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This undated photo provided by the Crystal Lake Police Department, in Illinois, shows Andrew "AJ" Freund. The Crystal Lake police said the parents of the missing boy, Freund, had last seen him around 9 pm. On April 17, police said that Andrew 's parents had worn him missing when they woke up on Thursday and that they could not find him at their home. Police in Crystal Lake, a suburb of Chicago, said an FBI team specializing in missing children helped them look for the 5-year-old boy.
Thousands of mourners gathered Friday in an Illinois funeral home to pay a last tribute to a 5-year-old boy, whose body was found deadly struck in a shallow, straw-covered grave at the end of last month.
Authorities have accused the parents of Andrew "AJ" Freund, JoAnn Cunningham and Andrew "AJ" Freund Sr., of first degree murder. Police found the boy's bruised body wrapped in plastic on April 24 – nine days after his parents reported his disappearance.
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On Friday, blue ribbons were wrapped around poles in the streets as the community gathered for a touching farewell. There were several posters with images showing AJ with angel wings and bearing the words "In AJ's memory of love," reported the Chicago Tribune.
"There has been a slew of donations and people wanting to help," said funeral director Kim Nordin, adding that she had received calls from people across the country who had sent flowers.
Elissa Emmert, of Crystal Lake, Ill., Who brought her 21-month-old son, Levi, to the public, said she had come "to show her support for AJ." My heart is breaking because of what has happened to him ".
In his obituary on the website of the Davenport Family Funeral Home and Crematory, AJ describes "AJ as an extremely smart and friendly boy who could not wait to start kindergarten in the fall and make new friends. "
Since the arrest of his parents, disturbing details have been revealed about the torture according to which the authorities claimed to have preceded the murder. Court documents allege that AJ's parents killed him by hitting him, then subjecting him to a long cold shower after lying about the fact that he had stained his pants. An autopsy revealed that he had died from blunt trauma to the head and had been hit repeatedly.
A video taken on Cunningham's cell phone by the police, allegedly showing his 5-year-old son, had prompted AJ's father to finally lead the investigators to his body.
The video, dated March 4, shows AJ lying naked on a mattress covered in bruises and bandages, according to an affidavit from McHenry County Sheriff's detective Edwin Maldonado. Maldonado wrote that a female voice "in line with Joann's holds the phone and records on video. She reprimands AJ for urinating her bed.
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AJ's death also resulted in increased surveillance of the Department of Child and Family Services of Illinois, which was already in the spotlight due to the recent death of two other children.
In the case of AJ, documents show that child protection workers have been repeatedly called to Freund's dilapidated and dirty home.
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AJ parents must appear in court on May 10 for a preliminary hearing.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
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