The case against Elizabeth Dubois was built around Austin Raymond’s own testimony about how long he said he asked for help.
LAPEER, Mich. — The case that sent Elizabeth Dubois to prison for life began, court records say, with a teenager noticing something wrong with his throat in the summer of 2016 and ended nearly three years later with his death from complications of a rare cancer.
That long timeline became the backbone of the prosecution. Rather than focusing only on the final days of Austin Raymond’s life, jurors heard a step-by-step account of worsening symptoms, repeated requests for medical help and months in which visible signs of illness kept mounting. Prosecutors argued that the significance of the case was plain: the danger did not arrive all at once, and neither did the missed chances to respond.
Austin was 15 when he first noticed trouble in July 2016, according to the Michigan Court of Appeals opinion in the case. By September, he had problems eating and speaking. By November, he said, solid food was no longer possible. He testified that he kept asking his mother to take him to a doctor and later added that he was struggling to breathe. Austin said Elizabeth Dubois answered those pleas by telling him he “was fine.” At other times, he said, she blamed allergies. He also testified that she did not want to “waste gas” on a medical visit. In one telling detail that jurors heard, Austin said his diet had narrowed to Ramen noodles and Mountain Dew as his strength faded and his weight dropped.
The story did not stay private inside the home. As Austin’s condition worsened, other people saw the change. Records and later reporting say Child Protective Services became involved and that an investigator directed Dubois to seek treatment for him. Austin’s stepfather and other relatives later helped get him to appointments, where doctors urged follow-up care with specialists. He was eventually diagnosed with chordoma, a rare malignant bone cancer. Prosecutors said early treatment could have changed the outcome. The state’s theory was not just that Dubois made a bad decision once, but that she kept resisting action while a serious disease progressed in ways that were increasingly hard to ignore. By the time Austin described his condition in court, he was recounting a pattern, not a single missed visit.
Then the timeline took a sharp turn. On Feb. 25, 2019, a district court bound Dubois over on child abuse charges, according to the appellate opinion. Austin died less than three months later, on May 20, 2019. Court records listed nasopharyngeal chordoma and dysphagia among the complications that led to his death. After that, prosecutors sought to add felony murder and second-degree murder counts. That move triggered a separate legal fight over whether Michigan law allowed a murder charge built on this kind of medical neglect. In 2022, the Court of Appeals said yes to moving forward on felony murder, reversing a lower court ruling and sending the case back for further proceedings.
By the time jurors reached a verdict in January 2026, the timeline itself had become evidence with moral force. A long stretch of months, each marked by new symptoms and no consistent treatment, helped prosecutors argue intent. Lapeer County Prosecutor John Miller later called the conduct intentional and egregious. Judge Michael Nolan sentenced Dubois on March 23 to life without parole on the felony murder conviction and added a concurrent 15- to 25-year term on the child abuse conviction. Local reporting said Austin weighed 83 pounds when he died, a final number that prosecutors used to show how far the illness had progressed. The defense asked the judge to set aside the verdict, but he refused.
The case now stands as a record assembled across years: Austin’s own words, the dates tied to his physical decline and the legal finding that the failure to act during that span was enough to support a murder conviction. Any next step is expected to come through appeal, not through a retrial in the near term.
Author note: Last updated April 15, 2026.