Mengqi Ji Elledge, who came to US from China to study, missing for two weeks as police suspect foul play
- Husband Joseph Elledge did not report wife’s disappearance for 36 hours, instead taking long drive through remote areas in Missouri
- He has since been charged with abusing their one-year-old daughter by striking her hard enough to cause severe bruising
A University of Missouri student was charged on Monday with abuse or neglect of a child just days after authorities announced that foul play is suspected in the disappearance of his wife, who came to the US from China to study.
Joseph Elledge, 23, is jailed on a US$500,000 cash-only bond. No lawyer is listed for him in online court records. Elledge is a senior mechanical engineering student.
His wife, 28-year-old Mengqi Ji Elledge, a graduate of the school, has been missing for more than two weeks. Columbia police spokesman Steven Sapp said the couple has a one-year-old daughter who is in the care of a relative.
In the probable cause statement supporting the charges, detectives were advised that Elledge abused the toddler by striking her on the buttocks hard enough to cause severe bruising in February.
The girl’s mother, who is identified only as M.E. in the document, had wanted to contact police but gave Elledge another chance after he promised he would never do it again. She sent another person a picture of the bruising, however, and officers examining the mother’s iPad located pictures and videos of the bruising.