2 Detroit kids sleeping in van died of carbon monoxide, not hypothermia, medical examiner says
The cause of death of two young children who were sleeping in their family’s van was revealed to be carbon monoxide poisoning and not exposure to the cold as Detroit authorities first thought.
The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office said it conducted examinations Feb. 11, the day after Amillah Currie, 2, and Darnell Currie, 9, died. Their mother, Tateona Williams, said she found them unresponsive and not breathing after the van the family was living in ran out of gas.
The medical examiner’s office said the manner of death for both children was an accident. Williams could not immediately be reached Thursday.
Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison said in a statement Thursday that the department received the medical examiner’s report and “will continue investigating the facts and circumstances of the case and submit our findings to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.”
Police declined to answer further questions.
Toxicologist Aimee Nefcy told NBC affiliate WDIV of Detroit that there could have been an internal leak inside the vehicle or carbon monoxide could have filtered in through a cracked window.
“Once it gets inside the van, it settles to the bottom because it’s heavier than normal air,” she said. “And it layers down on the bottom of the van and it doesn’t circulate out because all the windows are up higher than where the carbon monoxide is sitting.”
Hours before the deaths, Williams had parked on the ninth floor of Hollywood Casino’s parking garage. Bettison has said that he believed the family used the garage for safety and to use the casino’s bathroom. The temperature in the city that day was around 12 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Weather Service.
Inside the van were Williams and her four children, her mother and her mother’s child, People magazine reported.
It’s believed the family had moved around from various casino parking lots. Mayor Mike Duggan said at a news conference last month that the family reached out to a homeless response team Nov. 25 and said they had been living with another family but could no longer stay there and needed help finding a new place.
Duggan said that during that conversation, “there was no resolution reached on where they would go,” and an outreach worker did not visit the family. The family had also reached out for help in the summer and the previous year, the mayor said. He called for a review into the family’s request for assistance.
Williams has since been given a new home. The city of Detroit and the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries posted a video last week of her receiving the keys.
“We had to fix it, prep it, furnish it and then give them a good start so they don’t have to go one day with no food or being outside anymore,” said the organization’s CEO and president, Chad Audi.
