What the video showed
The video, according to court documents, showed AJ lying on a mattress. His face and body were covered in bruises. He was holding an ice pack to his face. A woman’s voice, consistent with his mother’s, could be heard berating him for wetting the bed.
When he saw it, the father’s story fell apart.
He told investigators that his wife had caused the injuries. And he told them what had really happened to his son.
The cold shower
On April 14, according to court documents, AJ’s parents punished him for lying about soiling his underwear. Freund told investigators he had wanted his wife to stop the hard physical beatings and use a less violent punishment instead.
“Cold showers was decided,” the court document quoted him as saying.
AJ was made to stand in a cold shower for a long time. Prosecutors said he was beaten. Then, according to his father, he was put to bed cold and wet. At some point, his mother found him unresponsive.
Detectives believe AJ died in the early hours of Monday, April 15. A search for “child CPR” was made on the father’s phone that night.
Nobody called 911.
Instead, Freund said, he put his son’s body in a plastic container and kept it in the basement of the house. Later, he loaded it into his truck and drove away. A photo on his phone showed a shopping list: duct tape, plastic gloves, air freshener and bleach.
Three days after AJ died, his father called 911 and told the dispatcher his son was missing.
The field in Woodstock
On April 24, the same day he saw the video, Andrew Freund Sr. led investigators to a vacant lot near Woodstock, about 10 miles from the house.
AJ was buried there in a shallow grave, wrapped in plastic and covered with straw.
An autopsy found that the 5-year-old had died of multiple blunt force injuries to his head.
The same day, both parents were charged with first-degree murder. Each was held on $5 million bond.
The sentences
On December 5, 2019, JoAnn Cunningham pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. In July 2020, a judge sentenced her to 35 years in prison. She must serve all of it.
In September 2020, Andrew Freund Sr. pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, aggravated battery of a child and concealment of a homicidal death. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The city of Crystal Lake cited the house for 41 code violations and went to court to have it torn down. On March 4, 2020, a demolition company that donated its services knocked it down in under an hour.
The caseworker
The questions did not end with the parents.
Later, Carlos Acosta, the DCFS investigator who had closed the case on AJ’s bruise, and his supervisor, Andrew Polovin, were both charged. In October 2023, a judge found Acosta guilty of two counts of child endangerment. The judge said he had never properly interviewed AJ and had left him in the house despite “numerous red flags.” Polovin was found not guilty.
Acosta was sentenced to six months in jail and 30 months of probation.
AJ Freund would have turned 6 in October 2019.
