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Investigators have ruled out the possibility that missing toddler Elijah Vue was kidnapped from the Wisconsin property where his mother’s boyfriend was teaching the boy to toughen up, police said Wednesday.
Two Rivers Police Chief Ben Meinnert gave the update on the case just days after search parties combed through a nearby salvage yard made famous by the “Making a Murderer” docuseries.
“We have no evidence to believe that this child was abducted,” Meinnert told WISN 12 News. “That evidence has also shown that this child didn’t just simply walk off.”
Elijah was reported missing from Two Rivers on Feb. 20 by Jesse Vang, who told police he woke up from a three-hour nap to find Elijah gone.
Vang had complicated search efforts by leading investigators to believe the three-year-old had “walked off” the property just 15 minutes earlier. The inaccurate timeline cost investigators precious time in their attempt to track down the missing boy, according to Meinnert.
Both Vang and Elijah’s mother, Katrina Baur, are in custody on child neglect charges, with Baur telling investigators she had sent her son to stay with Vang so he could teach the boy “to be a man,” according to a criminal complaint.
In the six weeks since Elijah vanished, however, investigators have grown suspicious that something much more sinister happened to the boy.
“Until we’ve found him, I don’t feel any differently. I still have that aching in my gut that he’s not here,” Meinnert said.
“I get asked a lot, do I still think he’s alive? I don’t know. That’s the sad truth of the matter. I think about it just like everybody else all the time. I think everybody has that hope. But yeah, until we bring closure, I don’t think that gut-wrenching feeling ever goes away.”
Investigators have a strong belief Elijah is still in the vicinity of the Two Rivers city or surrounding area, which search parties have painstakingly scoured in the seven weeks since the boy vanished.
On Monday, about 40 volunteers zeroed in on Avery’s Auto Salvage, the same property where Teresa Halback’s remains were found in 2005.
Steven Avery and nephew Brendan Dassey were convicted of the murder, but Steven Avery has publicly maintained his innocence — which was documented in the popular 2015 Netflix series “Making a Murderer.”
There was no evidence linking Elijah to the salvage yard, but searchers told Fox 11 that the property provided plenty of places for a young boy to hide or be hidden.
The salvage yard is less than 9 miles from where the boy was last seen.
The search proved fruitless, however, with no indications that Elijah had ever been at the site.
Search parties are still ongoing, through the area’s wetlands and rural areas, police said.
Little Elijah’s blanket was found earlier in this investigation about 3.7 miles from Vang’s home, where Baur had sent the toddler for “disciplinary reasons.”
According to police, Vang subjected the boy to long timeouts, threatened punishments using cold water and withheld his favorite toys.
Both Vang and Baur deny any involvement in Elijah’s disappearance.
Baur was charged in February with one felony count of party-to-a-crime child neglect and two misdemeanor counts of resisting or obstructing an officer. Prosecutors later amended the felony count to a charge of party-to-a-crime chronic child neglect and also filed a misdemeanor charge of neglecting a child.
A judge declined to lower Baur’s $15,000 cash bond after emotional testimony from her mother, citing Baur’s “history of erratic behavior.”
Vang was formally charged in February with one felony count of party-to-a-crime child neglect in Elijah’s disappearance. He is being held on a $20,000 cash bond.
The reward for information in Elijah’s missing person case stands at $40,000.
