According to reports, the 35-year-old mother texted her friend months earlier and said that she wanted her 5-year-old son gone. “I want him gone. I can’t handle it anymore.” the mother reportedly said. The woman also compared her 5-year-old son to serial killers. “Oh I figured. I call him the next Ted Bundy and Jeffery Dahmer.” she said.
The 35-year-old mother from New Hampshire, Danielle Dauphinai, was texting with Erika Wolfe. According to reports, they knew each other as teenagers, but hadn’t seen each other in years. The mother was texting about her 5-year-old son, Elijah Lewis, whose body was found in the woods of Massachusetts in October.
According to the court documents, the boy’s remains were found on Oct. 23. They were found in a wooded area off a Massachusetts road. Authorities had been looking for him since Oct. 14.
The 35-year-old mother and her 30-year-old boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, were arrested in New York on Oct. 17. The mother has been charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and three counts of witness tampering and the boyfriend with one count each of endangering the welfare of a child and witness tampering.
Prosecutors said the mother failed to report her son as missing. She also encouraged two people to tell child protective services that Elijah was with her and asked two people not to talk to child protective services about Elijah.
According to reports, the messages between the mother and Wolfe started when the responded to a Snapchat post in which Wolfe was discussing her teenage son’s behavioral issues:
Wolfe: OMG I’m so sorry. Unfortunately it will probably get worse because I have had issues with him being violent & nasty since a toddler
Dauphinais: Oh I figured. I call him the next Ted Bundy and Jeffery Dahmer. It’s so sad but I have no connection with this child. His father took him at the age of one and never returned him until last may 2020. He’s been getting worse and worse. I want him gone. I can’t handle it anymore.
Dauphinais: Even dcyf was involved and they told me I can’t do [expletive] without his father’s concent. It’s been a [expletive] nightmare that I can’t wake up from. It’s so damn sad and I’m so sorry you’re going through this too. Ugh why us??? Is it because we were assholes as kids and it’s payback? Like I don’t get it.
Wolfe forwarded the messages to one of Dauphinais’s relatives, who gave the messages to police. Authorities said that a 2017 decree prohibited Dauphinais from spending time with Elijah. This story will be updated as new information become available.