In a horrific case of abuse, a mom beat her 5-year-old son to dying. Much more ugly, nonetheless, is what the boy was captured on tape telling his mother simply two weeks earlier than she killed him.
Andrew “AJ” Freund, a 5-year-old Illinois boy, first made nationwide information when his dad and mom reported him lacking. {A photograph} of AJ smiling in a baseball cap was shared with the hope that he’d be discovered alive as his tearful dad and mom plead with the general public for his secure return. When an intense search of the woods close to the household’s dwelling turned up nothing, nonetheless, hope turned to concern.
Concern for AJ’s dad and mom additionally rapidly turned to suspicion as they stopped cooperating with investigators. Ultimately, AJ’s personal father, 61-year-old Andrew Freund Sr, led authorities to a shallow grave in a discipline not removed from their Crystal Lake dwelling. There, AJ’s battered physique was discovered wrapped in plastic and buried. AJ’s dad and mom have been later arrested and charged with first-degree homicide within the dying of their son.
An post-mortem decided that the kid had been repeatedly struck within the head and that he had additionally inhaled his personal blood earlier than dying of blunt power trauma. AJ’s 37-year-old mom, JoAnn Cunningham, pleaded responsible to first-degree homicide and admitted to beating her son to dying, burying his physique, then falsely reporting him as lacking. Sadly, this was removed from the primary time the kid was violently abused.
Proof of the abuse:
Throughout Cunningham’s sentencing listening to, the nightmare that was AJ’s life was revealed to the court docket. McHenry County prosecutors performed a tape of a household argument between Cunningham and little AJ, which happened simply two weeks earlier than his dying. AJ could possibly be heard telling his mother that he wish to have “actually unhealthy individuals” do unhealthy issues to her, Every day Mail reported.
“Why would you like these unhealthy individuals to harm me?” Cunningham will be heard asking, to which AJ responded, “So I don’t ever see you once more,” the Northwest Herald reported. Two weeks after that tape was captured, AJ died alone at the hours of darkness, his head bearing the outlines of the showerhead his mom admittedly struck him with after forcing him to face below freezing water as a punishment for soiling himself.
Cunningham begs for Mercy:
In court docket, Cunningham cried and wiped her nostril because the tape was performed, however in keeping with prosecutors, she had been mercilessly abusing AJ lengthy earlier than his dying. Even because the heartbreaking particulars of the boy’s life have been heard in court docket, nonetheless, Cunningham performed the a part of a grieving mom, performing as if her baby was killed by another person as she begged for mercy from the decide.
“I had the privilege of getting AJ as my son,” Cunningham instructed the court docket, talking on her personal behalf. “I beloved him, I miss him,” she continued. She described AJ’s love of doughnuts with sprinkles and his behavior of toting a briefcase as a result of he needed to be a lawyer and solely addressed her son’s dying within the vaguest of phrases, selecting as an alternative to explain her personal tough life. “I’m dwelling proof of what bodily and psychological abuse can create,” she sobbed.
Witnesses testify in regards to the abuse AJ endure:
Cunningham’s tearful feedback stood in stark distinction to the proof of the unimaginable bodily and emotional abuse AJ endured for years till he died as his mind swelled and he choked on his personal blood. “She had overwhelmed this little boy to the sting of dying,” McHenry County State’s Lawyer Patrick Kenneally mentioned, “locked in his room (the place) he needed to endure the awful strategy of dying all by himself.”
The prosecutor learn statements from neighbors who observed the boy with cuts and bruises years earlier than his dying. A Crystal Lake police officer and an emergency room physician, who each noticed a softball-size bruise on AJ’s hip 4 months earlier than he died, additionally testified. Each Officer Kimberley Shipbaugh and Dr. Joelle Channon requested AJ in regards to the bruise. In line with Shipbaugh, Cunningham coached her son what to say.
“JoAnn leaned down and in his ear, she mentioned to him, ‘Lucy the canine did that to you proper?’ After which he mentioned ‘Sure,’” Shipbaugh recounted for the court docket, in keeping with WLS-TV.
