5-Year-Old Vanishes After Moving In with Mom From Hell

fall never arrives all at once first the air then the light and slowly the things you love begin to find each other a jacket meets a dress a hoodie slips beneath a blazer an old cap finds a new scarf because you don't simply step into the season you create it layer by layer until it finally feels like fall find fall your way at ross police have just tracked down danielle dauphinese and her boyfriend joseph staff here in a new york city subway station and by the way this is after a manhunt that crossed four states the reason for all of this is because the couple's little boy five-year-old elijah lewis is missing in fact he had been missing for weeks before police found out that he was gone we never reported him missing and we panicked we panicked we're scared we didn't know what to do do you think that somebody may have kidnapped i don't know we don't know that's why we're so freaked out this is a race against time if police have any hope of finding elijah alive when dauphinese and staffer originally found and arrested they were charged with witness tampering and child endangerment and that's because at that time the authorities did not know whether or not elijah was alive or dead there are a lot of questions here was elijah kidnapped did he wander off on his own did something maybe more sinister happen and why did police only now learn that he was gone detectives questioned danielle dauphinese and joseph staff separately they want to hear the story individually from each person lean on them figure out who's telling the truth who's not telling the truth and assess whether or not there's any discrepancies between their two stories tell me what your understanding of why we're here um because you were wanted for questioning about my son in new hampshire so um tell me tell me about elijah and what you understand of why we're here to talk about elijah because he's missing why don't you tell us your story what's going on so like beginning of september he's done it before so far while we sleep this takes off we found him before up the street we found him before one time behind the shed okay what can you tell me about that well i haven't i haven't been up there so i don't know where he's at right now i don't know where he's at if i knew where he is i would honestly tell you right now but this story actually starts a year or so before elijah goes missing when he goes to live with his mother and her boyfriend in new hampshire because before that he had been living with his biological father this is dauphine's ex-husband tim lewis they lived in arizona they got divorced in 2017 and tim got custody of their one son elijah danielle goes back to new hampshire no custody for her so she's living in new hampshire for three years and decides she wants to reconnect with her son who she's really never seen and tim is very eager to let this happen now on the surface letting elijah get to know his mom in merrimack new hampshire seems reasonable even a good idea merrimack is a nice town it's about an hour from boston it's close to manchester and nashua it's a typical new england nice small town danielle dauphine's who's in her 30s she has elijah five years old with her former husband and she has a young toddler at home a two-year-old and she also becomes pregnant in early 2021 with her third child joseph is her boyfriend he's a couple years younger than her he works intermittently and they live with his mother they're basically supported by joanne joseph's mother they're not really working either of them but the situation is about to get a lot more complicated because it turns out and dauphine's doesn't know this yet elijah struggles with developmental issues and some of them are pretty severe he has a neurologist he has psychologists uh he has a whole slew of uh specialists so uh just a whole host of behavioral issues that she's not aware of when she takes custody of her son tim flies out to new hampshire drops the kid off and skedaddles back to uh arizona so and you said in may of 2020 tim just dropped him off at your house was there a discussion about yeah he said 30 days he was going to come back and pick him up did he say why he was dropping him off at your house because he wanted him to get to know me and then i told him well i can't take him because i'm going to figure things out you know you can't just take on a kid when you live in a basement you know what i mean with no room i can't take him because i'm going to figure things out you know you can't just take on a kid when you live in a basement you know what i mean with no room well if you don't take him now you're not going to get him at all now dauphinez knows this isn't the best situation but she's afraid if she doesn't act now she may never see elijah again so she agrees to this month-long visit so elijah comes in may um and um you stop working in june and then do you get pregnant sometime in the winter or january okay okay and so you were taking care of you were pregnant and you were taking care of elijah who is my two challenging and a toddler okay my i was going crazy that's a lot so i did i mean we never went outside i was depressed okay i was so i never left a house i felt like a prisoner at my house and then they realized there's there's all these problems with elijah and he is more than uh they can handle i think there's a lot of damage done there before