Yahoo News Daughter: Siblings In Freezer Killed By Mum
A Detroit mother killed two of her children and ordered her daughter to entomb one victim in a freezer on top of the other body, says a court filing.
Mitchelle Blair, 35, appeared in court on Thursday, two days after nine-year-old son Stephen Berry and daughter Stoni Blair, 13, were discovered dead.
"The charges in this matter are so heinous," said magistrate Renee McDuffe, as she set bail at $1m.
A medical examiner said on Friday that the children's deaths were homicides.
Post-mortem examinations found both died of multiple blunt trauma, with the youngest child also suffering "thermal injuries".
Blair is charged with child abuse, but she now may face an indictment for murder.
Documents filed in Wayne County Juvenile Court allege the children suffered years of horrific abuse.
For the past two years, the two other children, an eight-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl, lived at the low-rent apartment on the city's east side next to their siblings' bodies.
The 17-year-old has told investigators she and her surviving brother were regularly beaten with an extension cord and plank and burned with irons.
The documents say: "Blair tortured Stephen for approximately two weeks prior to his death by tying a belt around his neck, throwing hot water on him while in the shower and putting a plastic bag over his head."
After Stephen's death in August 2012, Blair allegedly wrapped his body in a bed sheet and put him in the freezer.
Nine months later, Blair became "enraged" when Stoni said she did not like her surviving siblings, according to the court documents.
She allegedly strangled the girl with a T-shirt and suffocated her with a black rubbish bag.
Blair then made the teenager place her sister's body in the deep freezer, say investigators.
The picture painted in the court filing belies the doting maternal image Blair projected on Facebook.
She posted a picture with the message: "There is no greater blessing than being called Mom."
The teenager said neither she nor her siblings had attended school for years.
Authorities investigated allegations of abuse in 2002 and 2005, but Blair was allowed to keep custody of the children and referred to counselling.
The state says the two fathers of Blair's surviving children are unfit to care for them.
