Detroit mother arrested over children's bodies in freezer

[March 25, 2015]  By Serena Maria Daniels
 
 DETROIT (Reuters) - The bodies of an 11-year-old boy and a teenage girl were found in the freezer of a Detroit apartment on Tuesday and their mother was arrested as part of a homicide investigation, police said.

A court officer and her crew, who were carrying out an eviction, found the bodies, according to a Detroit Police Department statement and media reports.

After talking to neighbors, police tracked down the mother to another apartment in the complex, where her relatives lived, police spokeswoman June West said.

Charges against the mother are pending, West said.

West earlier said that the age of the deceased girl was 14, but later said she might have been 15.

Police Chief James Craig was quoted in the Detroit Free Press as saying the bodies appeared to have been frozen for some time and neighbors said they had not seen the children in about a year. The paper also said two other children of the arrested woman were in protective custody. West could not confirm either of those reports.

Court officer Lee Gordon told the Free Press that the freezer was just inside the door of the apartment. Deep freezers are common in many U.S. households for storing and preserving food.

Neighbors told the newspaper that they had known the children and noticed they had not been around, but did not want to pry into their neighbor's life and ask where they had gone.

(Writing by Fiona Ortiz in Chicago; Editing by Sandra Maler and Michael Perry)

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