AMBER Alert for Elijah Vue remains active as police refute rumors on social media

Rumors on social media that three-year-old Elijah Vue, who disappeared in Wisconsin in February, has been found have been refuted by police.

“Spreading false and misleading information is disrespectful to Elijah’s family and hinders our efforts to find him,” Two Rivers police wrote on Facebook. “We remain the only source of factual information in this investigation.

Elijah was last seen on February 20 in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, with his mother’s boyfriend, 39-year-old Jesse Vang, in the 3900 block of Mishicot Road.

Vang took a nap and woke up three hours later at around 11 a.m. to find the child missing.

According to the Amber Alert, Elijah was last seen wearing gray sweatpants, a long-sleeved dark-colored shirt, and red and green dinosaur slip-on shoes. He has a birthmark on his left knee.

He may have been carrying a red and white checkered blanket. Police found it on March 18, about 4 miles from where Elijah was reported missing.

He is about three feet tall and weighs about 50 pounds.

Newsweek I contacted the Two Rivers Police Department but did not receive an immediate response.

Charged with child neglect

Vang and Vue’s mother, 31-year-old Katrina Baur, is being held in the Manitowoc County Jail on child neglect charges in connection with the child’s disappearance.

Baur’s child neglect charge has been upgraded to chronic child neglect, along with the neglect of another child, believed to be her six-year-old daughter, and two counts of resisting an officer.

Her mother, Jodi Baur, said in a statement read in court that her daughter has a history of depression and anxiety, as well as “erratic behavior.” She argued against reducing her daughter’s bail because “no victim has been found and many questions remain unanswered.”

Orson Vue, Elijah’s uncle, said in court that Baur “is the main reason for everything that happened.”

Prosecutors said Baur sent Elijah to Vang for disciplinary purposes and to teach her toddler to “be a man.” Elijah was forced to endure cold showers and stand for hours while praying in time-out. Officials also revealed that Elijah was left in dirty diapers.

Vang lived in Two Rivers, about two and a half hours from Baur’s home in Wisconsin Dells.

Texts reviewed in court revealed that Baur and Vang had discussed meeting at Vang’s apartment on February 13 to have sex. Vang told Baur that Elijah could be “taken into the bathroom while they had sex.”

When Baur arrived at Vang’s at 2:30 a.m., she left her six-year-old unattended in her car.

At 3 a.m. the next day, a photo from Baur’s phone shows Elijah “lying on a bed” with a “blindfold over his eyes.” He appears to have “bruising to his jawline and left neck, and bruising to his upper arm.”

“She allowed Elijah to be abused and neglected,” Orson said in court. “To see her baby so hurt and do nothing to help him but instead take a photo and then delete it is absolutely disgusting.”

Baur will appear for a status conference at the Manitowoc County Courthouse on Thursday.

Vang’s next status conference hearing is scheduled for June 28.

Ongoing efforts to find Elijah Vue

Two Rivers Police said they have deployed additional drones in the search for the child, which is being coordinated by the Wisconsin Drone Network. The police department also received assistance from the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office drone team and the Manitowoc Police Department drone team.

Wisconsin K9 Search and Rescue search dogs were deployed in several areas.

Investigators also continue to analyze video and other data. The FBI is pursuing leads nationwide, and state, county and local authorities are pursuing leads in Wisconsin in the Wisconsin Dells and Portage areas.

The Justice Department’s Criminal Investigation Division remains the lead agency for the ongoing investigation.

“In the coming weeks, we plan to continue our search efforts on the water with assistance from Bruce’s Legacy and additional sonar searches,” the police department wrote. “We will continue various search efforts to find Elijah. We, like many of you, want to find answers and are working hard to do so.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 844-267-6648 or 920-686-7200. You can also submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.

What is an Amber Alert?

By 2023, 1,200 children will have been found through the AMBER alert system and 180 children will have been rescued as a result of the emergency alerts.

“Every child who appears in an AMBER Alert has been reported missing to law enforcement. The goal of an AMBER Alert is to immediately mobilize the community to help locate and safely recover a missing child,” said Alan S. Nanavaty, executive director of special programs at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, in a previous interview with Newsweek.

Nanavaty said that on average, fewer than 200 AMBER alerts are issued each year. The alerts are distributed via radio, television, road signs, cell phones and other data-enabled devices. The AMBER alert system is used in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Indian Territory, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Newsweek has created a map using 2022 data showing which states had the most Amber Alerts in 2022. According to the data, there were 31 Amber Alerts in Texas in 2022.