Police release father’s 911 call reporting 5-year-old boy missing

Site staff by Site Contributor

Andrew "AJ" Freund

Police have released a recording of the 911 call a suburban Chicago man made when he discovered his 5-year-old son was missing.

In the call made last Thursday, Andrew Freund Sr. tells a dispatcher that he arrived home from a doctor’s appointment to discover his son, Andrew “AJ” Freund, is gone.

He said he searched the Crystal Lake house, garage, a park, and other locations but can’t find him. Police released the recording Tuesday.

Crystal Lake police meanwhile announced they are still searching a nearby park and using sonar equipment to search ponds in the area.

Police have asked neighbors for surveillance video in the hunt for clues about the boy’s disappearance.

Police say they boy’s mother, JoAnn Cunningham, is refusing to cooperate with detectives.

Police reports indicate boy had been living in squalor

Police reports indicate AJ had been living in squalor as recently as December, when an officer dispatched to the scene said the “smell of feces” in a bedroom where children slept was overwhelming and that there was “dog feces and urine” throughout the home.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Crystal Lake Police Department released more than 60 pages of reports regarding several police visits to the home. The reports that were released in response to a Freedom of Information request are heavily redacted but the officers write that the house is “cluttered, dirty and in disrepair.”

In one case, police called for state child welfare workers after an officer notices a large bruise on the body of one of the children, but the children were not removed from the home after the case worker is unable to determine what caused the bruise.

Police on Tuesday continue the search for the boy.

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