Who Is Julissa Thaler? The Case of Eli Hart and a Broken Child Welfare System

Who Is Julissa Thaler?

Julissa Angelica Genrich Thaler was born on February 6, 1994, in Minnesota. She killed her 6-year-old son, Eli Hart, on May 20, 2022 — a crime that drew national outrage. A jury convicted her of first-degree premeditated murder in February 2023. A judge then sentenced her to life in prison without parole. She now sits behind bars at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee.

What made the case especially disturbing was not just the crime itself. The very child welfare system that was supposed to keep Eli safe had ignored warning sign after warning sign. That failure haunts this story just as much as the act that ended it.

Direct Answer

Julissa Thaler murdered her 6-year-old son, Eli Hart, in May 2022. She shot the boy nine times with a shotgun while he sat strapped in his car seat, then hid his body in the trunk of her car. Orono police found him during a routine traffic stop. A jury convicted her of first-degree murder, and a judge sentenced her to life without parole in February 2023. The case also exposed a serious failure by Dakota County Social Services, which had returned Eli to her care just ten days before she killed him.

Background: Who Was Eli Hart?

To understand what Julissa Thaler took from the world, you first need to know who Eli Hart was.

Eli attended kindergarten at Shirley Hills Primary School in Mound, Minnesota. He was born with a genetic disorder that required several surgeries in his first months of life. He wore hearing aids. None of that slowed him down. Everyone who knew him called him one of the happiest, most energetic kids they had ever met.

His father, Tory Hart, described him at trial: “He was always really happy, outgoing, always full of energy, always. He was everything to me. He completed my life.”

Eli loved the monkey bars. He loved fishing with his dad and making friends at school. A thriving, joyful kid — one who happened to be stuck in the middle of a brutal custody fight he never asked to be part of.

The Custody Dispute and Warning Signs

Eli’s death did not come out of nowhere. It came at the end of a long, documented pattern of concern — one that a child welfare system failed to act on decisively.

A History of Concerns

In January 2021, Dakota County took custody of Eli after Farmington police placed Thaler on a mental health and welfare hold. She had been hearing voices telling her to kill herself. She was suffering from paranoid delusions. Reports of the behavior alarmed authorities enough that a Dakota County judge granted a Child in Need of Protection or Services (CHIPS) petition, and Eli went to live with a foster family.

The red flags kept coming after that:

• A county social worker watched Thaler show a video of cat feces to Eli during a visit — behavior the worker described as “bizarre.”
• Thaler repeatedly failed drug tests.
• She skipped multiple therapy sessions and parenting education classes.
• She filed false court claims.
• She stalked Eli’s foster parents.
• Police responded to her home 21 documented times.

In August 2021, social worker Beth Dehner put it in writing: returning Eli to Thaler would be unsafe. She rated the risk level as “high.”

A Fateful Reversal

That formal assessment did not hold.

By March 2022, Dehner and a colleague submitted a new court report. It still documented Thaler’s instability — missed sessions, erratic behavior, a new petition she had filed against Tory Hart. Yet somehow, the same workers who flagged the danger now recommended that the county return custody to Thaler and close the CHIPS case entirely.

On May 10, 2022, a judge accepted that recommendation. Court jurisdiction over Eli ended. He went home to his mother.

Ten days later, she killed him.

Eli’s foster mother had told social workers directly that she believed Thaler would murder Eli before she would let his father have him. Nobody acted on that warning.

The Crime: What Happened on May 20, 2022

Thaler shot Eli Hart nine times with a 12-gauge shotgun on the night of May 19 or the early hours of May 20. Eli was strapped in his booster seat inside her silver Chevrolet Impala when she pulled the trigger.

She had bought the shotgun three days earlier. At the gun shop, she told the employee she wanted ammunition that would “blow the biggest hole” in something.

After killing her son, Thaler drove through the Lake Minnetonka area. At some point, her front tire blew out — likely damaged at a park she visited during her movements that night. She did not stop. She kept driving on the bare metal rim. Investigators later followed the scrape marks it left across the pavement, piecing together her route mile by mile.

