Human remains discovered on private property are those of a 3-year-old boy who went missing in February, Wisconsin authorities said Friday.
Two Rivers Police Chief Benjamin Meinnert stated that the remains, which were forensically tested and determined to be those of Elijah Vue, were discovered only three miles northwest of where the kid had been reported missing.
“This is not the outcome we hoped for.” The family is heartbroken. We are devastated. “Our community is devastated,” he remarked. “I never met Elijah, but I watched that 3-year-old boy bring out the best in this community.”
A deer hunter discovered the skeleton remains Saturday in a rural location with thick underbrush that had been investigated by air and on the ground for months, Meinnert said.
“What started as a search for a missing boy is now a death investigation,” he told me.
Following Meinnert’s brief announcement at a news conference Friday, the department declined to address questions but promised to offer timely updates as the investigation progressed.
Elijah vanished from a residence in Two Rivers, approximately 90 miles north of Milwaukee.
Manitowoc County District Attorney Jacalyn LaBre stated earlier this year that the youngster disappeared after being assigned to live with a guy for “disciplinary reasons.”
Katrina Baur, Vue’s mother, and Jesse Vang, the man her son was reportedly transferred to live with, were both charged with child neglect. Baur was charged with child maltreatment and two counts of hindering an officer.
Baur said police she left her kid with Vang on Feb. 12 to teach him “to be a man” and planned to pick him up on Feb. 23, according to a criminal complaint.
Meinnert said on Facebook in March that the red and white plaid blanket Elijah was alleged to have had with him when he went missing had been discovered in a rural area between Manitowoc and Two Rivers, some 3.7 miles from where he was last seen.