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On Oct. 15, 2019, Joseph Elledge walked into the Columbia, Missouri Police Division and not using a lawyer to inform detectives concerning the mysterious disappearance of his 28-year-old spouse, Mengqi Ji — six days earlier.
JOE ELLEDGE (police interview): We did not have any huge fights … I believe the final huge struggle was really the week earlier than. And it wasn’t actually an enormous struggle.
The 23-year-old described his spouse as tense and withdrawn the night time earlier than she disappeared, so he gave her a therapeutic massage.
JOE ELLEDGE (police interview): I used to be going kinda gradual. I used to be making an attempt to pull it out as a result of I wished to increase the period of time that we had been collectively doing one thing.
In keeping with Joe, Mengqi finally went to sleep, saying she needed to be someplace within the morning.
JOE ELLEDGE: I requested her about 3 times, “Who’s she assembly?” And her reply was simply, quote, “Me.” … she would not inform me who she was assembly or the place she was going, what she was doing.
The subsequent morning, Joe says he awoke alone. His spouse was gone.
Dan Knight: He was claiming … she had simply disappeared — that she had left her little lady behind. Her telephone was left behind … her automobile. Her automobile keys had been left behind.
From the start, then-Boone County prosecuting lawyer Dan Knight, had doubts about Joe’s story.
Dan Knight: We had been making an attempt our greatest to go away no stones unturned. However there have been numerous stones.
Joe informed investigators that after his spouse disappeared, he discovered journal entries on her pc the place she’d written about a web-based emotional affair she was having with a person dwelling in China.
JOE ELLEDGE (police interview): The final paragraph mentioned … “like It is unhappy although that I’ve no real interest in my husband.”
The day Joe spoke with detectives, he additionally did an unique interview with native CBS affiliate, KRCG, and implied that his spouse might have left him for an additional man.
JOE ELLEDGE (KRCG interview): I hope that she’s with – at the very least with any person who – who cares for her, you realize, sufficient to maintain her secure.
Joe and his household employed lawyer Scott Rosenblum, who factors on the market had been intimate texts between Mengqi Ji and the person she was speaking with.
Peter Van Sant: Sexual in nature?
Scott Rosenblum: Very sexual.
Texts like this one the place she wrote, “I would like you a lot proper now.”
Peter Van Sant: And did she ever categorical love for him in any of those communications?
Scott Rosenblum: She did.
The query was, had Mengqi run off to be with that man who lived in China, the place she was born?
Amy Salladay is the Ji household’s lawyer.
Amy Salladay: Mengqi was born throughout China’s One-Youngster Coverage. However Ke Ren, Mengqi’s mom, would say that “We solely ever wished one baby. We wished to offer all of our like to this baby.”
Yáo Li: Mengqi is just like the — the child all of the mother and father would need.
Yáo Li is a Chinese language immigrant, and an assistant prosecutor in Boone County, who helped Dan Knight talk with Mengqi’s mother and father.
Yáo Li: They’re actually, actually happy with her. … I understand how arduous it’s to get right into a high college in Shanghai and Beijing … the competitors … is absolutely intense. … And he or she did that.
Dan Knight: Then she got here to the College of Missouri in 2012 the place she completed up her undergraduate research after which she additionally obtained her grasp’s diploma in mechanical and aerospace engineering.
Peter Van Sant: This was a superb lady. Right?
Dan Knight: Completely.
One in all her professors employed her proper out of faculty at his biomaterials firm, “Nanova,” the place Joe additionally labored.
Dan Knight: Joe … grew up in Kansas Metropolis. … he then got here to the College of Missouri, and he studied engineering, and he met Mengqi at Nanova Biomaterials. … My understanding is, is that she was his supervisor.
The 2 shortly fell in love, and a yr and 7 months into their relationship, Joe proposed. He took a knee on a path in Rock Bridge Memorial State Park referred to as “The Satan’s Icebox.” Two weeks later, they had been married.
Dan Knight: I imagine there was a rush to get married as a result of Mengqi’s visa was about able to expire.
