Two young children, who had been living with their family in a van, are believed to have died from hypothermia after spending a freezing night in a Detroit casino parking garage, according to police.
The siblings, ages 9 and 2, were discovered unresponsive midday Monday in the parking structure of the Hollywood Casino Hotel at Greektown. Authorities later confirmed they had frozen to death.
“It’s a terrible day in Detroit as we deal with the tragic loss of two young people, and it’s gotta make us rethink everything that we’re doing,” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said during a press briefing Tuesday.
Authorities believe the family had been living in their vehicle for two to three months, frequently parking at different casinos in Detroit, interim Police Chief Todd Bettison said.
On Monday around 1 a.m., the family parked on the ninth floor of the Hollywood Casino parking garage, police reported. At some point during the night, the vehicle stopped running—possibly due to a mechanical failure or running out of gas—leaving them without heat. The mother later called a friend for help, Bettison said.
The mother first realized the older child was not breathing and called 911 around 12:12 p.m. Monday, interim Police Chief Todd Bettison said. A friend then transported the 9-year-old boy to a nearby children’s hospital.
While checking on the other four children inside the vehicle, the family discovered the 2-year-old girl was also unresponsive. The children’s grandmother called 911, and the family contacted the same friend, who returned from the hospital to take the girl there as well, Bettison said.
Both children were pronounced dead at the hospital, interim Police Chief Todd Bettison said. While the official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner, police preliminarily believe hypothermia was the cause. The temperature inside the parking garage had dropped below 32 degrees, he noted.
Hospital staff contacted police around 12:47 p.m. Monday to report the children’s deaths, Bettison said.
The case remains under investigation and will be reviewed by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
In total, seven people—two adults and five children between the ages of 2 and 13—had been inside the vehicle, according to police. The three surviving children were examined at the hospital and are now in the care of family members.
Mayor Mike Duggan revealed that the family had contacted a homeless response team in late November 2024, reporting that they could no longer stay with the relatives they had been living with and needed shelter.
However, no resolution was reached during that conversation, and “for whatever reason,” the situation was not classified as an emergency—meaning no outreach worker was dispatched to assist the family, Duggan said.
In response to the tragedy, the mayor has called for a full review of the family’s case and the city’s homelessness services, including the call center and public information policies. He also proposed a new policy requiring outreach workers to conduct site visits for all cases involving minors.
Duggan noted that the city had expanded the number of shelters and drop-in beds ahead of the winter but emphasized the need to ensure people are aware of available resources.
“The heartbreaking part of this is that there were family shelter beds available just a few miles away from where the family pulled into that Greektown structure,” Duggan said. “But it brings home the point that having services available doesn’t mean very much if the residents that need them don’t know how to access them.”
