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The whereabouts of a 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy remained unknown Friday, a day after he was reported missing, but police said that their investigation was focusing on his home and they don’t believe he was abducted.

Late Friday afternoon, a team of police in about seven vehicles pulled up to the house and went inside. At least one of them said, “Crystal Lake police. We gotta search warrant.”

Some of them later emerged outside, but then returned into the house carrying unfolded boxes.

In another development late Friday afternoon, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services said it has had contact with the family of the boy, Andrew “AJ” Freund, since he was born in 2013 with opiates in his system. DCFS continued having contact off and on until late 2018, a spokesman said. A younger son was placed into DCFS custody Thursday, officials said.

Andrew was last seen at bedtime, about 9 p.m., on Wednesday in the family home. After waking up Thursday morning and being unable to find him in the home, Andrew’s parents reported the boy missing, police said.

After a day-long search on Thursday, police in a news release Friday said, “In reviewing all investigative information thus far, there is no indication that would lead police to believe that an abduction had taken place.” They also said: “Information obtained currently has police focusing on the residence.”

Canine teams that were used during the investigation “only picked up Andrew’s scent within the residence indicating that Andrew had not walked away on foot,” police said.

A neighbor who lives across the street said the boy’s father, also named Andrew Freund, left the home through the back door about 2 p.m. Friday and began walking down Dole Avenue. While he was walking, he said, “Find my son … find my son,” according to the neighbor, Janelle Butler.

Butler said police approached him and tried to keep others away from him, but not before he made a plea to media members who were at the scene.

“AJ, please come home,” he said. “We love you very much. You’re not in any trouble. We’re just worried to death. Please, please come home.”

DCF Timeline in Link
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The mother of a missing Crystal Lake boy appeared in court Tuesday for a hearing regarding custody of her other son.

JoAnn Cunningham, 36, is the mother of Andrew “AJ” Freund who was reported missing last week. At that time, Cunningham’s other son was placed in protective custody of DCFS.

Cunningham objected to the current guardian because of a conflict of interest. That conflict was not disclosed in open court. The States Attorney’s office argued to keep the guardian based on him “being familiar with the family.”

The judge is expected to name a new guardian Wednesday, and the custody hearing has been pushed to Monday.

Andrew’s father, Andrew Freund Sr., was also in court. As an attorney, he was going to represent himself. The judge, instead, appointed counsel to represent him. Freund Sr. said that he cannot afford a private attorney.

Freund Sr also confirmed that the family's house is in foreclosure.

Also Tuesday, police reports involving the family from the past five years were release and detail arrests and poor conditions at that home.

Officers noted the home was “cluttered, dirty and in disrepair.” Officers noted broken windows, dog feces and urine spotted throughout.

Last September police reported that a concerned citizen believed the home to be without power and in a dilapidated state.

In December, an officer, responding for a complaint of stolen medication from the home, described the home as cluttered, dirty and in disrepair. The officer noted a door had a brown substance on it and in the room where the boys slept, a window was open and the smell of feces was overwhelming.
 
Evidence technicians were seen taking multiple items out of the family's home Wednesday, including a mattress and a shovel.
[....]
Cunningham's attorney, George Kililis, said she was with police all day Thursday and spoke with officers multiple times, but stopped answering investigators’ questions at her attorneys’ direction.

“While law enforcement was conducting a missing child investigation, Ms. Cunningham was eager to participate,” Kililis wrote. “When it became clear law enforcement was not conducting a missing child investigation, was not issuing an Amber Alert, had stopped searching for AJ, and considered her a suspect, we did advise her to stop all communications with law enforcement and she did so at our request.”

State child welfare officials said they have had repeated contact with the boy's family since he was born addicted to drugs in 2013. He was put into a foster home right after birth and was not returned to his birth parents until June 2015. DCFS investigators returned twice in 2018 to check other allegations of neglect. Those allegations were deemed "unfounded."

