‘LITTLE BOY IS GONE’
Body believed to be that of missing N.H. boy Lewis found in Abington woods
The search for a missing 5-year-old New Hampshire boy ended tragically on Saturday when a body believed to be his was found buried in the woods in Abington.
What are presumed to be the remains of Elijah “Eli” Lewis were detected by a police cadaver dog at approximately 9:30 a.m. about 250 yards off Chestnut Street, authorities said.
“A little boy is gone,” Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said at a press conference Saturday near where the body was found. “Nobody deserved to die this way. And we’re going to make sure we do everything in our power to get justice for this little boy.”
On Thursday, Cruz’s office was contacted with “credible information,” corroborated by investigators, that led police to that location, he said.
Dozens of police from Massachusetts and New Hampshire searched the woods since Friday, on the ground and by air.
Eli’s mother, Danielle Dauphinais, 35, and her boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, 30, both of Merrimack, N.H., pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in connection with her son’s disappearance.
The two were 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. However, they reserved their right to ask to be released on bail in the future after consulting with their attorneys.
The couple were arrested last Sunday in the Bronx by New York City Transit Police on warrants for witness tampering and child endangerment, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office said Monday.
The witness-tampering charges allege that the defendants each asked other people to lie about Eli 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.
The Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will perform an autopsy today and determine the cause and manner of the boy’s death, said New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Susan Morrell.
Based on those findings and any other evidence, Morrell said, her office “will determine what, if any, further charges will be brought” against Dauphinais and Stapf. Eli was first reported missing by the New Hampshire Division of Children, Youth and Families after social workers didn’t find the boy at the Merrimack home where the three lived.
“Today our thoughts are with Eli’s family,” Massachusetts State Police Col. Christopher Mason said on Saturday. “I’m glad and relieved that we were able to bring some closure to this part of the ongoing investigation and to bring Eli home with some dignity. … It’s a sad day, but we were able to at least advance the case to this point.”
The boy’s father lives in Arizona and knew that his son was missing, according to authorities.
“We are very saddened about this situation, about Elijah’s death and the fact that he was disposed of down here in the woods,” Morrell said in Abington Saturday. “Our sympathies go out to his family, friends and the community.”