PONTIAC, Michigan — A mother and two children died of hypothermia after a woman suffering a mental health crisis took her young children outside in freezing temperatures, officials say.
Pontiac’s Monica Latrice Canady, 35, and her sons Kyle Milton, 9, and Malik Milton, 3, were found dead Sunday afternoon in a field in Oakland County, according to mlive.com. Canady and her children have reportedly been out since leaving their apartment on Friday.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Canady “believed someone was trying to kill her and everyone was involved in it, including the police,” Sheriff Michael Bouchard said at a news conference Monday. “The family tried to ask her for help, but she refused and fled with the children.”
According to reports, the victim was found about a mile from the apartment. Ms Canady’s 10-year-old daughter knocked on the door of a nearby residence, telling her that her family had died, her mlive.com reports. The girl is in stable condition in hospital, she reports, mlive.com.
The Detroit News reports that families knocked on the doors of several homes on Saturday asking for food. .
Bouchard said lawmakers answered the phone but the family had disappeared before they arrived and could not be located. He told his surviving daughter that her mother told him to run away if anyone approached.
Bouchard said the incident demonstrated the need for better mental health services, mlive.com reports.
“Mental health is one of the biggest challenges this time around. Even when we had to cut our budget significantly last year, we made it a priority to include mental health services within our budget,” he said. I was. “State and federal governments can work with the mental health community to deliver more mental health services, including having mental health professionals on the team as part of the overall response to mental health inquiries. We need to provide funding to do so.”