Yáo Li: It is a actually international idea for Americans to grasp the stress {that a} immigrant is dealing with … She’s absolutely succesful to assist herself financially. However she can not get this inexperienced card. … So, this actually adjustments the ability dynamics of a wedding.
Practically 5 months into the wedding, Mengqi was provided an enormous job.
Yáo Li: After which she discovered that she’s pregnant.
Mengqi and Joe determined she ought to flip down the job to be a full-time mother – despite the fact that, on the time, she was the only earnings earner. Joe had give up working to complete faculty. In October 2018, the infant was born.
Yáo Li: So that is the dynamic of this marriage. Mengqi was utterly remoted from all of the assist system that she will have. … the little child’s the one factor she has.
Her one lifeline was a every day name along with her mom in China. It was their ritual. So, when Mengqi did not name on Oct. 9, 2019, her mother and father despatched a buddy dwelling close by to verify on her.
JOE ELLEDGE (police interview): You understand, I informed him every thing that occurred. I informed him that she simply hasn’t been right here for a pair days.
And it was solely after that go to — the day after he mentioned his spouse vanished — {that a} seemingly unconcerned Joe Elledge lastly referred to as police to report her lacking.
JOE ELLEDGE (to 311): Hello. I have to file a lacking particular person’s report.
He did not dial 911 – Joe referred to as the non-emergency 311.
Peter Van Sant: Do you discover that suspicious?
Dan Knight: Completely. Completely. … it will be pure for him to have reported this instantly.
As a substitute, Joe would inform police that the day he awoke and located his spouse lacking, he went on two lengthy leisurely drives in her car-with their child within the backseat-looking for brand new mountaineering trails.
JOE ELLEDGE (police interview): There’s this, there’s simply this huge space that is all – that is all inexperienced on the Google Maps. And so, I wished to go and see if there have been strolling paths again there.
Naturally, that raised eyebrows.
DET. JON VOSS: Did you lock your door if you left the condominium?
JOE ELLEDGE: Yeah.
DET. JON VOSS: If she comes dwelling, how is she gonna get again in? You’ve got obtained her keys and her automobile. Her telephone’s in the home. She will’t even name anyone.
JOE ELLEDGE: Yeah, I do not know.
Detectives, and Dan Knight, suspected foul play. However there was no bodily proof: no blood, no weapon, no witnesses, no physique. There was additionally no proof that Mengqi took off with that man in China.
Dan Knight: After which additionally — it grew to become — obvious early on that Mengqi wouldn’t have deserted her baby, her 1-year-old daughter. … She was an incredible mom.
Throughout his interview with detectives, Joe gave them entry to his telephone — and on it they discovered one thing beautiful: 10 hours of secretly recorded conversations together with his spouse, like this one:
JOE ELLEDGE (audio recording): I want to talk about our relationship. And I’m kinda prepared to debate the tip of it as properly.
Dan Knight: Joe informed Mengqi … that he wished to divorce her.
JOE ELLEDGE (audio recording): I do not like being married (laughs) to you. I do not like dwelling with you. … It has been a horrible relationship. I am keen – to finish it.
Dan Knight: He was asking her whether or not or not she was going to mainly cooperate … And if not … was going to – he was going to inform the decide … “that she had been abusive to him.”
JOE ELLEDGE (audio recording): Ought to I point out in court docket that you simply’re abusive to me? Ought to I ask them to-deport you?”
However that was nothing, says Dan Knight, in comparison with the practically four-and-a-half hours of secretly recorded audio they discovered on Mengqi’s telephone.
Peter Van Sant: What was on these conversations of significance?
Dan Knight: Unvarnished Joe Elledge.
JOE ELLEDGE (audio recording): If you happen to preserve performing this fashion, I’ve informed you earlier than, ain’t gonna be fairly.
A CONTROLLING RELATIONSHIP
JOE ELLEDGE (audio recording): What are you making an attempt to do? … Are you making an attempt to make me go loopy to be able to name the police on me and take my f*****’ child away from me?
