Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
On the night of Oct. 14, 2013, Andrew Freund Jr. came into the world through emergency cesarean section. He weighed just 5 pounds, 7 ounces.
The nurses took note of what they described as fresh track marks on the body of his mother, JoAnn Cunningham of Crystal Lake. And from his first breaths, AJ was struggling.
Hospital records detail “tremors, sneezing, excessive crying, sleep disturbance, and an overactive startle reflex.”
The symptoms were obvious signs of withdrawal, and an analysis of AJ’s umbilical cord blood revealed a derivative of heroin, according to confidential records reviewed by the Tribune. Doctors at what was then called Centegra Hospital-Woodstock gave the baby boy morphine to alleviate his symptoms.
April 18,2019
records on Tuesday shed light on the squalid conditions in the home where a 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy lived before he was reported missing as officials continued to search for the boy using planes, boats and crews on the ground.
Police released more than 60 pages of records detailing five years of calls to the home of Andrew “AJ” Freund, who has been missing since last week. The reports show police were concerned about the family’s living conditions since at least September.
Police also released a recording of the father’s call to 911, which was made at 9:04 a.m. on April 18. On the call, Andrew Freund Sr., in a calm voice, can be heard telling a police dispatcher that he could not find his son that morning.
“We have a missing child,” Freund tells the dispatcher before trailing off.
Freund says he last saw Andrew about 9:30 p.m. the night before when he was going to bed. He said he had canvassed the neighborhood, including going to a nearby park and gas station where he would sometimes buy his son treats, before calling the report in.
“I have no idea where he would be,” Freund said.
The father goes on to say that he got home from a doctor’s appointment between 8:15 and 8:30 a.m. and went to check on Andrew and wake him up, but he was not in his room or in the home. He tells the dispatcher that none of the home’s doors or windows were open.
The call ends when a police officer arrives at the home in the first block of Dole Avenue.
The call ends when a police officer arrives at the home in the first block of Dole Avenue.
andrew ” AJ” freund 5, was reported missing thursday april 18 ,2019 . his father , also named andrew freund spoke to reporterts outside police station saturday.
” anybody that’s out here that¨s inclined topray , please pray for the return of my son safely.”
andrew’s mother , Joann cunningham ,spoke to reporters outside her crystal lake home.
“I want us home togetherI just want my kids. … My kids are my life. They’re my kids.”
April 24th 2019
McHenry County Sheriff’s office and other law enforcement search with a drone the area of Route 176 and Dean Street south of Woodstock,wednesday morning ,this is related to the missing Crystal Lake boy .
uthorities searching for a missing 5-year-old Illinois boy who had lived in deplorable conditions dug up his body Wednesday and charged his parents with murder, sadly declaring that the youngster would “no longer have to suffer.”
The body, believed to be that of Andrew “AJ” Freund, was covered in plastic and buried in a shallow grave in a rural area of Woodstock in McHenry County, Crystal Lake police Chief James Black said.
Black said investigators went to the site after they interviewed the boy’s parents overnight and presented them with cellphone evidence. Woodstock is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Chicago and a few miles from the family’s home in Crystal Lake.
missing boy ,5 lived in crystal lake home full of dog feces ,record shows.
Questions mounted on over why tragic five-year-old AJ Freund was allowed to remain with his parents, despite child services visiting the family home 17 times before his death.
AJ’s body was found wrapped in plastic and buried in a shallow grave in a field near his home on Wednesday morning, six days after he was reported missing by his parents.
Police reports relating to a separate matter obtained by the DailyMail.com reveal that officers attending the home noted an ‘overwhelming smell of dog feces and urine’ – and that the house was in ‘disrepair’ with living conditions ‘unacceptable.’
Despite all this, no attempt was made in five years to remove AJ and his three-year-old brother.
The heavily redacted reported also stated bruises were noticed on one of the young boys in December but that the children appeared to be ‘healthy and happy’ and were not removed from the house.
Three months earlier, records show, police had been called to the home to do a wellbeing check after someone reported that family had been living without power for weeks. An officer was denied entry by Cunningham, but saw both children, who “appeared happy and healthy,” according to a police report.
Cunningham was unable to tell the officer how long the power had been out, but said she had been staying elsewhere at times, including at a hotel in Woodstock. The report noted peeling paint on the home and that the “windows also seemed to be falling apart.”
The officers reported their findings to DCFS, but were told by the agency that a caseworker would not come out to check for utility issues, according to police records.
Police also came to the home in 2014, when a woman at the house called to say she suspected tenants living in the basement were using heroin. The caller said a syringe was found on the kitchen floor. Police told her to seek eviction proceedings.
Search continues
The record release came as police continued to search for the boy in Lippold Park in Crystal Lake and beyond
Some 40 people were involved in the search, which included the Illinois State Police, which used small aircraft and sonar teams in boats to scan “several ponds and smaller bodies of water” in the area, Crystal Lake Police Deputy Chief Tom Kotlowski said in a statement.
Law enforcement said they did not send out an Amber Alert when AJ was first reported missing as there was no evidence to suggest he had been kidnapped from the home.
A Missing & Exploited Children’s poster said AJ was last seen wearing a blue Mario sweatshirt, black sweatpants and green Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shoes.
He was described as approximately 3ft 5in and 70 pounds with short blond hair.
