DETROIT — Two siblings who died last year of carbon monoxide poisoning in a Detroit casino parking garage during a cold winter night were not dressed for the weather, and the mother hadn't sought social service help from her children's school district or the state, found a recently released Detroit Police Department report on the deaths.

The report, obtained by The Detroit News through a public records request, sheds light on the circumstances surrounding the February 2025 deaths of 9-year-old Darnell Currie Jr. and 2-year-old A'Millah Currie. It also indicated the van the children had been living in with their mother, Tateona Williams, 29, was littered with human feces.

Williams, whose children's deaths and the circumstances that led living in the van drew widespread outcry and calls for more help for the homeless, including how the city of Detroit provided services, did not reach out to social service agencies that could have aided her struggling family, the report found.

In January, nearly a year after the children died, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced that no charges would be filed against Williams. In a statement, Worthy said that "public pronouncements by police and elected officials" hampered her office's review process and that the review took nearly a year due to issues obtaining some records.

Family members' names are redacted in the newly released report, but in most cases their identities can be determined based on references to familial ties.

Darnell and A'Millah were found unresponsive Feb. 10, 2025, after the family spent the night in their 2010 Chrysler Town & Country inside the Hollywood Casino Greektown parking garage. Police said the vehicle had been left running as overnight temperatures plunged to around 17 degrees. Authorities initially believed the children died of hypothermia but an autopsy later determined their cause of death to be carbon monoxide poisoning.

According to the newly released report, family members told police Williams and her children had been living in the van for about two years. Investigators described the vehicle as being in “deplorable condition with human feces throughout the inside of the passenger compartment.”

When Williams woke up on Feb. 10, the vehicle had stopped running. With the help of a friend, she took Darnell to Children's Hospital in Detroit, where he was pronounced dead. Later, the children's grandmother, who also was living in the van with the family, realized A'Millah was not breathing and her lips were blue. She was declared dead at the hospital. Three other children sleeping in the van were not harmed.

After police seized the van and installed a new battery, a carbon monoxide leak was detected within minutes, according to the Prosecutor's Office.

When they arrived at the hospital, A'Millah was wearing a T-shirt and a soiled diaper while Darnell was wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants, according to the report. One of the children's teeth looked "very decayed" and both had head lice.

The report indicates that Williams' school-age children attended Ralph J. Bunche Elementary School in Ecorse, about 11 miles from downtown Detroit. The school’s principal told police the children had missed 26 days of school since September 2024 and that their mother never sought assistance from the district's social services system.

She also didn't reach out to a specialist with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services who was assigned to the family because they received financial assistance, the report states.

Williams did seek shelter in December 2023, Detroit city officials said previously, though it appeared the family did not use the temporary shelter that was offered. Workers from the city's shelter intake system, known as the Coordinated Assessment Model, tried to contact her the following March, April and May to check up on the family, but records indicated they didn't reach her.

The children’s father told police he was called to the hospital the day of the incident, where he was informed that his son had died. He said Williams never told him they were homeless or in need of help.

One surviving sibling told a specialist at the Kids-TALK Children’s Advocacy Center that when she woke up in the vehicle, "her brother and sister went to the hospital, and that her mother let them out of the van to play at the park, so they could smoke weed," the report states. The report does not clarify whether the child was referring to the day of her siblings' deaths or the date of the interview, which took place two days later.

Though Worthy declined to pursue criminal charges, she said in January that her office remains "very concerned about the welfare of the remaining living children" and she hopes the family is receiving help from "people and organizations that stepped in to help this family," following Darnell's and A'Millah's deaths.

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