Supporters Pay Respects To 2 Detroit Children Found Dead In Freezer
DETROIT (WWJ) -- The deaths of two Detroit children who were found in a freezer in their family's home were recognized by family members and supporters on Friday evening.
Songs and prayers were delivered at a candlelight vigil outside the home where the bodies of Stoni Ann Blair and Stephen Gage Berry were found earlier this week.
The great-aunt of the children, Angela Gordon -- a former Detroit Police Child Abuse Investigator -- gave a tearful statement and insight into her relationship with her niece and how she tried to help.
"Once you've been shut out, what can you do?" Gordon said. "Yes, we do spot checks, talk to neighbors, confirm they still live there and have been seen. All these things, I did. There's no indication anything was so terribly wrong. So as far as I knew, she was through with me."
The Wayne County Medical Examiner says that the deaths have been ruled homicides and that Blair and Berry both died of multiple blunt force trauma; and in Stephen's case, burns as well.
The mother of the children, 35-year-old Mitchelle Blair, has two surviving children, 11 and 17-years-old, who reportedly have scars from past abuse, in addition to current welts and other injuries. They reportedly lived for years in the tiny apartment where they knew their dead siblings were in a chest freezer near the front door.
The two surviving children -- who have been out of school for two years -- are now under Gordon's care.
"These actions were calculated, cunning, meted out with insanity," Gordon said. "All involved need help. I pray that my niece gets the psychiatric care that she so desperately needs."
Mitchelle Blair reportedly told police she killed the children because they sexually assaulted a relative.
She's being held on a $1 million bond on five counts of first degree child abuse, but will now be charged with murder, according to prosecutors.
Blair was arrested Tuesday after court officers, serving an eviction notice – at her low-income apartment home on St. Aubin Street – opened a deep freezer to make the horrifying discovery.
Blair was due back in court for a preliminary exam next Tuesday, but that may change in light of the new charges.