you wake up to our attention um because tim would say oh yeah he's good he can take showers by himself the kid didn't have a clue how to take a shower i always had to bathe him i had to do everything for him brush his teeth didn't know how to feed himself not a single thing and tim was like yeah yeah you know how to do all that stuff he peed and pooped everywhere every day he would wipe poop on the furniture he would poop on our clothes fall never arrives all at once first the air then the light and slowly the things you love begin to find each other a jacket meets a dress a hoodie slips beneath a blazer an old cap finds a new scarf because you don't simply step into the season you create it layer by layer until it finally feels like fall find fall your way at ross monday on nbc all new line of fire the thrilling new crime drama the world sees us as heroes but they don't know what the job really costs one family of federal agents it's one thing to put yourself in danger it's different when it's your family balance is duty to their country an assassin is still out there and each other how do you protect the world and the people you love at the same time every case hits home on line of fire monday on nbc he would pee in joe's closet and it was just every day okay is he verbal does he does he have words can he he talks he can talk yeah oh yeah he i mean like if you talk to him he can talk to you but he doesn't know how to communicate like he just completely shut down when his dad dropped him off tim lewis does in fact keep tabs on elijah during what's intended to be this 30-day visit he calls he video chats with dauphine's the problem is what he sees and what he hears worries him she starts telling tim he's got to go now i can't deal with him he's pure evil and tim tells her well i don't have the money to fly out that's when he decides well maybe maybe there's a problem and i'll call dcyf the division of children youth and families and so dcyf did a lot of work to get him out of that situation investigate she gets the dcyf investigation to end by telling them I'm going to send him away to my sister in California. And the sister's willing to take him. And there is an unsigned custody agreement for the sister to take him. - We don't really know why, but after this visit from DCYF, Dauphiné's has this change of heart when it comes to Elijah. - In June, Danielle says I want to keep him for the whole school year, starting in September of 2020. - So Elijah stays put in New Hampshire for the next year, and everything seems to be okay. But then you go to September of 2021, and that is when everything falls apart. That is when Elijah disappears. - Towards the end of September. - Yeah. - Okay, so we're in mid-October. So are we talking like-- - So it's like almost a month. - Why didn't you call the police? - We didn't want, anything to happen, 'cause DCYF would get involved, and then my daughter would get taken away. - The thing is, DCYF does get involved a second time, and it's through this very strange turn of events. - She's pregnant throughout most of 2021, and gives birth in September of 2021 to a baby boy. - So you had the baby in her bathroom, and lo and behold, it was a boy? - Yes. - Okay. - And Joe brings the baby to the hospital, and drops him off at a safe haven site. - The baby tested positive for drugs. That prompted an investigation by DCYF, and they traced the baby back to Dauphinese and staff. When they go to the home, they have the history. They know that at one time Elijah was there, and they don't see any signs of Elijah. This is really what prompts and sparks a much more thorough investigation into the whereabouts of Elijah, and to try to find out what had happened to him. - This is early October of 2021. DCYF is investigating. Police are now investigating, and they obtain a search warrant for the home, and they want to talk to Danielle. And that's when she agrees to go in and talk to police. - Dauphinese claims she's headed for the police station, but that is not where she goes. No, she and staff go on the lam. Police launch a manhunt for them, and at the same time, there is this massive search for Elijah. - We put out press releases starting last Thursday, trying to find Elijah. The New Hampshire State Police Major Crime Unit, they've been working around the clock with all of their sister agencies in New Hampshire in this area. They've been working on this attempt. - Here's the thing. Things are gonna start to unravel. Okay, and they already have. You know, I mean, we found you pretty quickly. We have some of the most, some of the best investigators, you know, that this country has to offer working on this. Okay? And they won't stop. - Police want to make it clear they aren't playing games. They will find Elijah, even though it's been weeks, but they need the couple's help to do it. - We'll put the pieces back together, but there's a few pieces that you hold. - They didn't know at this point whether or not he was alive or dead, and every minute that ticked by from those detectives and police officers' standpoint was another minute lost where they didn't have an opportunity to really find Elijah and potentially save him from something really dangerous. - We're making phone calls right now to put the helicopter in the air. We got our dogs coming. We're waking people up right now to get all of our resources right here. We need to get Elijah. - Okay. - They've got a lot of resources they can throw at this in New Hampshire, and they've got Massachusetts State Police at this point. They're able to get their cell phone data to find locations. They have drones, they have search dogs. - Where do you think he is? Best guess. 