Court records describe Steven Berry being strangled, burned, and forced to drink window cleaner.
1. Crimehub: A True Crime Podcast focuses on the Detroit case involving Michele Angela Blair and the deaths of Stoney Ann Blair and Stephen Gage Berry.
2. Michele Angela Blair is the mother at the center of the case, and Wayne County deputies, Officer Diaz, Judge Dana Hathaway, and Judge Kenneth King all shape the legal record.
3. The episode asks how four children living in Apartment 804 on Detroit's east side became isolated, abused, and hidden from view.
4. In early 2015, Michele was a 35-year-old single mother in the Martin Luther King apartment complex with no job, no child support, and little family contact.
5. She had taken Gabby, Stoney, Stephen, and Alex out of school about two years earlier and said she was homeschooling them.
6. On March 24, 2015, eviction crew members entered the apartment for unpaid rent of $2,206 and lifted a white deep freezer that would not budge.
7. Inside that freezer, they found the frozen body of a girl and then a small boy, both later identified as Stoney and Stephen.
8. The Wayne County Medical Examiner concluded that Stoney died from blunt force trauma and Stephen from blunt force trauma with severe burns contributing to his death.
9. The children had been hidden in the freezer for nearly three years while Gabby and Alex lived in the apartment with them.
10. Michele's interrogation became the episode's main source material, because she spoke for four hours after police detained her on the day of the discovery.
11. Officer Diaz noted Michelle's chest tattoo reading “Trust no one,” and Michelle answered questions about her missing children in the past tense.
12. When asked where Stoney and Stephen were, Michelle said “Freezer,” then admitted, “I did.”
13. She claimed the brothers were raping Alex, but investigators did not find evidence that supported sexual abuse.
14. Michele described killing Stephen over about 14 days, including beatings, strangulation, forced window cleaner, a plastic bag, a belt, and scalding water.
15. She also described killing Stoney after a later accusation involving Alex, saying, “With Stoney, I meant to do it.”
16. Gabby later told detectives that her mother forced her to drag Stoney's body into the living room and stuff it into the freezer with Stephen's.
17. The episode notes that Michelle continued collecting government benefits for the children she had killed while keeping Gabby and Alex out of school and cut off from help.
18. The tone is grim, case-file driven, and centered on direct quotes from the interrogation and sentencing record.
19. Listeners interested in interrogation transcripts, custody failures, and Michigan true crime would fit this episode.
20. Listeners looking for a light or fast-moving format probably should skip it.
