‘We have a missing child’

In early February, Nowicki’s mother grew concerned, records show. She had been trying to check in with her son’s pregnant girlfriend for two days but couldn’t connect. She decided to call 911, mentioning that two small children were in Cunningham’s care.

It’s unclear from available records if police went to the house or just called, but Cunningham responded the same day that she had been napping and would reach out to Nowicki’s mom to let her know all was fine.

All was not fine.

The hints of trouble, of violence, already were there. But only later, when police had reason to examine Cunningham’s cellphone, did the true nature of the horror in AJ’s home come into focus.

On March 4, the authorities now say, Cunningham recorded a video of AJ that she wanted to show to Freund “to illustrate her concerns regarding (AJ’s) behavior.”

The two-minute recording, later deleted, shows the boy lying on a bare mattress in a crib in his room.

AJ is naked except for what appears to be some bandages around his wrists and hips. After he removes an ice pack from his face, the grim reality of what happened to him is revealed: The 5-year-old boy had two black eyes and bruising on his neck and upper chest.

Police said Cunningham’s voice is heard on the video, berating AJ for urinating in his bed.

The next month, AJ disappeared. “We have a missing child,” Freund told the 911 dispatcher early April 18, speaking in a calm voice.

In the nearly five-minute call, Freund said he and Cunningham last saw AJ about 9 p.m. when they put him to bed in his Mario sweatshirt and sweatpants. Freund said he realized AJ was missing after he went to wake the boy in the morning.

“We’ve canvassed the neighborhood,” Freund told the dispatcher. “I went to the local park, the local gas station where we sometimes take him to buy treats. I spoke to the assistant principal over there at the school where the park is and they haven’t seen him or any other child.”

A massive search effort got underway. Lori Hughes said she was at work when her grandson, away at college, texted her that AJ was missing. She rushed to the police station.

“My first words to the detective were, ‘Were they doing drugs?’” Hughes said. “I figured he got scared and ran out of the house and hid under a tree or bush, maybe he got lost or trapped somewhere.”

By that next morning, it was clear police were focusing on the parents and the home, which was described as having hoarderlike conditions, with mouse droppings in AJ’s bed. Dogs trained specifically to locate people picked up AJ’s scent only inside the house, indicating he “had not walked away on foot,” police said.

Initially, the parents appeared cooperative. Freund had offered to take a lie detector test that first day and said that if he passed he would like to take AJ’s younger brother home, according to records. DCFS had taken the 4-year-old boy into protective custody on April 18 — the day of Freund’s 911 call — and a doctor found him to be healthy and free of physical signs of abuse.

Cunningham went to stay at a friend’s house, and over the next several days her mother and friends helped her look for AJ, hang posters and attend a vigil.

Despite Cunningham’s problems and past neglect of her oldest son, Hughes said she did not think her daughter capable of physically harming her children.

“I kept telling the FBI if something happened to her child, she wouldn’t hurt her kids,” Hughes said. “She would be neglectful, but she wouldn’t hurt them.”

Cunningham appeared on “Good Morning America” and posted a passionate plea for help on social media about her missing son. “I just want my kids,” she said on national television. “That’s all I have. That’s my life.”

Freund also made solemn public statements to reporters waiting night and day outside his home. “AJ, please come home,” he said, standing before TV cameras. “We love you very much.”

Six days after the 911 call, on April 24, AJ’s body was found wrapped in plastic in a shallow grave about 7 miles from his home near Woodstock. Authorities said information from both parents led them to the slain boy.

Prosecutors charged Cunningham and Freund with murder and related crimes.

An autopsy concluded that AJ died of head trauma from multiple blunt-force injuries. He had other visible marks and bruises on his body as well, records show. The forensic pathologist determined AJ had been killed up to 10 days before his body was found.

‘Mommy is a monster’

About 3 a.m. April 24, inside a Crystal Lake police interview room, investigators showed Freund the video of his beaten son, recorded several weeks earlier on Cunningham’s cellphone.

Freund blamed Cunningham for the injuries, according to an affidavit filed in court as part of a search warrant request.

He also told the FBI agent and Crystal Lake detective how the couple handled discipline with AJ.

One time, police said Freund told them, the young boy stacked some dishes improperly after washing them. When questioned, AJ denied doing it, and “Drew explained it was this overt lying that was so egregious and needed to be punished and addressed.”

Freund said he and Cunningham both believed AJ had “oppositional defiant disorder,” or ODD, according to the affidavit.

“Drew explained AJ thinks of himself as the leader of the home and therefore he is defiant to his parents, lies, disobeys, and thinks things should go his way,” the affidavit states.

Freund also gave his account of what happened the day AJ died. “Drew explained he wanted JoAnn to stop with the hard physical beatings and do some less violent form of punishment,” the affidavit said. “Drew said cold showers was decided.

“Drew said on or about … 4/15/19, AJ had lied about soiled underwear and he was subjected to a cold shower,” it continued. “Drew said he helped AJ out of the shower after he’d been there approximately 20 minutes, and put AJ to bed ‘cold, wet, and naked.’”

The affidavit does not include information about how the boy’s head injuries occurred.

Freund said Cunningham woke to check on AJ and realized the boy might be dead. The two of them conducted Google searches related to child CPR on his phone at 3:17 a.m., the affidavit said.

Police said Freund admitted he took AJ’s body the next day into the basement and “stored him in a tote.” Late April 17, he placed his son’s remains in “several trash bags, placed the body in the trunk of his car, and drove him to an area in Woodstock,” then buried him, according to the affidavit.

Freund drove with police that afternoon to show them the location.

Authorities said they also found an April 17 photo on Freund’s phone of a shopping list: duct tape, plastic gloves, air freshener and bleach.

During the search for AJ, his younger