The five-year anniversary was marked Wednesday in the discovery of AJ Freund, the 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy who was murdered by his parents and falsely reported missing before his body was found.
JoAnn Cunningham and Andrew Freund Sr., the parents of AJ, reported the boy missing on April 18, 2019.
Andrew Freund Sr. told dispatchers during a 911 call that he last saw his son when he put him to bed around 9:30 p.m. on April 17, 2019, at the family home on Dole Avenue in Crystal Lake.
On the second day of the search, police said that they were confident the boy had not been abducted and had not walked away on foot. They had focused their investigation on the family’s home and declared it a crime scene.
Investigators removed several items, including a dirt-covered shovel, a mattress, two brown bags and a bin from the family home in Crystal Lake. Animal control also seized the family dog around the same time.
At least 15 police agencies along with the FBI were called in to help with the search and investigation. More than 373 acres were searched by foot and more than 497 acres were covered by aerial search.
Crystal Lake Police Chief James Black and FBI Special Agent Jeffrey Sallet announced seven days later on April 24, 2019, that AJ’s body had been found on private property near Gayle Drive and Dean Street in unincorporated Woodstock.
Crystal Lake police officers, McHenry County sheriff’s deputies, FBI agents and other law enforcement converged on the Woodstock property early in the morning and located the body buried in a shallow grave wrapped in plastic, Black said at the time.
AJ’s parents told police where the boy’s body was located after police obtained new information through a forensic analysis of cell phone data.
Cunningham was 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.
Freund Sr. was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, two counts of concealment of a homicidal death, two counts of aggravated battery, one count of aggravated domestic battery and one count of failure to report a missing or child death.
A criminal complaint said that the boy was killed on April 15, 2019, and court documents said Freund Sr. buried the boy’s body two days later.
Freund Sr. told detectives that Cunningham punished AJ by putting him in the cold shower for 20 minutes because he hid underwear in which he had soiled.
“Um. I-I-S-I don’t remember it being as bad as other nights, where it was just pure, ya know, physical punishment, hitting,” Freund Sr. said in an interview.
Freund Sr. eventually took AJ out of the shower and put him to bed “naked and wet,” prosecutors said. Cunningham woke Freund Sr. up around 3 a.m. on April 15, 2019, after she found that AJ was not breathing.
After realizing that AJ was dead, Freund Sr. told Cunningham he would “handle it” and placed AJ’s remains in a large plastic tote in the basement, prosecutors said.
He drove to a rural area outside of Woodstock two days later where he buried the remains in a shallow grave, prosecutors said.
Dr. Mark Witeck, a forensic pathologist, revealed that AJ had multiple blunt-force injuries to his head, torso and extremities.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services had been involved with Andrew since he was born in 2013 with opiates in his system. DCFS ended contact with the family in December 2018.
Police released 63 pages of compiled police reports detailing their interactions with the family home and parents in the last five years.
In those reports, police officers noted the dirty condition the family’s home was in, saying that the home had broken windows, no power, strong feces and urine odors, and other issues.
Freund Sr. pleaded guilty to aggravated battery to a child, a Class X felony, involuntary manslaughter, a Class 3 felony, and concealing a homicidal death, a Class 3 felony, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Cunningham pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Carlos J. Acosta and Andrew R. Polovin, the two DCFS workers involved in the investigations with AJ’s family prior to his death, were charged.
Polovin was acquitted of the charges and Acosta was convicted on two counts of child endangerment. Acosta is set to be sentenced in June.