Detroit, MI – Tateona Williams, a 29-year-old mother from Detroit, made desperate calls for help. She contacted shelters. She pleaded with agencies. She asked strangers. She did everything a mother in crisis could do. But no one answered. No doors opened. No system saved her family from the brutal cold of a Detroit winter.
And now, two of her children—9-year-old Darnell Currie Jr. and 2-year-old Amillah Currie—are gone, their young lives stolen by freezing temperatures inside a van that had become their only home.
Authorities confirmed that the children succumbed to hypothermia in the early hours of Monday, February 10, 2025, after the family’s vehicle ran out of gas, leaving them without heat as they sought shelter inside the Hollywood Casino Hotel parking garage in downtown Detroit.
Their mother, who had fought tirelessly to secure a warm place for them to sleep, awoke to a horrifying reality: her babies were unresponsive.
Now, as she grieves, she is asking a painful question that has no easy answer:
“Why did no one help before it was too late?”
A Desperate Mother’s Fight for Shelter
For months, Tateona Williams had been living on the edge, struggling to provide a stable home for her children after a series of financial hardships left them without a place to live.
Despite her job as a certified nursing assistant and medical assistant, Williams found herself facing an impossible battle: Detroit’s overwhelmed shelter system, endless waiting lists, and a brutal winter that showed no mercy.
She reached out to Coordinated Assessment Model (CAM), the primary system used to connect homeless families in Detroit to available shelters. But like thousands of other families in need, she found herself placed on an indefinite waiting list—a system that could take weeks, if not months, to offer a placement.
“I’ve been on CAM list for the longest,” Williams said through tears. “I called out of state. I called cities I didn’t know. I called every place people told me to call. Nobody would help us. And now my babies are gone.”
Detroit’s homelessness crisis has left many families stranded, with few emergency options available. With nowhere else to go, Williams, her five children, and her own mother had been living in a van—their last refuge against the freezing temperatures.
But on that fateful Sunday night, February 9, 2025, their last refuge became their cold and silent tomb.
A Mother’s Worst Nightmare
Police reports state that Tateona Williams parked the van on the ninth floor of the Hollywood Casino Hotel garage around 1:00 AM Monday morning, hoping that the enclosed space would provide some insulation against the bitter cold.
At the time, outside temperatures had plummeted to 12 degrees Fahrenheit (-11 degrees Celsius), and the family had no choice but to keep the engine running for heat.
However, at some point during the night, the van ran out of gas.
The family slept.
And in the darkness of that freezing night, Darnell Jr. and Amillah slowly lost their battle against the cold.
When Williams awoke in the morning to get her children ready for school, she found Darnell Jr. unresponsive. She shook him. She screamed his name. She begged him to wake up.
But he never did.
In a desperate panic, she called a friend, who immediately rushed her and Darnell Jr. to Children’s Hospital of Michigan.
During this frantic drive to the hospital, Williams received another devastating call—this time from her own mother, who was still inside the van.
“Amillah isn’t breathing either,” her mother sobbed over the phone.
The 2-year-old girl had also succumbed to the cold.
When medical teams at the hospital examined the children, both were pronounced dead from hypothermia.
Williams, who had spent months pleading for help, was now left cradling the lifeless bodies of two of her beloved children.
A System That Failed Them
The tragic deaths of Darnell and Amillah have sparked outrage, with many in the community asking how a mother who repeatedly asked for help was ignored until it was too late.
Williams wasn’t unemployed. She wasn’t neglectful. She wasn’t making excuses. She was working. She was fighting. She was begging.
Yet, Detroit’s overburdened shelter system had no space for her family, leaving her and her children exposed to deadly conditions.
Community activists have pointed out that Detroit’s housing crisis has left countless families in situations similar to Williams’—with few, if any, options when faced with eviction or financial hardship.
Mark Reynolds, director of the Detroit Housing Initiative, expressed frustration over the city’s lack of emergency resources for homeless families.
“This was entirely preventable,” Reynolds said. “We keep seeing the same cycle—families losing their homes, shelters turning them away, and tragedy striking when temperatures drop. We need to do better.”
According to reports, Detroit’s CAM system receives hundreds of calls daily from families in crisis, many of whom are placed on long waiting lists.
For Williams, the help she needed only came after her worst nightmare had already happened.
“Everybody now wants to help after I lost two kids?” she asked. “Where was the help when I was asking for it before?”
Community Response & Calls for Change
The Detroit community has rallied behind Williams, with many donating to a GoFundMe campaign launched by a friend to help her find stable housing for her remaining children.
A vigil was held outside the Hollywood Casino Hotel, where community members placed flowers, stuffed animals, and handwritten letters in memory of Darnell and Amillah.
Mayor Mike Duggan addressed the tragedy, calling for an urgent review of the city’s emergency housing resources.
“No child should ever have to sleep in a car,” Duggan said. “This loss is devastating, and we must take immediate steps to prevent this from ever happening again.”
Michigan State Representative Cynthia Thompson also called for legislative action to expand emergency shelters and streamline housing assistance programs for struggling families.
“A mother should never have to beg for help and be ignored. We need real solutions—now,” Thompson stated.
A Grieving Mother’s Plea
Tateona Williams is now left to pick up the pieces of a life that has been shattered beyond repair.
She is still trying to come to terms with the unimaginable loss of her two youngest children.
And she’s still asking the question that lingers in the air, unanswered:
“Why did no one help me before it was too late?”
Her three surviving children—ages 4, 6, and 11—are now in her care, as she struggles to rebuild in the aftermath of tragedy.
But no matter what happens next, she will never get back what was lost on that freezing night.
Detroit has vowed to never let this happen again.
But for Darnell Currie Jr. and Amillah Currie, the promises come too late.
Their mother asked for help.
And no one came.
How You Can Help
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up for Tateona Williams and her surviving children to help them find permanent housing. Donations can be made at [GoFundMe Link].
For those looking to help prevent future tragedies like this, consider donating to local shelters and advocacy organizations working to fight homelessness in Detroit.
This should never have happened.
And it should never happen again.
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