She Didn’t Want Him, So She Put Him In A Freezer

She Didn’t Want Him, So She Put Him In A Freezer

Horrific story in Detroit where the body of a three-year-old boy is found in a basement freezer. Disgusting doesn’t even touch it. Three-year-old Chase, who is blind, was found dead inside of a freezer. Six children, including Chase and a newborn, were living in unlivable conditions.

His mother is now arrested in connection to his death. We’re told she has a lengthy history with CPS. “We loved him, and we miss him, and she needs to pay for what she did.”

On June 24th, 2022, at 12:45 a.m., a team of Detroit police officers and a state family services advocate performed a wellness check at a run-down home on the 12,000 block of Monte Vista Street, which is located on Detroit’s west side.

However, the woman who answered the door acted strangely, and it wasn’t just because the police had woken her up past midnight. The team immediately became suspicious of the woman and wondered if things weren’t as they appeared. According to Detroit Police Chief James White, the woman in question, identified as 31-year-old Azora DeFrance, tried to push the officers away as if there was nothing going on.

Additionally, something about the conversation that she was having with the officers didn’t seem right. Acting on a hunch, the officers called for a supervisor, and the team entered the derelict two-story home. Inside, officers found five kids ranging in ages from 3 months old to 9 years old living in squalor. And even more shocking was what the response team was going to find next.

Entombed in a broken basement freezer was the decomposing body of a three-year-old little boy. That little boy’s name was Chase Allen, and he had not been seen by neighbors or relatives since March of 2022. Although his death was determined to be a homicide by the medical examiner, an exact cause of death is still pending.

Police have also not released what exactly had prompted the wellness check. However, one could speculate that they were looking for someone in particular due to the subsequent search of the home. Following the discovery of Chase’s body, DeFrance was arrested and charged with felony homicide, first-degree child abuse, torture, and concealing the death of an individual.

Her five surviving kids were taken to a local hospital for wellness checks and for forensic interviews with investigators and psychologists. Initially, investigators were looking into whether DeFrance had previous contacts with the Detroit Police or the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. However, court documents revealed that DeFrance was charged with child abuse in 2018 for beating her nephew.

According to Chase’s grandmother, Tony Haynes, she and other relatives had allegedly called CPS to report DeFrance on dozens of occasions over the years. She had first got suspicious that her grandkids were not being taken care of properly after her daughter had told her that Chase had burned his hand on a plate of noodles.

However, despite the dozens of alleged reports, according to Tony, CPS never permanently removed any of DeFrance’s kids from her home. They had always been subsequently returned to her care. Prior to the discovery of his remains, DeFrance began to concoct stories regarding Chase’s whereabouts. She allegedly told Tony that Chase had gone to live with his paternal grandfather’s girlfriend.

At the time, the grandfather in question had been incarcerated. However, once released from jail, the grandfather denied that Chase was ever in his or his girlfriend’s custody. Tony stated that family members allegedly went to her daughter’s house on Monte Vista Street about 2 weeks ago to confront her, followed by yet another call to CPS for help.

DeFrance’s stories regarding Chase’s whereabouts kept changing. At one point, she allegedly told relatives that he was in the hospital and that she had given him away. Chase was described by his family members as a sweet young boy who was blind and disabled. According to a relative, she—referring to DeFrance—”couldn’t deal with it,” and we all said, “Give him to us if you can’t deal with it.”

Furthermore, according to neighbor Lynette Hardy, “They didn’t have anything. In the winter, I saw them with summer clothes on, summer shoes, some had no shirts, and I just made it in my mind that I was going to help her because she needed help.” Lynette was also of the impression that Chase was living with relatives after DeFrance informed her that her aunt and uncle in Alabama had him and that he was really adjusting well.

Only recently did she learn that he was actually missing. The neighbor who couldn’t have kids of her own stated that she often bought clothing and food for the family whom she described as deprived. She described them as a loving family, and in fact, she also described DeFrance as loving. Recently, she had provided the family with rides and connected the mother with resources for tutoring her kids as they had trouble with reading.

Much like DeFrance’s other relatives, Lynette had also offered to take the kids in. Chase Allen’s death hearkens back to the deaths of 9-year-old Stoni Glee Blair and her sister, 13-year-old Stephen Gage Berry. The two siblings were killed by their mother, Mitchelle, and found entombed within a freezer in their Detroit home.

Their bodies were discovered in 2015 after authorities served Mitchelle with an eviction notice. You may remember us covering this case earlier this year. Some folks are probably wondering how something like this could have happened again in the same city, and who could have dropped the ball. I’m sure some would also be quick to blame this on poverty or label it as a Detroit problem.

We’ve covered these types of cases for quite some time now, and they occur across all demographics and locales, not just disadvantaged ones or in cities with a bad reputation. As a side note, we actually recently got to spend some time in Detroit and found it quite lovely. And this is despite what the media would have you think.

It’s actually not a lawless wasteland. Beyond the images of sprawling urban decay, straight out of 1993’s True Romance, you actually have a city full of welcoming people and an amazing food and nightlife culture. Outside of the airport, we only got to experience Midtown and the Hamtramck/Banglatown neighborhoods during our short visit, but we’re already looking forward to returning to the Motor City to explore more.

As with any case that’s still developing, we’ll be on the lookout for updates as they come out. As DeFrance has yet to be convicted of a crime, please note that all statements are considered alleged until proven otherwise in a court of law. And as always, if you see something, say something. Keep making that call until someone listens.

And if you’re a parent going through a hard time and you can’t care for your kids, please reach out and accept help before it’s too late. Today, an ever-growing memorial of toys and stuffed animals have begun to gather upon the cement steps of the shabby white single-family home. Tony Haynes has set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money for Chase’s funeral, as well as for clothing and other necessities for his surviving siblings.

As of the date of this recording, the fundraiser is roughly a quarter of the way to reaching its $10,000 goal. For those interested, we’ll link Chase’s GoFundMe in the show notes. Also, please note that we are recording this on June 27th. I believe this is coming out July 5th. So, between then and now, there might be new discoveries in this case that we did not cover today.

So, please keep that in mind. This is very new. This happened just a few days ago. If there’s any updates between now and then, we’ll definitely make sure to either put something in a pinned comment or make a community post about it. For those celebrating in the States, I hope you had a good Fourth of July weekend. It was just my birthday this past weekend.

If you want to give me a great birthday present and you’ve been watching this channel for a while, if you would please consider hitting that subscribe button, that would mean an awful lot to me. We also have a very wonderful group of people going that extra step on Patreon. I will put their names up right now.