PONTIAC, Mich. – Monica Cannady had not been herself lately as the 35-year-old mother of three had become increasingly paranoid, believing everyone was out to get her.
When the family tried to intervene, she brushed them off. She left her apartment on Perry Street near Downtown Pontiac on foot last week with her 10, nine, and three-year-old in tow.
They walked more than a mile to the old Lakeside Projects property. Neighbors nearby had seen the family and were concerned because they weren’t dressed for the weather.
“Over the course of a couple of days, we actually had been getting calls about a woman and kids not appropriately dressed for the conditions,” said Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard.
Read: Police: Pontiac mother who froze to death had mental health crisis possibly due to husband’s murder
Deputies would look in the area but found nothing.
“We later found out from the surviving daughter she had told her kids to run if they were approached,” Bouchard said.
Cannady appearing not well, was seen knocking on the doors of nearby homes. Neighbors had tried to intervene.
“One neighbor tried to give her money, and she wouldn’t accept it,” said neighbor Charles Witherspoon.
Saturday (Jan. 14) night, Cannady told her children to lie down with her in an overgrown field near the banks of Crystal Lake and sleep.
Cannady, nine-year-old Kyle, and three-year-old Malik would die of hypothermia.
Lillie, 10, was the only one to survive and ran to a nearby house when she realized her mother and brothers were dead. She’s in a local hospital with her maternal grandmother by her side.
The family has started a GoFundMe to pay for funeral expenses and to help Lillie.