Missouri man drove to remote areas before reporting wife missing, court documents say
The husband of a missing Missouri woman allegedly took a “long drive through unfamiliar remote areas” of the state before he reported her disappearance to police, according to court documents filed with his arrest last week.
Police serving a search warrant on the couple’s Columbia, Missouri, apartment Friday allegedly found Joseph Duane Elledge, 24, attempting to leave town with his mother and child.
Those details came in court documents identifying Joseph Elledge as the subject of an investigation into the disappearance of his wife, 28-year-old Mengqi Ji Elledge, who has been missing for three weeks.
Columbia police announced Friday that they had opened a criminal investigation into her disappearance, saying they suspected foul play. Police declined to release further details, saying they wanted to protect the integrity of the investigation.
The same day, police arrested Joseph Elledge on a charges of felony child abuse filed in Boone County Circuit Court. He is accused of causing bruising on a child that was in his care. The child abuse allegation had been an issue between Elledge and his wife before she disappeared, according to the charging documents.
Jospeh Elledge was being held Monday in the Boone County jail on a $500,000 bond.
According to the KOMU local television station in Columbia, Joseph Elledge appeared in court Monday and pleaded not guilty.
Joseph Elledge, who has relatives in the Kansas City area, allegedly told police that he last saw his wife when she went to bed about 11:30 p.m. Oct. 8 at their apartment where they live with their infant daughter.
When he woke up about 5 a.m. the next day, she was gone, he told police. He reported her missing about 5:45 p.m. that day. Her phone, iPad, passport and clothes were left behind, but not her purse.
Police asked anyone with information about her whereabouts or disappearance to call 911 for the nearest law enforcement agency; 573-874-7652 for the Columbia Police Department or CrimeStoppers at 573-875-TIPS (8477).
Mengqi Elledge, who is from China, has brown eyes and black shoulder-length hair that she typically wears in a bun. She is between 5 feet 1 inches and 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighs about 105 pounds. She has both ears pierced, but typically doesn’t wear earrings.
$500,000 cash bond
In court filings, Boone County prosecutor Daniel Knight said Joseph Elledge posed a danger to the victim and/or community because he allegedly physically abused a child.
Elledge also allegedly did not tell anyone his wife missing for more than 24 hours and took actions during that time that were consistent with concealing evidence, according to court documents.
Mengqui Elledge’s whereabouts remain unknown.
Joseph Elledge is also believed to be a flight risk, the prosecutor said, because when police arrived at his home to serve a search warrant Friday, he allegedly was packing items from his house in preparation to leave town for an unknown amount of time.
He knows that police are investigating the suspicious disappearance of his wife, according to court documents.
A condition of Joseph Elledge’s bond is that he will not have any contact with the alleged victim or anyone under the age of 18.
Child abuse alleged
According to court documents:
Police became aware of the alleged child abuse Oct. 18 while investigating the disappearance of Mengqi Elledge.
Detectives were told that Joseph Elledge allegedly had struck a child hard enough on her buttocks to cause severe bruising in February.
A woman told police that Mengqui Elledge had called saying she found the bruising and when she questioned Joseph Elledge about it, he denied knowing how it occurred. The woman told Mengqui Elledge to confront him, saying that she was going to take the child to the hospital.
The woman said Mengqui Elledge later said she confronted Joseph and that he allegedly admitted he had struck the child. She said Mengqui Elledge didn’t go to police because Joseph promised never to do it again.
The woman shared with police a picture Mengqui Elledge had sent to her showing the bruise, according to documents.
Officers examining Mengqui Elledge’s iPad found pictures of the bruising. Other photos of injuries on the child were located, but in thumbnail format that was too small for detail. The normal full-size images were not present, which police said is normally due to the photos being erased.
Joseph Elledge had access to the iPad for about a week before officers gained control of it, according to court documents.
Officers examining her laptop, however, found two pictures and two videos of the bruising. The photos were in a folder used for backing up photographs from an iPhone. The photos were taken on Feb. 12 and one of them appeared to be the same photo Mengqui Elledge had sent to the woman.
Joseph Elledge was brought in for questioning Friday and allegedly admitted that he caused the bruising to the child. He allegedly told police that he was home alone the night the bruises were made.
The child had been crying and would not stop, so he “may have pinched her and caused the bruising or just held her too hard,” he said, according to the documents.
When shown the photo of the bruising that had been sent to the woman, Joseph Elledge allegedly confirmed that he thought it was the same bruise he saw.
The injury did not appear to be consistent with a pinch or tight holding, the court documents said, but were more like what would come from being hit.
This story was originally published October 28, 2019 at 4:50 PM.
