This story initially aired on Dec. 10, 2022. It was up to date on July 29, 2023.On Oct. 15, 2019, Joseph Elledge walked into the Columbia, Missouri Police Division with no 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 …
This story initially aired on Dec. 10, 2022. It was up to date on July 29, 2023.
On Oct. 15, 2019, Joseph Elledge walked into the Columbia, Missouri Police Division with no 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 large fights … I feel the final large combat was truly the week earlier than. And it wasn’t actually an enormous combat.
Protection Lawyer Matei Stroescu
The 23-year-old described his spouse as tense and withdrawn the night time earlier than she disappeared, so he gave her a therapeutic massage.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 attempting to pull it out as a result of I wished to increase the period of time that we have been collectively doing one thing.
In keeping with Joe, Mengqi ultimately 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 woman behind. Her telephone was left behind … her automobile. Her automobile keys have been left behind.
From the start, then-Boone County prosecuting lawyer Dan Knight, had doubts about Joe’s story.
Dan Knight: We have been attempting 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 an internet emotional affair she was having with a person dwelling in China.
JOE ELLEDGE (police interview): The final paragraph stated … “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 could have left him for one more man.
KRCG 13
JOE ELLEDGE (KRCG interview): I hope that she’s with – a minimum of with someone who – who cares for her, you understand, sufficient to maintain her protected.
Joe and his household employed lawyer Scott Rosenblum, who factors on the market have 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 need 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-Baby Coverage. However Ke Ren, Mengqi’s mom, would say that “We solely ever wished one little one. We wished to provide all of our like to this little one.”
Yáo Li: Mengqi is just like the — the child all of the dad and mom would need.
Yáo Li is a Chinese language immigrant, and an assistant prosecutor in Boone County, who helped Dan Knight talk with Mengqi’s dad and mom.
Yáo Li: They’re actually, actually happy with her. … I understand how exhausting it’s to get right into a high college in Shanghai and Beijing … the competitors … is actually 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 girl. Right?
Dan Knight: Completely.
One among 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.
Boone County DA’s Workplace
The 2 rapidly 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 known as “The Satan’s Icebox.” Two weeks later, they have 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 overseas idea for Americans to grasp the stress {that a} immigrant is going through … She’s absolutely succesful to help herself financially. However she can’t get this inexperienced card. … So, this actually adjustments the facility dynamics of a wedding.
Practically 5 months into the wedding, Mengqi was supplied an enormous job.
Yáo Li: After which she came upon 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 real revenue earner. Joe had give up working to complete college. In October 2018, the child was born.
Yáo Li: So that is the dynamic of this marriage. Mengqi was utterly remoted from all of the help 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 dad and mom despatched a pal dwelling close by to test on her.
JOE ELLEDGE (police interview): You understand, I informed him all the things 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 stated his spouse vanished — {that a} seemingly unconcerned Joe Elledge lastly known 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 known as the non-emergency 311.
Peter Van Sant: Do you discover that suspicious?
Dan Knight: Completely. Completely. … it might be pure for him to have reported this instantly.
As an alternative, 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 climbing trails.
JOE ELLEDGE (police interview): There’s this, there’s simply this large 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.
Boone County Prosecutor’s Workplace
DET. JON VOSS: Did you lock your door whenever you left the condominium?
JOE ELLEDGE: Yeah.
DET. JON VOSS: If she comes dwelling, how is she gonna get again in? You’ve got bought her keys and her automobile. Her telephone’s in the home. She will be able to’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 little one, her 1-year-old daughter. … She was an awesome 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 along with his spouse, like this one:
JOE ELLEDGE (audio recording): I wish to talk about our relationship. And I’m kinda prepared to debate the top of it as nicely.
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 principally 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 courtroom 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): When you preserve performing this manner, I’ve informed you earlier than, ain’t gonna be fairly.
JOE ELLEDGE (audio recording): What are you attempting to do? … Are you attempting to make me go loopy with the intention to name the police on me and take my f*****’ child away from me?
