Overview
- The case began Wednesday when the father allegedly assaulted and tied the mother at an Inkster home and then left with their 4- and 6-year-old sons.
- Investigators from Inkster, Detroit and Ohio used license-plate readers, Flock Safety cameras and cellphone location data to trace the vehicle into Norwalk and Huron County, Ohio.
- Officers located the children in a cornfield where one boy told police his father had shot himself; authorities later identified the father as Brandon Deandre Lee and said his death was an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
- Both boys were unharmed, received medical and social-service care in Ohio, have spoken with their mother, and were being returned to Michigan while multi-agency teams coordinate evidence collection.
- Family members said Lee had been struggling after his mother's death last year, and officials credited the cross-jurisdictional, tech-assisted response for the quick recovery while urging people facing domestic violence to seek help.