“But if you look back, there was never a lawsuit with the crib company or anything,” she said, hinting at cracks in the story that only made sense in hindsight.
Today, cases like these often trigger legal reviews, especially when pediatric forensic diagnostics or autopsy procedures reveal inconsistencies.
The dark truth didn’t come out until decades later, just before her father Donald’s death in 2023. Silverman says her dad made a gut-wrenching confession: he believed his own father, whom he described as violent, had killed Jeffrey. This kind of generational trauma is frequently associated with chronic stress, mental health deterioration, and long-term impacts on emotional wellness.
“My dad says, ‘I always felt that he was crying or something, and my dad shook him’,” she recalled. “As soon as he said it, it was like, ‘Of course, that’s what happened’.” Incidents like these can fall under criminal negligence or even homicide by caregiver, which often demand legal counsel specializing in domestic violence or wrongful infant death.
The admission was made in what Sarah described as a strikingly odd setting. She was performing in Bedwetter, her off-Broadway production in Manhattan, which includes a scene where a young version of Sarah cracks a joke about Jeffrey’s death. For many, humor becomes a mask for unresolved psychological trauma and mental health complications, sometimes even treated through therapy covered by private health insurance.
