A Milford man has been charged with manslaughter after the medical examiner determined his 13-month-old daughter died of hypothermia in their home last December.
Shane McLaughlin, 37, was arrested last week and formally charged Wednesday, according to the Maine Department of Public Safety. The arrest followed the medical examiner’s ruling that his daughter, Eleanora Ray McLaughlin, died from exposure to cold.
McLaughlin spoke publicly about the death shortly after it happened in 2025. He told NEWS CENTER Maine that he discovered the room where he and his children had been sleeping had grown cold after a pet left the door open, letting the warmth from a space heater escape. He said he noticed he could see his own breath before going to check on his daughter.
“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 told the outlet.
McLaughlin’s estranged wife, Erika Dupuis, who moved to West Virginia in the summer of 2025 and left her children behind, later told NEWS CENTER Maine she was “angry and upset” that McLaughlin had not faced charges sooner. She said she wanted to see manslaughter charges brought against him.
Maine State Sen. Jeff Timberlake, a Republican, said records he obtained showed the couple had been investigated multiple times by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services before Eleanora’s death. McLaughlin confirmed to NEWS CENTER Maine that he and Dupuis had been investigated several times since 2017, though he disputed the findings of those investigations.
Timberlake said the manslaughter charge was overdue. “I don’t know what took so long,” he said.
Following his arrest, McLaughlin was booked into the Penobscot County Jail and is expected to appear at the Penobscot Judicial Center. Information on his legal representation was not immediately available.
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