CHICAGO _ Police reports based primarily on visits to a Crystal Lake house from where a 5-year-old boy remains missing describe a site of filthy living conditions, physical confrontations and possible drug use.
Andrew "AJ" Freund went missing from the home on Dole Avenue in the northwest Chicago suburb sometime after bedtime last Wednesday, his parents reported Thursday morning.
Authorities have been searching for him ever since but say police dogs found no scent from the boy leaving the house, so investigators have focused their attention on the house.
In response to Freedom of Information Act requests, Crystal Lake police on Tuesday released five years' worth of police reports related to the home and its occupants. The reports add up to 63 pages. Much of the material is redacted, including most of the names.
State records indicate that both of AJ's parents previously have been ordered to undergo substance abuse treatment. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services took custody of AJ shortly after he was born in 2013 because of the drugs in his system, but his mother, JoAnn Cunningham, regained custody of him about a year and a half later.
DCFS subsequently investigated two allegations of neglect involving the boy but concluded the allegations were unsubstantiated. In one case, AJ had a bruise that a DCFS investigator concluded may have been caused by the family dog.
The police report from that incident, in December 2018, stated that dog feces and urine were on the floor all over the house, that there were broken and open windows, and that living conditions were not acceptable. The police also noted a bruise on the hip of the boy, who was wearing only a pull-up. Both the mother and the boy said he must have been bruised by their brown boxer, Lucy.
In September 2018, a neighbor had called for a well-being check on the house because it had been without power for weeks and was run-down. A woman at the house would not allow police inside, but an officer saw the two boys living at the house and said they appeared to be "healthy and happy." Police referred the case to DCFS but were told that a home having a power outage was not grounds for a DCFS investigation.
In 2017, police investigated an altercation between two women over keys at the residence, but no one was injured and that case was closed.
On another occasion, in 2014, a woman at the house reported that she suspected guests who were living in the basement were using heroin, stating that she had found a needle on the kitchen floor. Police advised that the residents should initiate eviction proceedings in court if they wanted the guests to leave.
After AJ's disappearance Wednesday, DCFS took into protective custody his 3-year-old brother the next day. A hearing on his custody was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in McHenry County Court.
