DETROIT – During Tuesday’s hearing, police described what they encountered on Monte Vista Street when they found the body of 3-year-old Chase Allen in a freezer inside a Detroit home this past summer.
His mother, Azuradee France, was arrested for murder, and five children were removed from the house.
On June 24, Detroit police Sgt. Karen Boudreaux was doing a welfare check on Allen when the sergeant said France suddenly confessed.
Read: Woman believes CPS could have prevented death of 3-year-old Detroit boy found in freezer
Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Erin Wilmoth: “What happened at that point?”
Boudreaux: “Well, she said to me, ‘I confess.’ I looked at her and said, ‘What are you confessing to?’ She wasn’t crying, but she started to get very emotional. She told me Chase was in the house in the basement, deceased, and in the refrigerator.”
Charges France received were:
- Child abuse
- Torture
- Concealing a death
Her defense said when she confessed that police did not read France her rights.
Defense Attorney Lillian Diallo: “You think she did something you were supposed to give her her rights, saying ‘Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. That didn’t happen.”
Read: What we’ve learned about CPS visits to Detroit home where toddler was found dead in freezer
Detroit police officer Matthew McKinney opened the freezer in the home’s basement and saw a bag inside.
Wilmoth: “Did you see the contents of that bag?”
McKinney: “I opened the bag up a little bit where I seen a child size decomposed body.”
An assistant Wayne County medical examiner said the boy’s remains showed signs he was malnourished and that he had skull fractures.
The assistant testified that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head of the 3-year-old.