'Cause I'm telling you right now, we didn't do this a month ago, but we'll do it now. - There's still a chance, slim, but there's still a chance if he wandered away that maybe he was able to survive. - Statistically speaking, the longer the child has been missing, the harder it is to find them. - This area here, whereabouts? - I don't know whereabouts. - So in what, on the other side of the street? In this wooded area? - I don't know. - On a scale of one to 10, 10 being really short and one not being short at all, how sure are you that we'll find something there? What number would you give them? - Six. - Six? - Yeah. - Okay. So that's pretty good. Fall never arrives all at once. First the air, then the light, and slowly the things you love begin to find each other. A jacket meets a dress, a hoodie slips beneath a blazer. An old cap finds a new scarf because you don't simply step into the season. You create it layer by layer until it finally feels like fall. Find fall your way at Ross. You go when someone threatens everyone you love. Who can you trust? From Academy Award winner, Ben Affleck. "Animals" stars Affleck, Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson, and Steven Yeun. When a Los Angeles mayoral candidate's son is kidnapped, he and his wife are pulled into a web of deception, forced to make choices that could tear their world apart. Watch "Animals" in select theaters and on Netflix October 9th, rated R. Tap the banner to learn more. - That's a pretty good chance. - Detectives question the couple on what happened the night Elijah went missing. And what they're listening for is any clue as to where Elijah might be. - So you get up to use the bathroom. You went over to Elijah's room. And I peeked my head around the corner and he wasn't there. So I usually, what I usually do is I walk down to the lake and see if he's there, 'cause sometimes he'll be sitting on the bench. And then I walk up to the driveway in the lake, in the little dome, and then I walk up and down the street. But he wasn't there. As I turned around, came back in, and I woke Joe up and I said, "Elijah's gone." - Now in the other interrogation room, Joseph Staff is telling his story. The issue is, it's not entirely matching up with what Dauphinace has been saying. - You woke up in the middle of the night and looked in his room and saw that he was gone? Or did you hear something that made you wake up? - I just saw that he was gone. - Both you and Danielle saw it? - Oh, I, yeah, I told her, yeah. - So what happens next? What do you do next? What did you do? - What do you mean, did you just look for him? - You went out and looked for him? - Where do you go? - The same spots where he had gone before. - Right off the bat, there was a discrepancy in their discussions with the police concerning who discovered that he was missing. You know, Dauphinace said it was her, Staff said it was him. So pretty early on, the police started to piece together that, when are both of them, we're not telling the truth. - That's the predicament that we're in, you know? Not that you're not being truthful, not that she's not being truthful, but you can't both be being truthful. - How about the door to the outside of the house? - It was cracked. - Okay. When you say this, it was cracked, like an inch? Is that what you're showing? - I mean, an inch or two. - So do you think that after he went out that night, you think that he turned around and closed the door? - I don't know, I couldn't tell you. 'Cause I don't see it. - Dauphinace says, oh, it's very typical that Elijah would just wander off or leave. And she said that she found the sliding door slightly ajar, maybe an inch or so opened, and that he just slipped out in there. And we all know as adults, the sliding glass doors are heavy and they can be difficult for adults to move, much less a five-year-old child in the middle of the night. - Is the door open, is the door closed? - Yeah, it's open. - The door's open? - The door's open. - About how much is it open? - It was like, open like a foot or so. - Yeah. - So. Danielle's telling us the exact opposite. - You can't both be right, you know what I mean? By that time, detectives have been questioning these two for hours and still there are no solid answers. So basically, they've had enough. - Eli didn't just walk out, we know that. He didn't just walk out. And I know that you're scared, and I don't want you to continue to go down a rabbit hole. - Mm-hmm. - That it's-- - Why do you guys think that he didn't walk out? I don't understand that. - Because we've searched, we've searched everywhere. We've searched everywhere. - It's not our fault that he ran away. - But he didn't just run away. We firmly believe that he didn't just run away. He would have been located by now. I was thinking that we took something to his point. I don't think that he just walked out the door. - Why? - Because we've had-- every resource imaginable, look for him. I can only imagine that these detectives were just feeling so incredibly frustrated because how could these two people who supposedly cared for him, how could they not be ready, willing, and able