Wisconsin Toddler Elijah Vue Found Dead: 7‑Month Search Ends in Tragedy

Tragic Discovery: Missing Wisconsin Toddler Elijah Vue Found Dead

The search for Eli­jah Vue, a miss­ing Wis­con­sin tod­dler, has come to a heart­break­ing con­clu­sion. After near­ly sev­en months of inten­sive search­ing, the remains of the young boy were dis­cov­ered on Sep­tem­ber 7, 2023.

Remains Found in Wooded Area

Two Rivers Police Chief Ben­jamin Mein­nert announced at a Fri­day news con­fer­ence that a hunter prepar­ing for the upcom­ing sea­son found Eli­jah’s remains in a “thick wood­ed area.” The loca­tion, on pri­vate prop­er­ty, was just over three miles north­west of where Eli­jah was ini­tial­ly report­ed missing.

DNA Confirmation and Investigation Status

The Wis­con­sin Crime Lab con­duct­ed DNA test­ing, con­firm­ing the remains belonged to Eli­jah Vue. Chief Mein­nert stat­ed, “What start­ed out as a search for a miss­ing boy is now a death inves­ti­ga­tion.” The Wis­con­sin Depart­ment of Jus­tice Divi­sion of Crim­i­nal Inves­ti­ga­tion is now lead­ing the case.

Timeline of Disappearance and Search Efforts

Eli­jah was report­ed miss­ing on Feb­ru­ary 20 by his care­tak­er, Jesse Vang. The Two Rivers Police Depart­ment con­duct­ed an exten­sive search, including:

• Review­ing over 10,000 video files
• Can­vass­ing by land, air, and water
• Con­duct­ing dozens of interviews
• Fol­low­ing hun­dreds of leads

Legal Proceedings and Evidence

Jesse Vang and Eli­jah’s moth­er, Kat­ri­na Baur, have plead­ed not guilty to felony child neglect charges relat­ed to alleged inci­dents before the tod­dler’s dis­ap­pear­ance. In March, police found Eli­jah’s red and white plaid blan­ket about 3.7 miles from where he was report­ed missing.