MILWAUKEE — Thursday, March 7, marked day 17 in the search for Elijah Vue, the missing Wisconsin 3-year-old.
A national organization says the odds are against the little boy for so many reasons including being a person of color.
Elijah’s mother Katrina Baur appeared in court this morning asking for her bail to be lowered as she faces child neglect charges in connection to Elijah’s disappearance. This comes as the community around her in Twin Rivers searches for her child.
"Obviously, this is a high-profile case. There is a lot of high emotion going on. There is a lot of high emotion with Miss Bauer. She has been worried sick not knowing where her son is,” said Ann Larson, Baur’s defense attorney.
Elijah was reported missing on Feb. 20 and an Amber Alert was issued for him. Something that doesn’t happen often according to Gaetane Borders, president and CEO of PEAS in their Pod, a national organization dedicated to helping missing children of color.
"His circumstances are a little different than the average person or child of color who goes missing and gets absolutely no attention,” said Borders.
USA Today found that in reports involving white and Hispanic children, the alerts helped in 1 in 3 cases. When it comes to missing Black children that dropped to 1 in 7, even though Black children receive Amber Alerts at the same rate they are reported missing.
Borders says through her decades of trying to find missing children Elijah's case has so much working against him.
"The odds are against him because of his race. The odds are against him because of the length of time he has been missing. The first few hours are the most critical. The odds are against him because the two people who seemly were caring for him and I say ‘caring’ very loosely they are not being truthful,” said Borders. “And what they have admitted to doing is already horrific in and of itself. So he has all these odds stacked against him."
Borders says in many cases, there are signs before a child ever disappears that something isn't right and she urges the community to do more.
"Something like this didn't happen in a vacuum. I'm sure there were telltale signs of the horror that this baby boy was experiencing or enduring at home. So if you see something, say something, intervene,” said Borders.
Elijah is one of two children in the country right now with an active Amber Alert according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It says most children with an alert are found within hours. However, it shows there currently are 38 missing children with an Amber Alert that is no longer considered active.
Earlier this week police released a vehicle of interest in this case. The FBI is still offering a $15,000 reward and the Manitowoc County crime stoppers are now offering $10,000. If you do have any information on the vehicle or Elijah, police ask you to call the tip line at 844-267-6648.
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
