Parents charged after boy’s body found
Couple reported child missing last Thursday
CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill. — Authorities searching for a missing 5-year-old Illinois boy who they say had lived in deplorable conditions dug up his body Wednesday and charged his parents with murder.
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 northwest of Chicago and a few miles from the family’s home in Crystal Lake.
“This is not the outcome that we want to talk about … but it is the unfortunate result,” said Jeffrey Sallet, who runs the FBI in northern Illinois.
The parents, Andrew Freund Sr. and Joann Cunningham, each face charges of first-degree murder and other crimes. An email seeking comment was sent to Cunningham’s lawyer. It wasn’t immediately known if Freund has a lawyer.
The couple reported AJ missing last Thursday, telling officers they had last seen him at bedtime the previous night. Freund told a dispatcher that they’d checked “closets, the basement, the garage, everywhere,” but investigators quickly knocked down the possibility of a kidnapping.
Crystal Lake police had visited the house over the years, according to records released by the department. One report described the home as littered with dog feces and urine, including a child’s bedroom where the “smell of feces was overwhelming.” Another report said the house was “cluttered, dirty and in disrepair,” and sometimes without electricity.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, known as DCFS, had contact with the family since AJ was born with opiates in his body in 2013. The Northwest Herald said he was in foster care for two years before being returned to his parents. A younger brother was removed from the home last week.
Black said the cause of AJ’S death remains under investigation. Police removed several items from the home, including a shovel, mattress, paper bags and a plastic storage tub.