An Indiana infant found dead Sunday morning likely died before Lafayette police issued a Silver Alert for the missing child on Saturday afternoon.
Three-month-old Jacob Moneus was reported missing and the alert issued at around noon, as CrimeOnline previously reported. But the alert was cancelled Sunday morning when the baby was found dead.
Lafayette Police Sgt. Shawn Verma told the Lafayette Journal & Courier that the baby was reported missing when his mother drove herself to the hospital. She was bloodied and severely battered, Verma said, and told police her husband had used something like a tire iron to beat her.
Police headed to her apartment to look for her husband — and her baby Jacob.
“When the officers were initially inside the apartment checking out the scene, baby was nowhere to be found,” Verma said.
But the infant was in the apartment, Verma said, and was found at about 5:30 a.m.
“The baby was located,” Verma said. “He was concealed in an area that an officer would never think to look.”
Police identified the baby as Jacob Moneus, but the Tippecanoe County coroner has not confirmed the identity. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday, Verma said.
The baby’s father, Elisard Moneus, was arrested in Indianapolis and charged with attempted mruder, domestic battery with serious bodily injury, domestic battery with a deadly weapon, and domestic battery in the presence of a child, all relating the beating of his wife, according to jail records. He is being held without bond.
Verma said the victim told police Moneus used something like a tire iron to beat her.
Moneus has not yet been charged related to the baby’s death, but Verma said detectives will be questioning him about that later on Sunday.
