Photo: Crystal Lake Police Department
Even at the tender age of 5,Andrew “A.J.” Freundtried to cover up the punishing abuses his parents are accused of inflicting on him throughout his short life.
On Dec. 18, 2018, four months before A.J.’s beaten body was found wrapped in plastic and buried in a shallow grave miles from the Crystal Lake, Illinois,home that the state’s Department of Child and Family Services had visited at least 17 times since his birth, the boy wasn’t sure what to tell an ER doctor about the huge bruise on his hip that police noticed when they responded to a hotline call about the family.
ABC; Crystal Lake Police Department
But A.J. told a different story when he was in the emergency room, according to the timeline.
“Maybe someone hit me with a belt,” the report shows he told the ER doctor.“Maybe mommy didn’t mean to hurt me.”
Unable to determine the cause of the bruise, the doctor determined that A.J. could have gotten it from “a dog, belt or football,” according to the DCFS timeline.
The case was closed a month later for lack of evidence.
The next time authorities were called to the home was on April 18, when A.J.’s father, Andrew Freund, Sr., 60,reported him missing,saying he put the child to bed the night before and when he woke up, the boy was gone.
Now that A.J. is dead and his parents are facing a host of serious charges including first-degree murder, aggravated battery and failing to report a missing child, many are asking why the boy was allowed to stay in such allegedly unsafe conditions.
“I got the sense from what I read that the cops were essentially begging [DCFS] to take the child,” state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, a Chicago Democrat who chairs the House Adoption and Child Welfare Committee, told theAssociated Press. “There were so many calls made, so many signs of trouble and still nothing was done.”
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Autopsy results show he died of multiple blunt force injuries to the head, local ABC affiliate WLS, theChicago Sun Timesand other outlets report.
McHenry County Interim Coroner David Devane listed the child’s cause of death as“craniocerebral trauma as a consequence of multiple blunt force injuries,” WLS reports.
Police arrested Freund and the boy’s mother, JoAnn Cunningham, 35, last Wednesday after showing them “forensic analysis of cell phone data,” which allegedly led the pair to divulge “information that ultimately led to the recovery” of A.J.’s body, Crystal Lake Police Chief James Black said at a press conference that day.
A.J. Freund and his father, A.J. Freund, Sr., 60.Family Photo; ABC
They are each being held on a $5 million bond. They appeared at a preliminary hearing in court Mondaybut did not enter pleas, local station WGN 9 reports.
They are scheduled to return to court on May 10, where they will likely face grand jury indictments, WGN 9 reports.
The judge appointed a public defender for Cunningham, the outlet reports. The judge granted Freund several days to decide whether to hire his own attorney or keep the public defender to whom he was assigned, WGN 9 reports.
The couple alsoattended a custody hearing in McHenry County Juvenile Court, after prosecutors filed a petition seeking to terminate theirparental rights for A.J.’s younger brother, who is now in DCFS custody, local NBC affiliate CBS 5 and theNorthwest Heraldreport.
The allegations in the petition are not available to the public because they pertain to a juvenile matter, theHeraldreports.
The couple’s public defenders did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
source: people.com