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It was Oct. 29, 2018, a couple of 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 someone?”
It began weeks earlier, after Mengqi gave start and her dad and mom 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****** depart.
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 maintain my very own physique, my very own well being, it isn’t liable for me … or this household –
JOE ELLEDGE: Yeah, I agree.
MENGQI JI: She’s serving to me to do this. And I do know it.
JOE ELLEDGE: I do not like that girl. And I do not suppose you need to both.
Yáo Li: The strain 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 all the things that he does not perceive, he would assume the worst.
Amy Salladay
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 does not like how she’s utilizing, utilizing the chopping board.
Dan Knight: I known as it the “chopping board incident.”
Prosecutor Dan Knight says it is an incident that appears petty, but it surely led to an explosive argument.
JOE ELLEDGE (audio recording): Do not do my chopping board like that. I am telling you, chopping board does not like that.
Dan Knight: He was demanding that his mother-in-law depart 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 chopping 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 may guess your ass on that.
Dan Knight: It was a one-way avenue. 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 girl.
JOE ELLEDGE: You suppose you are so empowered due to this society … You are still only a girl.
Dan Knight: It was a calculated effort on his half to gaslight her, to attempt to brainwash her, to convey her underneath 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 know the way 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, in fact, was in shock. It is simply actually tough for her to grasp why this younger man is so mad and so indignant at her, at all the things.
Mengqi felt so helpless that she known as Joe’s mom Jean Geringer, who drove two hours to attempt to mediate.
MENGQI JI: I’ve no alternative, 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 nicely.
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’ll be able to’t …
JOE ELLEDGE: I am not going to although …
JEAN GERINGER: … you may’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 ultimately apologize to his mother-in-law, however he nonetheless compelled to her depart earlier than the 100 days have 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 may 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’t 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.
Slightly over two weeks after Mengqi vanished, the Columbia Police Division introduced it was opening a legal investigation into her disappearance. That very same day, police confirmed up at Joe’s condominium.
Amy Salladay: He is along with his mom. … The detectives on the scene have been asking her, “The place is Mengqi, have you learnt the place she is?”
AP by way of Boone County Sheriff’s Division
Joe was arrested — not in connection along with his spouse’s disappearance, however on suspicion that he had bodily abused their daughter.
ARRESTING OFFICER: We’ve got develop into conscious that there was some bruising … So, have you learnt what we’re speaking about?
JOE ELLEDGE: Yup.
Dan Knight: That is by way of Ke Ren, her mom. … Mengqi had informed her that she’d noticed … bruising on the buttocks. And Ke Ren steered that Mengqi confront Joe about this. … and that Joe then … admitted that he had completed this … to the little woman.
ARRESTING OFFICER: Inform me precisely what occurred.
JOE ELLEDGE: She was crying lots one night time… I feel I pinched her butt a little bit 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 mother or father. Possibly he made a mistake. However there was no different indication that he was abusive in direction of his daughter. None by any means.
Joe was held on a $500,000 bond, his mom took custody of his daughter, and Dan Knight set about proving his concept about what occurred to Mengqi.
Dan Knight: I believed from just about the very starting this ultimately 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 resolve a … case?
Dan Knight: Completely.
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 a little bit over two weeks.
CBS Information
Dan Knight: These officers, they have been on the ball. … they have been capable of finding some issues that have been … nice proof on this case.
Dan Knight: Police collected … from his backpack … writings, totally different writings.
Notes Joe had apparently written to himself about how to answer questions from reporters and investigators.
Dan Knight: A type 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 discuss Mengqi within the current tense quite 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 discuss her up to now tense?
Dan Knight: As a result of he killed her.
Detectives regarded 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 likely to be related?
Dan Knight: One thing was amiss, sure. And … they sensed it. They usually took ’em.
The seek for Mengqi grew to become a hunt for her stays, beginning by retracing the lengthy, leisurely drives that Joe stated he took – along 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 useless finish. So, Dan Knight made a daring transfer.
