Family called CPS repeatedly before toddler found dead in freezer, MI suit says
.png "Chayce Allen, 3 years old, was found dead inside a freezer in a basement in his Detroit home in 2022, according to a lawsuit.")
A Michigan man is suing after he says child protective services failed to protect his 3-year-old son who was found dead in a freezer in his mother’s basement.
The federal lawsuit filed March 31 lists 13 defendants employed by Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services, Children’s Protective Services Division.
McClatchy News reached out to the agency for comment but did not immediately hear back.
On June 23, 2022, a CPS employee went to a home in Detroit to check on 3-year-old Chayce Allen “after multiple family members expressed concerns” that the toddler may be dead, according to the lawsuit.
Officers spoke with Chayce’s mother, Azuradee France, but her responses were “vague, evasive and highly suspicious,” the lawsuit said.
However, once authorities informed her they would be going inside to look for Chayce, France told them her son was dead and his body was inside a fridge in the basement, the civil complaint said.
“Chayce’s lifeless and decaying body was found stuffed into a laundry bag that was stored on the shelf of a broken freezer in France’s basement. His small body was barely recognizable, and had clearly been there for months, decomposing in the basement while his other siblings lived upstairs,” the lawsuit said.
France pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2024 and was sentenced to 35 to 60 years in prison, according to WJBK.
‘Failure to protect’
Juwan Allen, who filed the lawsuit, was Chayce’s father, according to WJBK. Family members told the news outlet that CPS had been called 13 times in 2022, prior to the boy’s death.
The first report of abuse came in November 2018, when Chayce was two months old, the lawsuit said.
Chayce had “a black eye, a swollen lip, contusion on his forehead, multiple bruises on his buttocks and rib cage, abrasions on his abdomen, abrasions on his penis area, and abrasions on the back of his neck. He was also found to be ‘malnourished’, ‘dirty, and smell[ing] of urine,’” according to the complaint.
In December, Chayce and his siblings were removed from the home, but were later returned to France in November 2020, the lawsuit said.
Two months later, in January 2021, CPS returned to investigate another report of abuse. Chayce had second and third degree burns on his hands, the complaint said.
Initially, France told CPS investigators she had taken Chayce to a hospital to be treated, but later said she lied about that because she “did not want her children taken away from her,” the lawsuit said.
France was monitored by CPS and progress reports were conducted until about April 2021, the complaint said.
Reports stated France was “progressing,” but then in September 2021, she “severely abused Chayce again,” according to the lawsuit.
When relatives picked Chayce up, he had “a black eye, a gash near the top of his eyebrow, and bruised ribs,” the lawsuit said. He was also malnourished and kept throwing up, according to the complaint.
“At the hands of his mother and what doctors described as ’non-accidental blunt force trauma,’ Chayce became fully and permanently blind. He spent his final days of torment and abuse in complete darkness,” the lawsuit said.
Chayce died as a result of CPS’ failure to protect him from child abuse, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit is asking for more than $75,000 in damages.
This story was originally published April 7, 2025 at 1:57 PM with the headline "Family called CPS repeatedly before toddler found dead in freezer, MI suit says."
