CINCINNATI -- Her story gripped Ohio with shock, sadness and in some cases, anger.

On Aug. 23, 2007, Brenda Slaby, of Symmes Township, accidentally left her 2-year-old daughter in a hot car all day while she worked as an assistant principal at Glen Este Middle School.

Anchor Julie O'Neill from NewsChannel5's sister station WCPO was the first reporter to sit down with Slaby and talk about what happened.

Slaby told police she was driving her daughter Cecilia to the sitter's that morning and realized it was too early to drop her off, so she took a quick detour to pick up the doughnuts for her school meeting.

The surveillance video shows her getting the doughnuts out of her car.

From that point on, in her mind, she said, she had already dropped off Cecilia.

She got to school, unloaded the doughnuts and went about her day.

O'Neill asked Brenda and her husband, Gary, a lot of questions about this case, beginning with how this could happen.

Brenda Slaby:
"Forgetting is the worst word, to think that you could forget your daughter ... and I've spent a year trying to figure out why, why this happened. There was so much going on, life was so hectic at that point. Routines ... The routine piece has so much to do with it, too. Along with being busy, it's the routines that we get used to ... and our brain ... over time I think our brain checks things off where I thought she was at the sitter's.

Julie O'Neil:
"Did you think about her through the day?"

Brenda Slaby:
"I did. You know how moms think about different things."

O'Neil:
"So you thought about her that day?"

Brenda Slaby:
"I talked to teachers at lunch about her ... never realizing what was going on."

Gary Slaby:
"And the morning routine was always mine. I got 'em, I moved 'em, you know, to day care or to the sitter's, because she went in earlier than I did. Then she got out earlier than I did, so she picked 'em up. Dental appointment changed the routine."

O'Neil:
"Do you wrestle with the guilt, too?"

Gary Slaby:
"Oh, yeah. In my mind I go, I've taken her to the dentist with me before. Why? you know, not this day?"

O'Neil:
"I go back to when this first happened and all the different things that came out in the news. There was such talk about, 'Oh the rich lady from the suburbs and driving the Mercedes, that's why she got off.'"

Brenda Slaby:
(breath) "I say I'm not a 'rich lady' from the suburbs and I was driving a beat-up, broken-down, totalled and fixed-up Mercedes."

"It's very hurtful and I don't believe that convicting any loving parent whose brain turns against them, in a sense ... no good will ever come out of putting someone like that in jail. It's not going to prevent anything because you can't prevent anything you didn't consciously know you were doing. The best thing we can do is look for ways to support parents and to keep these things from happening again."

Gary Slaby:
"Whether it's putting their purse in the back seat with the baby; I had somebody tell me she was putting her work keys on the car seat. I have another mother who, daily, the husband and wife talk to each other after they get to work to make sure whoever was supposed to drop off the child does. The day care provider that I had, who I do not blame, now calls if somebody doesn't come ... and those are things that we all need to look at in our lives."

Slaby believes people are seeing better how it could happen to them, as sadly, similar cases continue to surface around the country -- and in Ohio.

The recent case involving Jodie Edwards, a counselor at Cincinnati Christian University, was received very differently by the community.

Brenda Slaby:
"I do need to respect Jodie's privacy. She works for an absolutely phenomenal community -- who I think probably would've reacted the same way if this hadn't happened to me, but I think maybe the community has learned and they knew what could face her and her school chose to support her and to back her. The staff at my building were very supportive. The head administration at my district chose to turn their back on me in the face of a lot of scrutiny –- and that was very hurtful."

O'Neil:
"I know you wouldn't wish this on any human being, but has it helped you at all to not be alone, to not be the only one in this community?"

Brenda Slaby:
"Again, I also would not wish this on anybody, but I'm not alone. I'm not alone and it's put me in a different position -- of rather than me hiding and feeling, you know, again, hated by the world – it put me in a position to reach out to somebody else and to be of comfort to them."

O'Neil:
"Where are you now with forgiving yourself?"

Brenda Slaby:
"That's one of the hardest questions. Cognitively, I know I can't blame myself because I know I didn't consciously do this. I know that. In my heart, how does a mom do that?"

It's Slaby's desire to be a good mom to her other daughter that has kept her going.

Brenda Slaby:
"I can be pretty honest and I've said a number of times that if I didn't have Allison, I might not be here. She is and has been the reason I get up every day and the reason that I have to move forward with my life, and the reason that I've allowed myself to laugh and play because she needs that."

"We don't want Allison's life to be sadness and we don't want her to not be able to talk about her sister because I cry."

Slaby said she also needs to honor Cecilia.

Brenda Slaby:
"I've spent a year trying to protect her in a sense, and not remembering her like she should be remembered ... and trying to hide her from the media and it's time that I let the pain go and that I'm able to remember my daughter ... and she was just the most vivacious, energetic, happy little girl you could ever want."

The hummingbird has become a family symbol for Cecilia.

Brenda Slaby:
"She was like a hummingbird, because she liked to chase the birds ... she ran."

Gary Slaby:
"She'd chase birds across the yard ... fast as a hummingbird."

They hung a feeder in her memory on the anniversary of her death.

Gary Slaby:
"And as I'm hanging it and there's friends of ours around, we hadn't seen a hummingbird one ... all of a sudden there was one as I was hanging it and it was like, wow ... somebody from above has come ... and it was just heart-wrenching."

Brenda Slaby:
"So, now we can think of Cecilia as being right there with us. When we see a hummingbird or I have a hummingbird necklace that I wear, in that symbolism, we think of her in a joyous way."

It's been a long road to that point and Slaby said it will continue to be a long road for her and her husband.