A blanket that may have been with a missing 3-year-old boy from Wisconsin when he disappeared about a month ago has been recovered, police said Monday.
Elijah Beau’s red and white plaid blanket was found about 6.0 miles from the home of his mother’s boyfriend, where she was reported missing, Two Rivers police said on Feb. 20. It was discovered at the location “at the beginning of this investigation.”
“Today we can confirm that the blanket is Elijah’s blanket,” Police Sgt. Ben Meinert wrote.
Police said Elijah “may have been carrying” the blanket in the initial missing persons alert for the boy, who was wearing gray pants, a dark long-sleeved shirt and red and green dinosaur shoes. He also said.
Officials called on the public to help in the search “by searching all urban and rural areas, including waterways, to locate Elijah and find any evidence related to his disappearance.”
Multiple search teams are already scouring the wetlands and countryside around Twin River looking for the young man, who is registered with the Missing and Exploited Children and Adults Information Center.
Elijah’s mother, Katrina Bauer, 31, and her boyfriend, Jesse Vann, 39, were both charged with child neglect.
Elijah was last seen at Vann’s Two Rivers home, about 30 miles southeast of Green Bay, and Bauer told police Vann taught the boy “to be a man.” He said he had sent him to stay there.
According to prosecutors, Vann said he and Elijah took a nap in the bedroom in the morning, but when they woke up three hours later, the boy was gone.
Baur, who lives in Wisconsin Dells, was about 30 miles away when her son went missing.
“[Baur] The child was intentionally sent home for more than a week for disciplinary purposes. She was aware of the tactics used and the lack of care provided,” Manitowoc County District Attorney Jacalyn LaBre said during a February hearing.
She was charged last month with one felony count of child neglect by a party to a crime and two misdemeanor counts of resisting or obstructing a police officer. Prosecutors later amended her felony charge to chronic child neglect by a party to a crime and also charged her with a misdemeanor count of child abandonment.
A judge refused to reduce Bauer’s $15,000 cash bail after emotional testimony from his mother, citing Bauer’s “history of erratic behavior.”
Vann was formally charged in February with one count of felony child neglect by a party to a crime in Elijah’s disappearance. He is being held on $20,000 cash bail.
Both claim that they had nothing to do with Elijah’s disappearance.
The reward for information in Elijah’s disappearance has grown to $40,000.
