Volunteers, residents and law enforcement in Eastern Wisconsin were unrelenting in their search to find missing 3-year-old Elijah Vue on Monday as the pursuit for answers approached a third week.
Elijah vanished on Feb. 20 from an apartment in the town of Two Rivers, about 40 miles southeast of Green Bay, where he was staying with his mother's boyfriend, Jesse Vang. Vang told police that he had fallen asleep while watching the 3-year-old and when he woke up, the child was gone.
This past weekend, search crews from the Wisconsin National Guard conducted ground searches, while the Department of Natural Resources helped dive teams check near the shorelines of Lake Michigan and Twin River, KARE 11, the NBC affiliate in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, reported.
On Feb. 27, the FBI announced a $15,000 reward for anyone with information leading to Elijah's return and the arrest of whoever may be responsible. Both Vang and and Elijah's mother, Katrina Baur, were charged with child neglect in relation to the toddler's disappearance.
Baur told police she had left Elijah 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 on Feb. 23, court documents revealed.
Vang relayed to authorities that he was trying to correct the toddler's bad behaviors.
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He explained that Elijah was afraid of him, and the boy was disciplined using "time outs," including being forced to stand for 1-3 hours and requiring him to pray at times, documents stated.
Vang also forced the 3-year-old to take a cold shower and regularly threatened him with cold water for not complying, the criminal compliant stated. Both Baur and Vang maintained that they didn't have anything to do with Elijah's disappearance.
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Anyone with information on Elijah's whereabouts was asked to contact the Two Rivers Police Department at 844-267-6648 or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.
