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The mother of 5-year-old Andrew “AJ” Freund pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Thursday, months after the boy was found buried in a shallow grave in Illinois.
JoAnn Cunningham, 36, faces 20 to 60 years in prison when she’s sentenced next year, according to The Chicago Tribune.
She and the child’s father, Andrew “Drew” Freund Sr., were charged in April with killing their son and burying him in Woodstock, some 50 miles northwest of Chicago. The 60-year-old man is still fighting his charges.
The case drew national attention amid a massive multi-agency search for the boy, who was reported missing by his own parents on April 18.
Police became suspicious of the couple after investigators found a March 4 video on Cunningham’s phone showing the kid lying “on a bare mattress in a crib” while covered in bruises and bandages across his chest and head, according to a search warrant affidavit.
“AJ is seen to be naked except for some small bandages around both wrists and circling his hips,” the document reads. “AJ is seen to be holding an ice pack to his face and when he removes it he is seen to have deep red bruising around his eyes, and yellowish green bruising around his neck and upper chest. It did not appear from the video that AJ received professional medical attention.”
In the background of the scene, a woman believed to be Cunningham could be heard “berating [him] for urinating on his bed,” police said.
Andrew Freund eventually told authorities his son died on April 15 after he was forced to take a cold shower for soling himself, a punishment the mother deemed “less violent” than her usual “hard physical beatings,” according to court documents.
Both suspects are being held on $5 million bond.