She stopped at a nearby gas station and dumped evidence near the dumpsters. A citizen reported the car. Officers later searched the trash and found a backpack, blood, bone, and what appeared to be brain matter.

Eli’s booster seat turned up along the route as well. The jury saw photographs of it — large holes blown through the section where a child’s head would rest.

The Traffic Stop

An Orono officer pulled Thaler over after a report of a car with a shattered rear window driving on a rim. The officer noticed blood on her face and hands. He noticed what appeared to be human remains on the inside of the car. He drove her home — and that is when they opened the trunk.

Eli’s body was inside. Officers arrested Thaler on the spot.

The Trial

Thaler’s murder trial opened on January 30, 2023, in Hennepin County. Over four days, prosecutors laid out a case built on surveillance footage, physical evidence, digital records, and testimony from Tory Hart and others who knew the family.

The premeditation argument was hard to argue against. Consider the timeline:

• Tory Hart filed for custody. Six days later, Thaler bought the shotgun.
• She searched her phone for information about child blood loss and life insurance payouts.
• She bought ammunition specifically requesting rounds to “blow the biggest hole.”
• She shot Eli exactly ten days after regaining full custody — the window during which losing him again was most likely.

Her defense attorney, Bryan Leary, took an unusual approach. He admitted Thaler had participated in Eli’s death. He just claimed she was not the one who pulled the trigger. The jury spent less than two hours deliberating before rejecting that argument entirely.

Thaler showed no visible reaction when the clerk read the verdict. Hart’s family wept openly.

The Sentencing

Judge Jay Quam of Hennepin County District Court sentenced Thaler on February 16, 2023. Minnesota law left him no discretion — first-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole.

Eli’s stepmother, Josephine Jopshson, stood before the judge and described the bond between Eli and his father. Eli’s former foster mother, Nikita Kronberg, broke down completely. She told the court she sometimes blames herself for not documenting things better when Eli was in her care. “How could someone do such an evil thing to an amazing, loving kid?” she asked aloud.

When the judge gave Thaler a chance to speak, she did not express regret. She said: “I’m innocent. F— you all. You’re garbage.”

The Aftermath: Accountability and a $2.25 Million Settlement

Thaler’s conviction closed the criminal chapter. The civil one took longer.

The Lawsuit Against Dakota County

In August 2022, Tory Hart sued Dakota County Social Services along with three of its employees — Beth Dehner, Jennifer Streefland, and Sherri Larson. His lawsuit argued that the county’s negligence was a “proximate cause” of Eli’s death.

The filing alleged that county workers “knew or should have known that Eli would not be safe in Thaler’s care but endorsed giving her sole custody over Eli in bad faith and in total failure to exercise due care.”

In December 2024, the Dakota County Board of Commissioners voted 5-1 to approve a $2.25 million settlement. Tory Hart received just over $1.2 million. Eli’s paternal grandfather and both grandmothers each received $25,000. The remaining funds covered legal fees. The county did not admit liability.

“Nothing will ever fill the void in the world that Eli left behind,” said Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty after the criminal sentencing. That sentiment carried into the civil resolution as well.

Eli’s Legacy

After the settlement, Eli’s family turned their energy toward something lasting. They launched a fundraising effort to build a memorial playground in Mound, Minnesota — a place where kids can climb on the monkey bars that Eli loved so much. A bridge in the area was also dedicated in his honor.

What This Case Reveals About Child Welfare Systems

Eli Hart’s death forced a painful question into public view: how does a child protection agency formally rate a situation as “high risk” — and then recommend reunification anyway?

When Reunification Becomes Risk

Family reunification sits at the heart of most child welfare policy. The goal is sound: keep families together where it is safe to do so. Children generally fare better with their biological parents than in long-term foster care, all else being equal.

