PONTIAC, Mich. – A mother who froze to death with her two sons in Pontiac on Sunday is said to have had mental health issues that may be related to her husband’s 2021 murder.
Police say 35-year-old Monica Cannady and her two sons Malik, 3, and Kyle, 9, were found dead of hypothermia in a vacant lot near the 200 block of Branch Street in Pontiac on Sunday.
Police found the bodies after Cannady’s 10-year-old daughter went to the house and called for help.
Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard says the 35-year-old woman thought people were going to kill her, including sheriff’s deputies, and that’s when she fled on foot with her three children in search of safety.
Bouchard says Cannady’s family tried to get him help but he refused.
Between Friday and Sunday, Oakland County deputies received several calls about women and children wandering the streets without proper winter clothing, Bouchard said.
“For our part, we have not been called about anyone or children in distress,” Bouchard said. “Every now and then we’d call and say, ‘Hey, there’s someone in your neighborhood who doesn’t seem to be well-dressed.’ The leaders went there to see, but it was not there.”
Authorities later heard from the 10-year-old girl that Cannady had told her children that every time someone came running.
Read: Police are explaining what caused a mother, 2 sons to freeze to death in the woods in Pontiac
They went to Pontiac near Branch Street. Neighbor Charles Witherspoon saw the police action on Sunday and spoke to another neighbor who spoke to the family on Saturday.
“They were hungry, I said ‘what did you do?’ and she said ‘I didn’t let them in,’ but her brother Arthur said he tried to give the girl money but she didn’t take it,” said Witherspoon.
The family ended up in a field on the shores of Crystal Lake. “He was in the field and he told the kids to lie down and sleep, and unfortunately that’s when he died,” Bouchard said.
It is believed that Pontiac’s murder caused this. In November 2021, Kyle Milton was killed at a party.
We are told that Kyle was Monica’s husband.
A 10-year-old girl is in the hospital with “signs of hypothermia,” according to authorities.
“This crisis was clear evidence of the breakdown of our mental health system in America,” Bouchard said. “We don’t provide enough support to our health care providers and our practices and we don’t have enough resources.”
Below you will find information about community resources for emergency mental health care.
Related reading: Mother, 2 little boys freeze to death in Pontiac Hills area, police say
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