CBS News
Missing toddler Elijah Vue’s blanket found weeks after disappearance
The blanket of a missing Wisconsin toddler was found weeks after his disappearance, local police said on Monday.
The Two Rivers Police Department said that a red and white plaid blanket found earlier in this investigation was confirmed to belong to Elijah Vue, a Wisconsin 3-year-old who went missing on February 20. The blanket was found about 3.7 miles from where Elijah was last seen, the department said in a news release.
An initial description of Elijah said he was last seen wearing gray pants, a long-sleeved dark shirt, and red and green dinosaur shoes, according to CBS affiliate WDJT. He might have been carrying the blanket, WDJT reported.
Vue’s mother Katrina Baur and another man, Jesse Vang, were arrested and charged with child neglect on Feb. 21. WDJT reported that local authorities said that Baur handed Elijah over to Vang for “discipline.” The Vue family told the station that they don’t know how Baur knew Vang, who served six years in prison for the distribution of methamphetamine. WDJT later described Vang as Baur’s boyfriend.
It was Vang’s apartment that Elijah disappeared from, police said, and Vang who reported him missing.
Supplied to CBS 2
“(Baur) intentionally sent that child for disciplinary reasons for than a week to (Vang’s) residence,” Manitowoc County District Attorney Jacalyn LaBre said in a court hearing on Feb. 23. “She was aware of the tactics used and the lack of care provided. This was an intentional thing by her.”
Both Baur and Vang maintain that they had nothing to do with Elijah’s disappearance, WDJT reported. They will next appear in court this week. Baur will be arraigned on Friday, while Vang’s preliminary hearing will be held on Thursday, police said. Both remain held in Mantiwoc County Jail, according to online records.
Police have taken possession of a vehicle that they said was identified during the investigation. The car, a four-door 1997 Nissan Altima, has Wisconsin plates beginning with “A” and ending with “0.” The car was not owned by Baur or Vang, police said.
“Our interest is not with the current owner of the vehicle, only in the camera footage captured on February 19, 2024, between the hours of 2:00 PM – 9:00 PM,” the department said.
Anyone with information leading to the discovery of the toddler may be eligible for a reward of up to $40,000, police said.
Multiple agencies have been searching for Elijah since he was reported missing. The Two River Police Department has asked all members of the public to keep an eye out for the toddler and check all urban and rural areas, including water, to help find him or any evidence related to his disappearance. Officials have searched storm sewers, landfills, rivers and more, police said.
Elijah’s uncle, Orson Vue, told WDJT that the family has been drained by the search effort but have been touched to see strangers organize searches for the toddler.
“It means everything, to be honest,” Vue said. “If it was just me and my family doing this search, I don’t know what we’d even do. With the whole world, really, reaching out, giving their support, their love, it means the world, and we couldn’t do it without them.”
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Why are astronauts stuck in space? Here’s how the Boeing Starliner crew ended up on the space station for months.
Two NASA astronauts who flew up to the International Space Station in a Boeing Starliner capsule for a round trip that was supposed to last just over a week will be stuck in space for closer to a year before they can come home. Despite the astronauts’ longer-than-expected stay at the space station, officials have insisted that Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore aren’t stranded in space.
Here’s what we know about the stuck astronauts:
Why are the astronauts stuck in space?
Williams and Wilmore blasted off to the space station in June. Their mission was supposed to take between eight and 10 days, but helium leaks in the capsule’s propulsion system and degraded thrusters, which are important for re-entry, upended plans for bringing the astronauts back to Earth.
“Eight days to eight months or nine months or 10 months, whatever it is, we’re going to do the very best job we can do every single day,” Wilmore told CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann in September. At the time, they were expected to leave the space station in late February 2025.
The capsule safely returned to Earth in September with no one onboard.
Who are the astronauts who are stuck in space?
Williams turned 59 on the space station in September. She joined NASA in 1998 after serving in the Navy for over a decade, retiring as a captain. As a naval aviator, she logged over 3,000 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft. At NASA, she had set a record for women with four spacewalks lasting a total of 29 hours, 17 minutes, but it was broken by Peggy Whitson with her fifth spacewalk in 2008.
Wilmore also retired from the Navy as a captain, recording over 8,000 flight hours as a naval aviator. During Operation Desert Storm in Iraq in 1991, Wilmore flew 21 combat missions. He joined NASA in 2000 and accumulated 178 days in space before the Starliner mission. Like Williams, he has also performed four spacewalks, totaling 25 hours, 36 minutes.
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP via Getty Images
Why did the Boeing Starliner crew go to the International Space Station in the first place?
The June launch was the Starliner’s first piloted test flight. NASA has funded the development of the capsule and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon as the space agency looks to stop using Russian Soyuz flights to transport astronauts to and from the space station.
When will the astronauts be able to return to Earth?
On Tuesday, Dec. 17, NASA announced Williams and Wilmore would return to Earth after the agency’s new SpaceX crew arrives at the space station. That won’t happen until late March at the earliest so NASA and SpaceX can have more time to finish a new Dragon spacecraft for the mission, NASA said.
Have other astronauts been stuck in the International Space Station before?
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and two cosmonauts’ six-month stay on the space station was unexpectedly extended to a year after their Soyuz ship became disabled. A replacement had to be launched up to the trio so they could return to Earth in 2023.
contributed to this report.
