Skeletal remains discovered by a deer hunter in Wisconsin last weekend have been positively identified as Elijah Vue, a three-year-old who went missing from his mother’s boyfriend’s home in February.
The remains — a skull and multiple bones — were found on private property in Two Rivers by “a person getting his land ready for the hunting season,” Two Rivers Police Chief Ben Meinnert said during a press conference Friday.
The land was near the Girl Scout Camp Manitou property, and the body parts were found in a heavily wooded area with thick underbrush, Meinnert said.
“This location is just over three miles northwest of where he was originally reported missing,” he said of Elijah, adding that the area had already been searched by law enforcement “several times.”
The remains were DNA tested at the Wisconsin Crime Lab, and the positive results were given to the victim’s family before being released to the public.
“This is not the outcome we hoped for. The family’s devastated, we’re devastated, the community’s devastated,” the police chief said before asking for anyone with additional information on Elijah’s disappearance to reach out.
The little boy went missing on February 20 from the apartment of Jesse Vang, who was dating the victim’s mother, Katrina Baur, CBS 85 reported.
Baur had reportedly sent her son to Vang’s Two Rivers home for “disciplinary reasons.”
The Vue family told the outlet that they did not know how Baur knew Vang — who served a six-year prison sentence for distributing methamphetamine.
The couple was arrested two days after Elijah disappeared on charges of child neglect, though they have denied any involvement in the boy’s disappearance.
Elijah’s blanket was discovered back in March, about 3.7 miles from where he went missing, according to CBS News.
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