Dan Knight: I made a decision to go forward and file prices. Homicide within the first diploma with no physique.
Fees have been filed whereas Joe was nonetheless in jail on abuse prices.
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 mobile phone then? Joe’s cellphone?
Dan Knight: That is right.
In keeping with Joe’s mobile phone data, he had spent half-hour by the Lamine River, the day he claimed Mengqi disappeared – one thing he had not informed police.
Amy Salladay
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 wanted 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 by way of a wooded space within the very park the place Joe had proposed to Mengqi. A flash of coloration within the dust 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 seen that there have been these sneakers … After which … He noticed somethin’ that regarded 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 feel that is – that is the worst second for a mother or father.
Yáo Li: I had a video convention with Mengqi’s dad and mom, who have been each again in China.
Yáo Li: They did not say something. All you s — see is their tears.
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They now knew their daughter was useless — however how and why have been nonetheless a thriller. Sadly, even the health worker’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 have been damaged during.
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 best way, these by way of and thru breaks that she would have been in agonizing ache.
Dan Knight was constructing a concept of what occurred to Mengqi-and objects collected a couple of year-and-a-half earlier, have been about to develop into key. For one factor, Joe’s mobile phone data put him close to Mengqi’s burial website the day he reported her lacking.
Peter Van Sant: What have been the climate circumstances 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 may see proper right here, there may be soil that’s caked onto these boots.
Mud and gravel on the soles of Joe’s boots have been despatched out for evaluation, together with foliage caught within the mud.
Dan Knight: We have 12 several types of vegetation in these boots.
District Lawyer Dan Knight/Boon County DA’s Workplace
Dan Knight determined to ship Joe’s boots to a lab on the Missouri Botanical Backyard, the place juniper tree needles have been rigorously faraway from the soles for DNA testing.
Peter Van Sant: Vegetation have DNA similar 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 … website the place a girl’s stays have been discovered.
Christine Edwards: These are two samples that have 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 wanted to match them to the – the bushes on the website.
CBS Information
Edwards’ colleague was tasked with gathering pattern needles from the juniper bushes surrounding Mengqi’s gravesite.
Peter Van Sant: How do you do it? Choose it up off the bottom or go as much as the bushes?
Alex Linan: So, now we have to go all the best way 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 have 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.
CBS Information
Every pattern was saved and numbered, and again on the lab, they have been in comparison with the needles discovered on Joe’s boots.
Christine Edwards (pointing to a monitor): These two traces listed here 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 may see, the traces match up.
Peter Van Sant: And that second for you whenever you realized you had a match?
Christine Edwards: Yeah, It … was actually thrilling. … “We bought him.” … He was there.
Peter Van Sant: Little question he was there.
Christine Edwards: Little question in my thoughts. He was there.
Peter Van Sant: Scientifically confirmed?
Alex Linan: Sure.
Peter Van Sant: Identical to a fingerprint, similar 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 might be 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 have been closing in on Joe. So, I anticipated at trial for there to be one other protection, in addition to … “Oh, Mengqi should’ve simply run off and gone to China.”
And Dan Knight was proper.
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 clarification about what occurred to Mengqi. Joe did not imply to kill his spouse.
SCOTT ROSENBLUM (opening assertion): What occurred was a tragic accident.
Don Shrubshell/Columbia Every day Tribune by way of AP, Pool
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, stated Rosenblum, but it surely 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 stated. 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 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 known as Dr. Keith Norton, the pathologist who carried out Mengqi’s post-mortem, and he stated it was doable.
DR. KEITH NORTON: Sure, but it surely must be a really forcible push.
Peter Van Sant: Does Joe keep that she initiated this bodily encounter?
Scott Rosenblum: 100%.
Peter Van Sant: She got here after him?
Scott Rosenblum: Nicely, 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: After all not.
