PONTIAC, Mich. — A 35-year-old mother and two of her children found dead in a field in Pontiac on Sunday afternoon died of hypothermia, a tragedy that underscores the country's mental health crisis, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said Monday.
Bouchard said Monica Cannady and her young sons, Kyle Milton, 9, and Malik Milton, 3, had been spotted wandering the area without winter clothing on in the days leading up to their deaths.
Cannady's family said she was suffering from an ongoing mental health crisis, Bouchard said.
“This tragedy was based in a mental health crisis,” Bouchard said at a press conference on Monday afternoon, explaining that their deaths were “fundamentally evidentiary of the breakdown of our mental health system in America.”
Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard talks about mental health care and the hypothermia deaths of Monica Kennedy, 35, of Pontiac and her two sons Kyle Milton, 9, and Malik Milton, 3, during a press conference Monday with with Pontiac Mayor Tim Greimel at the sheriff's office in Pontiac.
According to the sheriff and deputies involved in the investigation, the woman’s family began noticing changes in recent weeks and became particularly concerned on Friday when Cannady showed up at her mother's home with the children, both sons and a 10-year-old daughter, who survived.
At the time, family members told investigators that Cannady was exhibiting signs of paranoia, believing someone was trying to kill her and that everyone around her was involved, the sheriff said. When family members tried to persuade her to get psychiatric help, she reportedly refused and fled with the children.
Monica and her children had experienced significant tragedy in their lives in recent years. In 2021, the children's father was murdered, and his assailant's trial had just concluded, according to police.
Over the weekend, the family was seen wandering the area. Law enforcement received several calls related to a woman and children walking without winter attire, but according to Bouchard, officers were never able to locate them.
“Over the course of a couple of days we actually had been getting calls about a woman and kids not dressed appropriately for the conditions. Deputies would go there, look all through the area and couldn’t find anybody,” Bouchard said. “We later learned from the surviving daughter that she had told her kids that anytime anybody approached to run.”
At some point on Sunday, the mom took the children to the field and told them to lay down. She and the sons did not wake up. The 10-year-old daughter woke up and went to a nearby home to get help, Bouchard said.
The girl is hospitalized in stable condition, the sheriff said.
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