Daniel Richard Cooper (18 October 1881 – 16 June 1923) of New Zealand was a convicted baby farmer and illegal abortionist.
By then, Cooper had joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church and sold a booklet entitled The Practical Guide to Good Health.
Family friends expressed doubt about the circumstances of Marion's death; given that she was being treated for goitre with mercuric iodide, some argued that it was possible that he had intentionally overdosed his first wife with that medication.
The Coopers allowed her to live at the care facility and promised her that her baby would be 'adopted' by an alleged Palmerston North adoptive parental couple.
On 12 October 1922 MacLeod gave birth to a daughter and was later told that the child had been adopted by the aforementioned Palmerston North family.