULD have been charged with involuntary manslaughter or reckless homicide. Her boyfriend took the stand pleading for her freedom and admitted TWICE under oath that he was with her that night, yet they didn't bother with ANY kind of charges for him. How do I make my children understand the injustices when I do not understand them myself? How do I help my children ACCEPT these injustices when I cannot accept them myself?

How do I make them understand why Fawn Cumings, the woman who was responsible for the care and safety of their brother, never even went to jail or faced any sort of consequences for NEGLECTING my son/their brother and her stepson Ryly Cumings.

While Fawn sat in my driveway watching TikTok and scrolling through Facebook because she couldn’t do it at home where they had no phone service or internet… my SONSHINE and his best friend were being PLOWED into and left on the side of the road like ROADKILL by this MONSTER, Hope Richmond. Yet Fawn had no idea because she wasn’t even there, TikTok and Facebook were more important than the care and safety of these two boys.

If these boys had been any younger, she would have had CPS called on her and a criminal charge or two for negligence… but because they were 13 and 12 apparently the judicial system feels they aren’t worthy of justice there either, that she should get away with it, and instead I was told that I was just looking to put the blame on anybody….

I just want those who are responsible for what happened to my son and Ryly that night, whether it was due to negligence or their selfish actions to be held accountable and face the consequences of their actions… is that too much to ask???

WE have to, WE have to live every day without Wayden due to their choices…

Had Fawn been watching these 2 boys that night, Hope wouldn’t have even had the opportunity to hit them….

Yet she has faced NO consequences, no punishment…. Just like Hope Richmond and Jeremy Shwartz.

And just like Hope, Fawn shows no remorse or accountability and instead has taken the last 576 days to say cruel things about Wayden, and I quote “Wayden was an asshole with an attitude anyways, she should be glad her house is finally quiet”, like we should THANK her for neglecting him resulting in his death??? She is the one who neglected these boys, resulting in Hope hitting them, yet like Hope she is free to live her life, say cruel things about my dead son, my family, and about my GRIEF…..

Where has there been any justice?

There has been NONE.

Just a slap on the wrist of 1 of the 3 persons involved in the death of my son.

If he mattered to anyone with authority this whole case would have been handled differently.

If he was a cop's son, a prosecutor's son, a judge's son????

I wonder how things would have been handled differently with this case….

How do I explain to my children ANY of this???

When they ask me why nobody cares what these two women have done to our family, why they aren’t being punished… what am I supposed to say???

I cannot wrap my own head around any of it so I how do I attempt to make it make sense to my now 17, 13, 11 and 10 year olds???? Where is the justice?

On top of the emotional toll Hope has caused my family,

She has ruined us financially.

We are still trying to play catch up.

I went from working 60-80 hours a week and our household was a 2-person income, to not working at all for 6 months because I absolutely could not with my mental state...

I was nurse's aide, a CNA,

You HAVE to have the right mental state for a job in nursing.

I didn’t feel ready at 6 months but at this point I had no choice,

it was stay home and grieve or end up on the streets and grieve.

Because our bills, we could afford them when we were a 2-income household.

We could afford 2 Harley payments, 2 car payments and whatever else we felt like when we were both working 60-80 hours a week…

But this happened, we weren’t working… those bills and those payments add up fast...

I went back to work and found that after 17 years in nursing… since all this happened with Wayden, I can no longer work in nursing.

I tried, and I failed.

It was too much.

So now I am left to try to find a new way to provide for my family when healthcare is all I have ever known, I loved, and I was GOOD at it!

My family had to move from our home at the time that this MURDER took place,

because we couldn’t handle being in Angola any longer…

I wouldn’t still be alive today if we had stayed in Angola…

It was just too much on my mental health.

So, we moved.

Which put us through more financial troubles as we went from paying $500 a month in rent to now $2200 a month in rent just to get out of Angola because the housing market for rentals is so high and hard to find anything.

Our credit is ruined.

Our mental health is in shambles.

