The heartbreaking story of a Michigan woman and her children who were found frozen to death in an abandoned field is sending shockwaves throughout the community and making national headlines.
On January 16, WDIV reported that Monica Cannady, 35, was found dead in a Pontiac in the middle of a field with her three children Lillie, 10, Kyle, 9, and Malik, 3.
Autopsy reports confirmed that Cannady and two of the three children died from hypothermia. The lone survivor, Lillie is currently recovering and is in stable condition.
At the hospital, Lillie told police that her mother drove her and her brothers to the vacant field and instructed them to lie down and sleep. When she woke up she said her mother and brothers did not respond.
Reports say police were called to the scene at around 3:10 in the afternoon Sunday after Cannady’s daughter tipped someone that a person in her family had died. “[Deputies] were told that a 10-year-old girl knocked on a door and said that her family was dead in a field,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a press conference.
Authorities then went to an area called Lakeside, a small township in Michigan, where they discovered the mother of three dead alongside her two sons, a mile away from their apartment.
Their deaths have been ruled accidental.
Bouchard indicated that loved ones had noticed Cannady was dealing with mental health complications.
“Her mother observed a change in behavior over the past three weeks, but wasn’t sure what had caused it,” WDIV reported.
“This was a mental health crisis. The woman, the mom, was having a mental health crisis. She believed someone was trying to kill her and that everybody was in on it, (that) it was a conspiracy, so, including the police, were in on this, trying to kill her,” Bouchard said. “The family was trying to get her help, trying to get her committed and get some help, and she refused and fled.”
He advised the public that anyone dealing with mental health issues reach out for help.
“I would say [the incident was] accidental/preventable,” Bouchard said. “If we have more conversations…sometimes tough conversations take strength to ask for help. It’s not weakness. It’s encouraged, and we have more available mental health services to everybody, I think it’ll go a long way.”