It was Oct. 29, 2018, a few yr earlier than Mengqi Ji would disappear, when she secretly recorded her husband Joe, going ballistic, for practically an hour.
JOE ELLEDGE (audio recording): Would you like me to f****** break s***? Would you like me to harm any person?”
It began weeks earlier, after Mengqi gave beginning and her mother and father flew in from China to stick with them. It’s Chinese language customized for grandparents to remain and assist for 100 days — a customized that infuriated Joe.
JOE ELLEDGE (audio recording): I do not need your mother right here … Your mother is inflicting issues … Your mother ought to f****** go away.
Dan Knight: What actually infuriated Joe was that Mengqi was standing as much as him and saying that she wanted her mom.
MENGQI JI (audio recording): If I do not handle my very own physique, my very own well being, it is not answerable for me … or this household –
JOE ELLEDGE: Yeah, I agree.
MENGQI JI: She’s serving to me to try this. And I do know it.
JOE ELLEDGE: I do not like that lady. And I do not suppose it is best to both.
Yáo Li: The stress was simply to the breaking level, and there is yelling, there’s cussing.
And Yáo Li says Joe actually despised it when Mengqi and her mom Ke Ren spoke Chinese language in his presence.
Yáo Li: That is a stressor for him. As a result of every thing that he would not perceive, he would assume the worst.
When Mengqi’s father returned to China, Joe determined to take again management, says Amy Salladay.
Amy Salladay: Mengqi’s mom was making Chinese language dumplings … She’s making them for his birthday … And he would not like how she’s utilizing, utilizing the reducing board.
Dan Knight: I referred to as it the “reducing board incident.”
Prosecutor Dan Knight says it is an incident that appears petty, however it led to an explosive argument.
JOE ELLEDGE (audio recording): Do not do my reducing board like that. I am telling you, reducing board would not like that.
Dan Knight: He was demanding that his mother-in-law go away the residence instantly and completely, by no means to return.
Peter Van Sant: Did Mengqi’s mom stand as much as him? … and will which have triggered this reducing board incident?
Dan Knight: Mengqi’s mom, like Mengqi, was a Confucianist. She wished concord greater than anything. There was no standing as much as Joe.
JOE ELLEDGE: There’s gonna be some f****** issues if she tries staying … I am gonna make it f****** go away.
MENGQI JI: The issue …
JOE ELLEDGE: Yeah, you possibly can wager your ass on that.
Dan Knight: It was a one-way road. It was Joe’s manner or the freeway.
MENGQI JI: You aren’t a God. You do not perceive –
JOE ELLEDGE: I’m a f****** God … I say mother don’t remain right here, she don’t remain right here.
Mengqi pleaded with Joe to let her mom keep. He responded with insults and profanity.
JOE ELLEDGE: What the f*** is the matter with you? F****** brainless.
Dan Knight: He informed her that she was incapable as a result of she was a lady.
JOE ELLEDGE: You suppose you are so empowered due to this society … You are still only a lady.
Dan Knight: It was a calculated effort on his half to gaslight her, to attempt to brainwash her, to deliver her below his management.
Joe was additionally threatening, explaining how he “conquers nature”- a cryptic remark that Dan Knight believes was a metaphor for wanting to harm Mengqi.
JOE ELLEDGE: You understand how I conquer nature? I f*****’ kill it. I seize its head and break its f****** neck. That is the way you conquer f****** nature.
Yáo Li: Mengqi ‘s … mom, after all, was in shock. It is simply actually troublesome for her to grasp why this younger man is so mad and so indignant at her, at every thing.
Mengqi felt so helpless that she referred to as Joe’s mom Jean Geringer, who drove two hours to attempt to mediate.
MENGQI JI: I’ve no selection, I needed to name you. I am sorry … He is gonna come again and simply, I do not know, unpredictable factor’s gonna occur.
Mengqi recorded that assembly as properly.
