Boy, 5, told docs ‘maybe mommy didn’t mean to hurt me’ before she killed him and dumped body in shallow grave
A LITTLE boy beaten to death by his evil mom told doctors “maybe mommy didn’t mean to hurt me” after another apparent beating months earlier. AJ Freund, five, was found dead in a shallow grave in Crystal Lake, Illinois, after being killed in April 2019. His parents allegedly subjected him to brutal abuse throughout his […]
A LITTLE boy beaten to death by his evil mom told doctors “maybe mommy didn’t mean to hurt me” after another apparent beating months earlier.
AJ Freund, five, was found dead in a shallow grave in Crystal Lake, Illinois, after being killed in April 2019.
His parents allegedly subjected him to brutal abuse throughout his short life.
And his horrific suffering was laid bare in official documents.
Four months before his death, he was examined by doctors after cops were tipped off that he was being neglected and was covered in “cuts, welts and bruises”.
When asked about his injuries, AJ told medics “maybe mommy didn’t mean to hurt me” and “maybe someone hit me with a belt”.
AJ’s mom JoAnn Cunningham, 36, admitted murdering her son after changing her plea in December.
BEATEN TO DEATH
She and AJ’s 60-year-old father, Andrew Freund, were charged with first-degree murder among other crimes in April.
He denies murder and will next appear in court on February 27.
The parents allegedly killed their son because he lied about soiling his underpants, according to court records.
They had initially reported their son missing and issued emotional pleas for his safe return.
SHALLOW GRAVE
The boy’s remains were wrapped in plastic and dumped in a shallow grave seven miles from his family home.
Child welfare was repeatedly called to the filthy house that smelled of dog feces.
Court documents described the home as “hoarder-like” and in a dilapidated condition.
An autopsy found little AJ died from blunt force trauma to the head and was pummelled multiple times three days before his parents told cops he disappeared.
He was allegedly forced to stand under a freezing cold shower as torture before he was brutally bludgeoned to death, prosecutors said at a court hearing in April.
Freund allegedly told detectives that he and Cunningham used cold showers as a “less violent form of punishment” for her to “stop with the hard physical beatings,” the Daily Mail reported.
Cunningham’s guilty plea comes about two months after she tearfully denied harming her child, instead blaming AJ’s murder on his father.
“I would rather kill myself than hurt my family,” she said during a jailhouse interview with CBS Chicago.
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“If it’s Drew, then he needs to grow some balls and he needs to tell them so everyone else isn’t suffering. I’m scared.”
Cunningham faces 20 to 60 years in prison after cutting a deal with prosecutors to have additional assault charges dismissed.
She’s due back in court for her sentencing on March 19.
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