JoAnn cunningham and her attorney
Police said previously that they do not believe the boy was abducted and said they had no evidence he walked out of the home. They said Cunningham was being “uncooperative” with investigators. Her attorneys said they told her to stop answering questions after police started to treat her as a suspect.
Meanwhile, a custody hearing scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at McHenry County Courthouse in Woodstock regarding Cunningham’s 3-year-old son, who has been taken into protective custody by DCFS, was reportedly continued.
The Department of Children and Family Services said it was investigating whether there were “shortcomings” in the agency’s oversight of a 5-year-old boy whose body was found Wednesday a few miles from his home in Crystal Lake.
In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Acting DCFS Director Marc Smith said the agency was “committed to conducting a comprehensive review of the entirety of our work with Andrew’s family to understand our shortcomings and to be fully transparent with the public on any steps we are taking to address the issues.”
Carlos Acosta
A former child protection specialist at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services was found guilty Friday of child endangerment in mishandling the case of 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy AJ Freund before he was killed by his mother in 2019.
But the child welfare agency’s supervisor was acquitted of the same charges.
The guilty verdict against Carlos Acosta was handed down by Judge George Strickland after he outlined a laundry list of ways Acosta failed to ensure that AJ was protected from a dysfunctional, dangerous household.
AJ was allowed to remain with his family despite unexplained injuries found on the boy months before his murder, indications that his mother was continuing to inject heroin, a history of domestic violence and mental illness in the family, and a chaotic and filthy home.
The rare criminal prosecution of employees of Illinois’ child welfare agency went to trial last month and resumed with closing arguments Friday morning – a day before what would have been AJ’s 10th birthday.
Carlos J. Acosta, 57, of Woodstock, (left) and Andrew R. Polovin, 51, of Island Lake (right),
McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally charged Acosta, 57, of Woodstock, and his former supervisor Andrew Polovin, 51, of Island Lake, with endangering the life of a child and health of a minor and reckless conduct.
Crystal Lake police and the FBI have been investigating Freund’s disappearance since he was last seen Wednesday night. In addition to searching Veteran Aces Park and nearby wooded areas, they are focusing their attention on the family home. They are also investigating who last saw or had contact with AJ.
DCFS first became involved with the Freund family when Andrew was found to have opiates in his system after his birth in 2013 and was put into foster care, agency officials said after the boy was reported missing by his parents on April 18.
At the time, Cunningham was involved in a legal dispute with her mother for custody of the boy, the Northwest Herald reported. The boy’s grandmother filed a petition for an order of protection, the paper said, accusing the boys’ parents of denying him medical care, food, clean clothing and a healthy living environment. He lives in “constant fear, hunger and filth,” the petition claimed.
DCFS, though, returned the boy to his parents in June 2015, officials said. Twice last year, DCFS caseworkers returned to Andrew’s home to investigate separate allegations of neglect, though both were determined to be unfounded.
Parents charged with murder of Crystal Lake 5-year-old AJ Freund
Apr 25, 2019, 6:33am
A week ago, the parents of Andrew “AJ” Freund told police the 5-year-old was missing from their Crystal Lake home.
Early Wednesday, the boy’s father provided information that investigators say led to the discovery of the child’s body in a shallow grave in nearby Woodstock.
Hours later, both parents were charged with their son’s murder.
The results of Andrew “AJ” Freund’s autopsy were released Thursday afternoon, hours after a McHenry County judge ordered his parents, Andrew Freund Sr. and JoAnn Cunningham, each held on $5 million bail on charges of first-degree murder in his death.
Criminal complaints filed Thursday in McHenry County Circuit Court showed Andrew was killed April 15 — three days before his father called 911 to report him missing — after his parents forced him “to remain in a cold shower for an extended period of time” and “struck AJ on or about his body.”
JoAnn Cunningham Sentenced to 35 Years Prison in Murder of 5-Year-Old AJ Freund with three years of mandatory supervised release in the young boy’s murders. she will be required to serve her full stentence ,the judge rule.
Cunningham faced a maximum of 60 years in prison 2019 crime that shocked her northwest sburban community,but the judge noted that ,as part o f a deal Cunningham pleaded guilty to only one of the 20 counts she originally faced.
that sharge included the accusation she beat her son knowing that her actions could aand did , cause his death.
the defendant did not plead guilty to intending to kill her son , ” willbrant said as he read his decision in the courtroom.
stilll, wilbrant said there were previous accusations of abuse and the ultimate death of her son was exceptionally tragic.
Andrew Freund sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder of son AJ in Crystal Lake; 11 years for aggravated battery of a child, 14 years for involuntary manslaughter and 5 years for concealment of a homicidal death. The judge ordered all sentences to be served consecutively.
Prosecutors said Freund failed to protect AJ, and after he died lied to the police when he told them his son was missing. In fact, Freund had buried his son’s body in a shallow grave in a rural area of Woodstock.
After initially lying, prosecutors said Freund eventually cooperated with the investigation and led police to his son’s body. He agreed to accept a plea deal in exchange for a guilty plea. The 63-year-old will have to serve a minimum of 18 years out of his 30-year sentence before he would be eligible for parole.
In November, a judge gave the Crystal Lake community permission to demolish the house where Andrew “AJ” Freund was killed last April, and that’s exactly what took place Wednesday. NBC 5’s Kate Chappell reports