But “all else being equal” is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

In Eli’s case, a social worker put the risk assessment in writing in August 2021. She called it “high.” Seven months later, the same system reversed course — while Thaler was still missing therapy sessions, still filing erratic court claims, still behaving in ways that alarmed the people closest to the case.

No public explanation fully accounts for that reversal.

The Weight of Warning Signs

Twenty-one police calls. Multiple failed drug tests. Documented paranoid delusions. A foster mother who told caseworkers directly that she feared Thaler would kill Eli. These were not subtle signals. They were loud, repeated, and specific.

When warnings that direct fail to change an outcome, the problem rarely starts and ends with one caseworker. It tends to run deeper — into caseloads, institutional pressure, documentation gaps, and a system that sometimes prioritizes closing cases over questioning its own conclusions.

Systemic Lessons

The wrongful death lawsuit named county employees both individually and in their official roles. It alleged negligence, gross negligence, and willful negligence. Two of the original counts — violations of Minnesota’s Reporting and Maltreatment of Minors Act, and a civil rights conspiracy claim — were later dropped. But the county still chose to pay $2.25 million rather than go to trial.

That decision says something, even without an admission of liability.

Common Questions About the Julissa Thaler Case

Q1: Why did the court return Eli Hart to Julissa Thaler’s custody?

Ans: Dakota County Social Services and the guardian ad litem recommended it, and a judge followed that recommendation on May 10, 2022. Why those workers reversed a prior “high risk” assessment became a central question in the wrongful death lawsuit against the county.

Q2: How many times did Thaler shoot Eli Hart?

Ans: Prosecutors said she fired nine times total. She pulled the trigger six times, reloaded, then fired three more times.

Q3: What happened to Julissa Thaler?

Ans: A jury convicted her of first-degree premeditated murder and second-degree murder in February 2023. A judge sentenced her to life in prison without parole. She now serves her sentence at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee.

Q4: Did Julissa Thaler show any remorse at sentencing?

Ans: No. She told the court she was innocent, then directed profanity at everyone present.

Q5: Did anyone else face legal consequences?

Ans: Dakota County settled a wrongful death lawsuit for $2.25 million in December 2024. The suit named the county and two social workers as defendants. No criminal charges were filed against county employees.

Q6: Where is Tory Hart now?

Ans: He has focused on honoring Eli’s memory, including the effort to build a memorial playground in Mound, Minnesota.

Key Facts

• Eli Hart was 6 years old at the time of his death on May 20, 2022.
• Thaler was 28 when she killed Eli and 29 at the time of sentencing.
• The jury deliberated for less than two hours before returning a guilty verdict.
• Thaler bought the murder weapon three days before the killing.
• Eli had been in child protection proceedings for roughly a year and a half before his death.
• A Dakota County social worker formally rated the risk of reunification as “high” in August 2021.
• Dakota County settled the wrongful death lawsuit for $2.25 million in December 2024 — without admitting fault.
• Thaler serves her sentence at MCF Shakopee with no possibility of parole.

Key Takeaways

• Julissa Thaler shot her 6-year-old son Eli Hart nine times on May 20, 2022, while he sat strapped in his car seat.
• A bitter custody dispute drove the killing — she committed it ten days after regaining full custody.
• Prosecutors proved premeditation through the weapon purchase, targeted ammunition, and Thaler’s own Google searches.
• Dakota County Social Services returned Eli to Thaler despite extensive documented risk, including a prior “high risk” rating.
• A jury convicted Thaler of first-degree murder in February 2023, and a judge sentenced her to life without parole.
• A $2.25 million wrongful death settlement against Dakota County followed in December 2024.
• The case sparked serious debate about how child welfare agencies handle risk assessments and reunification decisions.

Eli Hart’s murder cannot be undone. But tracing exactly how it happened — and where the system failed to stop it — matters deeply. His story is not just a crime story. It is a case study in what goes wrong when warning signs pile up and no one changes course. Understanding that is the first step toward making sure fewer children face the same fate.