DETROIT, MI — Two of 35-year-old Mitchelle Blair’s four children lay in closed caskets at the front of Greater Grace Temple in Detroit Monday morning. Their horrific deaths, as described by their surviving 17-year-old sister in court documents, united a community who failed to protect them in life.
It’s believed that, after years of brutal abuse, they were killed in stored in the family deep freezer for about two years before being discovered during an eviction March 24. More than 200 attended the funeral, including clergy, relatives, the victims’ fathers, relatives, politicians and people who never knew the children while they were alive.
Photos of the smiling faces of Stoni Ann Blair, 13, and her half-brother, Stephen Gage Berry, were surrounded by hearts on the cover of the funeral program. “Stoni had a brilliant and bubbly personality, and a smile that would lighten up any day,” said April Williams, a cousin of Stephen’s, who spoke at the funeral. “Stoni always looked forward to her birthday and shared her love for them with a big smile.