JEAN GERINGER: I am not right here to decide on sides. I am right here to attempt to be impartial and simply give recommendation and steerage.
Even in his mother’s presence, Joe was not shy about expressing hateful, even violent ideas about his mother-in-law.
JOE ELLEDGE: Do I simply smack her? Do I simply beat her down?
MENGQI JI: You wished to.
JOE ELLEDGE: I’ve that craving … sure.
JEAN GERINGER: You may’t …
JOE ELLEDGE: I am not going to although …
JEAN GERINGER: … you possibly can’t go there.
Dan Knight: The proof that we – that we had was that he was making his mother-in-law, Ke Ren, kneel to him and bow to him.
Joe would finally apologize to his mother-in-law, however he nonetheless compelled to her go away earlier than the 100 days had been up.
Yáo Li: She thought that apology was honest. Or in any other case, she would not have left after which believing that issues would possibly get higher.
Yáo Li translated Mengqi’s journals for the prosecutor’s workplace, and says issues did not get higher. However Mengqi could not stroll away.
Yáo Li: And even she is confused of, “Why I simply can not get out of this relationship” … That is her fixed query to herself.
Dan Knight thinks Mengqi felt trapped by her immigration standing.
Dan Knight: In simply 5 months she was set to have one other interview the place she can be making use of to get her everlasting inexperienced card.
Just a little over two weeks after Mengqi vanished, the Columbia Police Division introduced it was opening a felony investigation into her disappearance. That very same day, police confirmed up at Joe’s condominium.
Amy Salladay: He is together with his mom. … The detectives on the scene had been asking her, “The place is Mengqi, are you aware the place she is?”
Joe was arrested — not in connection together with his spouse’s disappearance, however on suspicion that he had bodily abused their daughter.
ARRESTING OFFICER: We’ve develop into conscious that there was some bruising … So, are you aware what we’re speaking about?
JOE ELLEDGE: Yup.
Dan Knight: That is via Ke Ren, her mom. … Mengqi had informed her that she’d noticed … bruising on the buttocks. And Ke Ren prompt that Mengqi confront Joe about this. … and that Joe then … admitted that he had completed this … to the little lady.
ARRESTING OFFICER: Inform me precisely what occurred.
JOE ELLEDGE: She was crying loads one night time… I believe I pinched her butt slightly bit.
Scott Rosenblum: To me, that was — a ruse to get him incarcerated.
Joe’s protection lawyer, Scott Rosenblum.
Scott Rosenblum: He was a younger guardian. Possibly he made a mistake. However there was no different indication that he was abusive in the direction of his daughter. None in any respect.
Joe was held on a $500,000 bond, his mom took custody of his daughter, and Dan Knight set about proving his idea about what occurred to Mengqi.
Dan Knight: I assumed from just about the very starting this finally was gonna wind up being a homicide case. Issues simply needed to develop.
Peter Van Sant: So, you are tellin’ me that these bushes that we’re standing amongst proper now helped clear up a … case?
Dan Knight: Completely.
TREES HAVE DNA, TOO
Dan Knight: On October twenty fifth, 2019, police executed a search warrant over at Joe Elledge’s and Mengqi’s condominium.
That was the identical day Joe Elledge was arrested on suspicion of kid abuse. Mengqi had been lacking for slightly over two weeks.
Dan Knight: These officers, they had been on the ball. … they had been capable of finding some issues that had been … nice proof on this case.
Dan Knight: Police collected … from his backpack … writings, completely different writings.
Notes Joe had apparently written to himself about how to answer questions from reporters and investigators.
Dan Knight: A kind of I labeled as being a script, “what to inform the police.”
Dan Knight: One other factor that he had written was that he was to talk about Mengqi within the current tense moderately than the previous tense.
JOE ELLEDGE: She’s a really devoted particular person. Ah, she’s a tough employee and I actually like that.
Peter Van Sant: Why would a person who was claiming his spouse had walked away, should remind himself to not talk about her up to now tense?
Dan Knight: As a result of he killed her.
