Couple arrested in Adelaide motel room with dead baby appeared in court
Benjamin Nicholas Houghton and Yue Ning Lieu face charges of criminal neglect and destroying human remains after infant's body was discovered.
Parents of a six-to-seven-month-old baby boy found dead in an Adelaide motel room have been identified and arrested. Benjamin Nicholas Houghton, 40, and Yue Ning Lieu, 42, were charged with criminal neglect and destroying human remains to pervert the course of justice.
Houghton also faces a charge of hindering police. The couple appeared before the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday via a bedside hearing. They did not apply for bail and have been remanded in custody until May 3, 2027.
Police discovered the infant's body during a welfare check at the Tollgate Motel in Glen Osmond, Adelaide, on Saturday. A post-mortem examination revealed the baby had been deceased for a period of time. Authorities stated that Houghton and Lieu had been living at the motel since arriving in Adelaide earlier this year and had not previously been in contact with South Australian authorities.
In the days leading up to their arrest, Lieu shared a series of unusual posts on social media. She wrote about unidentified individuals trying to spy on her, posting, "Stop teleporting flies into my room." On the same day, she posted about the perceived "advantages" of time travel and expressed concerns about "gauss equipped" trucks driving past and targeting her with "magnetic weapons."
Lieu's Facebook activity continued multiple times a day until Saturday morning, when police found her son's body. An Instagram account linked to her blog, "Health in Lieu," which had been inactive in the weeks prior, previously featured photos of individuals she believed to be spies and AI-generated horror videos. One video posted in March appeared to compare Houghton to a monster, referring to him as the "spirit of hatred."
Lieu's blog posts described her as a Chinese Traditional Medicine practitioner and "Chinese/Vietnamese Bhuddist (sic)." In an April 2025 post titled "Help Me in My Fight Against Tyranny," she accused governments of using "mind control" for "enslavement" and claimed she was a target of scientific research for mind control purposes.
Police confirmed that Houghton and Lieu had previously lived in Victoria and New South Wales. In May 2021, Lieu and her then two-year-old daughter were reported missing in Sydney, raising concerns for their welfare. Lieu later attended a police station in Canberra eight days later and stated her daughter was with a relative in Victoria. South Australian Police declined to comment on the status of Lieu's daughter.
Specialist crime detectives are leading the investigation into the baby boy's death due to its nature and complexity. Police are appealing for anyone who stayed at the Tollgate Motel, particularly in room four, to contact Crime Stoppers with any information.
"No further comment will be made at this stage in the investigation," a police statement read. The Daily Mail does not suggest Lieu's posts indicate any wrongdoing by her or Houghton.