Mother of 5-year-old New Hampshire boy found dead in Massachusetts to plead guilty to murder

NASHUA, N.H. — The mother of Elijah Lewis will plead guilty to his murder, nearly three years after the 5-year-old boy was found dead in a Massachusetts park in 2021.

Danielle Dauphinais of Merrimack will plead guilty to second-degree murder and two counts of witness tampering in the killing of her son, according to a plea filing in Hillsborough Superior Court Southern District on Monday.

Dauphinais was indicted by a grand jury on murder charges in connection with her son’s death in April 2022. Dauphinais and her boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, were originally charged with witness tampering and child endangerment. Both remain in prison.

According to the plea agreement, Dauphinais would face a sentence of 55 years to life for the second-degree murder charge. She would also receive two sentences of 3.5 to 7 years, to be served concurrently to each other. Those sentences would be served consecutively with the second-degree murder sentence.

A plea hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday.

In May, Elijah’s father filed a wrongful death lawsuit against New Hampshire’s child protection agency over his son’s death.

Timothy Lewis claimed 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, Dauphinais.

The boy’s disappearance became known on Oct. 14, 2021 after a report to the Division for Children, Youth & Families in New Hampshire, which prompted an investigation by Merrimack and State Police. Elijah had not been reported missing prior to that date.

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Crews searched for the boy before finding his body several miles away in a shallow grave in a state park in Abington, Massachusetts. His death was ruled a homicide.

An autopsy later determined the boy died of “violence and neglect, including facial and scalp injuries, acute fentanyl intoxication, malnourishment and pressure ulcers.”

According to the lawsuit, Elijah was born in 2016 in Arizona. His parents, Dauphinais and Lewis, divorced a year later, in 2017. Dauphinais moved to New Hampshire, and initially, Elijah remained in Arizona with his father. In 2020, at his mother’s request, the boy went to New Hampshire to stay with his mother.

In September 2020, according to the lawsuit, Dauphinais asked Lewis to take the boy back to Arizona. The following month, Lewis called New Hampshire’s Division for Children, Youth and Families “to get help for Elijah as he was concerned about Elijah’s well-being in Danielle’s care.”

The lawsuit claims that, for several months during 2021 and leading up to the boy’s death, Dauphinais, either by herself or along with her then-boyfriend Stapf, “tortured Elijah” several times.

In graphic detail, the lawsuit claims that Dauphinais and Stapf, either independently or together, “Pierced Elijah’s face with a knitting needle, stabbed Elijah’s face with a bent coat hanger, repeatedly hit Elijah with a shower rod, starved Elijah to the point that this 5 year-old boy weighed 19 pounds when he died - about the weight of a watermelon; left untreated rotting flesh on Elijah’s back from a wound they caused; physically beat Elijah, forced Elijah to stand naked for hours in his room without blankets; cut Elijah; burned Elijah, allowed Elijah to be exposed to fentanyl; failed to provide medical care, caused Elijah’s death.”

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An additional condition for Dauphinais’ plea agreement is that she “may not profit in any manner from these offenses including the murder, life of Elijah Lewis or flight from the investigation.”

“Specifically, she shall not accept any payment, enter into any contract, or sell rights regarding any book, film, television show, radio show, website, podcast or any other writing, recording, broadcast, or internet posting relating to the offenses, the murder or Elijah Lewis,” the agreement states.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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