Detectives seemed for doable proof in each nook of the condominium, and on a hunch, additionally took a muddy pair of Joe’s boots into proof.
Peter Van Sant: Simply in case, down the highway, they is perhaps related?
Dan Knight: One thing was amiss, sure. And … they sensed it. And so they took ’em.
The seek for Mengqi grew to become a hunt for her stays, beginning by retracing the lengthy, leisurely drives that Joe mentioned he took – together with his child within the backseat – whereas solely he knew that spouse was “lacking.”
JOE ELLEDGE: We simply went driving and it was a very nice day and so I simply wished to exit.
However each lead was simply one other lifeless finish. So, Dan Knight made a daring transfer.
Dan Knight: I made a decision to go forward and file costs. Homicide within the first diploma and not using a physique.
Expenses had been filed whereas Joe was nonetheless in jail on abuse costs.
With Joe behind bars, Knight stepped up the seek for Mengqi’s physique.
Dan Knight: These are the cell tower data that we had on this case.
Peter Van Sant: That is his cellular phone then? Joe’s cellphone?
Dan Knight: That is right.
In keeping with Joe’s cellular phone data, he had spent half-hour by the Lamine River, the day he claimed Mengqi disappeared – one thing he had not informed police.
Satisfied her physique was right here, authorities looked for months. There was even a memorial on the river, attended by Mengqi’s mom.
Yáo Li: By March of 2020, we had actually given up … we would have liked to do one thing to have the ability to say goodbye.
Then, a yr later, with Joe Elledge nonetheless awaiting trial, a hiker was making his manner via a wooded space within the very park the place Joe had proposed to Mengqi. A flash of coloration within the grime caught his eye. It was a handbag.
Dan Knight: He had this strolling stick. And he type of flipped that purse round just a bit bit. … He observed that there have been these footwear … After which … He noticed somethin’ that seemed like was possibly a- cranium … and in reality, it was a cranium, Mengqi’s cranium.
Peter Van Sant: She had lastly been discovered?
Dan Knight: That is proper. That is proper. it was a miracle.
Yáo Li: I believe that is – that is the worst second for a guardian.
Yáo Li: I had a video convention with Mengqi’s mother and father, who had been each again in China.
Yáo Li: They did not say something. All you s — see is their tears.
They now knew their daughter was lifeless — however how and why had been nonetheless a thriller. Sadly, even the medical expert’s workplace could not say what killed Mengqi.
Peter Van Sant: Was there injury to her bone construction that —
Dan Knight: Sure.
Peter Van Sant: Unnatural injury?
Dan Knight: Sure, there was. 4 … ribs had been damaged all through.
Peter Van Sant: Do you imagine that these damaged ribs are proof of bodily abuse, of a bodily assault?
Dan Knight: Of a large, catastrophic blow to her again, all the way in which, these via and thru breaks that she would have been in agonizing ache.
Dan Knight was constructing a idea of what occurred to Mengqi-and gadgets collected a few year-and-a-half earlier, had been about to develop into key. For one factor, Joe’s cellular phone data put him close to Mengqi’s burial web site the day he reported her lacking.
Peter Van Sant: What had been the climate situations like that day?
Dan Knight: Sadly for Joe however fortuitously for justice, it was raining.
Knight had these muddy boots — and a hunch was about to repay.
Dan Knight: As you possibly can see proper right here, there may be soil that’s caked onto these boots.
Mud and gravel on the soles of Joe’s boots had been despatched out for evaluation, together with foliage caught within the mud.
Dan Knight: We have 12 various kinds of vegetation in these boots.
Dan Knight determined to ship Joe’s boots to a lab on the Missouri Botanical Backyard, the place juniper tree needles had been fastidiously faraway from the soles for DNA testing.
Peter Van Sant: Crops have DNA identical to individuals?
Christine Edwards: Completely, yeah. Each organism, each dwelling organism within the planet has DNA.
Christine Edwards is a plant inhabitants geneticist who by no means dreamed she’d develop into a CSI investigator in a homicide case.
