Mother Katrina Baur and her boyfriend Jesse Vang have been charged with felony child neglect as his paternal grandmother Lia Vang tearfully pleaded with her neighbors to keep looking
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Elijah Vue's heartbroken grandmother sobs as she begs mother and boyfriend charged with neglect to tell them where he is: 'A piece of our hearts is missing'
The grandmother of missing toddler Elijah Vue has begged his mother and her boyfriend for his return, after he disappeared from their torture 'boot camp'.
Hundreds of people have been searching the area around Two Rivers in
Wisconsin since the three-year-old vanished from the home of his mother's boyfriend Jesse Vang on February 20.
The little boy was forced to take cold showers, forbidden his toys and made to stand for hours on end in a dirty diaper because mother Katrina Baur wanted him 'to be a man'.
The couple have been charged with felony child neglect as the hunt for Elijah continues and his paternal grandmother Lia tearfully pleaded with her neighbors not to give up.
'I want everybody to continue to help us look for my grandson,' she told a press conference, 'I want my grandson to be home with my family, so I want everybody to continue, don't stop.'
Elijah's aunt Linda Vue described him as a 'joyful, curious boy, full of life and love' and addressed him directly in case he was watching somewhere.
'If you can hear us, know that you are deeply missed and loved and we will not rest until you are safely back in our arms,' she said.
'We cannot express the depth of our sorrow, nor the desperation that consumes us as each moment passes without news of Elijah's safety,' she added.
'Every day without him feels like a piece of our hearts is missing. We long to hear his laughter, to witness his curiosity and to feel the warmth of his embrace.
'The emptiness left in his absence is a void that cannot be filled by anything else.'
Baur, 31, and Vang, 39, remain in custody as details of their lengthy criminal records were revealed.
Vang was on supervised release after spending three years in prison for drug trafficking and was jailed in 2002 for felony child abuse after he battered a 12-year-old with a chair while serving time on another charge at Outagamie County Jail.
Vang's history also stretched back to her teenage years and includes convictions for disorderly conduct misdemeanors in 2011 and 2015.
Detectives said that he didn't identify specific incidents that led him to punish the boy, but said that if the boy failed his punishments, he would ask him: 'Do you want the cold water?'
Vang also reportedly claimed that he didn't know why the boy was afraid of the phrase.
'He's fine. It's not like his knees are shaking and about to fall over you know,' he allegedly told detectives.
In an interview before his arrest, Vang also allegedly said he was trying to make Elijah understand that 'going home is like a privilege for him.'
After saying the boy was afraid of him, he reportedly changed that to say Elijah 'respects me.'
A few days before Elijah's disappearance,
Vang texted Baur to say he was 'angry' because the child had 'overfilled' his diaper, so Vang gave him a cold shower, the complaint alleges.
Vang called police on Feb 20 and reported Elijah missing, telling police he had taken a nap that morning and brought Elijah in the bedroom with him, but when he awoke some three hours later, he was gone, the complaint states.
Fears for the little boy grew when one of the green and red dinosaur shoes he was wearing at the time of his disappearance was found in a street nearby.
