Murder Suspect Drives Off Cliff; Child Dies : Police: Danny Eugene Stewart is arrested after walking to fire station following a crash on Ortega Highway, which killed his 13-month-old son. He was wanted in connection with the beating death of his girlfriend in Orange.

A suspect in the murder of an Orange woman, missing since Tuesday along with their 13-month-old child, drove off a cliff on Ortega Highway on Wednesday, killing the child, authorities said.

The body of Nicholas Stewart was found about 9:30 a.m. by California Highway Patrol officers and Riverside sheriff deputies about 200 feet above a ravine where the car had landed, said Mark Lohman, investigator for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. Nicholas’ father, Danny Eugene Stewart, remained in stable condition at a hospital in Riverside County. Police did not release the name of the hospital.

Stewart, 23, was arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the beating death of his 19-year-old girlfriend, Megan Michelle Whalley.

Her body was found Tuesday on her bedroom floor. Police said Wednesday it appeared that no weapon had been used.

“It looks like she was killed just by physical force,” Orange Police Sgt. Barry Weinstein said.

Whalley’s mother, Susan Whalley, came home from work at a nearby elementary school and found the the body of her daughter about 12:30 p.m. in the house they shared. She also discovered the infant was missing along with the family’s car, police said.

Following the accident, which occurred in Riverside County just east of the Orange County border, Stewart walked about two miles to a fire station in El Cariso and asked for help.

“He told paramedics there that his baby was still at the scene of the accident, and they called CHP,” Lohman said.

Nicholas apparently was ejected from the vehicle after it veered off the highway and died from a broken neck, according to police. Stewart suffered from neck and back injuries and minor fractures, Lohman said.

CHP officers ran a routine check on the license plate and discovered that the vehicle had been reported stolen in connection with a homicide. They called Orange police, and Stewart was arrested at the hospital. Investigators do not know if the crash was accidental or intentional.

As detectives investigate the case, family members mourned the loss of a third-year college student who wanted to be a teacher and her son. Whalley had been attending Rancho Santiago College in Orange at night so that she could be home with her son during the day, her 14-year-old brother, Jesse Whalley, said Wednesday.

“She loved her son,” Jesse said. “She is the sort of person who is very giving. She did everything for me. She’d take me wherever I wanted to go.”

In the last few months, Jesse said, his sister had been trying to “get Danny out of her life” after an on- again, off- again relationship that lasted about three years.

After Nicholas was born, Stewart began coming by the house more often and sometimes had conflicts with the family over the baby, such as when they objected to his taking the boy outside in the rain, Jesse said. Stewart then would stay away from the house for a few days.

“But he would always come back,” Jesse said. “He would come by in the morning and play with Nicholas out in the front yard. Then he would sleep in my sister’s car.”

Stewart listed his address at the Whalleys and apparently was unemployed. His mother, whom police did not identified, lives in Florida.

Often, Stewart and Jesse would play basketball or football together. Jesse last saw Stewart a couple of days ago when Stewart came by the house to visit Nicholas. Jesse last saw his sister and nephew the morning of her death, right before he left for school with his mother.

“I am still shocked,” Jesse said. “If he cared about his Nicholas, why would he do something like this?”