A New Hampshire mother on Thursday pleaded guilty to murder in the 2021 death of her five-year-old son, Elijah Lewis.

Danielle Dauphinais of Merrimack appeared in Hillsborough County Superior Court on Thursday morning, shackled and wearing an orange jumpsuit. She pleaded guilty to second degree murder and two counts witness tampering in the death of her young son.

“Elijah was assaulted, starved, isolated, and neglected. He was tortured,” a prosecutor said.

The state said Elijah died between Sept. 21, 2021 and Sept. 24, 2021.

The boy was found face down in the fetal position in a shallow hole at Ames Nowell State Park in Abington.

According to prosecutors, had this case gone to trial, Dr. Richard Atkinson, who was at the burial site and conducted Elijah’s autopsy, would have said, “Elijah died as a result of violence and neglect including facial and scalp injuries, acute fentanyl intoxication, malnourishment, and pressure ulcers.”

“I am sick to my stomach and I can’t believe what I heard today. That’s not the person I knew,” MJ Morrison, Elijah’s aunt, said after Thursday’s court hearing.

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.

Prosecutors said Thursday that the investigation into Elijah’s whereabouts began after Dauphinais gave birth to a baby boy and Stapf dropped the child off at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester.

The Division of Children, Youth, and Families began questioning Dauphinais about where Elijah was.

Prosecutors said she told them “Elijah was gone” and then said he was living with her sister Tracy in California. Her sister later told the social worker and investigators that Dauphinais asked her to lie and say Elijah was with her in California, but she refused.

According to cell phone records, Dauphinais was confronted again by DCYF workers, at which point she told them she sent Elijah to her brother’s house in Texas.

Her brother, Bruce, told DCYF workers he had custody of Elijah since September, not knowing it was more than a wellness check, but couldn’t provide any information on him like where he went to school. He was told to call them back but never did.

DCYF then went to Merrimack Police to report Elijah as missing.

Text messages between Dauphinais and Stapf revealed she was depriving the child of nourishment, prosecutors said in court.

“I gave him a small bowl of cereal so he would shut the **** up. But that wasn’t enough. He said he wants food and wants me to stop starving him because it’s not nice,” read one message.

“I’m gonna kill this kid joe, ****ing screaming at the top of his lungs ****ing water,” said another from Dauphinais to Stapf.

Prosecutors outlined how and when the couple buried Elijah.

Merrimack Police tracked the couple’s cell phones, finding that the pair traveled through Boston to Abington, 14 hours after investigators started asking questions.

Prosecutors said Stapf buried Elijah’s body and put a white birch tree over his grave. Then, the couple drove to Mohegan Sun, had a bite to eat, went to a country music concert and boarded a bus to New York City.

The two were arrested at a subway station in the Bronx.

Cristee Chasse went to the courthouse on Thursday wearing a shirt that read, ‘Justice for Elijah.’

“Absolutely disgusting, disgusting. And that could have been prevented. A lot of this, according to what happened today and what I heard, happened after the fact, that he went to the doctors and bruising was seen,” said Chasse.

Prosecutors also said that Elijah weighed 32 pounds at his last and only doctor’s visit with his mother, and weighed 19 pounds when his body was found in the state park.

“I’m just hoping she gets the absolute maximum. That’s what Elijah deserves,” added Morrison.

Dauphinais is expected to be sentenced on Oct. 25.

She could face between 58 years to life in prison.

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

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Coos County has the highest food insecurity rates in the state, and the New Hampshire Food Bank is hoping to address the need in the region with a new warehouse in Berlin.

North Country food pantries get most of their products from the New Hampshire Food Bank, and until now that food came in only once a month from a warehouse in Manchester. With the new local warehouse, northern pantries will now be able to pick up food weekly in Berlin.

Sarah Swift at Feeding Hope Food Pantry in Berlin says the weekly pick-ups will significantly increase the food that gets to clients.

