A woman wanted for kidnapping her 11-month-old son reportedly told authorities she doesn’t know why she shot and killed the boy, but that in her mind, she couldn’t let her ex or his family have him.
“Even if the rest of life is worthless she would do it again just so to make sure that the (family) didn’t touch him,” Detective Lt. Jason Jordan of the Grant County Sheriff’s Office in New Mexico wrote in an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case and made available Friday.
Madeline Daly, 35, shot the boy Tuesday when she realized law enforcement was closing in on her, then tried to turn a gun on herself, but by then officers were able to subdue her, according to the affidavit.
Before then, she was staying in an RV park in Ten Sleep, Wyoming, and was last seen with her son in Worland last month.
Daly told investigators that after officers stormed into the RV when she shot the boy, she “wasn’t fast enough killing herself after is all she can say about that,” the affidavit says.
Daly was wanted on a warrant out of Washakie County, Wyoming, after the boy’s father reported the infant missing Nov. 19.
The father, Jake Stoner of Kilgore, Nebraska, shared custody of the boy, named Basil, with Daly and said she resisted him visiting their son. He last saw Basil on Sept. 28.
Madeline Daly had disappeared until this week after she applied for a job near the town of Silver City, New Mexico, the affidavit says.
The Wyoming warrant for her arrest popped up during a background check, the affidavit says.
“Madeline was ran during a background check from the owner of (a local business),” Jordan wrote.
The owner “was going to hire Madeline, but before making that decision did some investigating of his own and saw that Madeline was currently wanted in Washakie County, Wyoming, for kidnapping.”
The owner of the business called Washakie County, which then reported her to the local authorities in New Mexico, according to the affidavit.
‘Running From Something’
For her part, Daly told agents after her arrest that she was keeping Basil “safe,” and that she knew she was breaking the law, but felt it was worth it for the sake of her child.
She said that’s why she ran into a nearby RV with Basil when she realized the law was closing in on her, the affidavit says.
She also made unsubstantiated claims that Basil “would have been in danger and molested if she would have stepped out of that trailer” and that his father “never wanted anything to do with Basil, financially, physically, emotionally ever.”
When questioned about why she kidnapped her own son, Daly replied that “she was not going to allow her (then) 8-month-old baby go back and forth from Nebraska to Wyoming twice a month,” the affidavit says.
Daly said she wound up in New Mexico because she had worked in that area 10 years ago. She began working for some people there who “ended up ratting her out because they knew she was running from something,” Jordan wrote.
‘A Bit Evasive’
Daly apparently had been trying to blend into an unincorporated area near Silver City, Jordan writes in his affidavit.
She was living in a rented bunkhouse, and an officer who had a contact living near the bunkhouse was alerted and began “keeping an eye out for her return home,” Jordan wrote.
Coincidentally, another deputy saw Madeline Daly and her son earlier that day at a local restaurant, but at the time didn’t know she was wanted by the law.
“Madeline was last seen this morning by Cpl. Deputy (William) Mize at the Three Questions Café in Mimbres, but he was not aware of the kidnapping at the time,” the affidavit says.
The document goes on to recount that the deputy observed that “she was a bit evasive as she sat down with her son to have breakfast this morning.”
‘I Knew My Time Was Up’
After getting the call from Washakie County, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office developed a plan to retrieve Basil, the affidavit says.
That included sending out five deputies to the bunkhouse. They had been tipped off that Madeline Daly had returned there.
“On arrival, Cpl. Deputy Mize saw a female subject running with a small child towards a motorized RV,” the affidavit says. “When deputies arrive to the motorized RV, they were confronted by a female subject later identified as (the owner of the RV).”
Daly later told investigators why she ran with Basil into the RV.
“I saw the sheriffs and I knew my time was up,” she said, according to the affidavit.
“When asked what went through her mind when she saw law enforcement walking up, she replied, ‘Jake can’t get Basil,’” the affidavit said.
Daly reportedly told investigators she assumed they had a felony warrant for kidnapping because she didn’t follow a judge’s custody order.
“So she said, ‘F*** it, it’s worth a shot,’” the affidavit says, adding that she considered her actions “worth it” if it meant keeping Basil away from his father and his family.
Deputies wanted to go into the RV and get the boy, but the owner “would not give deputies permission to enter her residence without a search warrant,” the affidavit says.
Too Late
While authorities were telling Daly that she was surrounded and calling her out of the house, other agents were preparing to get a search warrant “just in case Madeline did not comply and come outside,” the affidavit says.
It was then at least one gunshot was heard from inside the RV.
“While working on the search warrant, I did have my handheld radio on and heard deputies yell for assistance from EMS,” Jordan wrote.
One deputy then reported that the 11-month-old had been “shot in the chest by his mother, Madeline Daly,” the affidavit says, adding that she was in custody.
It’s not clear from the affidavit how many times the infant was shot.
The document references a gunshot to the chest, but then also reports that “medical staff worked on the child, but they were unable to save his life due to the gunshot wound to the face.”
Asked later by investigators why she killed Basil, Daly “could not think of why or when she decided to shoot her son, and (she was) not sure she should even be saying anything without a lawyer, not that (a lawyer) would help.”
Tragic Ending To Search
The tragic ending to the search for his son has left Stoner devastated, his attorney Christopher King told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
King said Stoner had sat by the phone for months waiting for word that his son was safe and he’d be able to celebrate Christmas with him.
Daly’s first-degree murder charge is a capital offense and has been turned over to the local office of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Mexico.
The FBI public affairs office told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday email that it can’t provide any details on the case, and that “any and all” potential federal charges will come from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Daly remains in the Grant County Detention Center on suspicion of first-degree murder and abandonment of a child resulting in death. She’s being held without bond.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
