Editor’s note: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence and abuse.

By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org

On Thursday, Danielle Dauphinais shed tears in court.

The Merrimack mother who tortured, starved, and beat her five-year-old son Elijah Lewis, 5, repeatedly over the course of a year, the woman whose neglect left Elijah with open festering sores on his body, the woman who withheld food to the extreme point that Elijah lost close to half his body weight and was left unable to walk or sit up, the woman who callously exposed Elijah to her fentanyl and left him poisoned by the deadly drug, the woman who finally bashed Elijah’s head against a tiled bathroom wall and then celebrated his death.

That woman cried today.

Dauphinais, 38, appeared Thursday in Hillsborough Superior Court — South in Nashua to plead guilty to one count of second-degree murder and two counts of witness tampering under a plea agreement reached weeks before the trial was set to start. Dauphinais is looking at a total maximum sentence of 58 and a half years in prison under the capped plea agreement, though she’ll have her opportunity to ask Judge Lisa English for less time at the upcoming sentencing hearing. Danielle Dauphinais is free to ask for mercy.

But, according to the facts laid out in court by Assistant Attorney General Bethany Durand, Elijah never got any mercy, not from the woman who birthed him, and not from her boyfriend Joseph Stapf.

Stapf, 33, is currently serving a 22 to 45 year sentence for his role in Elijah’s death. Stapf admitted to beating the boy multiple times along with Dauphinais, as well as helping her cover up the murder. Stapf dug the shallow grave in Massachusetts where they buried Elijah. 

Damning evidence shows Stapf knew toward the end of Elijah’s life that the boy needed help, was suffering, and could die. But Stapf failed to do anything and always deferred to Dauphinais who repeatedly said she hated Elijah and wanted to kill him.

Stapf and Dauphinais took custody of Elijah in September of 2020 from his father Timothy Lewis, who lived in Arizona. Dauphinais had not seen her son in three years and was living in a basement apartment with Stapf and their new baby.

At that time, Elijah was a happy and healthy four-year-old, though a little shy. He was a bit over three-feet tall and weighed 32 pounds. Dauphinais soon lost interest in caring for Elijah, according to Stapf, and decided that the little boy was ruining her life. Elijah weighed 19 pounds a year later when his body was pulled from the ground.

A month after Dauphinais and Stapf took Elijah, Timothy Lewis grew concerned about his son and called the Division for Children, Youth and Families. Around the same time, Dauphinais texted Stapf a photo of Elijah’s bruised and battered face.

“Look at this (expletive) kid’s face,” she wrote.

In November of that year, a doctor examined Elijah and noted bruises on his face and arms. During the visit, Dauphinais told the doctor Elijah would be leaving New Hampshire in a week to live with another relative. Still, the doctor contacted DCYF.

But DCYF closed that case a few months later in January of 2021 after Dauphinais told the social workers Elijah was in California with her sister, Tracy Dauphinais. It does not appear that DCYF confirmed this with Tracy Dauphinais, leaving Elijah trapped in the basement apartment at the mercy of his mother and Stapf.

Dauphinais would get pregnant that year and gave birth in early October of 2021. It was a home birth and for reasons undisclosed Stapf took that newborn and dropped it off at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester. By abandoning the baby, the couple triggered a new DCYF investigation. But by then, Elijah was already dead.

Durand said investigators believe Elijah died sometime between Sept. 21, 2021 and Sept. 24, 2021. Dauphinais was angry at the boy for constantly asking for food or blankets, or for defying her for refusing to sit down. By this point, Elijah had a large, infected hole on his back that reached his bones and made it painful for him to move. Dauphinais blamed the child for his infected pressure ulcers. 

“He needs to move, not lay there like a dead rotten animal. (Expletive) him and his (expletive) back and his (expletive) rotten body. That’s the life he chose,” Dauphinais texted Stapf.

While Stapf was out of the house on Sept. 21, 2021, Dauphinais reportedly beat him in the bathroom, breaking tiles with the little boy’s head, and leaving him unconscious and bloody in the bathtub, according to Durand. Stapf got home and found Elijah passed out in the bathroom with an open gash on his forehead. Dauphinais was sleeping comfortably in her bed.

Stapf cleaned up the boy and bandaged his head wound. He then put Elijah in his bed. What Stapf did not do was call a doctor, or take the boy to an emergency room. He left Elijah to die.

When she learned Elijah was dead, Dauphinais was elated, telling Stapf she felt free.

“Seriously, like I can breathe and be free. We deserve nothing but happiness and healthiness,” Dauphinais wrote.

Stapf hid Elijah’s body in a plastic bag, where it remained until Oct. 14, 2021. That’s when DCYF came back, this time to investigate the abandoned infant. The social workers were also curious about what had actually happened to Elijah when they spoke to Dauphinais that morning.

Dauphinais stuck to her lie that Elijah was with her sister in California, and made frantic calls and texts to Tracy Dauphinais to get her to lie to DCYF. Tracy Dauphinais refused to go along with the lie, though. And told DCYF she did not have the boy.

Dauphinais then claimed Elijah was with her brother in Texas. This time she allegedly got her brother, Bruce Scherzer, to agree to lie to DCYF. But social workers became suspicious when Sherzer could not answer basic questions about the boy. Texas police were sent to speak with him, and he admitted he did not have Elijah.

At this point, Merrimack Police were contacted by the DCYF social workers and Dauphinais and Stapf agreed to go to the police station for an interview with detectives. But they lied and instead withdrew $1,000 in cash and fled with Elijah’s body in the back of Stapf’s truck.

Dauphinais stayed in the truck while Stapf went into the woods in Ames Knoll State Park in Abington, Massachusetts and buried Elijah.

“It doesn’t have to be far down, you know,” Dauphinais texted Stapf while he was digging the grave.

The couple then headed to Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut where they ate, watched a Country Music show, and then slept in the truck in the parking lot. They abandoned the truck at the casino and got on a bus for New York City, where they were arrested on Oct. 17, 2021.

Soon, investigators found Elijah’s grave in the woods. After a year of living with his mother, Elijah was covered in dirt, facedown, and curled into a fetal position.