Police dogs searching for A.J.’s scent only detected it inside the home, “indicating that Andrew had not walked away on foot,” police said.

http://www.fox13news.com/web/wtvt/facebook-instant/source-missing-boy-s-body-found-in-woodstock
 
@Satanica @cubby @Fives My Charm
Body of missing Crystal Lake boy found in Woodstock

Police sources tell FOX 32 the body of the missing boy from Crystal Lake has been found on private property near Woodstock.

The body of 5-year-old Andrew "A.J." Freund was recovered Wednesday morning.

 
@Satanica
The body of a 5-year-old boy reported as missing last week was found wrapped in plastic in a shallow grave on Wednesday, and his parents have been charged with murder, police said.
C
rystal Lake Police Chief Jim Black said police interviewed the parents of Andrew "AJ" Freund overnight after information was obtained through forensic analysis of their cell phone data.

The parents, Andrew Freund Sr. and JoAnn Cunningham, then provided information that ultimately led to the recovery of AJ's body in Woodstock, Illinois, about 10 miles from their home in Crystal Lake, police said.

They both face charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery and aggravated domestic battery and failure to report a missing or child's death, Black said. The cause of death is unknown at this time.
 
Andrew’s body was found Wednesday morning wrapped in plastic in a “shallow grave” in a rural area of Woodstock based on information his parents provided in interviews, Black said.

Cunningham is charged with five counts of first-degree murder, four counts of aggravated battery, two counts of aggravated domestic battery and one count of failure to report a missing or child death, Black said.

Freund is charged with five counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated battery, one count of aggravated domestic battery, two counts of concealment of a homicidal death and one count of failure to report a missing or child death.
 

RIP little man.

If you watch the video in the article, you can see he looks really pale and thin...it kind of looks like he might have bruises on his face too.
 
The parents of 5-year-old Andrew “AJ” Freund forced the boy “to remain in a cold shower for an extended period of time” and beat him until he died, according to prosecutors. The boy was then buried April 15, three days before his dad reported him missing.

Bail was set at $5 million Thursday morning for each of the boy’s parents, who were charged with murder hours after authorities found what they believe is the body of the Crystal Lake boy in a shallow grave near Woodstock.

The official complaint filed against JoAnn Cunningham and Andrew Freund gave the details about the alleged beating and his death. The McHenry County coroner’s office has not yet released an official cause of death.

Both parents had bond hearings Thursday morning at the McHenry County jail, with Cunningham appearing first, and were ordered held in lieu of $5 million bail, for which they each would have to post a 10 percent bond.

Each defendant was brought in separately for a hearing. They both wore orange pants, shirt and shoes issued by the jail. Cunningham was visibly pregnant at seven months. She shook her head from side to side and appeared to be holding back tears as the charges were read, then wiped her eyes. Freund gripped the podium and then stood with his hands clasped behind or in front of him during the hearing but showed no emotion.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-aj-freund-crystal-lake-parents-court-20190425-story.html
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An autopsy determined that the boy whose body was found in a shallow grave in northern Illinois died of blunt force trauma to his head and that he'd been struck multiple times.

In a news release, the McHenry County Coroner confirmed that the body that was found wrapped in plastic in a wooded area a few miles from the family's Crystal Lake home was that of Andrew "AJ" Freund.
 
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An Illinois boy whose parents are charged with murdering him tried to get help in the months before his death.

“Maybe someone hit me with a belt. Maybe mommy didn’t mean to hurt me,” Andrew “AJ” Freund told a doctor just four months before his body was found in shallow grave.

The 5-year-old had a large bruise on his hip when he visited the doctor a few weeks days Christmas. The boy and his mother claimed the family dog, Lucy, caused the bruise when the 60-pound boxer jumped on him, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The paper reported the doctor was suspicious, but couldn’t find a cause, and took the child aside. The shocking comment was his response when the doctor asked him privately what happened.

