Monica Cannady and her two boys Malik Milton, 3, and Kyle Milton, 9, were found frozen to death in a field in Pontiac. Mental health problems were said to be a factor. The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a deputy’s response in the matter.
Photo courtesy of GoFundMe
After the tragic passing of a 35-year-old Pontiac mother and her two boys, three and 9, who froze to death, an Oakland County Sheriff’s deputy is under investigation after the office released a timeline of the case some are saying could have been prevented, FOX 2 Detroit reported.
“I wanted to really examine what happened in totality,” said Sheriff Michael Bouchard in the article.
In Pontiac, Monica Cannady and her sons, 3-year-old Malik Milton and 9-year-old Kyle Milton, were discovered Sunday after succumbing to hypothermia and being found frozen to death in an overgrown, according to the news report.
Cannady’s 10-year-old daughter, who was able to get help after she found her family death, is in the hospital with hypothermia and is in stable condition, according to reports.
“How do we not just as a police agency, but societally, how do we prevent stuff like this in the future?” Bouchard said in the article. “How do we prevent people from falling through the cracks.”
The Sheriff’s Office timeline of the lead-up to Cannady’s death includes multiple encounters with the police.
According to investigators, deputies were originally informed that Cannady and her children had stopped to seek assistance at a location on Mill Street in downtown Pontiac at 1 p.m. on Friday.
The family also became the focus of a drone search by deputies. A deputy discovered Cannady and the children in the Pontiac area around 10 minutes after the initial report. The deputy inquired as to her needs and her destination.
Cannady replied that she was OK and didn’t require assistance before leaving.
“It would have potentially been a different situation had we known that this person was in a mental health crisis when they encountered her,” Bouchard said. “We didn’t get that information until afterwards.”
Witnesses reported more sightings of the family, including the children who weren’t appropriately covered for the cold, ensued. According to reports, a deputy who was dispatched to investigate the area failed to conduct a comprehensive investigation and failed to locate or contact the family.
The Special Investigations Unit of the Sheriff’s Office is looking into him.
“I would love to have the federal government and state government pay to have someone embedded on our staff,” Bouchard said. “A social worker, mental health worker so that when they come across someone in any situation, if it’s not an acute crisis like it didn’t appear, that’s when we have our social worker come in and say is there systemic thing we can help you with? Connect you with resources.”
Read the full story here.
About Post Author
