Crimeatorium - The Murder of Four Year Old Ethan Stacy

Episode Date: July 23, 2026

Joe didn't want to send his son Ethan, to stay with his mother that April, but he was court ordered to as part of the divorce agreement. He wrote to the judge telling him of his concerns. It turns out that Joe's feelings about Ethan going away, were right, only he never imagined how bad it would really get for his son. This is Ethan Stacy's story.Music:CO.AG Music https://www.youtube.com/@co.agmusic1823If you have a case suggestion for Crimeatorium, please send it to [e-mail].

Welcome to True Crime Stories with Crime-a-Trorian. The following video is one that talks about extreme child abuse and death. Discretion is advised. So Stacy didn't want to send his four-year-old son Ethan to stay with his mother Stephanie Sloop and her fiancé at the time, Nathaniel Sloop. But a court order told him he had to and he didn't want to fight it anymore, so he agreed to it. He was worried that Ethan wouldn't be taken care of while there.

He even wrote to the judge and told him that Stephanie was unstable. He also added that he was afraid she would take Ethan and he would never see him again. Joe told a reporter that Ethan didn't want to go visit his mother. It would turn out that Joe was right about his concerns. This is Ethan Stacey's story. Joe and Stephanie were divorced in 2010 after being married for six years. Joe was awarded custody of Ethan during the school year and Stephanie was to have him stay with her during spring break and the summer, plus alternate holidays. Joe agreed to give Stephanie half of the money he was expecting from a settlement.

If he didn't receive it, Stephanie was to gain custody of Ethan. She later said to a friend regarding this agreement, I sold my son. This same friend added that the only reason she wanted Ethan for the summer was because she knew Joe didn't want her to have him Stephanie was not asked to pay child support Joe stayed in Virginia and Stephanie moved out west to Layton, Utah Stephanie first met Nathan Sloop through his sister-in-law in 1995

then connected again on Facebook in 2009 The two began dating, became engaged, and eventually moved in with each other in Nathan's home in Roy, Utah, all in a very short amount of time. They lived there until Ethan arrived for his visit when they got an apartment in Layton. Joe kissed Ethan goodbye at the airport and sent him on his way to Stephanie and Nathan's house. Ethan arrived on April 29, 2010. Friends of Stephanie have described her as difficult and narcissistic. Her mother claims she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder at the age of 8. Jo, her husband, disagreed with this diagnosis, saying,

It ain't no disorder. It's just the way she is. joe has also stated that she had a lot of prescriptions for pills from doctors she knew just what to say to get what she wanted from them stephanie enlisted in the air force but was dishonorably discharged and according to joe this was during basic training after she and joe married she did a little modeling and danced in strip clubs she also claimed that she was a bud girl and auditioned for Playboy Hot Housewives. Another one of her friends also described her as a pathological liar. Suffice it to say, friends and relatives had plenty to say about the shenanigans Stephanie pulled throughout the years. One important comment Joe made of

Stephanie was that she was not cut out to be a mother. She just didn't have any patience. Nathan Sloop has been described as a loose cannon. He was active in sports in high school and comes from a close-knit church-going family. Nathan married Jennifer Freeman in 1999 and had a daughter in 2004. Between 2002 and 2003, he was charged with drug possession and spent a month in jail. He was also ordered to go through drug abuse and mental health counseling. He is said to have been suffering with mental health issues around this time. Neighbors have described Nathan as being moody and not taking care of his yard.

Jennifer has cited many incidences of Nathan being physically abusive towards her. With all this being said, everyone agreed that he was very attached to his daughter. In 2007, Jennifer told Nathan she was leaving him and she took her daughter and moved to Florida. leaving Nathan in their home in Roy, Utah. Jennifer filed for divorce, and it was finalized in 2008. In the divorce papers, she claimed that Nathan was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, a claim he denies. He wrote in the divorce papers that he had obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The custody agreement was that Nathan would have his daughter in the summer, on spring break and alternate holidays. That agreement soon changed when Nathan made threatening phone calls to Jennifer. Nathan's mother was the only one allowed to pick up his daughter for the allotted visits. After Stephanie and Nathan became engaged, their Facebook pages were filled with pictures of the couple who seemed to be in a fantasy world. They described one another as their soulmate and were making big plans for a wedding.