But despite the alarming comment, a call to a state child abuse hotline that said the boy was covered in “cuts, welts and bruises,” and 27 visits to the family’s home by state social workers, the boy was allowed to stay with his parents
 
Well before Andrew "A.J." Freund Jr. was even born, the slain boy's mother allegedly committed abuses so severe against a child the courts saw fit to remove him from her custody entirely, records obtained by InsideEdition.com show.

JoAnn Cunningham was living with Andrew Freund when a judge ruled in 2013 it was in the best interest of her oldest son to remain with his grandmother, according to court records filed in McHenry County, Illinois.

"Sole, permanent care, custody and control of the minor child" was awarded to Cunningham's mother after a legal battle that apparently had been fought in the courts for at least 10 months.

According to Cunningham's mother, her grandson said he dealt with deplorable, violent and neglectful conditions while living with his mother and Freund.

In her petition for custody, Cunningham's mother described the disturbing details of her grandson's life at the Crystal Lake home A.J. six years later would come to know as his last.

Cunningham and Freund were accused of denying Cunningham's son medical care, clean clothing, food and a healthy living environment, the grandmother said. Instead, he was forced to live in "constant fear, hunger and filth."

Cunningham's mother said in the petition for custody that her grandson first came to live with her in August 2012 and remained with her permanently since Oct. 31, 2012. The boy's father was apparently no longer alive, the petition said.

"[Cunningham] is not a fit and proper person to have the care custody, control and education of a minor child," her mother wrote before laying out 36 instances she said proved her point.

The child, whose name InsideEdition.com is not releasing, often went to and returned from school hungry, having been given no lunch, nor money to buy food, his grandmother said.

His diet at home was apparently no better.

"The child was not provided food on a regular basis, eating a meal on approximately four of the seven days of the week and a remainder of the time there was no food in the house," the petition said, noting he at times resorted to the only fare available in the home: "marshmallows and water."

Food shortages were not the only problem the boy had at home, his grandmother said.

She claimed there were instances in which she would plan to drop her grandson off at the house, only to find it cold and dirty.

"[The grandmother] would stay and wash the dishes and pick up the dog feces, sometimes taking 2-3 hours just doing those two things," the petition said.

The only other times the home was cleaned was when the boy was made to do so, his grandmother wrote. "If he does not complete it fast enough [Cunningham] yells at him and … he is required to sit in his room," she said.

Cunningham's mother recalled bringing back home with her piles of dirty clothes scattered around her daughter's house. She "would take as many as [10] loads of laundry, all of which smelled of cat urine," at a time, knowing that if she didn't, her grandson would have nothing clean to wear, the petition said.

Oftentimes, Cunningham's son returned from school to a house without a phone or cable, heat, hot water or water at all, her mother said. He was also left to his own devices, including overnight when he had a 102 degree fever, was vomiting and had diarrhea, she wrote.

The boy often missed school, going an entire month without attending between 2011 and 2012, his grandmother wrote.

When the boy wasn't being ignored, he was subjected to upsetting abuses and bore witness to disturbing bouts of violence, the petition claimed.

He watched on a weekly basis as Cunningham and Freund allegedly got into arguments that turned physical, including once when his mother drew and threatened her partner with a knife, the petition said. He in turn pushed her down the stairs, the grandmother said.

Cunningham's mother claimed her grandson said he watched as Cunningham and Freund consumed and were under the influence of prescription medication Cunningham had purchased.

At the end of her petition, Cunningham's mother said her grandson "stated he refuses to return to live with [Cunningham] and that if required to do so, he will run away."

"Upon information and belief all of the above have seriously affected the minor child because he has lived with constant fear, hunger and filth all of which has caused him emotional distress," it continued.

In his ruling, the judge presiding said Cunningham's mother had "proven the material allegations of the complaint."

It was not immediately clear if police or the Illinois Department of Child & Family Services had contact with Cunningham and Freund while her son lived with them.
 
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