A woman faces allegations of escaping to New Mexico and tragically ending the life of her 11-month-old son, allegedly to prevent the child’s father from obtaining custody.

Madaline Daly, aged 35, is charged with first-degree murder and child abandonment leading to death, as per records from the Grant County jail examined by Law&Crime. She was apprehended on December 23 and is currently held in custody.

Details shared via a GoFundMe campaign, purportedly backed by the child’s father, Jake Stoner, recount the tragic tale of Basil Daly’s demise, marking the conclusion of an almost year-long saga. Stoner and Daly were together until July 2024, when “Madeline Daly absconded, keeping her whereabouts and the impending birth of the baby concealed,” according to the fundraiser.

In the months leading up to Basil’s birth on January 8, 2025, Daly reportedly sent sporadic messages to Stoner, asserting he would never be part of their child’s life. She moved to the small town of Ten Sleep, Wyoming, to complete her pregnancy. Reconciliation allowed Stoner to attend his son’s birth.

However, parental relations quickly deteriorated. Daly allegedly refused to discuss the child’s name or allow Stoner’s surname on the birth certificate. She denied him a role in their son’s life, prompting Stoner to seek legal recourse, a development covered by Cowboy State Daily.

Following a trial in Washakie County, Wyoming, last fall, Stoner was given shared custody of Basil. He “was going to rapidly work to a schedule where he would have his son basically half of the time” and his first visits “went wonderfully,” the fundraiser states.

But again, Daly was reportedly declining to let her son see his father. Stoner appealed to the courts, and he allegedly received a text message from his former girlfriend “calling him a deadbeat dad, telling him that she was already having his son start calling someone else daddy, and telling him, ‘awww you snitched.’”

When Daly failed to appear for a scheduled court hearing concerning visitation in October, Stoner was given temporary emergency custody, the newspaper reported. The father would never see Basil again.

The suspect is believed to have fled — first west to Worland, Wyoming, and then south through Colorado into New Mexico. Stoner had hired a private investigator by this point to help find his son. A warrant was placed for Daly’s arrest, but, according to the fundraiser, because authorities cited no evidence of “immediate, present danger to the child,” an Amber Alert was not issued.

Someone contacted law enforcement and told them Daly was staying in an RV park near Silver City, New Mexico, per Cowboy State Daily. Deputies with the Grant County Sheriff’s Office responded, and the suspect allegedly hid with her son in an RV near the bunkhouse where she had been living.

As deputies tried to negotiate with the mother, she is said to have taken a 9 mm gun, pointed it at her son’s face, and fired. Law enforcement subsequently detained her.

Daly was adamant about keeping her son away from Stoner and his family, according to court documents obtained by the Wyoming-based newspaper. She alleged that Basil would have been in danger if “she would have stepped out of that trailer” and that Stoner “never wanted anything to do with Basil, financially, physically, emotionally ever.”

She allegedly said she ran into the RV with her son because she “knew her time was up.”

Daly has reportedly been ordered to be held in custody as her case moves through the court system. Mark Abramson with the Grant County District Attorney’s Office warned that the risk of her fleeing was too high given that she had already done it.

“A mother absconded with her child from Wyoming, traveled around — we’re not sure where — but ended up here being confronted by law enforcement and chose to murder her child, her own child, with a 9 mm gun to the face,” he said.

Stoner, for his part, is lobbying for Amber Alerts to require “less stringent standards.”

“Jake believes that if the laws are changed to allow for an Amber Alert to be issued with less stringent standards, his son would be alive and safe,” the GoFundMe states.