Christine Edwards: They wished to see if there was a way that we may match the vegetation within the boots to the … web site the place a lady’s stays had been discovered.
Christine Edwards: These are two samples that had been collected from … the left boot proper right here.
Christine Edwards: As soon as we knew that we may get usable DNA out of the – the forensic samples that we took from the boots, then we would have liked to match them to the – the bushes on the web site.
Edwards’ colleague was tasked with accumulating pattern needles from the juniper bushes surrounding Mengqi’s gravesite.
Peter Van Sant: How do you do it? Decide it up off the bottom or go as much as the bushes?
Alex Linan: So, we now have to go all the way in which as much as the bushes. And this concerned a ladder and a ten, 15-foot-long pole pruner in order that we may be sure that the needles that we had been getting got here from the precise tree that it was. So, we could not simply get it from the bottom. It needed to be from the tree.
Every pattern was saved and numbered, and again on the lab, they had been in comparison with the needles discovered on Joe’s boots.
Christine Edwards (pointing to a monitor): These two traces listed below are the genotype of one of many samples from the boot. … And this one is from the tree that’s overhanging the gravesite. And as you possibly can see, the traces match up.
Peter Van Sant: And that second for you if you realized you had a match?
Christine Edwards: Yeah, It … was actually thrilling. … “We obtained him.” … He was there.
Peter Van Sant: Little doubt he was there.
Christine Edwards: Little doubt in my thoughts. He was there.
Peter Van Sant: Scientifically confirmed?
Alex Linan: Sure.
Peter Van Sant: Identical to a fingerprint, identical to DNA, blood DNA that’s offered in trial, that is simply as dependable.
Alex Linan: Precisely. Precisely the identical know-how.
Peter Van Sant: So, what you are telling me is, these bushes which are throughout us right here performed a task in fixing a homicide?
Alex Linan: Completely. Sure.
Dan Knight says it is solely the second homicide case he is aware of of the place tree DNA has been used as proof.
Dan Knight: The partitions had been closing in on Joe. So, I anticipated at trial for there to be one other protection, apart from … “Oh, Mengqi should’ve simply run off and gone to China.”
And Dan Knight was proper.
TRAGIC ACCIDENT OR PREMEDITATED MURDER?
On Nov. 1, 2021, Joe Elledge went on trial for the homicide of his spouse, Mengqi Ji.
SCOTT ROSENBLUM (opening assertion): The query is … what occurred in that condominium?
And Joe’s lawyer Scott Rosenblum pivoted to a brand new rationalization about what occurred to Mengqi. Joe did not imply to kill his spouse.
SCOTT ROSENBLUM (opening assertion): What occurred was a tragic accident.
Due to a juniper tree and its DNA, Joe may not declare that Mengqi had run away. He now needed to admit that he buried his spouse in a shallow grave.
SCOTT ROSENBLUM (opening assertion): He had no intent, not — actually not homicide. That is not even shut.
Joe did have one thing to do with Mengqi’s loss of life, mentioned Rosenblum, however it was not homicide. He took jurors again to Oct. 8, 2019, the day Mengqi died.
SCOTT ROSENBLUM (opening assertion): And as they go into the night hours … he asks her if he – if she desires a therapeutic massage. Joe proceeds and … Tries to provoke intercourse. She rebuffs him. She says no.
Joe now admits he knew about his spouse’s on-line affair with that man in China, Rosenblum mentioned. And on this night time, he confronted her.
SCOTT ROSENBLUM (opening assertion): He is upset, he is harm, and he desires to take his daughter for a stroll. … She lunges in the direction of him and pushes him … and he pushes her … Pushes her into the countertop.
Joe claims that is when Mengqi broke her ribs. The protection referred to as Dr. Keith Norton, the pathologist who carried out Mengqi’s post-mortem, and he mentioned it was doable.
DR. KEITH NORTON: Sure, however it must be a really forcible push.
Peter Van Sant: Does Joe preserve that she initiated this bodily encounter?