My 12-year-old son was hospitalized for 6 days recently,

because he was suicidal and had a plan.

My daughters are having behavioral issues.

They used to NEVER get into trouble and used to always be so kind and loving.

Now sometimes,

I don’t even recognize them because they become so hateful and angry.

My kids were all generally straight A’s and B’s students and now they are barely passing on D’s and F’s.

I look back at past summertimes,

All of the pictures that pop up in my memories…

I used to be happy.

WE used to be HAPPY.

I used to be at peace and content with life.

I used to LOVE my life… it was the perfect imperfect life I had always dreamed of having…

Now I hate my life and I resent every single breath I have to take without my baby.

I am on 6 different medications to help me sleep, help with the depression, anxiety, PTSD, and the mood roller coasters. I used to not ever have any kind of ADD or ADHD… Since Wayden was killed I have been diagnosed with ADD and Dyslexia. I have gained over 50 pounds since then and my hair just falls out. I was diagnosed with "broken heart syndrome" around the holidays because the shock had worn off and it was just too much on ALL of us. The Dr's told me that if we couldn't find a way for me to cope, the grief, anxiety, and stress would kill me. I can't put my other 4 living kids and Ron through that!

Did you know grief can and does change the color of your eyes?

I never knew that until it happened to me.

I’m literally not the same person,

I will never be that person again.

I will never be truly happy or at peace again.

Sure, I may experience moments of happiness or peace…

But it quickly disappears as I remember the person I want to share the happiness and peace with….

She killed him.

She has ruined our lives.

and we are just supposed to be, ok?

To move on?

Family time is so bittersweet… I love spending time with my husband and my kids…

yet his absence is LOUD.

I never knew how loud a person could be until he is no longer here.

I find Ron and I avoiding family time a lot because his absence is just too loud.

It took 7 months before we could all finally sit at the dinner table and eat dinner together AS A FAMILY like we did every night for 13 years… even still we only do it a couple of times a week…

His absence is LOUD.

Our whole family and friendship circle and dynamics has changed.

Funny how the hard times have a way of showing you the ones who show up, who stand by, who walk away, and who is real.

You see the true colors of those closest to you when they can no longer handle the mess you have become because your heart and soul was ripped away from you.

People tend to just expect us to bounce back, to “be ok for each other and the kids” … it amazes me how so many have so many opinions on how we should heal, move on, act or react to things today when none of them know how we are feeling…. I guess they don’t understand how truly lucky they are for not knowing or understanding…. Or how completely jealous I am of their ignorance.

Hope,

I understand accidents happen,

My family would obviously still be grieving even if it were a simple accident.

YOU chose to drive after consuming alcohol which YOU admitted to the police and there were eyewitnesses.

YOU knew the risk,

YOU had been in trouble for doing the same thing before…

All you got was a slap on the wrist…

The judge who let you get away with it the first time,

Failed my son, failed Ryly and my family, and my son’s blood is also on that judge’s hands.

Maybe if he had given you the proper punishment when you had your DUI my son would still be alive.

Maybe if you had gotten a harsher punishment that time,

maybe you wouldn’t have made the choice to drive after drinking so much,

resulting in hitting my son, and his best friend.

Hope, I want you to hear me LOUD AND CLEAR….

The moment YOU drove away and left my son and his friend on the side of the road like roadkill… In THAT moment when you decided YOUR fate and YOUR LIFE mattered more than that of my son’s and Ryly’s….. it became more than an accident… THAT is when it became MURDER. That impact that his head made with the road after you ran was the FATAL blow. Breaking his Clivus instantly and leaving him brain dead. Had you stopped, called for help, held my baby instead of making his body FLY off of your vehicle... he could still be alive. YOU MURDERED MY SON.

You had a choice when you hit him and Ryly, you could stay and call for help like any decent person would, or you could run and leave those poor boys to whatever fate your actions would cause. In that moment YOU decided that YOUR life and how this would affect YOUR life was more important than how this will affect Wayden’s, Ryly’s or OUR lives.

