The mother of a missing 5-year-old New Hampshire boy was arrested in New York, along with the man she was with, but the child is still being sought.
A 5-year-old New Hampshire boy hasn't been seen in six months, and his mom and a man she was with have been arrested in the ongoing investigation into the child's disappearance.
The New Hampshire Division for Children Youth and Families had notified police on Thursday that Elijah Lewis was missing. The agency’s involvement with the boy is unclear.
State police said last week that Lewis had last been seen by “independent individuals” about six months ago and had not previously been reported missing to authorities. But the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office said Tuesday that investigators now believe he was seen at his home sometime in the last 30 days.
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Here's what we know so far.
ARRESTS IN THE CASE
The boy's mother, Danielle Dauphinais, and a man she was with, Joseph Stapf, were arrested Sunday by New York Transit Authority officers in the Bronx on warrants charging them with witness tampering and child endangerment, the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office said.
The witness tampering charges allege Dauphinais and Stapf each asked other people to lie about Elijah and where he was living, knowing that child protection service workers were searching for him. The endangerment charge alleges that they violated a duty of care, protection or support for Elijah.
Dauphinais and Stapf were set to be arraigned in the Bronx County Criminal Court in New York City Monday afternoon. Authorities were seeking to have them extradited to New Hampshire. Dauphinais is scheduled to be arraigned in Hillsborough County Superior Court in Nashua at 11 a.m. Wednesday.
The attorney general's office initially said Stapf would be arraigned in New Hampshire Wednesday as well, but later said his arraignment had not yet been scheduled.
It wasn’t immediately known if Dauphinais or Stapf had lawyers to speak for them, and phone numbers could not be found for them.
SEARCH FOR ELIJAH
Authorities said they were continuing to search for Elijah and sought the public's assistance in locating him.
Police used boats to search Naticook Lake behind a property in Merrimack, New Hampshire, over the weekend. The waterfront property was Elijah's last known location and home.
The home was an active crime scene again on Monday, with a large section of the street blocked off and officers posted outside the home.
During an interview with NECN and NBC10 Boston Tuesday, investigators said they had also searched and since cleared from YMCA Camp Sargent, which is on the lake.
They also said they are conducting searches in other locations in other towns, but they did not specify where those places are.
"There are a variety of things that have been collected [as evidence]. Right now, we're trying to see how the different pieces fit together," said New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati.
New Hampshire officials are also urging anyone who thinks they may have seen Lewis or may have information about his case to continue to contact them.
"We just want to stress the continued effort from the public that if they see anything strange, odd or saw anything in the past that might help us find Elijah," said Merrimack Police Chief Brian Levesque. "That's our focus right now."
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Merrimack Police Crimeline at 603-424-2424 or New Hampshire State Police Communications at 603-223-4381 or 603-MCU-TIPS.
NEIGHBORS TALKING
Neighbor Gregory Doppstadt said, "Everybody in the neighborhood has been doing all they can to try to help with this,"
He said investigators had knocked on his door to ask if he'd seen anything unusual at the home next door. He told them the last time he saw the boy, about a year ago, he had concerns.
"He was a very, very thin kid. He looked a little — my first thought was, 'I got to make this kid a sandwich.' He was really thin. You just wanted to feed him," Doppstadt said.
