Seeking justice, for both Elijah and Jeremiah

The parallels couldn’t be more striking – or tragic.

Two boys, both 5, living with a mother and her boyfriend, found dead weeks after being declared missing by a state agency overseeing their care. That’s the heartbreaking stories of Fitchburg’s Jeremiah Oliver and Elijah “Eli” Lewis of Manchester, N.H., whose remains found in a wooded area of Abington were positively identified Sunday.

It’s been more than seven years since Jeremiah’s lifeless body was discovered on the side of Interstate 190 in Sterling.

He was last seen alive by relatives in September 2013, but wasn’t reported missing until that December, when his sister told school officials that her mother’s boyfriend had been abusive to her mother and the children.

It was soon revealed that a social worker with the Department of Children and Families had failed to make regular visits to the home.

Four frantic months transpired before Jeremiah’s body was found in a suitcase on the side of that highway.

His mother, Elsa Oliver, and her then-boyfriend, Alberto Sierra, were convicted in Worcester Superior Court in 2017 on charges related to abuse and endangerment of Oliver’s other two children, but not in Jeremiah’s case.

Charges brought against Oliver and Sierra related to Jeremiah’s death — including kidnapping, assault and battery and permitting injury to a child — were dropped to avoid double jeopardy while authorities pursued a homicide investigation that’s still ongoing.

Elijah, who according to officials was last seen within the past 30 days at his home in Merrimack, wasn’t reported missing until Oct. 14.

His disappearance led to the Oct. 17 arrest of his mother Danielle D. Dauphinais, 35, and her boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, 30, in New York City on warrants for witness tampering and child endangerment.

The pair was arraigned separately in Hillsborough County Superior Court in New Hampshire and detained without bail due to what Judge Charles Temple called “clear and convincing evidence” that their release could endanger them or the public.

The witness-tampering charges allege that the defendants each asked other people to lie about Elijah and where he was living, knowing that child protection service workers were searching for him, according to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. The endangerment charge alleges that they violated a “duty of care, protection or support” for him.

According to Senior Assistant Attorney General Susan Morrell, any further charges against Dauphinais and Stapf could depend on the complete findings of Elijah’s autopsy, as well as other evidence.

Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz told reporters Saturday that officials will work to find who’s responsible for the boy’s death.

While fully cognizant that Elijah’s mother and boyfriend enjoy the presumption of innocence as it pertains to his death, we can’t overlook the decisions made in the conduct of Jeremiah Oliver’s homicide that allowed his mother and erstwhile boyfriend to serve time for lesser crimes and now walk the streets.

We’d suggest that investigators probing Elijah’s death confer with authorities involved in Jeremiah’s case to help focus their efforts and avoid peripheral distractions.

Fitchburg Police Chief Ernest Martineau, who ran the department’s detective bureau at the time of Jeremiah Oliver’s disappearance, previously said he has “the utmost confidence” that local and State Police investigators will continue to work to bring those responsible for Jeremiah’s death to justice.

We certainly hope that’s the result — for both Jeremiah’s and Elijah’s loved ones.