A 3-year-old boy named Elijah was reported missing from Two Rivers Feb. 20, 2024. (Photo source: Two Rivers Police Dept.)
TWO RIVERS, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Friday marks two years since a statewide Amber Alert was issued for three-year-old Elijah Vue, setting off a massive search effort that ended in tragedy.
Prosecutors allege Vue’s mother, Katrina Baur, sent her son to live with her boyfriend, Jesse Vang, in Two Rivers for “disciplinary reasons” and so Vang could teach Vue “how to be a man.”
On Feb. 20, 2024, Vang reported Vue missing from his apartment. He told authorities Vue wandered off while he was asleep.
For nearly seven months, law enforcement and community members desperately searched for the little boy. It wasn’t until Sept. 7 that a man preparing his land for hunting season found human remains on private property near the entrance of Camp Manitou, a Girl Scout camp. Those remains were positively identified as Vue’s.
According to the criminal complaint, two days before Vue was reported missing, Vang and Baur exchanged a series of text messages:
Vang tells Baur to “…trust me.. I’m a make sure he hates me and being here.
Baur responds, “Don’t want him to *hate* YOU. Just fear you.
Vang said, “He did fear me…but he didn’t respect me..now I’m making him respect me.
The day before Vue was reported missing, Vang was captured on camera dropping an empty suitcase off outside a St. Vincent de Paul store in Two Rivers. Investigators recovered the suitcase and found Vue’s DNA in it.
The complaint also outlined conversations Baur had with Vang just one minute after he called 911 to report Vue missing. In a message that was deleted, but recovered by investigators, Baur said:
Say you guys were taking a nap and he left.
Baur and Vang were both charged in connection with Vue’s death, which was ruled homicide by unspecified means. Doctors who examined the boy’s remains determined the toddler suffered from physical abuse, psychological and emotional maltreatment and neglect, the complaint says.
Doctors found healed fractures on Vue’s skull and face, and a deleted photo recovered from Baur’s phone showed Vue laying on a bed, blindfolded, with bruising on his jaw line, the left side of his neck and on the upper part of his left arm.
Vang faces four charges: physical abuse of a child – repeated acts causing death, hiding a corpse, obstructing an officer and chronic neglect of a child. His next court date is a motions hearing May 18.
Baur also faces four charges: chronic neglect of a child – consequence is death, neglecting a child and two counts of obstructing an officer. Her next court date is a status conference May 18.
On Friday, some of the approximately 13,000 members of the “Remembering Elijah Vue” Facebook group posted messages in his honor. One of the posts has garnered thousands of reactions, comments and shares.
You can read the full post below.
Dear Elijah,
Two years ago today, your name began echoing through the streets of Two Rivers, and it hasn’t stopped since.
When you were reported missing, an entire community rose up for you. Neighbors who had never met you laced up their boots. Strangers from around the state walked miles of frozen ground, woods, fields, and riverbanks. Boats searched the waterways. People from across Wisconsin came with flashlights, prayers, and determination in their hearts. They searched because you mattered. You still matter.
Blue lights glowed in windows for you. Dinosaurs – symbols of your sweet, innocent joy – appeared on lawns, in storefronts, and at memorials. Hope stayed alive for as long as humanly possible because no one wanted your story to end the way it did.
Elijah, you were a beautiful soul. A little boy who should have known safety, warmth, laughter, and protection. Instead, your life was cut short by abuse at the hands of monsters who failed you in the most unimaginable way. What was done to you was not your fault. Despite what you were told, you were a good boy! You deserved tenderness. You deserved to grow up. You deserved better.
Though your remains were found seven months later, the love people carry for you did not fade with time. Your name is spoken gently. Your face is remembered. Your story has changed people. You awakened something fierce and protective in a community that refuses to forget you.
Your sister, Elena, misses you from the depths of her soul. She carries a grief no child should ever have to carry – longing for answers she doesn’t yet know she needs, feeling an absence too big for her little heart. The bond between siblings does not disappear. It stretches beyond this world. In ways we cannot see, you are still her brother. Still connected. Still loved.
We anxiously await justice, sweet boy. We wait for accountability. We wait for the day the truth stands fully in the light. Justice cannot give back what was stolen, but it can speak your name with honor and say clearly: you mattered.
You will always be Wisconsin’s toddler. A child whose community stood up, searched hard, cared deeply, and continues to remember.
May you rest in peace, wrapped in the love that surrounded you then and surrounds you still.
You are not forgotten little man.
Comments