A Detroit mother who police say confessed to killing her two young children and hiding their bodies in a deep freezer was arraigned Thursday on five child abuse-related charges.
A district court judge, who called the allegations "heinous," set bail at $1 million for Mitchelle Blair, 35, who faces up to life in prison. Blair appeared stoned-face on a video link from jail as the prosecutor said she was being charged with four counts of first-degree child abuse and one count of committing first-degree child abuse in the presence of another child.
Her deceased children have been identified by prosecutors as 13-year-old daughter Stoni Ann Blair and 9-year-old son Stephen Gage Berry. It's unclear when the children were killed, but authorities have said they would be 15 and 11, respectively, if they were still alive.
Autopsies are still pending, and Blair could face additional charges. No motive for the crime has been given.
A bail officer and a crew conducting an eviction at Blair's apartment in the east side of Detroit discovered the children's bodies on Tuesday morning in the freezer, police said. A neighbor alerted authorities to their mother's whereabouts.
Two other children, a 17-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son, were living at the home and taken into protective custody, the prosecutor's office said. The judge on Tuesday ordered Blair to have no contact with the children, her relatives or neighbors.
