Two years later, Freund home site still sits vacant

An empty plot at 94 Dole Ave. in Crystal Lake marks the tragic story of AJ Freund, a 5-year-old boy who was abused by his parents and eventually murdered in their Crystal Lake home.

Just more than two years since the former home of AJ Freund was demolished – the demolition took place March 4, 2020 – the public works department is still maintaining the property, even while the parcel remains in a state of limbo, city officials said.

The public works department continues to clean up the site every few weeks as a courtesy to neighbors and to prevent the parcel from becoming rundown, Crystal Lake Police Chief James Black said. While the property still is owned by JoAnn Cunningham and Andrew Freund Sr., AJ’s parents, they gave the city permission to maintain the property shortly after being arrested in 2019.

Black said it was his understanding that the cost to the city was either minimal or nonexistent, with public works staff folding the responsibility into regular work duties and not billing overtime.

Black, who has been Crystal Lake’s police chief since January 2013, said his staff took very seriously the responsibility of protecting the community’s children.

“It was a very tragic incident,” Black said of the murder. “It still bothers our investigators that dealt with the case, anything that happens to children is impactful. But they say time heals all wounds, and at some point, our community will heal from this as well.”

One way the community has healed, said Janelle Butler, who lives across the street from the Dole Avenue property, comes via the turnover on that block, with many of the former residents moving away.

“The neighborhood has changed so much,” Butler said. “A couple people have moved. Another passed away. The people that still live on the block don’t ever really mention it. I love this neighborhood, and I’m glad that people have moved on.”

AJ Freund initially was reported missing on April 18, 2019. His father, Andrew Freund Sr., later admitted he’d been murdered three days before, and the father rode with police on April 24, 2019, to the child’s burial site near Woodstock.

Freund Sr. and Cunningham remain in prison, serving sentences of 30 and 35 years respectively.

Cases against two Illinois Department of Children and Family Services officers who handled AJ Freund’s case up until his death are ongoing: Carlos Acosta, and his supervisor, Andrew Polovin, had requested their cases be separated in January.

Butler, who lives across from the property on Dole Street, said she’s been told nothing about future plans for the site, but occasionally wonders if and when the city will decide to do anything beyond routine maintenance.

Butler said she’d preferred the parcel stay an empty lot or become a new home site, and is against turning it into a memorial.

“It just will bring attention to it again,” Butler said. “It was hard on the neighbors. You draw a lot of good people, but a lot of crazy people.”

Butler said that beyond the tragedy itself, the media circus and constant presence of outsiders became “exhausting” for those living on Dole Avenue.

Roar for AJ co-organizer Tracy Kotzman, who said she does not live in Crystal Lake, said while efforts had tailed off, the group had done a lot of work over the past two years with donation drives and support for related causes. That includes, for example, giving sheets and full bedding to Home of the Sparrow in McHenry, which helps homeless women and children, including those leaving bad domestic situations.

“We still want to honor AJ and keep his memory alive,” Kotzman said. “I know we can’t save them all. But when someone hurts a child, it just wrenches your heart out. I promised AJ [that] I will do whatever I can do.”