DETROIT (Scripps News Detroit) — A three-year-old boy was found dead inside a freezer Friday morning, according to the Detroit Police Department.
They say the freezer was located inside a basement of a home located on the 12700 block of Monte Vista near Fullerton on Detroit’s west side.
Police say the child’s body was already starting to decompose.
“Upon making it to this location with Child Protective Services and interviewing the occupant of the home, it was determined that the three-year-old child was deceased in this home in the basement. And, sadly, found in a freezer,” Chief White said about the gruesome discovery.
Detroit Police officers and Child Protective Services were responding to a welfare check at a home when they discovered the body.
When they arrived on scene, five other children were also inside of the home.
The occupant of the home, a woman, identified as the deceased child’s mother, provided responses to officers that appeared to be inconsistent.
The 30-year-old mother has since been taken into custody.
“This case has shocked me and has shocked our investigators. The discovery would not have been possible without the officers intuition,” Chief White said. “They recognized that something was not right about the conversation and the way that this occupant was communicating with them.”
Chief White says the home was in poor condition and showed signs of great concern for the safety of the other children.
The children have since been taken to the hospital and will later go to Child Talk to help investigators find out what was going on inside that home.
DPD’s homicide unit and the department’s child abuse division will lead this investigation.
“The other kids that were in the home, imagine what they must have gone through and what they have endured being inside of that home,” White said.