The moment YOU drove off, refused to call for help, go to bed, wake up the next day and live a normal day… and then go to work after hitting those boys and laugh and joke with your coworkers, enjoy your smoke breaks… get off work and go home

and then proceeded to try hide the evidence…. It became more than an accident.

IT BECAME MURDER!

The rag with his blood from your vehicle on your countertops and you trying to pop the dents out while drinking a beer when the cops arrived.

You should have to be charged with a charge boldly stating YOU KILLED Wayden Bennett….

“Leaving the scene of an accident result in death or catastrophic injury” does not state that YOU, HOPE ANN RICHMOND are RESPONSIBLE for that accident resulting in death.

You should have been charged with something like involuntary manslaughter or reckless homicide as well as the other charges considering they ALL apply.

What about no charge for all of those empty alcohol bottles and cans in your car???

Seeing the pictures in evidence, I imagined the bottles and cans just falling out as soon as the officers opened the doors to your vehicle….

I thought it was illegal to have open/empty containers in your vehicle where you were obviously cracking open a cold one and doing shots while driving….

Yet no charge for that either….

While you were out on bond, drinking and bar hopping, laughing at getting kicked out of bars because you were too intoxicated… We were trying to survive.

While we were trying to survive what should have been Wayden’s 14th birthday, you were in MI drinking makers and coke laughing and not a care in the world that a 13-year-old boy would have been 14 that day IF NOT FOR YOU.

How do I know this? Because the last 289 days that you were free, every time you and your boyfriend, Jeremy Shwartz, who was with you the night that you hit Wayden according to witnesses, yet doesn’t have any of his own charges for being an accomplice… while you two go out to drink and have fun, I get sent the pictures and the videos and reminders of how unjust this system has been for my boy, for my family.

I can't help but wonder if Wayden would have been somebody with a title, a name, or money…

what would the charges have been?

Would Hope have had such a low bail?

Would Hope be facing more time?

I wonder how this case would have been any different if Wayden would have been a state trooper walking alongside that road instead of a 13-year-old boy?

Lucky for you Hope Richmond, Wayden was a nobody who came from a nobody family and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time… He was just trying to have fun and play some ball with his best friend who he was staying the night with….

Wayden’s story has gone viral.

Wayden’s army is not just limited to locals here in Angola Indiana,

not even just around the area in surrounding counties or just the crowd here showing support today….

Wayden has an army from all over Angola, all over Indiana, all over the United States…

just to name a few of states that I know have people who are just as upset and demand justice… Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, KY, WV, Florida, South Carolina, New York, California, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, and more…

Wayden’s army isn’t just contained to the United States either!

We have people from Jerusalem, Paris, Russia, Austria, Canada, England, Spain….

These people PRAY for Justice for Wayden and Ryly.

These people are livid.

There have been 2 petitions created online with signatures of over 14 thousand people who want JUSTICE FOR WAYDEN AND RYLY.

These people want to see actual JUSTICE!

Wayden’s story has been seen by approx. 8 MILLION people on TikTok alone…

let alone all of the shares all over Facebook., Instagram, Twitter, and the news channels.

Wayden’s story is not, nor will it ever be contained.

MY SON'S STORY WILL BE HEARD!!!!!!

I will scream it until my heart stops beating and my lungs no longer fill with air.

We all want Justice for Wayden & Ryly!!!!

HOPE RICHMOND YOU DESERVE THE MAX!!!

That is the least you can do after taking the life of my 13-year-old son who didn’t even get a chance to live yet!

YOUR disregard for life is apparent,

YOUR lack of remorse is disgusting,

YOU ruined OUR lives,

YOU TOOK HIS life,

and yet you look more inconvenienced than sorry.

I should have been preparing my son for his freshman year,

I should be complaining at not being able to keep up as he outgrows all of his clothes and shoes and surpasses me in height.

I should be teasing him as his voice is changing.

I will never get to do any of these things or any other big milestones with him now…

Because of YOU, Hope.

