Jesse Vang (L) in mugshot is charged in the case of Elijah Vue (R), 3, who has been missing since Feb. 20.Photo:Manitowoc County Jail;Two Rivers Police Department
Manitowoc County Jail;Two Rivers Police Department
• Both Elijah Vue’s mother and her boyfriend, Jesse Vang, are charged in relation to the missing child
• In the months since Elijah went missing, police have uncovered his alleged maltreatment at the hands of both caretakers
• In March police said they had found Elijah’s red and white blanket nearly 4 miles from Vang’s home, where the child disappeared. Elijah remains missing
Themother’sboyfriendsays he fell asleep and woke up to findElijah Vue, 3,missingon Feb. 20.
On Thursday, April 4, a Wisconsin judge found probable cause against Jesse Vang, in a case related to the missing child, per the Manitowoc County Circuit Court proceedings entered into hisonline court record.
Vang, 39, is charged with felony chronic neglect of a child.
Elijah Vue.Two Rivers Police Dept.
Two Rivers Police Dept.
Baur, 31, is charged with felony chronic neglect of a child as a party to a crime, as well as two counts of resisting or obstructing an officer and one count of neglecting a child — all misdemeanors, per heronline court record.
Neither Vang nor Baur have yet entered pleas to the charges.
PEOPLE contacted Baur’s public defender, Ann M. Larson, as well as Vang’s lawyers, Timothy E. Hogan and Michael C. Turner. They did not respond in time for publication.
Jesse Vang (L); Katrina B. Baur (R).Manitowoc County Jail;Two Rivers Police Department
Per the criminal complaint, Vang called 911 at 10:59 a.m. on Feb. 20, saying he had fallen asleep while watching Elijah and that when he awoke, the child was gone.
In interviews with a Two Rivers Police Department detective, Vang allegedly told officers he had stepped in to “correct” Elijah’s “bad behaviors,” per the criminal complaint.
He told detectives that Elijah had lived with him for the past week — and on and off for the last month in what he described as a “boot camp,” per the complaint, which quotes him as saying that “going home is like a privilege for him.”
While at Vang’s house, the 3-year-old had allegedly been consistently placed in “time outs,” during which, per the complaint, Elijah was made to stand for as long as three hours at a time.
“He gets pretty tired from … I guess like standing,” Vang told the detective, per the complaint.
The child was also allegedly made to pray or say, “I’m sorry, Mommy," per the complaint.
From the complaint, it was not clear if Elijah’s mother was actually present to hear the alleged apologies. She said she had last seen her son on Vang’s couch late at night on Feb. 16 but had not interacted with him because he had seemed tired.
Baur also told detectives that she had, per the complaint, “discussed with him the limits of what discipline she did not want used” and that her boyfriend was “the enforcer of rules in the relationship.”
She said, per the complaint, that over Thanksgiving her boyfriend told her that “she needed to try harder” to curb her son’s bad behavior, and that in Vang’s care, Elijah had been praying and memorizing four rules, which were not specified in the complaint.
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The day after Baur told detectives she had last seen her son, Vang texted Baur, complaining that the child — who had not been potty-trained and who Vang allegedly told the detective he typically changed “at least once per day” — had “overfilled” his diaper, the complaint alleges.
Elijah had allegedly received a “cold shower” and was now “clean but scared,” per a summary of the texts in the complaint.
The use of cold water, Vang allegedly told the detective, was an “ultimatum” with the child, who he said feared cold water, although, per the complaint, he “did not know why” the child was afraid.
Vang told detectives that the child “is afraid of him, then corrected himself,” per the complaint, noting that Vang then told the detective that the child “respects me.”
Vang is slated for arraignment April 16 at 11:15 a.m. Baur’s next court appearance is scheduled for April 26 at 8:30 a.m.
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
source: people.com
