Kelly Benson arrived in Whitehorse last week in time to catch the first court appearance of the Mountie charged after his wife died in the back of his police cruiser or so he thought.

'They told me April the 7th, that's why I came here yesterday ... well, that's pretty bad,' he said in an interview last Tuesday after discovering the court appearance had already come and gone that morning.

It was the major crimes unit boss who told him Const. Jeff Monkman's first appearance was April 7, Benson said.

Initially, local media were told the appearance was April 7 as well, but were e-mailed a correction within one day.

The date mix-up just adds to the frustration surrounding his estranged wife's death, Benson indicated.

Monkman, who wasn't in court last week, pleaded not guilty through his defence lawyer to a Motor Vehicles Act charge of driving without due care and attention.

He was the Carcross RCMP officer behind the wheel of a marked police cruiser last Sept. 27, transporting 37-year-old Heather Lynn Benson to court in Whitehorse on drug charges.

The Tagish woman was handcuffed, her hands in front of her, and wasn't wearing a seatbelt when the cruiser left the South Klondike Road and rolled.

She died at the scene at about 5:45 a.m., while the constable was uninjured. The RCMP haven't said how many hours the constable had been working at the time of the crash. Monkman had been taking Benson to Whitehorse for the weekend bail court time of 10 a.m.

Monkman's legal counsel, Edward Horembala, is being paid for by the federal government. It's standard for the government to pick up legal costs for employees who find themselves before the courts after incidents that arise on the job, an RCMP spokeswoman said last week.

Benson said he'd come back to the Yukon to take in that court date, begin a five-week mining job and pack up the family's belongings.

'This guy's life has gone on and our life's in a shambles,' said Benson, who said he fully intends to file a lawsuit against the RCMP.

'This guy moved 30 kilometres down the road and kept working.'

After the crash, Monkman was evaluated and cleared for duty before being transferred from Carcross to the Whitehorse detachment's general duty section.

On his first day back in the territory last week, Benson said he simply walked around town, reminiscing and thinking about the last six months.

Benson has more questions than answers. They include why the constable wasn't suspended from his job after the crash, why his wife was arrested in the middle of the night and why a social worker wasn't on hand at the arrest to take care of the two children.

Heather had to call neighbours in the middle of the night to care for the pair, Kelly Benson said.

He said he'd been told his wife was under investigation. He questions how the police officers here didn't know she had two young children at home with her if they were indeed investigating her for drug offences.

The two children had been living with Heather Benson at the time as the couple had been apart for two years, though they were still legally married, Kelly Benson said.

He arrived in the Yukon in 1977 at age 18 and has worked in several of the big mines that fuelled the territory for years. After his wife's death, the longtime miner picked up and moved his kids to Moose Jaw, Sask., where his family lives.

He couldn't be stuck in mining camps working for weeks on end and take care of his kids, he said, explaining why he moved Outside.

While he's back in the territory working for a while, his parents are taking care of 13-year-old Tyler while his sister is caring for eight-year-old Samantha.

The long investigation and legal process don't help the family get past the fatal crash, he said.

'My two kids cry all the time,' he said. It's been six months and he still hasn't been able to tell them why their mother is dead, he noted.

'We can't keep dwelling on this,' said Benson.

Though the RCMP issued a formal apology, he's never had an apology from the constable driving the car his wife died in, he said.

'And (the children) have to know what actually happened.'

After a coroner's investigation and a Yukon RCMP major crimes unit and traffic unit investigation, as well as a review of that investigation by an Outside RCMP officer, the evidence was sent to an Outside prosecutor to recommend whether charges should be laid.

The charge was laid March 8.