Dad beats up mom, takes 1-year-old; they're later found near bridge (Frederick, Maryland)

Dad DANIEL CHARLES ELLIS assaulted his girlfriend and took off with their 1-year-old son. Police later found Dad and the little boy "near a steep drop-off near the Md. 355 bridge over I-70."

Don't know about you, but I got chills when I read that. I don't claim to be psychic, but I can't help but strongly wonder if the dad intended to throw the kid over.

This has an eerie resemblance to another Maryland case from 2008, where dad STEPHEN NELSON threw his 3-year-old son off the Key Bridge into the Patapsco River. The little boy's body was recovered almost exactly one year ago. Of course, dad had a history of domestic violence and had been hassling mom over custody and "not getting enough time with his son." Just goes to show that dads who demand "more time" may not have the most positive of intentions in doing so.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=92624

Frederick man arrested in assault on girlfriend at motel

Originally published July 15, 2009
By Gina Gallucci-White News-Post Staff

Courtesy Photo
Daniel Charles Ellis Jr.

A man faces multiple charges after his girlfriend was punched and several items were destroyed in a room at the Econo Lodge on Francis Scott Key Drive, according to the Frederick County Sheriff's Office.

Daniel Charles Ellis Jr., 29, of Frederick , remained at the Frederick County Adult Detention Center on Tuesday afternoon.

Deputies were called to the motel around midnight Monday for a reported child abduction, the sheriff's office said. They learned Ellis and a woman he has a child with got into an argument in a motel room. Alcohol was a factor, the sheriff's office said.

Deputies found broken glass, a torn book and a broken nightstand in the room, said Cpl. Jennifer Bailey. The woman had been punched in the head, and deputies could see a mark on her. She did not require medical attention.

After the assault, Ellis left the motel with their 1-year-old son and a caller reported the child had been abducted, the sheriff's office said.

Deputies, a police dog and a Maryland State Police helicopter looked for Ellis and found him shortly afterward near a steep drop-off near the Md. 355 bridge over I-70, authorities said.
The child was not harmed, and he was returned to his mother, Bailey said.

Deputies charged Ellis with second-degree assault, destruction of property and reckless endangerment.

He was not charged with kidnapping because he is the child's father, and no court rulings had stated he could not take the boy, Bailey said.

Ellis' bail was initially set at $10,000, but Ellis asked District Judge R. Noel Spence to lower it during a bail review hearing on Tuesday afternoon.

"I've been trying to do the right thing," he said on a video monitor in the courtroom. "There is no way I can make $10,000 bail."

Because of the seriousness of the charges and his criminal history, Spence decided to leave the bail unchanged and ordered that if Ellis does make bail, he cannot have any contact with the woman or their child.

A Sept. 23 court date has been set.

And an article on Stephen Nelson:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-md.baby13jul13,0,2620353.story

Boy's body found in river
It may be child thrown from bridge in February
By Annie Linskey
Sun Reporter
July 13, 2008

Authorities recovered from the Patapsco River yesterday what they believe is the body of Turner Jordan Nelson, a 3-year-old boy who was flung from the Key Bridge five months ago.

Maryland Transportation Authority Police wrote in a statement that their detectives "responded to the scene as part of their ongoing homicide investigation" into the boy's death and said they are waiting for positive identification.

The clothing recovered from the body matched the description of what the child was wearing when he was last seen, according a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to speak about it publicly.

A person operating a personal watercraft saw the body about 8 a.m. yesterday floating near the Key Bridge and made an emergency marine radio call, according to the law enforcement source.

City firefighters found the body near the Seagirt Marine Terminal on the Inner Harbor side of the bridge, pulled it onto their boat and carried it to their station at Fort McHenry. Police believe the boy's father, Stephen T. Nelson, 37, drove to the bridge and tossed his child off it on Super Bowl Sunday. Then, police said, Nelson went to his mother's house and drank household cleaning fluids in an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

When Nelson recovered more than a week later, he confessed to killing his son, according to police. The state charged him with first-degree murder.

The boy's mother, Natisha Johnson, 28, could not be reached yesterday. A man who answered the door at her parents' home in Gwynn Oak yesterday declined to comment but said she was out making funeral arrangements.

In a mid-February interview, the boy's mother still clung to the hope that her child was alive. "I'm always going to have that hope," she said to The Sun. "Until his body is found, I'll still hold on to that hope, even though his father blatantly said he did it."

Cpl. Jonathan Green, a spokesman for the MdTA police, which oversees safety on the Key Bridge, said that his agency had never suspended their search for the boy, which began when Turner disappeared Feb. 3.

That day, police received a call reporting a man standing on the Key Bridge, waving his hands and screaming, "No, no, no," according to police. The man left by the time officers arrived.

According to police sources, Nelson's mother placed several 911 calls that day saying her son had thrown her grandson off the bridge.

Nelson's family also could not be reached. After he was arrested, his family faxed the following statement to the paper: "Turner was Stephen's world, and he was trying very hard to spend as much time with Turner in the daytime as well as on weekends. There wasn't a day that has gone by before this tragedy that Stephen didn't speak lovingly of his son."

The couple met in 2000 and stayed together for four years. Johnson told The Sun that the relationship ended because she was uncomfortable with Nelson's drinking habits and had stopped loving him.

The couple argued in court over custody of the child. In January 2006, Nelson complained that he was not getting enough time with his son. In April 2007, Nelson secured a job at a Pasadena warehouse and asked the court for more time with the boy.

But the two parents were bickering during that time. In May 2006, Nelson filed charges against Johnson - saying that she hit him with a stick that was part of a coat rack while she was moving her belongings out of the house. In May 2007, she filed a domestic violence charge against him, saying that he had "acted threatening" toward her.