Their wedding date was set for July 4th in Golden, Colorado at a relative's home. When telling one of her bridesmaids of their plans, she stated that Ethan would be at the wedding. The day Joe and Stephanie's divorce was final, April 28th, Joe kissed his son goodbye and he boarded a plane with his mother heading to Utah. Once they arrived and got settled, Stephanie soon texted her friends saying she couldn't handle Ethan's out-of-control behavior. Nathan states that she would go outside and smoke a cigarette and let him handle Ethan.

At 11.55 on May 10th, Stephanie called the Layton Police Department claiming that her four-year-old son walked out of the house and she didn't know where he was. She also added that he had done this over the past four nights. The Layton Police Department, along with the Davis County Sheriff and the Child Abduction Response Team, conducted a search of the area. As it turns out, Ethan had not run away at all. He was in the Sloops' home, deceased. During the interviews with Nathan and Stephanie, their stories changed several times and both ended up confessing to the fact that Ethan was indeed dead. After Stephanie made the 911 call, the two took Ethan's badly beaten and broken body to an area near Eden, Utah called Powder Mountain, which is a ski resort.

There they buried little Ethan on the side of a hill, a day Stephanie described as a fine spring day. Once Stephanie confessed, she told officers of the events leading up to Ethan's death. On May 5th, Nathan became angry at Ethan and took him into a bedroom to be disciplined. Nathan closed the door and Stephanie could hear Nathan slapping Ethan. When Nathan left the bedroom, Stephanie went in to check on Ethan and saw that he was badly beaten about the head and his face was beginning to swell Stephanie admitted that she never sought medical attention even though she knew Ethan needed it

The next day, Stephanie texted her brother and told him that she and Nathan were getting married that day so that they could start receiving benefits She also added that the real wedding would still be in July, as they had planned. The couple, realizing they couldn't bring Ethan along due to his obvious injuries, fearing that someone would call the police, locked him in a bedroom, removing the inside doorknob so he couldn't get out. The couple then drove to the Farmington Courthouse and got married.

It isn't clear how long they were gone. During the next three days, Ethan was very sick with a fever, vomiting, and refusing to eat. Stephanie still did not seek medical attention for her son. In this time, Nathan and Stephanie forced Ethan to drink two 16-ounce bottles of water, 16 ounces of Kool-Aid, and a glass of orange juice over a two-to-three-hour period. He was also given Motrin for the swelling and Benadryl. to keep him quiet. Through all of this, Stephanie still did not seek medical attention for her son. On May 7th, while Stephanie was shopping at Walmart, Nathan called her and told her that

Ethan had been burned while in the bathtub. Stephanie drove home and she saw Ethan burned badly on his feet, his back, and his buttocks. Nathan claimed that Ethan turned on the hot water when he was left alone in the tub. Stephanie did not believe Nathan. On May 8th, Stephanie found feces in Ethan's mouth and brushed his teeth so hard his gums bled. The story was that Ethan smeared feces all over the bathroom and on Nathan. It has been alleged that Nathan forced him to eat it. She continued to wash his mouth out throughout the day due to his vomiting. She also changed his bedding due to the blood and vomit that had accumulated on it.

Stephanie didn't get help from Ethan, claiming that Nathan would harm her if she did. At 3 a.m. on May 9th, Stephanie checked on Ethan and he was sleeping. Later on that morning, she went to the pharmacy to pick up some medication for Nathan. She returned at 5.30 a.m. and Nathan immediately asked her to sit down. She knew something was wrong and asked if her baby was dead. When Nathan didn't respond, Stephanie checked on Ethan and his arms were stiff and his body was cold She claims to have attempted CPR

but of course by that time it was far too late Stephanie didn't call the police because Nate told her she would go to prison Stephanie first claimed that a friend of Nathan's named Frank helped him bury Ethan's body but later admitted that she had helped him. Nathan came up with a plan of burying his body and Stephanie went to the store

to get the supplies needed to do the job a shovel and some slushy drinks for the two of them. Nathan led officers to Ethan's body in the remote area located in Weber County. The site where he was buried was covered with dog food and Ethan was wrapped in eight garbage bags Nathan poured an accelerant on little Ethan's body lit it on fire

and disfigured his face and teeth with a hammer before putting him in the bags and burying him In the shallow grave was a broken hammer lighter fluid a burned glove a shovel head Duct tape and Ethan's favorite sweatshirt. After searching the couple's cell phones, they found a text from Nathan to Stephanie.