Dr. Channon mentioned the boy instructed her, “Perhaps mommy didn’t imply to harm me,” forcing her to cease asking questions as she concluded that he ought to meet with a forensic interviewer and be examined by a child-abuse pediatrician. She mentioned she contracted baby providers however was instructed no investigators have been out there at the moment. “We didn’t need AJ to depart with JoAnn that day,” she testified.
“I began by asking him if he had been spanked or hit; he mentioned, ‘Sure,’” mentioned Dr. Joelle Channon. “I requested him with what, and he mentioned, ‘A belt.’ I requested him, ‘Who did it?’ and he mentioned, ‘Somebody not in my household,’ after which he provided that, ‘Perhaps mommy didn’t imply to harm me.’”
AJ lived in horrific situations:
Police mentioned in addition they visited the house and located the residence filthy and reeking of feces, however maybe the eeriest proof introduced was the textual content messages the boy’s dad and mom exchanged after Cunningham killed the boy however earlier than his physique was discovered. In these messages, it appeared the couple was attempting to cowl their tracks, writing issues they thought police would finally see. Pretending their son was nonetheless alive, they mentioned plans for AJ and his brother, and Freund even instructed Cunningham to “give the boys a kiss and hug for me.”
In one other textual content, Cunningham requested Freund about shopping for a tv so she may “watch films in mattress” with the boys, however it’s the movies from Cunningham’s cellphone which can be really chilling. Solely weeks earlier than AJ’s dying, video footage captured him lined in bruises and bandages whereas mendacity bare on a mattress as a girl’s voice, presumably belonging to Cunningham, is heard berating him for wetting his mattress.
AJ’s father pins the bodily abuse on Cunningham:
Freund, who admitted to placing AJ to mattress chilly, moist, and bare on the day he died, pleaded not responsible. As an alternative, he pinned a lot of the long-term bodily abuse on Cunningham. He mentioned he urged punishing AJ with chilly showers as an alternative of the beatings Cunningham had allegedly dished out. On the night time of his dying, AJ was put within the bathe after Cunningham discovered dirty underwear that he had tried to cover.
Whereas within the chilly bathe, Cunningham beat AJ as evidenced by the small, round bruises on his face that matched the removable showerhead. Freund mentioned Cunningham later discovered AJ unresponsive and admitted to placing AJ’s physique in a plastic container and storing it within the basement till it could possibly be buried.
A procuring listing, together with “duct tape, plastic gloves, air freshener, and bleach,” was made, in keeping with {a photograph} obtained throughout a search warrant. As well as, police observed an amazing stench the second they stepped contained in the garbage-strewn home. Much more ominous, nonetheless, have been the chain lock and padlock found outdoors AJ’s bed room and the locks on his home windows, all to apparently preserve the boy contained in the room.
Cunningham had a historical past with baby protecting providers:
The worst half, nonetheless, is that Cunningham was not new to baby protecting authorities. She had two complaints introduced towards her even earlier than AJ’s delivery — one for insufficient supervision and the opposite for “danger of hurt and environmental neglect.” As well as, each AJ and Cunningham examined optimistic for opiates when AJ was born, prompting the Division of Kids and Household Providers to take the child into custody.
Even after AJ was returned to his mom some 20 months later, baby welfare employees repeatedly paid visits to the dilapidated home that reeked of canine feces. Sadly, these visits ended with baby welfare employees figuring out that the allegations of neglect have been unfounded and leaving with out the boy, regardless of obvious pleas from police that they do one thing.
Courtroom paperwork inform of a boy who was in peril his total life, but nothing was completed to save lots of him. It took AJ’s dying to set off investigations of the kid welfare system and the firing of a state baby welfare employee and a supervisor. Is dropping their jobs actually sufficient, although? Personally, I feel they need to be sentenced to jail, proper alongside along with his mom. Maybe sharing a cell with the monster mother would open their eyes to the hell they pressured this little boy to endure.