Scott Rosenblum: 100%.
Peter Van Sant: She got here after him?
Scott Rosenblum: Effectively, I imply … she wished to stop him from leaving with their daughter.
Peter Van Sant: He claimed in his new story that she attacked him … Do you purchase any of that?
Dan Knight: In fact not.
Peter Van Sant: Take a look at the dimensions distinction right here.
Dan Knight: In fact not. He is twice as huge as her.
SCOTT ROSENBLUM (opening assertion): And once more, she lunges at him and … he pushes her away … and he or she falls this time on her again and he hears the thud of her head hitting the bottom.
Joe claims Mengqi was knocked practically unconscious after which obtained up and went to mattress. Within the morning, when the infant began crying, Mengqi did not get up.
SCOTT ROSENBLUM (opening assertion): He is form of violently shaking her. Are you all proper? Are you — all proper? And it’s abundantly clear at that cut-off date that his spouse is lifeless.
Peter Van Sant: Why did Joe lie?
Scott Rosenblum: He … he was scared. … He made a selection, an erratic, irrational selection.
Peter Van Sant: Is that somebody who’s in a panic state, or is {that a} killer who’s making an attempt to – to cowl up his crime?
Scott Rosenblum: I imagine … it was, uh, proof of maximum panic.
Dan Knight (at burial web site): That story was very intelligent, however it … wasn’t what occurred.
Prosecutor Dan Knight says all of the proof he wants that Joe’s story is made up are these 4 damaged ribs.
Peter Van Sant: You understand how painful it’s to interrupt a single rib … She would’ve needed to have been to a hospital, proper?
Dan Knight: Oh, certain. There isn’t any doubt about it.
Knight says he retains going again to Joe’s story about giving Mengqi a therapeutic massage that night time and believes that is when he killed her.
Dan Knight: I do not know if he put his fingers round her neck and he strangled the life out of her. I do not know if he, possibly, compelled her face right into a pillow. … However I do know one factor for certain. That homicide was horrific.
A premeditated homicide says Knight, fueled by months of rising anger.
Dan Knight: He hated Mengqi with every thing he had.
JOE ELLEDGE (audio): I am going to discover a happier life. F*** this s***. I ain’t – I ain’t glad right here.
Joe took the stand in his personal protection, and insisted that he liked his spouse, despite the fact that there was stress within the marriage.
SCOTT ROSENBLUM: You’ll have these arguments, you each felt you had been misunderstand (sic), then there’d be a reconciliation and you’d love one another.
JOE ELLEDGE: That is proper.
The protection tried to get jurors to narrate to the sometimes-stormy nature of Joe and Mengqi’s marriage; moments of arguing frequent with many {couples}. Joe claimed his spouse was answerable for a lot of the strain.
JOE ELLEDGE (on the stand): Uh, she would increase her voice – uh, yelled … And, uh, she would not – take heed to me very properly.
Amy Salladay: They wished to color her because the aggressor … they wished individuals to really feel prefer it was her fault.
Amy Salladay and Yáo Li had been within the courtroom, usually texting updates to Mengqi’s mom – who was unable to journey.
Yáo Li: She did not imagine a little bit of it. And – um – that was very emotional for her.
When Dan Knight lastly had his likelihood to query Joe Elledge, he point-blank requested Joe how he killed the mom of his baby.
DAN KNIGHT: Did you possibly rise up on high of her and bounce on high of her again?
JOE ELLEDGE: No.
DAN KNIGHT: Did you suffocate her?
JOE ELLEDGE: No.
After practically two weeks of testimony detailing the audio recordings, digital proof, cell tower information, and the tree DNA linking Joe to Mengqi’s burial web site, either side delivered their closing arguments. Rosenblum requested for manslaughter, “Return the fitting verdict,” and Dan Knight requested for first-degree homicide.
DAN KNIGHT: She deserves justice women and gents! Mengqi deserves justice!
Amy Salladay: We had been all nervous. And we hoped that the jury would see the case the way in which that we noticed it.
