Two children ‘freeze to death’ in car after it ran out of petrol

Two young children froze to death in a car that ran out of petrol in extremely cold temperatures.

The kids, aged two and nine, were living with their mother and three siblings in a minivan parked outside of Hollywood Casino Hotel in Greektown, Detroit.

They pulled into a car park around 1am on Monday and ran out of gasoline at some point later.

The mother called a friend to take her nine-year-old boy to a hospital after seeing that he was not breathing, Detroit police Captain Nathan Duda told FOX 2.

While the boy was at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, the kids’ grandmother saw his two-year-old sister was not breathing and the friend went back to bring her from Greektown.

Both children were pronounced dead at the hospital ‘with the early indicator being that they froze to death’, said Duda.

The boy was wearing just a T-shirt and pull-up undergarment and the girl was wearing a T-shirt and jogging pants. There were only a couple of blankets in the vehicle.

As a father, the police chief said he was ‘very sad’ over the deaths.

‘I just can’t imagine what the family is feeling,’ he said.

‘I wish it hadn’t have happened… This was unnecessary. It didn’t have to happen this way.’

The mother and her other children aged four, eight and 13 survived the night when temperatures dropped to 12 degrees Fahrenheit (-11 degrees Celsius) with wind chills bringing it down to 6 degrees Fahrenheit (-14 degrees Celsius).

Police believe the family was living in the van for at least two months, despite linked to an address in the east side of the city.

The mom, who has not been identified, was detained and spoke with authorities. She was not immediately taken into custody.

A criminal investigation ‘has to happen’ and Child Protective Services will take part in it, Duda said.

‘It has to be, it has to be. I mean, I don’t think anyone really wants to think about that at the moment with the two children passed, but the reality is the circumstances need to be examined,’ he said.

‘We have to figure out how to go forward.’

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