GUILTY NH - Elijah "Eli" Lewis, 5, found deceased, Merrimack, Apr 2021, reported 15 Oct 2021 *arrests* *1 guilty*

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AUG 17, 2023
[...]

He was granted parole Thursday on a charge of falsifying evidence and will now begin serving his sentence for manslaughter and assault.

[...]

At first, the parole board said Stapf appeared to be blaming everything on Dauphinais, but under questioning from the board, Stapf admitted that he could have saved Elijah's life but didn't act.

He also described how the morning he found out Elijah was dead, he wrapped the boy's body in a blanket and put him in a container. Stapf said he then left the container outside the house for about a month.

Stapf said it was only when he and Dauphinais heard that police were coming to look for Elijah that they removed the body from their home in Merrimack.

"That is when we decided to take Elijah, put him in the truck, and we headed out toward Connecticut, Massachusetts," Stapf said. "Eventually, I buried him."

[...]

Stapf will start serving his sentence for manslaughter in October. The conviction carries a minimum sentence of 20 years.

(video at the link)
 
“Maybe let him sleep and feed him,” Stapf wrote in a text to Dauphinais. “No more you know what to him, he needs to look good so we can go out,” Stapf wrote.

Elijah’s mother was not willing to show any mercy or kindness to her son, according to her text response.

“This (expletive) kid deserves nothing,” she wrote back.

Elijah weighed 19 pounds when he died. The average 5-year-old boy weighs 40 pounds. At one point in September or 2021, Stapf grew concerned about a rotting hole in the boys back, prosecutors said.

On Sept. 21, 2021, Elijah suffered one last beating at the hands of his mother, according to testimony at Stapf’s plea hearing. Stapf found the boy naked, in the bathtub surrounded by broken tiles smeared in blood. Stapf still did not get the boy medical help. Instead, he bandaged the wound on his head and put him back in his room, according to testimony.

 
It is learned Dauphinais’ trial could be delayed because a new attorney is joining the defense team. Both sides will meet again in September to readdress deadlines in the case.

I probably won't follow this trial, I can barely stand to read the details in print. Let alone hear live testimony about the torture Eli suffered :mad:
 
This is horrible. That poor boy! Why didn't he call 911? How come he still wanted to stay in a relationship with a woman that was being so violent towards her own child? She's an animal and he choose to stand there and let her continue to hurt this child.
 
Elijah’s mother was not willing to show any mercy or kindness to her son, according to her text response.

This (expletive) kid deserves nothing,” she wrote back.



I am glad she sent those texts. The jury loves evidence like that. Simple, basic proof that this so called mother was a cruel monster. GUILTY verdict coming soon!
 
Is Eli’s mom on trial right now?
 
MAY 21, 2024
The father of 5-year-old Elijah Lewis, who was found dead in a state park in Abington, Massachusetts in 2021, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against New Hampshire’s child protection agency over his death.

Timothy Lewis claims in the lawsuit that New Hampshire’s Division for Children, Youth and Families was negligent and failed to keep his son safe while the boy lived with his mother, Danielle Dauphinais, who is charged with his murder.

“As a result of Defendants’ actions or Defendants’ inaction, Elijah suffered malnourishment, facial and scalp injuries, pressure ulcers, acute fentanyl intoxication, violence and neglect, that ultimately resulted in his death,” according to the lawsuit filed May 15 in Merrimack Superior Court.

MAY 24, 2024
The father of a 5-year-old New Hampshire boy whose body was found in Massachusetts in 2021 has filed a wrongful death suit against the boy’s mother, her boyfriend and the New Hampshire youth services departments.

[...]

The lawsuit asks that a judge award Lewis compensatory and punitive damages based on counts of assault, battery, neglect, breach of fiduciary duty and wrongful death.

The nearly 50-page lawsuit tells the story of a young child who had behavioral issues — possibly due to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome — who was left in the care of his drug-addicted mother despite the fact that she didn’t have custody of him and repeatedly said she did not want and was not able to care for him.

[...]
 
 
similar coverage from NH TV, WMUR... shows the earlier video of boyfriend arrest, and scenes of where he was buried in MA.
This case and the Harmony Montgomery case shown light on problems with NH child services.

 
SEP 26, 2024
According to the plea agreement, Dauphinais will face a sentence of 55 years to life for second-degree murder for knowingly causing the death of her son. She will also receive two sentences of 3.5 to 7 years, which will be served concurrently to each other. Those sentences will be served consecutively, or back-to-back, with the second-degree murder sentence.

A sentencing hearing was scheduled for 10 a.m. on Oct. 25.

"Between Sept. 27, 2020, and Sept. 21, 2021, Elijah was assaulted, starved, isolated and neglected. He was tortured," New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Bethany Durand said.

Investigators found Facebook and text messages Dauphinais sent to Stapf on his phone.

"He said he wants food and he wants me to stop starving him because it's not nice," Dauphinais said in one message read in court Thursday.

Dauphinais allegedly admitted to abuse in other messages. In one she said "I hit him in the head with the shower rod that's all I did," adding in another "Just whooped the maggot's [expletive]."
 
SEP 26, 2024
In court, a series text messages were read, in which the defendant talked about her hatred for her son.

"Elijah, I’m gonna kill him and I mean it," she said.

One of the last messages read in court was written after Elijah died: "Seriously, like, I can breathe and be free. I was a prisoner for so long baby. It was hell."

Prosecutors said they found 15 defects from lacerations and blunt force trauma on Elijah's body.

"(The doctor) would have testified that the injuries suffered by Elijah, the pressure ulcers on his body and his malnourishment, would have been obvious to his caregivers, and they could have taken action," Durand said.

...Dauphinais is looking at a total maximum sentence of 58 and a half years in prison under the capped plea agreement, though she’ll have her opportunity to ask Judge Lisa English for less time at the upcoming sentencing hearing. Danielle Dauphinais is free to ask for mercy.

But, according to the facts laid out in court by Assistant Attorney General Bethany Durand, Elijah never got any mercy, not from the woman who birthed him, and not from her boyfriend Joseph Stapf.
 
I would bet money on that guess.
Either drug withdrawals or possibly drug overdose, some people will swallow a small balloon filled with drugs if they suspect that will be arrested soon and once in jail the balloon will make its way out in a day or so.. however this can go horrible wrong if the balloon is weakened and begins to leak inside the stomach or intestines causing overdose. MOO
 

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