Two Children Froze to Death Sitting Outside of Detroit Casino

Two children froze to death on Monday morning inside of a minivan parked outside of a Detroit, Michigan casino.

Medical personnel evaluated and cleared three other children aged four, nine, and 11, who were also inside the van the homeless family had used as shelter. 

The van was parked on the ninth floor of a garage belonging to Detroit Hollywood Casino at Greektown, per Detroit Police Captain Nathan Duda. 

Tragic overnight events

The mother of the family parked the car in the garage around 1:00 a.m. They ran out of gas soon thereafter, leaving the car without heat in temperatures below 20 degrees.

The woman then called a family member around noon when she realized that one of the children was not breathing. That family member discovered a second unbreathing child when she arrived on the scene.

The children, aged two and nine, were transported to the Children’s Hospital and pronounced dead shortly after they arrived. The other three children are under the custody of Child Protective Services for the time behind while an investigation is executed.

Duda confirmed the suspicions of law enforcement, which is that the children froze to death. An official cause of death will not be provided until the coroner’s office conducts autopsies on the children. 

The mother was detained and provided a statement, though she was not held in jail. 

Officials’ response

Despite letting the mother leave the station as a free woman, the police are treating the case as a criminal matter. 

“I don't think anyone really wants to think about that at the moment with two children passed, but the reality is that the circumstances do have to be examined,” Duda said.

Duda also noted that the family had a current address listed at an apartment complex in East Detroit, though the mother and the family member maintained that they did not have a place to stay.

The tragic incident came less than two weeks after Detroit’s biennial census of unsheltered people, during which volunteers spread out across the city to count the city’s homeless population. The homeless population was cited at 1,725 people during last year’s count.

Detroit already maintains a list of warming centers on its official website. 

Terra Linzner, Homelessness Solutions director for the city's Housing and Revitalization Department, said in a statement that anyone can request help for someone who does not have shelter via the Homeless Outreach Request on the city website.