Kids found in freezer were tortured, burned; mother to be charged with murder

DETROIT — The deaths of two children whose bodies were found in a freezer in their mother’s Detroit apartment were the result of homicides, a county medical examiner said on Friday.

The mother of the children, Mitchelle Angela Blair, 35, has been held on felony charges of child abuse in the case pending the completion of autopsies to determine their cause of death.

Prosecutors have said they plan to file murder charges in the case, though no charges are expected to be issued on Friday.

Stoni Ann Blair died at age 13 from multiple blunt trauma and Stephen Gage Berry died at age 9 from multiple blunt trauma and thermal injuries, the Wayne County Medical Examiner found.

The bodies were found on Tuesday when a court officer and her crew were carrying out an eviction at Blair’s apartment. Police found her at another apartment in the complex.

A petition filed in Wayne County juvenile court on Thursday alleged that Blair extensively abused her surviving children, a 17-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son, and had killed the other two children.

“Mitchelle Blair has severely physically abused her children and has admitted to killing two of her children,” the petition said.

The petition accused Blair of torturing her son for about two weeks before his death, tying a belt around his neck, tossing hot water on him while he was showering and putting a plastic bag over his head.

When she found him unresponsive, Blair wrapped him in linen and put him in the freezer in August 2012, the petition said.

The petition said Blair strangled Stoni Blair with a T-shirt and suffocated her with a plastic bag in May 2013 after the girl said she did not like her other siblings. Blair then forced the surviving daughter to put her body in the freezer, it said.

A Michigan magistrate judge on Thursday set Blair’s bond at $1 million.