Mother who beat and starved her 5-year-old son faces more than 50 years in prison

CONCORD, N.H. – A New Hampshire woman faces more than 50 years to life in prison for the death of her five-year-old son, who was beaten, starved and exposed to drugs and weighed just 19 pounds when his body was found buried in a Massachusetts park in 2021.

Danielle Dauphinais, 38, is scheduled to appear in court on Friday. She faced trial but pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder and other charges in connection with the death of Elijah Lewis as part of a deal reached with prosecutors.

Dauphinais' boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, pleaded guilty in 2022 to manslaughter, second-degree assault, tampering with evidence and witness tampering in connection with the boy's death. He was sentenced to 22 to 45 years in prison.

Elijah's autopsy revealed that he suffered facial and scalp injuries, acute fentanyl intoxication, malnutrition and pressure sores. Prosecutors read a series of texts between Stapf and Dauphinais that expressed hostility toward Elijah and frustration when he did not behave according to their wishes.

“He said he wants food and he wants me to stop starving him because it's not nice,” one said. Another message said: “I'm going to kill him and I mean it,” and another said: “I hit him with the shower rod, that's all I did.”

In some of Stapf's texts to Dauphinais, she was told to give Elijah more food to make him more “manly.”

Elijah was born in Arizona in 2016 and his parents divorced a year later. Dauphinais moved to New Hampshire. In May 2020, his father, Timothy Lewis, brought Elijah to Dauphinais, Stapf and the two-year-old daughter she had with Stapf. They lived in the basement of a house where Stapf's mother also lived.

However, in the fall, Lewis became concerned that Elijah was not receiving adequate medical care and contacted the state Department of Children, Youth and Families. In a wrongful death lawsuit filed last May against Dauphinais, Stapf, Stapf's mother and the child welfare agency, Lewis described Elijah as having developmental issues and a difficult behavior pattern that had worsened in New Hampshire.

An attorney for the department has asked that the lawsuit be dismissed, saying the state agency does not have custody of Elijah. A message seeking comment was sent to an attorney representing Stapf's mother. No attorneys are listed in the lawsuit for Stapf and Dauphinais.

A doctor's visit in November 2020 revealed that Elijah weighed 32 pounds (14.5 kilograms) and had bruises on his face, eye and arm, prosecutors said. Dauphinais later told authorities that her son was sent to California to live with Dauphinais' sister, a custody agreement that the father had agreed to but that Dauphinais had reneged on, prosecutors said.

By October 2021, Dauphinais had given birth to a baby boy at home, prosecutors said. Stapf took the infant to a hospital with the intention of leaving him there. The hospital found evidence of drugs on the baby and contacted Child Protective Services, who began an investigation. The agency couldn't find any sign of Elijah.

Dauphinais said her son was with her sister and then her brother. Both relatives told investigators that Dauphinais contacted them and asked them to lie about Elijah's whereabouts.

Prosecutors believe Elijah died in September 2021 and the couple put his body in a container and took it to the Massachusetts park, where Stapf dug a hole and buried him, prosecutors said.

With Elijah still missing, Stapf and Dauphinais were arrested in New York. Days after her arrest, Elias' remains were found.

Prosecutors said when Elijah was found, he was 3 feet (91 centimeters) tall and weighed 19 pounds (8.6 kilograms), while an average 5-year-old boy was about 3.6 feet (1.1 meters) tall or more Weighed 40 pounds (18 kilograms).