Official: Carbon monoxide caused death of kids found in Detroit casino parking garage
Two children who appeared to have frozen to death while living in a van in Detroit last month actually died of carbon monoxide poisoning, officials said.
The causes of death for 2-year-old A'millah Currie and 9-year-old Darnell Currie Jr. were certified on Wednesday and deemed to be carbon monoxide toxicity and an accident, according to a news release from the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office. More than 400 Americans die each year from carbon monoxide poisoning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Feb. 10, the children's family was parked at the Hollywood Casino at Greektown when their car stopped running in the middle of the night, officials have previously said. The temperatures that day were in the low-to-mid-teens. Darnell Currie Jr. and A'millah Currie later reportedly stopped breathing and died.
The family was unhoused, authorities said. The two children were living in the van with their mother, their grandmother, and three other children. Authorities haven't said what went wrong with the van.
The Detroit Police Department said Wednesday it received the medical examiner's report and it will continue investigating and submit its findings to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. City officials could not be reached on Wednesday evening.
The Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office previously said the investigation into the official cause of death could take several months. But in the meantime, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan last week announced a seven-point plan to address holes in the city's response to homelessness after it was revealed Tateona Williams, the children's mother, had contacted city and county services for help several times prior to the Currie siblings' tragic death.
Duggan said the city will expand the hours of a housing help line to 24 hours and seven days a week, will begin efforts to identify families living in vehicles, and will treat every call that involves children as an emergency, even if they are still housed.
Williams sought help dating back to December 2022. Among her attempts include contacting the city's homeless hotline twice in December 2023 and twice more in the summer of 2024, the city said. There were attempts to contact Williams that spring, but its homeless response team was unable to reach her.
Duggan said the last time Williams called the city's homeless response team was Nov. 25, 2024, to say she believed her family would soon lose shelter. Her case wasn't deemed an emergency and no one was sent to assess their situation. A phone operator classified the case as one in which the caller would lose housing within 14 days. No one followed up after that, Duggan said.
In the weeks after the tragedy, leaders of homeless service agencies have said the way people get into shelters is "broken" and have called for more money and resources to address the need. And within the last year, the city added over 110 new shelter beds and created a 24-hour outreach team. Williams' family still fell through the cracks.
The gas that killed the children, carbon monoxide, is considered a silent but deadly killer by health and consumer product agencies. Without proper ventilation, the gas can build up in an enclosed area and cause CO poisoning, sometimes resulting in death.
In New Hampshire, a four-person family died on Christmas Day last year while on vacation due to apparent exposure to carbon monoxide. In Pennsylvania, former supermodel, actress and humanitarian Dayle Haddon died Dec. 27 from a carbon monoxide gas leak.
The gas commonly is emitted from furnaces, generators, grills and gas vehicles, according to the CDC. The appliances are often used in cold weather or power outages, drawing special concern during winter weather and following natural disasters.
More than 100,000 Americans visit emergency departments each year for carbon monoxide poisoning, the health agency said. Symptoms aren't all the same, but can include headaches, dizziness, nausea, altered mental state and chest pain.
Preventing exposure is easy. The CDC recommends installing battery-operated or backup carbon monoxide monitors in sleeping areas and for people to check the detectors regularly. The agency urged people to clean and check chimneys every year and regularly service appliances and heating systems. Cars should never be run inside an attached garage and generators should be used more than 20 feet from the home.
Contributing: Kayla Jimenez, Minnah Arshad, USA TODAY; Joanna K. Tzouvelis, Wicked Local; Nushrat Rahman, Violet Ikonomova, Detroit Free Press.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Carbon monoxide caused death of kids found in Detroit parking garage
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