I won't watch him learn how to drive a car or ride his own motorcycle, have his first girlfriend, go to school dances, graduate, go to college, get married, become a father…. None of it…

You robbed Wayden of a life to live, and you robbed my family and his friends of so many milestones, memories, and a lifetime with such an amazing boy who would have made an even greater MAN.

I was working with Indiana Lt. Governor Suzanne Crouch, Senator Tyler Johnson, Representative Denny Zent, and Representative Matt Lehman to get Wayden’s Law passed. We met with them all at the state capital to propose it and they have backed this law up and are in the works of helping us to get this law passed. Wayden’s Law is a law stating that if somebody commits a hit and run they are to lose their license FOR LIFE.

It should be a no brainer,

It should be common sense….

If a person can hit a human being and LEAVE they should not have the PRIVILEGE of having a driver’s license.

Obviously, she cannot be responsible with a vehicle,

if she has no regard for human life…

Her actions Oct 1st 2022, clearly state that she doesn’t.

Giving this woman her license back would feel to me, and all of us here like an open invitation for her to kill another person.

another family’s child.

Why should she have the opportunity to do it again?

If she is given the opportunity to do it again,

and she does…

The next victim’s life would be on THIS court's hands.

But, every single one of those people who acted so eager to help us create this law and change have ghosted me.

The Judge only took her license for FIVE years upon her release from prison.

Hope Richmond,

I hope my son’s face haunts you day and night.

I hope my face, my husband’s face, my children’s faces…. I hope they are forever burned into your mind as well as the pain you have heard and felt from us in this court room today.

You are a disgusting individual and you do not deserve to breathe the same breath that you robbed my son of. I hope you live a miserable horrific life; I hope your parents are disgusted and embarrassed at the selfish monster they created. I hope your son is ashamed to call you MOM and I hope that you get the same kind of loud lonely silence from your son who LIVES

as I get from my son who is DEAD at YOUR selfish hand.

Hope, I HOPE you get the MAX…. because you deserve that and so much more.

One thing I would like to make ABUNDANTLY CLEAR to you….

You may have stolen MY son’s life…

But you DO NOT get to steal HIS legacy!!!!!

He made something incredibly beautiful out of the horrific nightmare YOU created for our family.

While my son is DEAD, there are parts of him STILL ALIVE all over this nation…..

His heart beats in a (now)13-year-old girl in Minnesota.

He saved SIX LIVES with his selfless acts of donation!

This horrendous night may have had the headline “13-year-old boy killed in a hit & run” But MY BOY, my sweet, beautiful, kind and GIVING SONshine,

He took that horrific story, and he turned it into a beautiful ending, his story did not end with YOU that night, Wayden will forever be remembered as the HERO who was killed in a hit and run by YOU, and in that tragedy, he gave LIFE to 6 other people….

So, while you may have stolen my son that night, you will NEVER steal that from us!

Your name will always be tarnished with what you did to my son, but your name will NOT tarnish HIS name, because Wayden will be known for and remembered as the 13 yr old boy who was a LEGEND, a HERO, who saved LIVES… SIX LIVES!!!

You do NOT get to take that from us.

Your name will soon be forgotten by the world….

MY SON’S NAME WILL FOREVER BE REMEMBERED AND RESPECTED!!!!!

I HOPE you get all that you deserve in this life and in the next.

You deserve nothing but pain and misery.

The Judge only sentenced you to 12 years, you will be out in 9 with good behavior, but you will live the rest of your life with MY SON's

WAYDEN LANE BENNETT

You will live the rest of your life with HIS blood on YOUR hands. You may have no remorse and you may claim you are the victim in this situation YOU created as you did at sentencing.... but your time is coming.... call it Karma, call it God, ONE DAY the greater forces will make you pay for what you did to my beautiful boy.... and I hope and pray your life is miserable every single day until that glorious day comes when this world will be free from a monster such as YOU.

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to read my boy's story and not let his memory or his legacy die with him.