“It will allow me to keep my shelves fuller, to offer a better supply of foods to all the different clients,” said Swift. “Right now having to wait for once a month delivery or drive two-and-a-half hours one way to try to go pick up extra – that’s really not feasible.”

The New Hampshire Food Bank says the new warehouse includes fridge and freezer space and can store up to 20,000 pounds of shelf-stable food. Swift says it’s been a challenge to offer clients fresh produce which can go bad quickly. Now she’s looking forward to offering produce that will be stored in the warehouse’s fridges.

“People really are looking for more fresh [food] than they are just canned and boxed items when we can make it available, because it’s healthier for them,” Swift said.

Swift runs the Feeding Hope Food Pantry with her husband, Greg. He noted that with high food prices and lower SNAP benefits, they’re seeing more people come to the pantry for help.

“It’s not just the elderly on fixed income, but it’s also young families – literally mom and dad and multiple children who either haven’t got work yet, or have got jobs that just aren’t paying the bills,” Greg Swift said. “And they have to find a way to put food on the table for their families.”

Christy Langlois oversees the Food Bank’s work in the North Country. With food going towards pantries more regularly, she believes the warehouse can be a solution to the area’s high food insecurity rates.

“We will be able to distribute [food] more efficiently and ultimately help more people. We’ll be able to ensure that no one has to wonder where their next meal is coming from,” said Langlois. “So this is why I say that it’s true systemic change for the North Country.”

The warehouse has a temporary lease in its location on Jericho Road, but Langlois hopes it will find a permanent space. A food drive is open to the public for the warehouse’s grand opening on Friday.

DURHAM — The New Hampshire governor’s race is now the most competitive gubernatorial contest in the country, experts say, and this may be an asset to both Republican Kelly Ayotte and Democrat Joyce Craig.

Earlier this year, North Carolina and New Hampshire were seen as the top two competitive elections in the United States. But after a CNN report linked Republican North Carolina governor candidate Mark Robinson to multiple disturbing comments on a pornographic website, prompting most of his staff to resign, the formerly toss-up race has been moved to a likely Democratic victory, according to the Cook Political Report. 

New Hampshire is now the only state gubernatorial race ranked a toss-up. According to recent polls from University of New Hampshire and Saint Anselm, the two candidates running for the office being vacated by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu are neck and neck.

The shake-up in the Tar Heel state may have opened up national funds that can help both Ayotte and Craig in New Hampshire. The Republican Governors Association current ad buy in North Carolina expired Tuesday, and multiple outlets reported the group has not planned any other placements.

“(Ayotte) will get help from the Republicans … because there really isn’t that much to invest in,” said UNH political science professor Dante Scala. “I mean, you look at North Carolina, maybe three, six months ago, that looked like a competitive race, but especially after last week, (it) sure doesn’t look that way anymore.”

The recent events may also free up more money from the Democratic Governors Association to help Craig in New Hampshire.

The first campaign finance filing deadline for the general election is Oct. 16.

Andrew Smith, the director of the UNH Survey Center, agreed the Republican Governors Association is likely not going to “want to bother” spending money on the North Carolina race anymore. However, Smith also wonders how independent the organization is from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“I think the Trump people are going to want to take as much money as they can from any of the campaign organizations and use it on the presidential campaign,” he said. 

Money is just part of the puzzle in this tight race: Each candidate has multiple strengths and weaknesses that will contribute to how they perform in November.

How the presidential election may affect the NH governor’s race

The “Trump factor”’ is a weakness for Ayotte in New Hampshire, where polls have shown the former president losing to Vice President Kamala Harris by as much as 11%.

To win, Ayotte will to convince voters to split their tickets and run ahead of Trump by about 5-7%, according to Scala, who said that is difficult for a non-incumbent. Even Sununu, who benefited from a name that runs deep in New Hampshire tradition, barely won during his first campaign for governor in 2016, running just enough ahead of Trump to win the open seat. 

