The blanket a missing 3-year-old Wisconsin boy was likely carrying when he vanished almost a month ago has been discovered, police said Monday.
Little Elijah Vue’s red and white plaid blanket was found “earlier in this investigation” about 3.7 miles from the home of his mother’s boyfriend, where he was reported missing Feb. 20, Two Rivers police announced.
“Today we can confirm the blanket is Elijah’s blanket,” Chief of Police Ben Meinnert wrote.
Police said Elijah was “possibly carrying” the blanket in the boy’s initial missing persons alert, which also said the boy was wearing gray pants, a long-sleeved dark shirt, and red and green dinosaur shoes.
Officials urged the public to help them in their search by “checking all urban and rural areas, including water, to find Elijah and locate any evidence related to his disappearance.”
Several search parties have already combed through wetlands and rural areas surrounding Twin Rivers for the youngster, who is listed on the Clearinghouse for Missing and Exploited Children and Adults.
Elijah’s mother, Katrina Baur, 31, and her boyfriend, Jesse Vang, 39, have both been charged with child neglect.
Elijah was last seen at Vang’s Two Rivers home, roughly 30 miles southeast of Green Bay, where Baur told police she had sent him to stay so Vang could teach the boy “to be a man.”
Vang said he had been taking a nap in the morning with Elijah in the bedroom, but awoke three hours later to find the boy gone, prosecutors said.
Baur, of Wisconsin Dells, was about 30 miles away when her son went missing.
“[Baur] intentionally sent that child for disciplinary reasons for more than a week to the residence. She was aware of the tactics used and the lack of care provided,” Manitowoc County District Attorney Jacalyn LaBre said at a hearing in February.
She was charged last month with one felony count of party-to-a-crime child neglect and two misdemeanor counts of resisting or obstructing an officer. Prosecutors later amended the felony count to a charge of party-to-a-crime chronic child neglect and also filed a misdemeanor charge of neglecting a child.
A judge declined to lower Baur’s $15,000 cash bond after emotional testimony from her mother, citing Baur’s “history of erratic behavior.”
Vang was formally charged in February with one felony count of party-to-a-crime child neglect in Elijah’s disappearance. He is being held on a $20,000 cash bond.
They both maintain that they had nothing to do with Elijah’s disappearance.
The reward for information in Elijah’s missing person case has swelled to $40,000.
