A New Hampshire mother has been indicted on charges of murdering her son, whom she allegedly called “the next Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer” months before his death.
Danielle Dauphinais, 35, has been indicted on one count of first-degree murder for “purposely causing the death” of her son, Elijah Lewis, 5; one count of second-degree murder for causing his death “recklessly with extreme indifference to the value of human life”; and three counts of tampering with witnesses, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said Monday.
Four months prior to his death, Dauphinais allegedly compared her son to two serial killers, writing, “I have to keep him in his room. I can’t trust him at all.”
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“I call him the next Ted Bundy and Jeffery Dahmer. It’s so sad but I have no connection with this child,” Dauphinais wrote to a friend over a text message obtained by the Boston Globe. “He’s been getting worse and worse. I want him gone. I can’t handle it anymore.”
Lewis’s remains were found last October in Massachusetts after a 10-day search by law enforcement that encompassed five states. Authorities were first informed that Lewis was missing by the Massachusetts Department of Children & Families.
Dauphinais and her boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, 30, were arrested in New York on charges of witness tampering and child endangerment while the search for her son was underway.
Dauphinais did not report that her son was missing to authorities and told Joanne Stapf, Joseph’s mother, not to speak to a Child Protective Service worker, according to court documents.
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Lewis’s cause of death was later determined to be “violence and neglect, including facial and scalp injuries, acute fentanyl intoxication, malnourishment and pressure ulcers.”
Dauphinais is being held without bail while an arraignment is scheduled.
