Mother ‘tortured and killed’ her children before ‘forcing sibling to put body in freezer’

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A teenager has described to authorities how her mother killed two of her siblings, and forced her to put one of the bodies in the freezer at their Michigan home.

Mother Mitchelle Blair, 35, allegedly subjected her nine-year-old son, Stephen Barry, to torture for around two weeks before he died in August 2012, the woman’s surviving daughter told child welfare workers, according to a court filing.

The 17-year-old told the authorities that Blair strangled the girl’s 13-year-old sister, Stoni Ann Blair, in May 2013 because she was angered that she did not like her other siblings.

Both children died from multiple blunt traumas, while Stephen also suffered so-called “thermal injuries”, the Wayne County Medical Examiner found.

The mother then forced her to put Stoni’s body in the freezer, the daughter said.

When court officers delivered an eviction notice to Blair on Tuesday, they discovered Stephen and Stoni’s bodies in the freezer.

Police later tracked down Blair at another apartment in the complex.

After she was questioned by police on Tuesday morning and charged with child abuse, a county medical examiner said today that the deaths were the result of homicides, and prosecutors plan to file murder charges.

Owing to the severity of the allegations, a Michigan magistrate judge on Thursday set Blair's bond at $1 million (£672,000).

Blair's other children, a 17-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son, are in protective custody, prosecutors said.

Additional reporting by AP and Reuters