Police Ask For Help Finding Killer of Waterford Man

Today was supposed to be Kyle Seidel’s 35th birthday. Next week was supposed to be the Waterford resident’s 10-year anniversary to his wife and the mother of his three children, Kate Seidel.

But it isn’t. Seidel was murdered in Waterford on Dec. 21 after he was shot once in the neck, his body found in the parking lot of Waterford’s Family Bowl.

“When I found out the news about Kyle, my life was shattered,” Kate Seidel said Tuesday morning at a press conference in the Waterford Police Department. “But yet the hardest part was the next day when I had to tell the kids that daddy wasn’t coming home. Their lives are now changed forever.”

Police are now looking for the public’s help in trying to identify Kyle Seidel’s killer. Waterford Police Det. John Davis is the lead investigator of the case, and said that whoever did this is most likely showing signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after Dec. 21, with the person becoming more anxious and angry, being unusually absent from work and possibly abusing drugs or alcohol.

“This is not an appeal to the subject or the person who shot Kyle Seidel,” Davis said. “That person knows who they are. Today’s appeal is to others who might have information regarding the night Kyle died. We believe that public input regarding the shooter’s identity will provide additional investigative leads.”

Davis explained that most people who have killed someone, aside from a few true psychopaths, have difficulty dealing with the event and that coping personifies itself in unusual and erratic behavior. He encouraged anybody who has any information about the night Seidel died or knows someone who has been exhibiting unusual behavior after Dec. 21 to contact Waterford’s confidential detective tip line at (860) 437-8080.

That Night

On Dec. 21, at around 8 p.m., Kyle Seidel was on his way to pick up Chinese food from the Lucky Inn Chinese Restaurant on Boston Post Road. He had left his home, where he just finished a tickling match with his three children, 8-year-old Samantha, 6-year-old Maya and 2-year-old Jesse, according to Kate Seidel.

For some reason, and Kate Seidel does not know why, he wound up in the parking lot of Waterford's Family Bowl. She said he never went there as that was not a place he hung out at.

Kate Seidel said Kyle had no real enemies and showed no indications that night of going anywhere but the Chinese restaurant. She said she’s played the night over in her head hundreds of times, and nothing sticks out.

“He was hungry,” she said. “He wanted his food.”

Police gave little information about the crime scene Tuesday, refusing to elaborate on if it was a robbery or if there was much evidence at the scene. Waterford Police Lt. David Burton just said that physical evidence was recovered from the scene, and after a crime lab did some work on it, more physical evidence was sent to the lab.

The Aftermath

The murder left Kate Seidel, a part-time waitress who relied on her husband to be the primary breadwinner, a 33-year-old widower and single mom to three children. She has not worked since the murder because her children are scared for her to leave and she’s relied on community fundraisers and the kindness of others to get through.

She said everything has been hard since her husband died, and said she misses him as both a husband and a father. She said Kyle Seidel was particularly excited to have Jesse, his 2-year-old son, and now Jesse will grow up without ever really knowing his father.

She said she’s angry at the person who did this and wants to find justice. Waterford Police said the press conference was not an indication that the investigation has stalled in anyway, but just a way to keep the incident fresh in everyone’s mind.

Davis said people should come forward if they know of anybody who has been acting erratically since Dec. 21. It will be very easy to eliminate them as suspects if they had nothing to do with the murder, but all the leads help, he said. 

Also at the press conference, Waterford Police Officer Steve Whitehead gave Kate Seidel $250 in Stop & Shop gift cards. Whitehead said the money was donated by the Waterford Police Union.