Crystal Lake police release 911 call reporting 5-year-old boy missing

CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill. (Sun-Times Media Wire) -- Police have released the audio of the 911 call reporting 5-year-old Andrew “AJ” Freund missing from his Crystal Lake home last week.

In the call, which was made at 9:04 a.m. on April 18, Andrew Freund Sr. can be heard telling a police dispatcher that he could not find his son that morning. Freund tells the dispatcher that he last saw Andrew about 9:30 p.m. the night before when he was going to bed.

The father goes on to say that he got home from a doctor’s appointment between 8:15 and 8:30 a.m. and went to check on Andrew and wake him up, but he was not in his room or in the home. He tells the dispatcher that none of the home’s doors or windows were open.

Fruend says in the call that he canvassed the neighborhood and checked a local park and gas station, but could not find the child.

"We've checked closets, the basement, the garage, everywhere," Freund told the dispatcher, adding that he had scoured the park, a nearby school and a "local gas station down here where we sometimes take him to buy treats."

The call ends when a police officer arrives at the home in the first block of Dole Avenue.

Police also released five years’ worth of police reports documenting calls related to the family’s home.

The reports show that Andrew’s mother, JoAnn Cunningham, was arrested at 7 p.m. on the day Andrew was reported missing on a McHenry County warrant for failure to appear in court on a charge of driving while license suspended. She was processed and released after posting a $300 bond, with a court date set for Tuesday.

Cunningham’s attorney’s did not immediately respond to a request for information about the outcome of the hearing.

She was initially arrested on the charge on Dec. 18, 2018, according to police records. She had called police to report that her cellphone and medication had been stolen from her home.

One of the officers investigating the alleged theft saw Cunningham driving on a suspended license and she was arrested and charged accordingly, according to the records. Responding officers also noted that the house was in a state of disrepair and that one of Cunningham’s children had a bruise on his leg. Police then notified DCFS, which investigated the incident.

Police continued to search for Andrew in Lippold Park in Crystal Lake on Monday, but called off the search early because of inclement weather, Crystal Lake Police Deputy Chief Tom Kotlowski said in a statement. The search will continue Tuesday, with the assistance of Illinois State Police piloting a plane over the area.

Sonar teams are also scanning “several ponds and smaller bodies of water” in the area, Kotlowski said.

Police are also asking residents in the area for surveillance video from home security systems or video doorbells, Kotlowski said. Anyone with video recorded between 7 a.m. on April 15 and 9 a.m. on April 18 is asked to send videos or pictures to jmattson@crystallake.org.

Police said Monday that Cunningham was being “uncooperative” with investigators.

Her attorneys said they told her to stop answering questions after police started to treat her as a suspect.

“We do not have her listed as a suspect, we do not currently have any suspects in this case,” Kotlowski said in response to the lawyers’ statement.

Cunningham’s attorney’s are expected to hold a news conference Tuesday afternoon outside the McHenry County Courthouse in Woodstock following a custody hearing regarding Cunningham’s youngest child, who has been taken into protective custody by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

DCFS has had repeated contact with Andrew’s family since he was born with opiates in his system in 2013.

Andrew is described as a 3-foot-5, 70-pound boy with short, blond hair, police said. He was last seen wearing a blue Mario sweatshirt and black sweatpants.

He was also wearing green Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shoes, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

His disappearance remains under investigation by local law enforcement agencies and the FBI. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 815-356-3620 or text an anonymous tip to 847411 with “CLPDTIP” at the beginning of the message.