Ayotte’s rocky relationship with Trump may also play a negative role within her own party. The Republican Party in New Hampshire has many different factions, from Trump Republicans to free state libertarians to more mainstream traditional Republicans like Ayotte. There may be some voters who don’t like her because she isn’t close enough with Trump, while others may not want to vote for her to show their disdain for him. 

However, a plus for Ayotte is Trump isn’t likely focus on New Hampshire as the presidential race no longer appears to be close in the state, meaning Ayotte can continue to keep her distance.

“Donald Trump is an anchor on all Republicans in the state. He’s not going to help them spread their message beyond that MAGA base, and could potentially hurt them if they get closely tied to Trump in the flow of the campaign,” Smith said. “So that split-ticket bogey is really going to be the key thing for her to be able to do to try to distinguish herself from Donald Trump without alienating those Republican Trump voters.”

While the Republican base is not as strongly in support of Ayotte as the Democratic base is for Craig currently, the polls revealed Ayotte appears to be more appealing to swing or independent voters, Scala said. That’s a positive sign for collecting the split ticket voters Ayotte needs. There’s also the possibility the full Republican base will coalesce around Ayotte as the election gets closer. 

“If she’s going to pull it out, she’s going to have to really kind of channel her inner Sununu,” Smith said.

Conversely, Harris at the top of the ticket is a plus for Craig, whose positive polling numbers may be in part thanks to the vice president’s popularity in New Hampshire. The Democratic Party in New Hampshire has united around Harris, and by extension, Craig. Because of that, she might even be successful with a “generic Democratic campaign,” said Scala.

The NHDP has also tended to be better at getting voters out to the polls, Smith said. They have more money and organization than the Republican Party in New Hampshire, largely because of divides in the NHGOP like the Tea Party in the 2010s and Trump now.

How name recognition can be a boon – but other times a curse

One of Ayotte’s main strengths throughout this election has been her name ID. A former U.S. senator and New Hampshire attorney general, her strong name recognition was partially responsible for her dominant primary win over former state Senate President Chuck Morse. The experience of running those two statewide campaigns is also a strength for her in this election.

But her strong name ID may also be contributing to her negative favorability ratings: -5% according to the Saint Anselm poll and -17% according to UNH. 

Craig, a former Manchester mayor, on the other hand, is less well known. But this can also be a strength as she hasn’t been caught up in as many “cross-party wars” as Ayotte, said Smith. Her favorability numbers are also positive — although Smith thinks that might change as the race gets closer and negative advertising ramps up.

The battle lines: Abortion and the city of Manchester

Craig’s biggest weakness, “fair or unfair,” Smith said, is the way Manchester is perceived to have been governed under her. 

“You can see this has already been played out back in November last year,” said Smith, referring to last year’s mayoral race, when Republican Jay Ruais won over Craig’s endorsed successor. “That’s a harder problem for her to overcome, because that’s a policy issue. It’s not a personal issue.”

During the primary, Craig faced attacks about Manchester’s homelessness and drug issues from both sides of the aisle.

Craig will also have to address questions on taxes, crime, and immigration, all tried and true attacks Republicans use against Democrats.

Ayotte’s weakest issue is abortion, a consistent topic used by Democrats across the country. Both sides have put in a lot of effort trying to inform voters about how the governor’s race would affect abortion policy in New Hampshire: Ayotte even put out an ad saying she would not change New Hampshire’s current 24-week abortion law.

“It is something on which her voting history is to the right of what I would say is your average New Hampshire voter,” Scala said. As a senator, Ayotte supported a 20-week abortion ban as well as the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

More: Craig would give NH education chief Frank Edelblut the boot. Ayotte backs his policies.

The question for Scala, though, is if Democrats will open another line of attack against Ayotte.

“Abortion is a problem for Ayotte, but Democrats have already spent a lot of money going after Ayotte on abortion,” Scala said. “How much more is there to get out of that issue? And I think that’s a fair question.”