DETROIT, MI — Detroit police are investigating the deaths of three people, including a 14-year-old boy and his 50-year-old mother, after officers responding to a reported foul odor found bodies inside a northwest Detroit home last week.
Police Chief Todd Bettison said investigators believe the boy and his mother may have died in a murder-suicide, while the third person could be the woman’s husband, who relatives said had not been seen or heard from in years. Police believe all three people suffered apparent gunshot wounds, but the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office has not completed its findings.
Authorities have not publicly released the victims’ names, and several major questions about the deaths remain unanswered.
The investigation began Thursday, Aug. 20, when Detroit police went to a home in the 15500 block of Stoepel Street after a neighbor reported a foul odor and requested a well-being check.
Officers entered the residence and found the 14-year-old boy and his 50-year-old mother dead.
“Officers initially responded for a well-being check following a foul odor reported by a neighbor,” Bettison said.
Police initially described the deaths as under investigation while detectives worked to determine who lived at the house and what had happened.
Neighbors said the odor had been noticeable for days, with some saying they had smelled it for roughly two weeks. One resident told local reporters that the smell had become strong enough that she filed a complaint with the city more than a week before police entered the home.
Authorities have not said exactly when the mother and son died.
The case widened Friday, Aug. 21, after detectives spoke with relatives and learned that the woman’s husband had been missing from contact with the family for years.
“On Friday, after speaking with the family, we learned the woman’s husband had not been seen or heard from in years,” Bettison said.
Investigators opened a missing-person inquiry and returned to the Stoepel Street house. During the renewed search, officers found skeletal human remains in the basement.
Bettison said detectives believe the three dead people may be related, but police have not confirmed that the basement remains belong to the missing husband.
The medical examiner is responsible for establishing the identity of the remains and formally determining the causes and manners of death.
Police have not said how long the remains had been in the basement or whether investigators found a firearm, ammunition or other physical evidence linking the three deaths.
By Monday, Aug. 24, the investigation was still active at the home. People wearing masks and protective gear were seen entering and leaving the property, while flies and other insects were visible around windows.
Neighbors described the woman as someone who rarely left the house and said they sometimes saw her briefly when she collected food deliveries. Residents also said they had not seen the woman’s husband for years.
Bettison said investigators currently believe all three people died from apparent gunshot wounds, but he stressed that detectives were awaiting the medical examiner’s full report.
The condition of the basement remains makes that examination especially important because investigators must determine identity as well as when and how the person died.
Police have not publicly described evidence showing whether the deaths happened at the same time or years apart, and they have not established a public timeline for the third person’s death.
The discoveries came in two stages. Officers first encountered the bodies of the mother and teenager during the Thursday well-being check. Only after investigators learned about the long-unseen husband did they return and find the basement remains.
That sequence has left detectives examining both recent events and a disappearance that relatives said extended back years.
Police have not disclosed whether the husband had ever been formally reported missing before last week, whether anyone outside the household had recently spoken with him or whether investigators have records showing when he was last known to be alive.
They also have not released information about who owned the home or how long the family had lived there.
Bettison said the investigation indicates the victims may all be relatives, but authorities were waiting for forensic confirmation before identifying the third person.
No criminal charges had been announced as of Tuesday, Aug. 25, and police have not publicly identified a suspect in the deaths. Investigators also have not announced an arrest.
The department has said there is no continuing threat to the public. Police have described the deaths of the mother and boy as an apparent murder-suicide, but that remains an investigative conclusion rather than a final medical determination.
The medical examiner’s findings could establish which wounds were fatal, estimate when each person died and determine the official manner of each death.
Detectives are also expected to use those findings alongside interviews, household records and evidence recovered from the residence as they reconstruct the sequence of events.
Authorities have not given a date for when the autopsy and identification work will be finished.
Residents along Stoepel Street said the discovery disturbed a neighborhood where the first visible sign that something was wrong was an odor coming from the property.
One neighbor said the smell had become difficult to tolerate while she spent time in her backyard near the house. Others told reporters they had not heard gunfire before police arrived, leaving them with little indication of what investigators would eventually find.
The police activity continued into the start of the week as investigators worked inside the home under conditions that required protective equipment.
The unanswered questions, including the identity of the person in the basement and the length of time the remains were there, have made the medical examiner’s work central to determining whether detectives are dealing with deaths separated by days, months or years.
Bettison said detectives are continuing to piece together the family’s history and the circumstances surrounding each death.
Police have not released the mother or boy’s names, identified the basement remains or announced when the Wayne County Medical Examiner will issue final findings.
Until those results are completed, the precise timeline and official causes and manners of all three deaths remain under investigation.
Last updated Aug. 25, 2026.