Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Two young children died of hypothermia Monday while inside a van parked at the Detroit Hollywood Casino parking lot despite their mother's efforts to obtain help from city services for homeless families.
The children, ages 9 and 2, were found dead inside the family's van while parked in Detroit's Greektown neighborhood in subfreezing temperatures Monday afternoon, according to the Detroit Police Department.
The mother and her five children and another adult were trying to sleep inside the van.
Outside temperatures reached a low of 11 degrees Fahrenheit during the early morning hours Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
Related
The unnamed mother and her five children had been homeless for several months and often parked at the Detroit-area casino parking ramps to sleep inside the van.
The mother previously made several calls to Detroit's homeless response team to obtain help with her last call occurring in November.
During that call, she told a staffer for the homeless response team that she and her children were staying with family but would not be able to continue doing so.
"In the course of that conversation, there was no resolution reached on where they would go," Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan told media during a Tuesday news conference at Detroit police headquarters.
Duggan said there were beds available at area homeless shelters, but the city's homeless response team did not follow up on the mother's November call for help.
"We have to make sure that we do everything possible to make sure that this doesn't happen again," Duggan told reporters.
"I'm talking about the system as a whole," Duggan said. "Are we doing everything to make sure people in the city know how to access this critical care?"
The family parked on the ninth floor of the Hollywood Casino's parking lot at about 1 a.m. EST Monday, police said.
The vehicle either ran out of gas or had a mechanical failure that stopped the engine from idling, which stopped its heater from working.
Shortly after noon Monday, the mother noticed the oldest boy was not breathing and called 911 and a friend for help, interim Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison said.
The friend took the 9-year-old to a children's hospital that was located nearby, and the children's grandmother called 911, Bettison said.
The friend returned to the parking ramp to take the girl to the hospital, where both children were pronounced dead, Bettison added.
Hospital staff called the Detroit Police at 12:47 p.m. to report the two deaths.
A medical examiner has not determined an official cause of death for each child, but police said hypothermia is believed to have caused their deaths.
Hospital staff examined the other three children, who now are staying with family members, police said.
The five children were between ages 2 and 13, and the outside temperature was 32 degrees when the police arrived at the parking ramp Monday afternoon.
