Authorities in Detroit have disclosed information about a heartbreaking event where two young children lost their lives after spending a night inside a van in freezing conditions.
On Tuesday, February 11, Interim Detroit Police Chief Todd A. Bettison provided an account of the incident during a press conference. The briefing came a day after the children’s mother discovered her two-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son had stopped breathing while in the van parked in a garage.
Chief Bettison explained that the mother contacted a nearby relative for assistance when the van ran out of fuel. It was at this point she noticed her son, one of five children in the vehicle, wasn’t breathing.
She subsequently called 911, while her friend used their car to transport the nine-year-old to the Children’s Hospital of Michigan.
Bettison mentioned that the mother then checked on the four remaining children in the van, realizing that her two-year-old daughter was also not breathing.
The family then hurried to the hospital, where both the two-year-old and nine-year-old children were declared dead.
Detroit Police Capt. Nathan Duda informed NBC News that preliminary evidence indicated the children may have “frozen to death.”
Officials stated that temperatures had dipped below 32 degrees Fahrenheit while the children were inside the van, leading to deaths suspected to be caused by “exposure to hypothermia.”
The medical examiner will ultimately confirm the exact causes of death.
The three other children, aged four, eight, and 13, received hospital treatment and are now stable. They are currently staying with other relatives.
The mother was initially detained for questioning before being released.
Officials have confirmed that an investigation will be conducted to determine whether any charges should be filed in connection with the deaths.
Duda told NBC: “It has to be [investigated]. I don’t think anyone really wants to think about that at the moment with the two children passed, but the reality is that the circumstances do have to be examined.”
“We have to figure out how to go forward.”
During the press conference, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan mentioned that the family had previously contacted the city’s ‘homeless response team’ multiple times, the last being on November 25.
Although there was ‘no resolution reached’ in those discussions, Duggan noted the family ‘never called back again’, and no one from the team ‘proactively’ followed up with them.
He remarked, “There were family shelter beds available just a few miles away,” adding that “having services available doesn’t mean very much if the residents who need them don’t know how to access them.”
“We have to make sure that we do everything possible to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”