to say everything they know to try to get that child back? So we've been working around the clock since last Thursday with a massive team of investigators, the best investigators in the state and in all of New England, looking for your son. What tactics do you think that we should be employing or where should we be looking for him? I don't know, I don't know. Who do you think he is? I have no f***ing idea. We did not hurt that f***ing little boy and I do not appreciate you saying that we did. I'm not saying that you did. No one hurt that little boy. No one f***ing hurt that little boy. We are not monsters. We are very good people. We are very nice. Our kids are well taken care of. We will not f***ing hurt our kids. When a concerned parent becomes defensive and frustrated with the police who are trying to help her child, that's not a normal or typical response. Her almost hostility towards the police while they're trying to do. do an investigation on behalf of her and her child certainly would have been a red flag for the police that she knew a lot more than what she was giving up at that time. She's confirming without confirming there were suspicions about what happened to this little boy. Finally, police get a breakthrough in the search for Elijah. But unfortunately, it is the news that they have been dreading from the start. This morning, State Police, Cadaver Dog and MSP Special Emergency Response Team members located what's presumed to be Elijah Lewis' body buried in the ground. An autopsy will be performed tomorrow here in Massachusetts at the Chief Medical Examiner's Office. And once we have a determination, we'll be able to perform an autopsy. Elijah Lewis' body is found about an hour and a half from his home. And as soon as they lay eyes on him, the horrific reality of what he's been through becomes crystal clear. Elijah's 19-pound body, which was bruised and battered and bloodied, was found in a state park in Abington, Massachusetts, buried in a very shallow grave. Elijah Lewis' body was found in a very shallow grave. abuse. Police are starting to ask about people's cell phones and their text messages. Danielle would text Joe after she got frustrated with Elijah and she punished him, tortured him. She, at one point, texted him a photo of Elijah's face that had been bruised up. She clearly had been beating him and she texted, "Look at this kid's face." Joe Staff, he wasn't an innocent bystander. He would text back like, "Yeah, that kid's a POS big time." They would text how much they hated him. He was beaten in the bathroom and his head was banged against the shower tile wall with such force that his head broke the shower tiles in their bathroom. She beat him to the point of unconsciousness and she left him in the bathtub, unconscious, bleeding. When staff came home, Elijah was actually still alive. And rather than calling 911 or getting someone to take them to the hospital, staff bandaged Elijah's head and put Elijah into his bed. And that's where Elijah passed away at some point during the night. What is particularly chilling, just bone chilling, is that when Daphnaise learned that Elijah had died, she put in a text message to staff celebrating his death and saying, "Well, now we can be free. We're freed of this child, of this problem, essentially." Our thoughts are with Eli's family and the entire Merrimack community. I'm glad and relieved that we were able to bring some closure to this part of the ongoing investigation, and most importantly, help bring Eli home with some dignity. Obviously, a little boy is gone. Nobody deserved to die this way, and we need to make sure we do everything in our power to make sure we can get justice for this little boy. It has been six months since Elijah's body was found, and that is when Daniel Daphnaise is officially indicted on charges of first and second degree murder. And this is when prosecutors start piecing together what really happened after he seemingly disappeared. At 3:00 PM on October the 14th, DCYF reported to the Merrimack Police Department that a lot of people were missing. A jacket meets a dress. A hoodie slips beneath a blazer. An old cap finds a new scarf. Because you don't simply step into the season. How far would you go when someone threatens everyone you love? Who can you trust? From Academy Award winner Ben Affleck. Animals stars Affleck, Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson, and Steven Yeun. Watch Animals in select theaters and on Netflix October 9th. Rated R. Elijah was missing. At 3:16 p.m., the defendant was on the phone with the Merrimack Police Department, telling them that she would meet them at the police department by 4:30 that afternoon. At 3:20 that afternoon, the defendant and Mr. Staff withdraw money from Joanne Staff's account with Elijah's body in the back of their pickup truck. When Dauphiné's and Staff realized that the police were investigating and questioning Elijah's whereabouts, they originally told the police they would come in voluntarily to the station to be questioned. Rather than going to the police station as they had promised, they got a thousand dollars out of the bank. She and Joseph load Elijah's body into their truck, along with everything he owned, which wasn't much. We're talking maybe a blanket, some comic books, and a stuffed Spider-Man doll. At 4:44 p.m., the defendant and Mr. Staff were at Target in Burlington, Massachusetts, to buy