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Detroit Police are investigating Monday's death of two children they suspect froze to death in a van at the Hollywood Casino at Greektown parking lot in downtown Detroit. A mother and five children, age 2 to 13, were apparently living in the van.
FOX 2's Jessica Dupnack reports that the children who died were 9 and 2. An autopsy has yet to confirm the cause of the deaths.
Police say the family was living in the van and pulled into the casino parking garage around 1 a.m. Monday and ran out of gas or the car broke down on the ninth floor. There was no heat in the car, Fox 2 reports.
By noon, police were called to the van by the mother who noticed the two-year-old wasn't breathing. She called a relative to take the child to the hospital. Later, it turned out another child, 9, was not breathing. Both were pronounced dead at Children's Hospital.
"(I feel) sad, very sad. Especially as a father. I just can't imagine what the family is feeling. I wish it hadn't have happened," Detroit Police Captain Nathan Duda tells Fox 2.
Police told Fox 2 the matter will be investigated as a criminal matter. The other children are now with Children's Protective Services. The mother was detained by police.
