Mom of Buffalo woman, 22, who froze to death in her car speaks out

The mother of a 22-year-old woman who died after becoming trapped in her car in blizzard-wrought Buffalo has revealed it took a random passerby to transport her daughter's corpse to a coroner after officials were unable to make it to the scene.

Speaking to DailyMail.com, Wanda Brown Steele said that she her family are 'angry' that coroners in New York's second largest city failed to show up on Christmas Eve after a Good Samaritan spotted her daughter, Anndel Taylor, dead in her car. 

According to the mom, it was thanks to this unnamed woman - not officials - that she was able to gain confirmation that Anndel had died, while also receiving closure that her 'iced up' body was out of the elements and finally at rest.

The revelation comes days after Anndel's sudden death, after she spent 18 hours in her car trying to wait out a historic snowstorm currently devastating Buffalo. In her final moments, Anndel sent a video to her mom and sisters from inside the car - sparking a massive search for the 22-year-old.

Speaking to DailyMail.com, Wanda Brown Steele said that she her family are 'angry' that coroners failed to show up after a Good Samaritan spotted her daughter's body in her car

In a family group chat, Taylor told her family members she was stuck in the snow while driving home from work and the precipitation was coming down fast

'My children and I are angry,' a distraught Brown Steele, 53, told DailyMail.com, expressing her frustrations over officials' handling of the incident. 'She was in the car too long. From Friday to Christmas.'

While trapped, Brown Steele said that a 'scared' Anndel was in contact with her family via a group text messaging service, and chronicled some of her heartbreaking final hours. 

She told them how she had become trapped Friday night while on her way home from work, had called 911 and was waiting for officials to arrive. But they never did, with cops only arriving after Anndel had already died, around 5pm Christmas Eve.

Upon receiving Anndel's messages, Brown Steele and her daughters, Shawnequa and Tomeshia, did not understand the severity of her situation, Brown Steele said - nor the immediate danger she was in.

'Everything was closed,' the mom said, remarking how for almost a full day, police were unable to reach her due to treacherous conditions and 50 inches of snowfall that had enveloped the city by Friday night.

The victim sent relatives  video of her trapped in her vehicle as she waitied 18 hours for police to arrive. The family soon lost contact with her, sparking a search that eventually saw a Good Samaritan come across the vehicle - not city officials

Brown Steele went on to reveal that after hours of not hearing from her daughter - who had sent videos from her car of the wintry hell surrounding her - it was the unnamed woman who eventually spotted her, unconscious and unmoving in her car.

Concerned, the woman tried to get a response from Anndel, and soon realized that she had died. She quickly called police, who were already aware Anndel had been trapped.

Police eventually arrived on the scene after receiving the call from the woman, who had braved the streets in a truck that was equipped for the wintry conditions.

In the time it took cops to arrive, Brown Steele said that the woman was able to contact her and other members of the family, after hearing about their search on social media.

Eventually connecting via Facetime, the woman told Brown Steele who she was - and notified her of her daughter's fate. To offer the mother some closure, the woman panned the camera over to Anndel's body, which the mom said resembled 'an iceberg.'

Brown Steele said that her daughters, Shawnequa (left) and Tomeshia (right), are irate over the city's slow response to reports that Anndel had been trapped

She recalled how she was overrun with emotion once she realized that her daughter was dead. 'I couldn't breath,' Brown Steele said. 'She looked iced-up. I was heartbroken.

Despite the conditions outside, the woman assured the then distraught mother that she would wait with her daughter's body for police to arrive.

'She told me: "I’m gonna stay out there with your baby. I won’t leave her,"' Browne steel said.

Eventually, officers arrived at the scene, but the group was left waiting again for hours after coroners failed to show up. The woman again stepped up, offering her truck to transport the body to the coroner's office.

'The coroner never came,' Brown Steele recalled in disbelief, describing the family's frustrations. 'A random woman had to pick her up. She and the police put her body in her car because the coroner never came.'

Taylor's sister posted this message to Facebook on Christmas Eve, nearly 24 hours after she was first stranded in the storm - which ultimately led to the Good Samaritan finding the body

The search for Andell was sparked after she sent her family a final video from inside her car, a day before she was discovered dead from what her mother said was carbon monoxide poisoning, rather than hypothermia. 

It showed her car stuck in snow while a frightening wind howled outside, just after midnight on Saturday. 

The video sparked desperate pleas from her friends and family who begged strangers - from states away - to help locate their missing loved one. She was eventually found sometime after Saturday afternoon. The exact date and time is unknown. 

Snow-covered vehicles in Buffalo following the winter storm that has rocked the United States - with the Western New York City so far bearing the brunt of the bad weather

The snowy streets of Buffalo on Tuesday morning. Residents have been attempting to shovel the snow out of the way

Power line trucks arrive on Allen Street to supply power to apartments and homes in Buffalo

As of Tuesday morning, 35 deaths across Erie County, including Buffalo, have been confirmed 

A tree knocked over due to strong wind is seen near a Walgreens parking lot in Buffalo Monday. Officials claim to be going car to car to search for other casualties 

Andell, who was born in Buffalo but raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, moved back to New York earlier this year to take care of her father. 

The 22-year-old's mom and sister spoke with WCOS in North Carolina about the agony of receiving the terrifying video and the waiting afterwards. 

In a family group chat, Taylor told her family members she was stuck in the snow while driving home from work and the precipitation was coming down fast. 

The 16-second video showed Taylor rolling down the snow-covered window to display a wintry landscape. 

In a family group chat, Anndel told her family members she was stuck in the snow while driving home from work and the precipitation was coming down fast 

'She was telling my sister that she was scared,' said Shawnequa Brown, Taylor's sister

Brown Steele said that she plans to have her daughter's body transported back to North Carolina when the storm finally subsides at some point this week

'She was telling my sister that she was scared,' said Shawnequa Brown, Taylor's sister. 

The camera pans out over the scene which features several feet of snow under the car and another stranded vehicle nearby. 

All the while the snow and cold whips through the air in the otherwise silence of the night. 

Her family told local media in Charlotte they did not know the extent what western New York was going to experience.  

'I don't know if any of us really knew how serious it was, we didn't see the news, we didn't really know what was going on in Buffalo,' said Brown. 

As of Tuesday morning, 35 deaths across Erie County, the county where Buffalo is located, have been confirmed. 

In total, nationwide, around 70 people have died in weather-related incidents during the historic storm, spurring the Biden Administration to approve a state of emergency Monday for the entire state of New York.

That came as the death toll in Buffalo rose to 35 Monday, with three of those deaths stemming from motorists who found dead in their cars. 

Officials are warning that more corpses could still be found as they forecast a further foot of snow, while the storm - called a 'once in a lifetime' weather disaster by the city's governor - continues to rage. 

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz described the blizzard as 'the worst storm probably in our lifetime', and further warned: 'This is not the end yet.' 

'We've had so many bodies that various hospitals are full, ' Poloncarz said. 'We're just having to go through and determine if the individuals have died from a blizzard-related death.'

He went on to assert that officials will be going 'car to car' to search for any other further casualties.

Brown Steele, meanwhile, said that she plans to have her daughter's body transported back to North Carolina when the storm finally subsides at some point this week.

'I haven’t even gotten a ticket there. Everything is closed, ' she said. 'We are going to have a service down there [Buffalo] first, and fly her to North Carolina and bury her here.'

The mom added, growing emotional, said: 'All of her friends are here.'