their new phones and some new clothing and toiletries for their flight. Elijah's body in the back of the truck at the Target. They buy cash cell phones, but then they they load up their Facebook account into the cell phone, thereby linking it to them and making it easy to track. Between 11:36 and 11:52 that evening, the defendant and Mr. Staff were in Abington, Massachusetts, where Joseph's staff buried Elijah in a shallow hole. They used the cell phone data to find out where they stopped long enough to bury the body, to locate his body in the woods. Phone records in this case showed the defendant telling Mr. Staff at 11:48 p.m. that it doesn't have to be big, referring to the hole he was trying to dig. And at 12:04 at 11:45 p.m., they found Elijah's body in Burlington, Massachusetts, where Joseph's staff buried Elijah in a shallow hole. Staff at 11:48 p.m. Staff at 11:48 p.m. In other words, just get the job done and let's get out of here. I mean, just chilling, just chilling. And after they buried Elijah's body, they then went to Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, which is a casino, caught a show, slept in the truck overnight, then they abandoned the truck and went to New York City. When they found Joseph's staff and his pickup truck in Mohegan Sun Casino, they found trash bags that had some of Elijah's stuff. A Spider-Man doll, some belongings of his with childlike handwriting. They were discarded just like Elijah, in a trash bag. Here's a little guy, and his only toy is this little stuffed Spider-Man. And I keep coming back to it, I keep thinking about that. He's buried in a fetal position in the dirt, and they take his toy, and they throw that away too. They throw away his Spider-Man. Within hours, the defendant and Mr. Staff boarded a bus and left for New York City. On October the 17th at 7 o'clock in the morning, about 7:13, the defendant and Mr. Staff were arrested in the subway in the Bronx, New York. I don't know what the f--- is going on, what's going on? Using cell phone data. They were able to. They were able to track their whereabouts through their cell phones, and were able to identify their location. The prosecution has plenty of evidence against both Dauphinés and Staff. Joseph Staff, from the get-go, was just as much a part of this as anything else. He's stonewalled. He knew that Elijah was being abused. He saw him that night in September. He said maybe we should feed him before we get rid of him so we don't get in trouble. He knew. Joseph Staff's sentencing hearing occurred before Danielle's in September of 2022. He pled guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to up to 40 years in prison. I definitely think his motivation for pleading guilty to the manslaughter was trying to reduce his sentence. Now, as we speak, we're going to hear more from Daniel. We'll be right back. After sentencing, Staff stands before the parole board. And that is when he speaks out about his role in Elijah's life. I've never wanted this child to be abused. I wanted him to get help all along. If he wanted Elijah to get help, he could have at any point over the 18 months that that kid was getting brutalized in his home by his drug-addicted girlfriend. For him to say now, oh no, I just wanted him to get help. The facts just aren't there for that. I'm a grown man. I know I should have removed him out of harm's way. And that's the guilt I'm struggling with to this day. He told the authorities that she had asked him to bury Elijah's body when they realized he was dead. And he said he couldn't do it. But then he puts them in a container outside of their house. They were outside of, outside of the slide door. Where you were living? Yes. And how long had he been left there? I don't know, like a month or two, I don't know. So that kind of depravity, to me, undercuts any sense of guilt that he may have had in his, or any responsibility that he assumed for his role in Elijah's death. Staff is granted parole on a lesser charge. But the bottom line is, he will spend decades in prison for manslaughter and assault. Now a couple years later, Dauphinés goes to court. But at the 11th hour, there's a change of plans. Dauphinés pleaded guilty on the eve of trial to a second degree murder charge. She had originally been charged with first degree and second degree murder. But she ultimately was released. She was released. But she ultimately pleaded guilty to the somewhat lesser charge of second degree murder, which is a step above the manslaughter charge that her boyfriend's staff plead guilty to. For Dauphiné's defense attorney, this is clearly an uphill battle. He's not even arguing for her innocence. What he tries to do is paint her as a victim, the same way as her son. Yeah, the defense strategy here was to mitigate the circumstances as much as possible. I think they knew what they were up against. They knew that they were never going to secure a new trial. They knew that they were never going to secure not guilty. So there was a lot of evidence that the defense just couldn't work their way around. If there's one word that could sum up this entire case, it would be the word nightmare. The nightmare that Elijah Lewis went through during all of his days, particularly at the end. The nightmare that Miss Dauphiné suffered. - Yeah. He deserved for his father, mother, step-father to all have been heroes, but now he has this community to be his hero. This