Two charged after baby boy found dead in Adelaide motel
Benjamin Nicholas Houghton, 40, and Yue Ning Lieu, 42, have been charged after police found a baby boy dead during a welfare check at the Tollgate Motel in Glen Osmond, in Adelaide’s south, on Saturday. A post-mortem established that the infant was between six and seven months old. South Australia police said he had been dead “for a period of time” but did not disclose a suspected cause of death.
Police said Houghton and Lieu had been living at the motel since arriving in South Australia at the beginning of the year. Both face charges of criminal neglect and destroying human remains to pervert the course of justice. Their cases appeared before Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday; neither applied for bail, and both were remanded in custody until 3 May 2027.
Eastern District detectives initially handled the case, but the Major Crime Investigation Branch has taken control because of the incident’s nature and complexity and the resources required. Investigators are asking anyone who stayed at the Tollgate Motel, particularly those with information about the occupants of room four, to contact Crime Stoppers.
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