A JURY DECIDES
Amy Salladay: We have all come to know Mengqi … and so I believe all of us felt that connection to her. And we hoped that justice can be served.
It was 7 p.m. on Nov. 11, 2021, and after deliberating for practically seven hours, the jury had its verdict.
JUDGE: Mr. Elledge would you please stand to obtain the decision. … We the jury discover the defendant Joseph Duane Elledge responsible of homicide within the second diploma.
Responsible of second-degree homicide. The jury believed that Joe killed Mengqi, however not with premeditation. Yáo Li says Mengqi’s mother and father had been very happy.
Yáo Li: They weren’t nervous a few conviction in any respect. … They imagine this can be a honest system.
However the day wasn’t over but. The jury would now hear testimony within the “penalty section.”
Dan Knight: I needed to flip round in a short time late that night time and begin presenting proof.
Dan Knight wished life in jail. The protection requested for 10 years.
The state referred to as a number of of Mengqi’s buddies, who spoke concerning the impression of her loss of life.
QINYI WANG | Buddy: I really feel very unhappy. And I really feel indignant.
FRIEND: That harm us, that make us big ache and large sorrow.
The protection referred to as just one witness to plead for mercy — Joe’s mom Jean Geringer.
JEAN GERINGER: It’s extremely disturbing. It is heartbreaking as a result of it is so out of his character.
It was midnight when the jury obtained the case once more. Just a little over an hour later —
JUDGE: We the jury … declare the punishment for a time period of 28 years.
Dan Knight believes the jury gave Joe one yr for yearly of Mengqi’s brief life. Yáo Li knowledgeable Mengqi’s mother and father.
Yáo Li: I do not suppose … the numbers matter to them. I believe the reality issues probably the most … that is what is irritating … I do not suppose they are going to ever, ever know the entire reality of what really occurred.
All they’ll hope for now could be to have the ability to increase their granddaughter in China, says household lawyer Amy Salida.
Amy Salladay: Her future is — is undetermined at this level.
Mengqi’s daughter now lives with Joe’s mom, however Mengqi’s mother and father are looking for shared custody of the now 4-year-old.
Amy Salladay: I hope that she will be raised to know her mom’s Chinese language tradition and to know her mom’s household.
Scott Rosenblum says that whereas the infant will all the time know her Chinese language grandparents, she is in good fingers with Joe’s mom.
Scott Rosenblum: Jean and her husband are nice mother and father. … She makes it her enterprise to incorporate — the maternal grandparents within the child’s life.
Dan Knight wouldn’t talk about the custody case however did say this concerning the trauma already suffered by Mengqi’s daughter.
Dan Knight: Primary: she was within the condominium on the time that Joe killed Mengqi, her mom. … one in all nowadays, she’s gonna discover out about that. … Second factor is when Joe drove round, the following day … Mengqi was within the trunk and … their little lady was strapped right into a automobile seat. … However the factor that she’s additionally gonna discover out about is that Joe … would’ve been simply high-quality along with her going the remainder of her life pondering that her mom deserted her.
Amy Salladay: I would like her daughter to know that she was an incredible mom. She was devoted. She liked her with all of her coronary heart. … I would like her to be remembered for her smile and the way pleasant and outgoing she was.
Mengqi Ji’s legacy of accomplishment, dedication and love lives on in her child lady, and within the hearts of these whose lives she touched.
Yáo Li: All people sees the goodness in her. That is why everyone’s so linked along with her.
A call within the custody case is anticipated by the tip of this month.
If you happen to or somebody you realize is a sufferer of home abuse, name 1-800-799-SAFE or go to thehotline.org.
Prosecutor Daniel Knight died on June 4, 2022.
Produced by Judy Rybak and Emily Wichick. Ryan N. Smith is the event producer. Shaheen Tokhi is the affiliate producer. Michael Loftus is the published affiliate. Michael McHugh is producer/editor. Doreen Schechter, Michelle Harris and Phil Tangel are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the chief story editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer.
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