Eliasard Moneus, a 29-year-old Indiana father, has been sentenced to 92 years in prison after pleading guilty to drowning his three-month-old son Jacob in a bucket of laundry detergent. The attack was motivated by a desire to teach his wife a lesson, prosecutors said.
Details of the Crime
According to court documents, on August 10, 2024, Moneus assaulted his wife Edlie with a tyre iron, fracturing her skull, before fleeing with their infant son. The following day, police discovered Jacob's body in an orange bucket with a snap-seal lid, filled with dark liquid. An autopsy determined the cause of death as asphyxia due to immersion in detergent, with the infant swallowing 100 ml of the substance.
Deputy Prosecutor Elyse Madigan stated: "A father put his 3-month-old son face down in a bucket of laundry detergent, sealed the lid, left his son to die, and then went to the next room and viciously attacked the baby's mother."
Motive and Sentencing
Prosecutors revealed Moneus sought to teach his wife and women a lesson about disrespecting men. "The defendant wanted to teach Edlie and women a lesson," Madigan said. "You can't disrespect a man. The defendant said repeatedly he didn't care what the consequences were."
Moneus was sentenced to 62 years for murder and 30 years for attempted murder, to run consecutively. Tippecanoe Superior Court Judge Steve Meyer called the crime "one of the most grotesque murders I have ever had to see." Moneus, who speaks French Creole, offered an apology through an interpreter, but the judge remarked: "You killed your own child. I can't think of a worse crime."
Investigation and Arrest
Police responded to a domestic violence call at a hospital where Moneus' wife was being treated for a fractured skull. She told officers her husband attacked her with a tyre iron and fled with their son. A search of the home revealed blood spatter, but the child was not initially found. Moneus was arrested the next day and confessed to assaulting his wife, but claimed no knowledge of his son's whereabouts. A subsequent search on August 11 uncovered Jacob's body in the kitchen bucket.
