Black Michigan Mom Lies Down In Open Field In Freezing Weather with Her Three Children. Only One Survives.

On January 15, a Michigan woman and her two children died after being found frozen to death in Pontiac’s field. The freezing temperatures were not fatal for the third child, who was taken to the hospital in stable conditions.

According to Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, Monica Cannaday, 35 and her two children, Malik Milton, 3 years old, and Kyle Milton, 9, died from hypothermia while sleeping in the wooded area between Gillespie Avenue & Branch Street.

They were found in a field on Sunday afternoon near an abandoned car near the former Lakeside Housing Projects.

Cannaday’s daughter, 10-year-old Lily, survived the cold and went for help at a nearby home when she realized her mom and brothers had died. The authorities believe that Cannaday was suffering from a mental crisis following the murder of her children’s’ father, Kyle Milton, in 2021. The trial of the accused killer is ongoing.

Cannaday’s mother told the authorities that she noticed a significant change in Cannaday about three weeks ago. “This is a mental health crisis,” said Bouchard. “The woman, mom, was having a mental health crisis. She believed someone was trying to kill her and that everybody was in on it.”

Cannaday was said to have lived near the field where she had been found. She instructed her children to lay down and sleep while relatives searched for her. Bouchard said that Cannaday’s mother and her family tried to help her as she became more paranoid. But she refused and ran off with her children.

“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,” he said. “Deputies would go there, look all through the area and couldn’t find anybody.”

Bouchard said that Cannaday had told her children to lie down. “The mom told them to lay down in the field. All of them did. The girl who survived woke up. No one else did.”

Cannaday was reported to have been knocking on doors around the area on Saturday January 14. Charles Witherspoon shared with WDIV4 the story of his encounter with Cannaday’s neighbor.

“They were hungry,” he said. “I said, ‘What’d you do with ’em?’ And she said, ‘I didn’t let ’em in.’ But her brother, Arthur, he, she said, he tried to give the young lady some money, and she wouldn’t accept it, so they left there.”

Bouchard explained that the tragedy was yet another example showing how urgently more funding is required to tackle mental health emergencies in the local community. Sheriff Bouchard stated that every day people die from the mental illness crisis.

“We’re seeing death every day as a result of the mental health crisis and it sure would be nice if Washington and Lansing tuned in on that.”

The children’s grandmother, Theresa Milton, said that she learned about Cannaday’s and the children’s deaths from her oldest daughter.

“My oldest daughter called me and said, ‘You know that is Monica’s body they found.’ And I dropped the phone and my stomach balled up in knots,” said Milton.

Milton added that she had no idea about Cannaday’s mental health issues and said she was a good mother. Cannaday was just visiting her children and she said everything looked fine.

“She was a good mama. She was a good mother. They were dressed warm, they had clothes always matching, hair done, they were clean,” she said. “They were loved. Very loved by their family.”