Shane McLaughlin, 37, was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of manslaughter and three counts of child endangerment in connection with the December 2025 death of his 13-month-old daughter, Eleanora Ray McLaughlin, according to the Maine State Police.
Eleanora was found dead in McLaughlin's home on December 28, 2025. An autopsy conducted by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in April determined her cause of death was hypothermia and the manner of death was accidental. The three child endangerment counts relate to the circumstances surrounding her death, with the indictment accusing McLaughlin of recklessly endangering Eleanora and two other children by violating a duty of care or protection.
Eleanora lived with her twin sister and 3-year-old brother at her father's home. McLaughlin told NBC affiliate WCSH in a December 2025 interview that he was the only adult present on the night she died. She was sleeping in his room with her siblings.
"I grabbed a package of Pop-Tarts, opened it up, and I went to wake up Eleanora, and that's when I found her dead," McLaughlin said. "I was using an electric space heater in my bedroom between the girls' bed. The door was open because one of the animals came into the bedroom, and I could see my breath."
A state senator reportedly wrote to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services that Eleanora was found dead "while living in a home alongside her siblings with no heat and no running water in the middle of a Maine winter."
Eleanora's mother, Erika Dupuis, told WCSH she was "angry and upset" that McLaughlin, her estranged husband, had not been charged immediately. She had moved from Maine to West Virginia the summer before Eleanora died.
McLaughlin was booked into the Penobscot County Jail and is being held on $250,000 bond. He is scheduled to make his initial appearance in court Friday.