Sent to her on the day they buried Ethan's body. Baby, can you get me antioxidant vitamins, please? That would be great. I can't wait to take you to Happy Sumo. Memories. Love you. Both Stephanie and Nathan were charged with aggravated murder, a capital offense, and both faced the death penalty. They were also charged with second-degree felony inflicting serious injury on a child and third-degree felony abuse or desecration of a dead human body.

They were each offered a plea deal, which took the death penalty off the table and the lesser charges against them. The medical examiner, Dr. Edward Lice, testified at Nathan's preliminary hearing that scalding, aspiration pneumonia, and too much medication were the causes of Ethan's death. The amount of medication found in Ethan's system, which consisted of Xanax and Benadryl, were at adult levels but wasn't enough to solely cause his death. Lice further testified that Ethan had second and third degree burns on his legs and feet, consistent with being scalded in hot water. He also had numerous bruises on his head and legs. Chemical burns were also found on his body, which occurred after his death. Tests also showed that Ethan inhaled feces or vomit into his lungs, which infected the respiratory system and caused the aspiration pneumonia.

Lice told the court that the fractures to his face and skull was caused by the hammer used to conceal his identity. He also suffered from dehydration due to the severe burns on his legs. Stephanie's defense attorney claimed that she was suffering from battered wife syndrome and was on medications that clouded her judgment. Nathan's defense was that he was mentally ill, and both sides agreed to this, as he was under a doctor's care at the time of Ethan's death. It was testified that he had taken 4,100 doses of various medications in the 11 months preceding Ethan's death.

Those medications included Lortab, Valium, and other central nervous system depressants. After Stephanie pleaded guilty to her charges, Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings asked the board to give a natural life sentence. Ethan Stacy died because his mother, Stephanie Sloop, was fixated on herself, he wrote in a letter. She cared about her own lifestyle. Instead of getting young Ethan life-saving medical treatment, Nathan and Stephanie married in an attempt to cover their tracks by a misguided interpretation of the spousal privilege Rawlings also wrote in the letter. Stephanie was sentenced to 20 years to life and 1 to 15 years on an obstruction count. The judge ordered the prison terms to run concurrently. Nathan was given 25 years to life and 1 to 15 years for aggravated

assault by a prisoner for attacking a Davis County jail officer to run concurrently. before the sentence was handed down stephanie told the court i am entirely responsible because i was his mommy she also added i am pleading guilty today because i am just that i chose to abuse my medications to the point i was unable to make sound choices and decisions thus causing me to be reckless and indifferent with my Ethan's life. I was selfish when I brought Ethan into this world. I was selfish during his life, but I refused to be selfish during his death. I refused to blame Nathan or Joe or anybody else. She also called Ethan by his nickname, Punkin. When it was Nathan's turn to speak, he simply said, that boy died on my watch and I'm horribly sorry. Rawlings said

after the hearing that Joe Stacy supported the plea deal for his ex-wife, but said that he has been devastated and broken up by this. That's what has had the biggest impact on me, Rawlings said, to deal personally with a father who loved a four-year-old child that lost that four-year-old child, through no fault of his own, and in a circumstance he had no control over. There was a court order to send his son out there, to where he was sending his son to his death, and to the toxic environment and the perfect storm of Nathaniel and Stephanie Sloop. Stephanie has since filed for an annulment from Nathan, claiming that the marriage was coerced. She has asked that her name be changed to a previous surname, which is Stacy

Joe Stacy's response to this was that he did not want his ex-wife using his surname Thank you for listening Please be sure to subscribe and hit that notification button We'll see you next week