Authorities in Wyoming have charged a 35-year-old mother with fleeing to New Mexico with her 11-month-old son, where investigators say she decided to kill the boy so she wouldn’t have to give up custody to his father.
Madeline Daly has been charged with first-degree murder and child neglect resulting in death for allegedly kidnapping her son, Basil, in Wyoming before taking off to Silver City, New Mexico.
Police said Daly shot and killed the baby on Dec. 23, 2025, as New Mexico authorities were closing in on his trailer park hideout.
She was handcuffed and has since been in police custody.
A GoFundMe campaign it started with the boy’s father, Jake Stonersaid Basil’s killing ended a year-long ordeal of harrowing and contentious conflict over the boy. According to the GoFundMe text, Stoner and Daly were in a relationship until July 2024, when she “eloped and tried to keep the location of where she was and where the baby would be born a secret.”
A Louisiana woman has been arrested after allegedly shooting and killing her one-year-old son on New Year’s Day. According to Sulfur Police Department spokesman Major Jason Gully, police responded to a call at the home of Kristin Bass shortly after 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 1st. Upon arrival, the authorities discovered that the mother had allegedly shot (…)
Basil was born on January 8, 2025. In the months leading up to the birth, Daly would allegedly “send random text messages to Mr. Stoner, telling him how he would never be a part of his son’s life.” She settled in “the small town of Ten Sleep, Wyoming, to finish her pregnancy” and Stoner reconciled with her and “was able to be present for the birth of their son.”
But the good times didn’t last. Daly allegedly “refused to discuss the child’s name or even allow Stoner’s last name to be placed on the birth certificate,” part of the GoFundMe explains. She also allegedly “refused” to allow Stoner to be in her son’s life, and the matter ended up in family court.
In the fall, Stoner was awarded shared custody of Basil after a trial in Wyoming. Daly allegedly cooperated with the first visits before fleeing to New Mexico.
Stoner went back to court to seek full custody and allegedly sent her a text message “calling him a deadbeat dad” and “telling her she was already making her son start calling someone else dad.” Daly failed to appear for a court-ordered surrender in October.
Stoner hired a private investigator, who learned he was staying with an individual in Worland, Wyoming, who was helping him hide the child.
After she was arrested, Daly told police she knew she had broken the law, but did it to keep her son out of the reach of Stoner and his family. according to a Cowboy State Daily report.
She also baselessly claimed that her son would have been in danger if he had “walked out of that trailer” and that his father “never wanted anything to do with Basil, financially, physically, emotionally ever.”
If you suspect child abuse, call Childhelp National’s Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or visit ChildHelp.org. All calls are free and confidential, and the hotline is available 24 hours a day in over 170 languages.