The discovery ended a multistate search for Madeline Daly but led to the killing for which she is now serving life.
SILVER CITY, N.M. — An employment background check in rural New Mexico supplied the lead that finally put law enforcement within reach of a Wyoming mother wanted in a custody case, but the search ended with her 11-month-old son dead and the mother eventually sentenced to life for murder.
Madeline Veronique Daly was sentenced Sept. 28 after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Basil, the infant who had been the subject of a Wyoming search. The final punishment was imposed more than nine months after Grant County deputies arrived at a property along Highway 15 on Dec. 23, 2025. Prosecutors said Daly had taken Basil into a motorized RV as officers closed in. While deputies worked to obtain a search warrant, they heard a gunshot. They entered the vehicle, detained Daly and tried unsuccessfully to save the child.
The way authorities found Daly was less dramatic than the encounter that followed. After leaving Wyoming, Daly sought employment in southwestern New Mexico, where she had previous work connections, according to court documents reported by local media. A prospective employer ran a background check. The search returned a Wyoming warrant connected to the custody dispute over Basil, and authorities were alerted. That tip narrowed a search that had continued since November and placed deputies at the rural property where Daly was staying.
The Sixth Judicial District Attorney’s Office said sheriff’s deputies had gone to the property after learning Daly was wanted in Wyoming. Officers located her and Basil and saw Daly move toward the RV. They established a perimeter rather than immediately forcing their way inside. Deputies were seeking a warrant and attempting to get her to surrender when they heard the shot. When they entered, they found that Basil had been shot with a 9 mm handgun. Officers rushed him toward waiting medical help, but he did not survive.
The confrontation created a new criminal case separate from the warrant that brought deputies to the scene. New Mexico authorities charged Daly with first-degree murder and intentional child abuse resulting in death. At a January hearing, state District Judge Tom Stewart ordered her held without bond. Prosecutors said the killing had occurred after Daly violated a Wyoming court order granting emergency custody of Basil to his father. The judge cited the seriousness of what had happened and safety concerns while ordering Daly to remain jailed before trial.
Only after the New Mexico arrest did the full path to the RV become part of the public court record. The custody fight had been unfolding in Wyoming. Daly did not appear for an Oct. 21, 2025, hearing, and a judge granted Basil’s father, Jake Stoner, temporary emergency custody. Authorities said Daly did not comply with the order. Basil was reported missing the following month, and Wyoming officials obtained a felony warrant related to custody interference. The sheriff’s office said it would continue searching nationwide for Daly and the child.
The search did not trigger an Amber Alert because officials said the information then available did not meet the standard showing the child faced an immediate threat. That assessment was based on what investigators knew at the time and did not mean they had stopped treating Basil as missing or trying to enforce the court order. The later killing fundamentally changed the case. What had begun as an effort to locate a parent accused of unlawfully keeping a child became a first-degree murder investigation in another state.
Investigators reported that Daly made statements after her arrest indicating she had been determined to prevent Basil from being placed with his father. Court reporting also said she claimed she believed the boy would be abused if he were surrendered. Those allegations against the father and his relatives were Daly’s claims; the reviewed records do not establish that they were substantiated. A Wyoming judge had ordered Basil placed with his father, and there is no verified finding in the materials reviewed that the father committed the abuse Daly claimed she feared.
Daly initially faced trial in New Mexico, with prosecutors pursuing the murder count and the child abuse charge. The case remained active for months while she was jailed. On Aug. 24, she changed course and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. The plea agreement allowed prosecutors to dismiss the intentional child abuse charge while securing a murder conviction without a jury trial. Stewart accepted the plea and set sentencing for a later hearing, saying he wanted time to examine the case before entering the final judgment.
The sentencing hearing on Sept. 28 was brief but significant. Chief Deputy District Attorney Joseph Silva represented the state and described the effects of the killing on Basil’s family and on the people who responded to the scene. Daly also addressed the court. She remembered her son as curious and happiest outdoors, apologized to his father and acknowledged the gravity of her actions. Stewart imposed life imprisonment. He declined to eliminate parole consideration entirely, meaning Daly can first come before a parole board after serving 30 years.
That distinction has led to varying shorthand descriptions of the punishment. Some reports described the outcome as 30 years, while the district attorney’s office described the judgment as life imprisonment with parole consideration possible after 30 years. The latter more precisely reflects the sentence announced by prosecutors. Daly is not automatically released after three decades. If she reaches eligibility, a parole board would still have to decide whether to authorize release. Until then, she remains under a life sentence in the New Mexico Department of Corrections.
The case also illustrates how separate legal systems became involved in different parts of the same sequence. Wyoming courts handled the custody dispute and the warrant arising from Daly’s alleged refusal to surrender Basil. Grant County officers acted on information tied to that warrant when they found her in New Mexico. New Mexico prosecutors then took jurisdiction over the homicide because the killing occurred there. Reports around the sentencing indicated Wyoming could still address the earlier custody-related allegation, although no final outcome of that separate matter was located in the reviewed sources.
The employment check that revealed Daly’s location therefore served as both the end of one investigation and the beginning of another. Deputies had found the missing child and the woman they were seeking, but the attempt to take Daly into custody culminated in Basil’s death before officers could remove him safely from the RV. The later guilty plea meant a jury never had to decide whether Daly committed the killing. Her own plea established criminal responsibility for first-degree murder.
Daly is now serving the sentence imposed by Stewart, and no later change to the New Mexico judgment had been announced as of Oct. 17. Basil was 11 months old when he died on Dec. 23, 2025. The murder prosecution is resolved by the guilty plea and life sentence, while any remaining proceeding tied to the original Wyoming warrant would have to move forward separately.
Author note: Last updated October 17, 2026.