Missing Chinese woman Mengqi Ji Elledge’s one-year-old daughter at centre of grandparents’ custody battle in US
- Her parents say they have ‘close relationship’ with their grandchild, while her husband’s mother is also seeking guardianship of girl
- Joseph Elledge, who is in custody over child abuse charges, has not been charged in wife’s disappearance, though police say they suspect foul play
A judge will hear arguments on Monday in a dispute involving the one-year-old daughter of a Chinese woman who has been missing for more than three weeks, with the woman’s parents and the mother of her jailed US husband seeking guardianship.
A lawyer for Ke Ren and Xiaolin Ji, who are the parents of 28-year-old Mengqi Ji Elledge, said a written statement that they have a “close relationship with their granddaughter, despite the distance between them, and it is in the minor child’s best interest that they have physical custody of her”, instead of their son-in-law’s mother, Jean Elledge.
The statement said they “believe that this is what their daughter would have wanted”.
Police said previously that the child was in the care of a relative.
Mengqi Ji Elledge’s husband, Joseph Elledge, is jailed in Columbia, Missouri, on a US$500,000 bond on a child abuse charge. Joseph Elledge, a University of Missouri student, has not been charged in the disappearance of his wife, a graduate of the school, although police announced last month that the investigation has led detectives to suspect foul play.