SALT LAKE CITY — When Joe Stacy called his first wife the morning he heard his 4-year-old son was missing, Michelle Rodriguez said she had a feeling the young boy was dead.
But even Rodriguez — who said she had long thought Joe Stacy's second wife, Stephanie Sloop, was "crazy" — didn't suspect the boy's own mother could be responsible.
"I never would have imagined that she would have killed her own son," Rodriguez said Friday in a phone interview. "Not because she was a loving person, but because people don't do that."
Sloop, 27, and her husband, Nathan Sloop, 31, are being held without bail in the Davis County Jail as prosecutors continue gathering evidence they say they hope will allow them to file aggravated murder charges.
The body of Ethan Stacy was found Tuesday in a remote area near Powder Mountain, turning an initial missing person call into a murder investigation. Ethan had come to Utah as part of a divorce agreement between his biological parents. He arrived less than two weeks before his body was discovered.
Investigators say that starting May 5, the boy was subjected to violent abuse that escalated until the boy died. The Sloops are accused of covering up the death by mutilating the boy's face, burying his body and burning other evidence.
According to Rodriguez, who often watched Ethan and took him on trips with her two children fathered by Joe Stacy, Ethan "always wanted to be loved and was always willing to give you a hug."
"He was adorable," she said. "He was a good kid. He wasn't a crybaby. He wasn't one of those kids who would get on a plane and run around; he was so sweet. We would read together, color together."
Rodriguez and Stacy were separated and planning on divorcing when Stacy met Stephanie Sloop (then Stephanie Croft). Rodriguez said the two women didn't "see eye to eye," unless Stephanie Sloop wanted someone to take care of Ethan.
"We didn't get along, but if it came to her getting rid of Ethan for the weekend or me taking the kids on vacation, then she was all for that," Rodriguez said. "She never wanted anything to do with that baby."
If anything, Rodriguez said, Stephanie Sloop saw Ethan as a financial asset, a bargaining chip. Joe Stacy had been injured while working on the Gulf Coast and has a lawsuit pending that seeks damages. Rodriguez said Stephanie Sloop offered to give Joe Stacy full custody and sign away her parental rights to Ethan if Joe would give her half the amount of the settlement.
"It was all about the money for her," Rodriguez said. "Nobody wanted Ethan to go. It's not that we thought she would kill him, it's that we thought she'd never bring him back."
In court documents, Joe Stacy also told a judge that he feared Stephanie Sloop would take the boy and never return him. Though court documents were later filed by Joe Stacy asking for a protective order against Michelle Rodriguez, Rodriguez said the affidavit was prepared by Stephanie Sloop and was all "lies." She said Joe Stacy later told the court the statements were untrue, and the case was thrown out by the judge. It is unclear from court filings, however, what resulted from the motion.
Joe Stacy and Rodriguez remain close and on good terms, and he called her both the morning he was told Ethan was missing and later when he knew what had happened to his son.
"He was just crying and bawling, and he just said, 'Ethan's dead, Ethan's dead,' and I remember him saying, 'She killed him,' " Rodriguez said. "We stayed on the phone, and we just cried and cried. It's been horrible."
She said Joe Stacy doesn't plan to come to Utah but will stay at his home in Virginia, where he is surrounded by family.
"I think he's basically just waiting for Ethan to come home."
e-mail: emorgan@desnews.com