District Lawyer Dan Knight/Boone County DA’s Workplace
Peter Van Sant: Take a look at the scale distinction right here.
Dan Knight: After all not. He is twice as large as her.
SCOTT ROSENBLUM (opening assertion): And once more, she lunges at him and … he pushes her away … and she or he 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 bought up and went to mattress. Within the morning, when the child 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 useless.
Peter Van Sant: Why did Joe lie?
Scott Rosenblum: He … he was scared. … He made a alternative, an erratic, irrational alternative.
Peter Van Sant: Is that somebody who’s in a panic state, or is {that a} killer who’s attempting to – to cowl up his crime?
Scott Rosenblum: I imagine … it was, uh, proof of utmost panic.
Dan Knight (at burial website): That story was very intelligent, but it surely … 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.
District Lawyer Dan Knight/Boone County DA’s Workplace
Peter Van Sant: You know the way painful it’s to interrupt a single rib … She would’ve needed to have been to a hospital, proper?
Dan Knight: Oh, certain. There is not 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 arms 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 all the things he had.
JOE ELLEDGE (audio): I am going to discover a happier life. F*** this s***. I ain’t – I ain’t completely satisfied right here.
Joe took the stand in his personal protection, and insisted that he liked his spouse, despite the fact that there was pressure within the marriage.
Don Shrubshell/Columbia Every day Tribune by way of AP, Pool
SCOTT ROSENBLUM: You’d have these arguments, you each felt you have been misunderstand (sic), then there’d be a reconciliation and you’ll 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 liable for a lot of the stress.
JOE ELLEDGE (on the stand): Uh, she would increase her voice – uh, yelled … And, uh, she would not – hearken to me very nicely.
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 have been within the courtroom, recurrently 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 little one.
Don Shrubshell/Columbia Every day Tribune by way of AP, Pool
DAN KNIGHT: Did you possibly arise on high of her and leap 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 website, either side delivered their closing arguments. Rosenblum requested for manslaughter, “Return the precise verdict,” and Dan Knight requested for first-degree homicide.
DAN KNIGHT: She deserves justice women and gents! Mengqi deserves justice!
Amy Salladay: We have been all nervous. And we hoped that the jury would see the case the best way that we noticed it.
Amy Salladay: We have all come to know Mengqi … and so I feel 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.
Alessia Tagliabue/Missourian by way of AP, Pool
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 dad and mom have been more than happy.
Yáo Li: They weren’t nervous a couple of 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 part.”
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 known as a number of of Mengqi’s mates, who spoke concerning the influence of her loss of life.
QINYI WANG | Pal: I really feel very unhappy. And I really feel indignant.
FRIEND: That harm us, that make us big ache and big sorrow.
The protection known 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 bought the case once more. Slightly 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 dad and mom.
Yáo Li: I do not suppose … the numbers matter to them. I feel the reality issues essentially the most … that is what is irritating … I do not suppose they may ever, ever know the entire fact of what truly occurred.
All they’ll stay up for now’s to have the ability to assist increase their granddaughter, says household lawyer Amy Salida.
Amy Salladay: I hope that she might be raised to know her mom’s Chinese language tradition and to know her mom’s household.
In January 2023, Mengqi’s mother or father’s and Joe’s mom reached an settlement. The kid will spend her summers in China and the remainder of the yr with Jean. Scott Rosenblum says she is in good arms.
Scott Rosenblum: Jean and her husband are nice dad and mom. … She makes it her enterprise to incorporate — the maternal grandparents within the child’s life.
Dan Knight wouldn’t talk about the kid’s future 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 every of lately, 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 woman 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 tremendous along with her going the remainder of her life considering that her mom deserted her.
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Amy Salladay: I need her daughter to know that she was an awesome mom. She was devoted. She liked her with all of her coronary heart. … I need 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 woman, 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.
When you or somebody you understand is a sufferer of home abuse, name 1-800-799-SAFE or go to thehotline.org.
Boone County DA’s Workplace
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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