CHICAGO _ The parents of 5-year-old Andrew "AJ" Freund were charged with murder Wednesday, hours after authorities say they found what they believe is the body of the Crystal Lake boy wrapped in plastic in a shallow grave near Woodstock.
JoAnn Cunningham and Andrew Freund both face multiple charges in the death of the boy, who was reported missing by his father a week ago.
At a news conference Wednesday announcing the charges, Crystal Lake police Chief James Black said both parents provided information that helped close the case. Black spoke directly to the child after announcing the charges.
"To AJ," Black said. "We know you are at peace playing in heaven's playground and are happy you no longer have to suffer."
Freund and Cunningham were charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery, aggravated domestic battery, and failure to report a missing child missing or child death. Freund was also charged with concealment of a homicidal death.
Police said both parents gave authorities information about the whereabouts of the boy's body after officers analyzed cellphone records and confronted them with that information.
Black, who did not take questions from the media, was joined at the news conference by Jeffrey Sallet, special agent in charge of the FBI in Chicago, which had joined the case in recent days.
Sallet said his investigators have been out on the case around the clock since AJ's disappearance was reported.
"Nobody was going to sleep and nobody will sleep until justice is brought for AJ," he said, telling reporters the investigation will continue. The cause of the boy's death was unknown pending an autopsy.
Police have focused on the family's dilapidated Crystal Lake home from the start, telling reporters there was no evidence AJ had been abducted. They said canine teams that "only picked up Andrew's scent within the residence indicated that Andrew had not walked away on foot."
The body was found near Gayle Drive on farmland bounded by woods and a small stream. A neighbor who watches the property for the owner said McHenry County sheriff's deputies knocked on his door early Wednesday and said they were going to begin a search. Other agencies, including the FBI, aided in the search.
Luis Maldonado described the area as fairly isolated. "It's very quiet," he said. "If they found a body here, I don't know how they found this place."
Stephanie Diaz crouched in a grassy embankment off the road Wednesday and placed a small bouquet of pink and purple flowers on the ground.
The 26-year-old Woodstock resident drives down the street every day to go to Elgin Community College. On her drive to school Wednesday, she saw a large group of police officers spread across the farmland adjacent to Dean Street.
Later in the day, she heard the news that AJ's body was found yards from her route to school. She stopped on her way home to buy the flowers.
Diaz has a son just one month younger than AJ.
"How could you?" Diaz said with tears in her eyes as she got back into her car.
Back at the boy's home in Crystal Lake, two women kneeled at a makeshift memorial for AJ that included teddy bears and toys left on the front lawn. In back of the house, piles of garbage were visible along with a discarded child's car seat.
"I came here to bring a flower and pray for that little boy," said Kelly Backer, 38, who lives with her three children in the nearby Crystal Lake Motel.
"It's too close to home," she said. "To do this to a child is totally wrong."
Early in the day it seemed clear there were major developments. Around 6 a.m., Cunningham and her lawyer, George Kililis, were at the Crystal Lake police station. About two hours later, Kililis walked out by himself and drove away.
Around the same time, an evidence technician and other officers went to the family home and were seen removing a large tub, paper bags, a shovel and a small mattress. Handlers took a dog out of the house. A neighbor said it was Lucy, the family's brown boxer.
Blue ribbons remained tied on poles in the neighborhood in support of the missing boy and a sign hung at a neighboring house said "pray for A.J."
A neighbor who lives across the street from the Freund's house, Janelle Butler, said that she first met the family when the boy and his mom came to her door on Halloween in 2017.
AJ had bandages on his face and arm. She thought he was dressed as a mummy, but his mother said he had grabbed a pot of boiling water that day, was burned and went to the hospital for treatment.
The boy seemed OK, Butler said, but, "That'll haunt me now forever that I did not call police."
Andrew Freund and Cunningham reported AJ missing on Thursday. They told police that AJ was last seen at bedtime _ about 9 p.m. _ last Wednesday. When they woke up Thursday, they could not find him and reported it.
An attorney for Cunningham said over the weekend that Cunningham had cooperated with police and "willingly submitted" to a complete body search. Later, however, her attorneys acknowledged they had urged her to stop communication with police when it appeared to them she had become a suspect. Police have called Cunningham "uncooperative" while noting that the boy's father did speak with police detectives.
In a recording of AJ's father calling 911 to report the boy missing, Freund speaks calmly as he tells police that he returned home from a doctor's appointment early Thursday morning and found his son missing after he went to check on him.
Before calling police, he said he searched the neighborhood, a local gas station "where we sometimes take him to buy treats" and a nearby school, where he talked to the principal. He also said he searched "everywhere" inside the family home.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has had involvement with AJ and his family since he was born with opiates in his system in 2013, and the contact has continued on and off through the end of 2018. Until last week, the last contact between DCFS child protection staff and AJ's family was in December 2018.
AJ's younger brother was placed in the care of DCFS last week after AJ was reported missing.