is not a case that you can forget. The defendant's sentence should reflect the magnitude of the harm she caused. We're asking that you impose the sentence of 55 years to life on the second degree murder charge. There was one thing about this hearing that I found especially moving, and that is when the judge talks about Elijah. This is how people should remember Elijah. It's a picture, a photograph of a defenseless, vulnerable, dependent little guy who is smiling and you can see the light in him. You can see the love in that little boy's face. And the judge held up. A picture of Elijah from when he was healthy and smiling and just this beautiful little boy. And the judge made a point that that's how he wanted Elijah to be remembered. Not as an emaciated, injured, abused child that was found in a shallow grave with dirt on his face and on his body. One thing that was interesting that he said right up front in his statement was that every time that he does a sentencing, he looks for redeeming. qualities, no matter what the crime. And he said he did that here and referenced a statement that he heard Dauphiné make that she wanted to help the little boy and that her heart hurt and she needed help. And later on compared that to other statements that she made in text messages describing the child as a rotten kid, using the words that she hated him and other really horrific descriptions of this boy. A slow, prolonged, and painful death of an innocent and blameless five-year-old boy. A trail of words and actions that scream of the evil that was put upon this isolated little defenseless innocent child. We have to remove you from society and show society. From a judicial standpoint, that justice will be done, and the community, especially the children of the community, will be protected. His statement was powerful. He said various things about how he viewed both the conduct, which was abhorrent, and also about the way that the words of Dauphiné's described to him what she was thinking. He said, "Your words are cords of joy." He also said, "Your words are a sense of terror that rained down on this little boy." And he said that the evidence was beyond overwhelming. It's a case, as I said before, that will stay with many in this courtroom, and it's a case that deserves significant, severe, and prolonged incarceration. With that all being said, if you would stand, I'm going to sentence you as follows. You are sentenced to the New Hampshire state prison for not more than life, nor less than 50 years. The sentence is consecutive to two sentences for witness tampering. Dauphiné's got the strictest sentence she could have gotten, given the plea deal that she entered into. Her plea gives her the opportunity of parole, but not until she's 88 years old. This is such an emotional case that even outside the courthouse. And after the hearing, there are some very powerful statements. Justice, I feel, was served a bit today. Knowing that she won't be getting out and she'll most likely die in prison is a huge relief. She did not show any remorse at all for her son, and she deserves everything that she gets. And I am glad to hear that she's being haunted by him. That's what she deserves. The judge called her pure evil. What would you call it? I agree. 100%. She is a snake. She's a chameleon, and she will do anything she can to manipulate her way to, you know, look better to people. Now, among the people to speak is the Merrimack police chief, and he admits this was a very tough case to investigate. Just one thing. Who can you trust? Rated R. You know, I saw some tears from your department in there. This is personal for your department. Absolutely. I mean, you know, no sentence is severe enough to equate what Elijah went through, but hopefully it can bring some closure for the officers that worked the case, the community in whole. The judge had quite a message today. What's your message as the chief? There's a lot of people that knew Elijah was being neglected. There's a lot of people that didn't step up. There's a lot of people that didn't know where he was. When you see someone needs a hand, that someone might be having a struggling day parenting, maybe just simply ask, "Hey, are you okay?" And offer to help. It definitely does feel like Elijah was failed on many levels by the adults around him and by the system itself. There were a lot of different people who could have at any point stepped up and said something. They could have raised an alarm at that point in time. It's that basic old school messaging, right? If you see something, say something. I keep coming back to this little boy who was thrown away and thrown away. And thrown away. And thrown away. Nobody wanted him. He needed help. No one wanted to give it to him. This is one of those stories I wish I could forget. And I know I can't. And I know I shouldn't. And I know nobody should forget it. Nobody should forget Elijah and what happened to him. Nobody should forget him. This is an incredibly dark story. There's no other way to say it. You're talking about generational child abuse, neglect, addiction. It is very hard to find any bright spots. But maybe, maybe someone hearing this story, a parent who maybe feels overwhelmed will be encouraged to get some help or a friend will intervene if they feel like somebody they care about needs a hand. I'm sure you've heard this story before. I'm sure you've heard this story before.