Police who have spent 4 months searching for missing Elijah Vue slam ‘false and misleading’ rumors that he’s been found
Elijah Vue, 3, disappeared from a home in Two Rivers, Wisconsin on February 20
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Cops have slammed “false and misleading” rumors that Elijah Vue, who has been missing from his Wisconsin home for four months, has been found.
“Recently rumors surfaced on social media platforms stating Elijah has been found,” police chief Ben Meinnert said in a statement on Facebook earlier this week. “This is not true.”
“The spreading of false and misleading information is disrespectful to the family of Elijah and detracts from our efforts in locating him,” he added.
The 3-year-old was last seen on the morning of February 20 at the home of his mother’s partner, Jesse Vang, in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. A search was launched that morning after Vang called Two Rivers police to report the boy missing.
A few hours later, Vang, 39, was arrested and was charged with child neglect. He reportedly has a history of other criminal offences, including child abuse and is being held on a $20,000 bond. His next court date is scheduled for June 28.
Elijah’s mother, Katrina Baur, 31, was arrested a day after her son’s disappearance and charged with party-to-a-crime child neglect after she reportedly changed her story on her whereabouts at least twice while being interviewed by investigators.
On March 7, the district attorney announced updated charges, replacing the original child neglect charge to chronic child neglect. Both have pleaded not guilty.
According to details revealed in court earlier this year, Vang allegedly used “tactics” including time-outs where Elijah had to stand up for one to three hours, or was forced to take cold showers. He allegedly gave Elijah a cold shower on February 17, after the boy had filled his diaper.
The criminal complaint also shows that a few days earlier, Baur had visited the Two Rivers apartment and took a photo of Elijah with a blindfold over his eyes and bruising on his face as he lay on a bed.
Another photo, taken on February 15, showed the boy standing in a corner in his apparently full diaper and nothing else, with his hands in a praying position.
For nearly four months, police officers and volunteers have been knocking door to door, searching local rivers and using drones and dogs as part of the search for Elijah.
In March, officers found the little boy’s red-and-white plaid blanket on Goodwin Road, east of County Road B in Manitowoc County.
Police said in the statement on June 17 that the search for the boy continues, adding that more drone assistance and K9 searches have been launched and they plan to expand water searches with sonar.
The FBI continues to follow up on recent leads, specifically in the Wisconsin Dells and Portage areas, the chief wrote in the statement, adding that “investigators continue to analyze an extremely large amount of video and other data, including extensive and ongoing drone search footage, with assistance from federal and state agencies.”
“We remain the sole source of factual information in this investigation and will release more information and updates when they are available to share,” the chief added, reminding the public that any factual information will come directly from them.
“We will continue a variety of search efforts in our attempts to locate Elijah. We, like many of you, want to find answers and are working hard to do so.”
Anyone with information on the case can call 844-267-6648 or submit information via the local Crime Stoppers app P3.