What happened to 3-year-old Elijah Vue? The disappearance and mother and her boyfriend’s charges, explained

Content warning: This case deals with child abuse.

At the time this article was first published, the search for Elijah Vue had been going on for a month. Although evidence painted a highly concerning picture, some still held on to the hope that the innocent baby would be found alive. This hope withered on Sept. 7, seven months after Elijah first went missing on the morning of Feb. 20.

It was the very day after Elijah’s disappearance that criminal charges were brought against the mother and her boyfriend. A month later, on March 20, Elijah’s blanket was found nearly four miles from where he reportedly disappeared. Throughout all these months, the main suspects, Katrina Baur and Jesse Vang, stuck to their story: Elijah disappeared while Vang was blissfully taking a nap.

The pair face child neglect charges, which, for Baur, were upgraded in a March court hearing to felony chronic child neglect. In court, the prosecutor read a letter from Baur’s mother requesting that her daughter’s bond not be lowered, providing compelling testimony as to Katrina’s flight risk.

A heartbreaking outcome

Katrina Baur, 31, at the height of her maternal wisdom, decided to send her defenseless toddler to learn “how to be a man” with her convicted felon boyfriend Jesse Vang, 39, in what they euphemistically labeled “boot camp.”

Here’s an example of a text message exchange between the couple, as per The Independent:

Vang: “I told you to trust me… I’m a make sure he hates me and being here.” 

Baur: “Don’t want him to *hate* YOU. Just fear you.”

The things Vang subjected Elijah to would be unconscionable even if the baby were a full-grown adult. This disciplinary regimen included forcing Elijah to remain standing for up to three hours straight, or throwing him into ice cold baths – something the child deeply feared, and an inhumane treatment that reminds one of the prolonged abuse and subsequent death case of Timothy Ferguson.

Before Elijah’s disappearance, Baur took multiple photos of the ongoing series of punishments, some of which revealed bruising on the three-year-old.

And like poor Timothy Fergunson, it appears that in light of the findings on Sept. 7, Elijah may not have left that horror house alive. Elijah’s skeletal remains were found in a thickly wooded area by a hunter getting his land ready for hunting season, and were retrieved by investigators. At first, police claimed it would take some time to identify the remains, but a week later they already had an answer, providing a heartwrenching conclusion to the search for the missing boy. Elijah was found a mere three miles away from where he was reported missing.

Neither Baur nor Vang were mentioned during the press conference wherein law enforcement announced the identification of the remains. No murder charges have been brought against either.

Court documents allege Baur was the victim of sex trafficking in which Vang was implicated, reportedly having assaulted her in an hotel room, along with another man. However, when she got together with Elijah’s father, Jimmy Vue, Katrina asked law enforcement not to investigate this anssault. Vue, meanwhile, has since been arrested on child abuse charges stemming from before his son went missing.

Katrina has another child, a six-year-old, whom she also allegedly neglected by leaving them alone in the car in cold temperatures for over an hour, while she went to have sexual relations with Vang.

An autopsy is being conducted to hopefully determine Elijah’s cause of death.