New details emerged Thursday surrounding what prosecutors say happened in the days before 3-year-old Elijah Vue disappeared in Wisconsin.
The mother of the young Wisconsin boy who vanished last month, Katrina Baur, is now facing new charges in the case and a judge rejected her request for a bond reduction after prosecutors said they had new evidence surrounding Elijah's last days before he went missing.
Elijah has been missing since Feb. 20, when he disappeared from a residence in Two Rivers that prosecutors said Baur had sent him to stay with her boyfriend to teach him to "become a man." Searches by police and residents over the last two weeks have so far not located the boy, and the reward for information in the case has grown to $25,000.
Prosecutors told the court Thursday they had evidence Baur left the 3-year-old unattended for at least an hour on Feb. 16 as she and her boyfriend, Jesse Vang, traveled to other locations throughout Manitowoc, WLUK-TV reported. They also said they had evidence Baur left a 6-year-old child unattended in a vehicle Feb. 14 for about an hour in temperatures below freezing without the vehicle running.
During Thursday’s hearing, Baur’s attorney, Ann Larson, told the court that “there’s a lot of high emotion going on, but there’s also a lot of high emotion going on with Ms. Baur. She’s been worried sick not knowing where her son is.”
Baur, of the Wisconsin Dells, 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. The 31-year-old is being held on a $15,000 cash bond.
Manitowoc County prosecutors amended the felony count on Thursday to a charge of party-to-a-crime chronic child neglect and also filed a misdemeanor charge of neglecting a child against Baur.
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A judge denied Baur’s request for a bond reduction Thursday and rescheduled both her preliminary hearing and Vang's preliminary hearing from Thursday until March 14.
Vang, 39, of Two Rivers, was formally charged in February with one felony count of party-to-a-crime child neglect. He is being held on a $20,000 cash bond.
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Baur told police she had left her 3-year-old with Vang on Feb. 12 because she wanted him to teach her son “to be a man,” and she had intended to pick him up Feb. 23, according to a criminal complaint.
Vang called police Feb. 20 and reported the boy missing, telling officers he had taken a nap and brought the 3-year-old in the bedroom with him, but when he awoke some three hours later, the toddler was gone, according to the complaint.
Read more on Elijah's case here.
