Timeline Shows Movements Of Mother, 2 Little Boys Before Freezing To Death: Officials

PONTIAC, MI — Oakland County officials tried helping a wandering Pontiac family multiple times before the mother and two of her kids froze to death in an open field Sunday morning, Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.

Bouchard released a timeline of events of leading up to the tragic deaths of 35-year-old Monica Latrice Cannady and her two sons, Kyle Milton, 9, and Malik Milton, 3, who were all found dead in a field on Branch Street, near Orchard Lake Road and Bagley in Pontiac, not far from Crystal Lake.

"I wanted a deeper dive that would potentially find ways to prevent such a tragedy in the future," Bouchard said. "I ordered a complete review of all calls, radio traffic, a canvas of the neighborhood and any potential interactions with Monica Latrice Cannady and her children."

Officials were first notified that Cannady and her three children had stopped at a location on Mill Street in downtown Pontiac at 1 p.m. Friday looking for help. Officials immediately deployed a drone to search for the family upon receiving the call.

An officer found Cannady, sons Kyle Milton, 9, and Malik Milton, 3, and her 10-year-old daughter near Water Street and Mill Street within ten minutes, officials said.

The officer asked where Cannady was going and if she needed help, but she told the officer she was ok and did not need any help and quickly walked away from the officer, officials said.

Five minutes later, a second officer found Cannady inside McLaren Oakland Hospital in downtown Pontiac and "questioned her in depth" about needing help, but Cannady said she was "fine" after a visit and was waiting for a ride, refusing assistance, officials said.

The officer then followed Cannady and her children walking down Woodward Avenue, repeatedly trying to convince Cannady to go to the nearby Pontiac substation or get in the patrol car, officials said.

The officer told Cannady multiple times that she was not in trouble, and that he would not ask for her name or identification, but that he simply wanted to help her and the children, officials said.

Cannady again refused all attempts for assistance made by the officer, officials said. The officer said Cannady was wearing a coat and the children were wrapped in white bedsheets wearing sweatshirts.

The officer, however, did not give up and followed the family to a nearby school, officials said. The officer said he offered to take the family to the substation and provide the children coats, but Cannady declined the officers and walked away.

"The deputy spent approximately 20 minutes with Cannady until 1:30 p.m. on Friday," officials said. "In those conversations, she was lucid, did not appear to be suffering from any medical or mental health crisis and asked several times to be left alone."

About two hours later, Cannady's family told detectives she took her children to her mother's apartment, where she put the kids down for a nap.

While the kids were sleeping, Cannady and her mother got into an argument after the mother suggested Cannady should seek professional help for mental problems, the family told detectives. Cannady then woke up the children after they were napping for about 30 minutes and left the apartment, officials said.

"The family later told detectives that Cannady had been having mental health problems for the past three weeks," officials said.

At about 4:30 p.m. Friday, officials met with Cannady’s aunt, who asked for advice on how to properly commit Cannady to a treatment facility to get the help her family said she needed, officials said.

Officers then went to Cannady’s apartment on North Perry to perform a welfare check, but found no one there, officials said.

"After her death, investigators learned Cannady was the woman other deputies had previously encountered with the children and that Cannady believed some unknown person (or persons) was trying to kill her and the police were involved in the conspiracy," officials said. "The children were told to run if they saw the police."

At about the same time officers were meeting with the aunt, officials learned that a woman was walking with several children in the area of Franklin Road and Rapid Street in Pontiac, officials said. The caller told police that the children were not properly dressed for the cold weather.

An officer was sent to the area to check on the family, "but did not completely search the area as he was expected to and did not find or make contact with the family," officials said. The sheriff's office said his performance is now under investigation by the sheriff’s office Special Investigations Unit."

Two officers were sent back to the area of Rapid and Franklin at 5:20 p.m. and did not find the family after searching for about 20 minutes, officials said.

Three more officers went back to the area at 7:33 p.m. and again did not find the family after searching for more than 30 minutes, officials said.

Although officers received no calls Saturday related to Cannady and her children, officials determined that Cannady knocked on the door of a residence on the 200 block of Branch St. at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

When a resident at the home answered, Cannady said she was at the wrong address and walked away, officials said.

No call was made to officers, and detectives could not determine if Cannady made contact with anyone else on Saturday.

At some point between Saturday night and Sunday morning, officials believe Cannady and her three children laid down in the field and went to sleep, officials said.

On Sunday at 3 p.m., Cannady’s daughter knocked on the door of a home and told the residents that her family was dead in an adjacent field, officials said.

Officers responded to the 200 block of Branch Street and found them lying on the ground in a vacant field that was once the location of the Lakeside Housing Project, officials said.

Cannady's daughter was still recovering in a hospital Wednesday, officials said. She was listed in stable but improving condition.

The deaths were ruled accidental, and the Oakland County Medical Examiner ruled the cause of death for each as hypothermia.

"It is clear, as a society we need to find ways to better connect communication and the dots between families, mental health resources, social services and law-enforcement to ensure people don’t fall through the cracks in the future like this tragic situation," Bouchard said. "I renew my call for state and federal funding to embed social service and mental health practitioners into our agency that can be immediately brought into play in situations like this. Every day, we respond to circumstances that those resources in combination could potentially be a real lifesaver. Our prayers go to the family and friends."