DETROIT – Kellye Canty and her nine-month-old baby Kanaan had just dropped her mother off for a doctor’s appointment at Harper Hospital. Canty and her baby remained in the car in the parking garage with the car running.
When her mother was ready to leave the doctor’s office, she called Canty and got no answer. She then called Canty’s husband, DeMarray Canty. He, too, called Kellye Canty and got no answer.
“Not too long after that, probably like an hour and a half, her mother had called to see if I had talked to her because she had been calling her (Kellye Canty), telling her that she was ready,” said husband, DeMarray Canty.
At first, that didn’t seem out of the ordinary. But as time went on, DeMarray Canty decided to go to the hospital to see what was going on.
“Her mama and I just said she’s probably still in the parking structure because there was no signal,” DeMarray Canty said. “So, I went down to the hospital.”
He began walking through the parking structure when he arrived until he finally found the car.
“It appeared at first she was sleeping, so I just tapped on the window,” said DeMarray Canty.
When he got no reaction, he started pounding on the window, and others in the garage heard the commotion and came to help break the glass until they finally were able to get inside the vehicle.
While others grabbed Kellye, he grabbed Kanaan.
“I picked him up, and I touched my face to his face, and I’m just rocking him, but his face is cold,” DeMarray Canty said.
They tried CPR on Kanaan and Kellye Canty in the garage, ultimately getting both into the ER, but it was too late.
The two were dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.
“So I went in the room with my wife, and I’m watching them work on her, and it wasn’t nothing they can do,” DeMarray Canty said. “They was already gone.”
Kellye Canty had gotten a used car about a year ago with rear-end damage. She and DeMarray thought it was only cosmetic. It turns out the exhaust system was damaged and was spewing fumes into the car.
April 1 is DeMarray, and Kellye Canty’s first anniversary; it’s also the day he’ll be burying his wife and son.
The family has set up a gofundme for funeral expenses.