An Amber Alert remains active one month after Elijah Vue was reported missing from Two Rivers by his mother’s boyfriend on February 20.
www.wbay.com
By
Brittany Schmidt
Published: Mar. 21, 2024 at 12:01 PM EDT
Updated: 20 hours ago
TWO RIVERS, Wis. (WBAY) - An Amber Alert remains active one month after Elijah Vue was reported missing from Two Rivers by his mother’s boyfriend on February 20.
Just hours after the 9-1-1 call to the police, Jesse Vang and Katrina Baur were arrested. They face felony child neglect charges concerning the missing little boy. Baur and Vang remain in custody at the Manitowoc County Jail.
Vang’s preliminary hearing was rescheduled on Thursday for April 4, 11:00 a.m. Newly obtained documents reveal a troubled past for Baur, Vang, and Jimmy Vue, the boy’s biological father.
In November 2015, Outagamie County investigators responded to a hotel in Appleton.
According to court documents Katrina Baur hid in the bathroom, and got the attention of hotel staff to call the police. Baur reported a sexual assault by two men, one being Jesse Vang.
According to a search warrant, Baur told investigators she was their property and described being taken to Minnesota to perform sex acts for compensation, including drugs.
Two months later, Baur asked police to not investigate the sexual assault involving Vang. Bauer was now involved with Jimmy Vue, Elijah’s biological father, and according to Baur, Vue was the “alpha” over Vang in, “some sort of structure”.
Ultimately federal prosecutors handled the case against Vang, convicting him on drug charges. He was released in December of 2022. Vue went to prison in January of 2023 in another case.
Action 2 News recently learned in court through a statement from Baur’s mother why she was with Vang:
“She stated, ‘I felt alone,’ I can assure you she is well aware of resources available, but she chose not to use them.”
We now know from criminal complaints that Baur wanted Vang to teach Elijah how to “be a man” and correct his supposed bad behavior. On February 12 Baur and Vang met in Fond Du Lac to drop Elijah off with Vang for disciplinary reasons.
Two days later Baur visited Vang in Two Rivers the criminal complaint says Katrina took a photo of Elijah lying on a bed at 3:13 a.m. He had a “blindfold over his eyes, appears to have bruising on his jawline and neck on the left side, as well as bruising on his upper left arm.”
An hour later, she deleted the photo. On February 16, Vang visited an auto shop with Elijah. The owner released these photos to Action 2 News.
Later that night, into the early morning hours of Saturday the 17, phone data shows Baur came to Two Rivers. She told investigators she saw Elijah, but he was tired.
The couple went to Manitowoc in the early morning hours, but according to surveillance photos, police didn’t see a child in the vehicle. On Monday, February 19, Vang told investigators Elijah was in punishment while he took a sleeping aide and watched a movie.
The next morning, Vang got up around 7:30 a.m. to get his 15-year-old son on the bus for school.
When Vang returned to the apartment he said he locked the doorknob, deadbolted it, and put the security chain on the door to keep Elijah from walking out of the apartment.
Around 8 a.m. Vang said he woke Elijah up for breakfast, then went back into his bedroom and fell asleep, while Elijah stood in time out. Vang called 911 at 10:59 a.m. to report Elijah missing.
At 3 p.m. on Tuesday, state officials issued an Amber Alert for Elijah Vue. It remains active one month later.
