Mitchelle Blair’s story — Her shocking crimes

In March 2015, a routine eviction at an apartment complex in Detroit, Michigan, led to the discovery of the torture and murders of Stephen and Stoni Blair at the hands of their mother, Mitchelle Blair. Mitchelle had stuffed their bodies in a freezer, leaving them there for years. 

Blair fell behind on rent after her relatives stopped lending her money and advised her to get a job. Try as she might, Blair couldn’t hold on to a job. She owed $2,206 to the apartment complex, prompting the court to sanction her eviction. 

Blair’s neighbors described her as a beautiful person with a good heart

From the outside, Mitchelle Blair seemed like a lovely mom raising four happy children. Blair had two daughters, including Stoni, with Alexander J. Dorsey, and two sons, including Stephen, with Steven Berry. 

Friends and neighbors speaking to The Daily Mail said Blair was homeschooling the children. Michigan state law at the time didn’t require parents to register the home school with the state Education office. 

People called Mitchelle ‘Angel’, from her middle name Angela, because she was well-liked. “The mother is a beautiful person,” Carrie McDonald, a neighbor, said. “She was just going through some things. She has a good heart.” 

The neighbors said they rarely saw the children; they hadn’t seen Stephen and Stoni for more than a year. “She really don’t let them outside,” Shay Wilson, another neighbor, said. “They are always in the house.”

Mitchelle Blair brutally tortured Stephen and Stoni for weeks before killing them

Unbeknownst to Blair’s neighbors, Blair often abused her children. The abuse intensified after she allegedly learned that Stephen had been sexually abusing her youngest son. 

Blair said she arrived home one day in August 2012 to find her youngest son using dolls to simulate sexual activity. When Blair questioned the behavior, the boy said Stephen had sexually abused him. Blair alleged that Stephen confessed to sexually assaulting his younger brother. She said:

“I went upstairs and I said, Stephen, Matthew said you were humping on him. He stood up and looked at me like he had lost his mind. He said yes…So I started punching Stephen… I put a bag over his head, he lost consciousness, I did that a couple of times.”

Blair said she repeatedly poured hot water over his genitals, peeling off his skin. She made Stephen drink Windex and lifted him up using a belt wrapped around his neck. On 30th August 2012, Stephen succumbed to his injuries after two weeks of torture. 

Blair, who claimed Stephen’s death was accidental, placed his body in a freezer. Nine months later, she discovered that Stoni was allegedly sexually abusing her youngest son and also abused Stephen. Blair repeated the torture routine, starving, scalding, beating, and choking Stoni. 

Stoni passed away on 25th May 2013 via strangulation. Mitchelle confessed that she intended to kill Stoni:

“She raped my son. I intentionally killed her. When I found out what Stoni was doing to Matthew it was nine months later after I found out about Stephen. So, for the whole nine months that we were in the house, she was still raping my child. I did not know that.”

Blair, who’s serving a life sentence, said she would repeat her actions

Mitchelle Blair said she intended to turn herself over to the police following the second murder, but her son told her he wanted her to stay. Therefore, she wrapped Stoni’s body in plastic and placed it in the freezer on top of Stephen’s body. 

Blair showed no remorse during her trial, which she regularly interrupted with outbursts. “[They] had no remorse for what [they] did to my son,” she said. “There was no other option. There’s no excuse for rape. I would kill them again. I do not feel remorse for the death of them demons.”

In June 2015, Blair pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence at the Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Michigan. She is ineligible for parole. 

“They [the children] lived in terrible fear of you,” Judge Dana Hathaway, the sentencing judge, said, “and I find that so sad in this case. After all is said and done, you imposed the death penalty on your own children.”

During a prison interview with True Crime Daily, Mitchelle Blair said she endured sexual abuse as a child and told her mom about it, but her mother did nothing. Blair described the sexual assault of children as an unforgivable crime. “If there is one thing I would kill over, it would be that,” she said.

“I don’t care what anybody think, she had to go, period.” Blair said that she did for her son what her mother couldn’t do decades ago. “When I say he’s got closure, he got it. I know exactly what he was feeling. I knew what he was feeling because that’s exactly how I used to feel.”

Prosecutor Carin Goldfarb said the authorities found no evidence of rape on the children. 

Blair’s surviving children are thriving after the courts refused to grant custody to their fathers

After the discovery of Stoni and Stephen’s bodies, Detroit Police Chief James Craig reminded people to be mindful of the surviving children:

“While we all understand the desire to know what happened in that home is strong, I will ask you to be mindful of the two children who were also in that home and are still living. They’ve been through a lot, a tremendous trauma.”

Medical examinations and testimonies from the children revealed they’d endured extensive abuse. According to MLive, medical professionals found 25 scars and injuries on the surviving son’s back. They also found scars and injuries consistent with beatings inflicted using an extension cord.

Blair’s oldest daughter revealed that her mother hit her with a curling iron, breaking one of her front teeth. The then-17-year-old also had scars from whippings and burning with irons. 

Authorities turned their attention to the children’s fathers, whom they accused of neglecting their parental responsibilities. “I did it! I never tried to say I didn’t. I did it!” Blair yelled in court. “But that does not negate the fact that they [the fathers] were never there for their children.”

Assistant Attorney General Kelli Megyesi argued in court that the children’s biological parents didn’t deserve custody. She said that due to the parents’ inaction, the children endured ‘torture, terror, psychological dehumanization, physical dehumanization, desertion, and abandonment’.

Megyesi accused the fathers of failing to protect their children. Dorsey, who owed $39,000 in child support, told MLive that he hadn’t seen Stoni for two years. “I thought she’d do it to herself,” Dorsey said. “I didn’t think she’d do it to my baby.”

Dorsey said he’d noticed marks on his daughters’ bodies but didn’t confront Blair about them. Berry, who owed more than $11,000 in child support, argued via his attorney that he was ‘manipulated by the mother’ and there was no evidence that he knew about the abuse. 

The court stripped the fathers of custody, which turned out to be the right decision: the children are thriving. Judge Edward Joseph told The Detroit Free Press:

“They [the kids] definitely exceeded expectations. Both children overcame the majority of setbacks they encountered in the case.”

Blair had her sentence increased after committing crimes in prison

In March 2017, Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Chris Gautz told The Detroit Free Press that Blair had been in segregation since July 2015. Gautz said Blair had accumulated 28 misconducts, including assaulting and spitting on prisoners and throwing urine on an officer. 

In April 2019, the outlet reported that Blair’s prison incidents had risen to 49. Blair was accused of using a Pringles can to throw feces and urine at the chest and face of a corrections officer. Furthermore, Mitchelle allegedly hit an officer who’d tried to de-escalate a verbal altercation between Blair and another prisoner. 

Blair was sentenced to 38 months to five years for the two incidents. Chris Gautz said Blair had been removed from the segregation unit and returned to the general population.