Horrified hunter discovered remains of missing three-year-old Wisconsin boy on his property

The skeletal remains of a 3-year-old boy who disappeared in February were found by a hunter in northeastern Wisconsin , authorities said on Friday.

During an afternoon press conference, police stated that Elijah Vue was last seen at the residence of his mother's boyfriend in Two Rivers, a city of 11,270 residents located roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Green Bay.

The skeleton remains were found this week by a hunter getting ready for deer season on his property in the rural municipality of Two Rivers, which surrounds the city, according to Two Rivers Police Chief Benjamin Meinnert. They were recognized as Elijah by a forensic anthropologist at the state crime lab.

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"This is not the outcome that we hoped for," Meinnert said. “The family is devastated. We are devastated. The community is devastated."

In February, Katrina Baur, 31, of Wisconsin Dells, the mother of Elijah, was charged with one count of felony child maltreatment and two counts of misdemeanor resisting or obstructing an officer. She entered a not guilty plea. The same day, Jesse Vang, 39, of Two Rivers, who is her boyfriend, was charged with one count of criminal child neglect. And he entered a not guilty plea.

A criminal complaint states that Bauer left her son with Vang on February 12 in order to impart to him the values of "becoming a man." On February 20, Vang reported the boy missing to the police, explaining that he had taken a nap and had brought the boy into the bedroom with him. Three hours later, he was gone when he woke up.

According to Meinnert, the boy's bones were discovered roughly 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from his last known location. The chief declared that more work will be done to determine what happened to Elijah.

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The woman who discovered the bones stated that she had been looking for the bones on purpose since learning the week before that further remains had been found in the same spot. "I'm thinking how do bones happen to be by a carousel? So I'm looking at the rocks around the carousel and lo and behold," Brooklyn resident Huntly Cooper told WABC. Authorities gathered bones from the well-known site in Brooklyn Bridge Park earlier this month.

Police in New York City responded to a 911 call at approximately 7 p.m. about bone fragments discovered along 10 Dock Street's shoreline. Film captures the officers searching through rocks near the water's edge across from the well-known Jane's Carousel, built in 1922 and donated to the park in 2011 following years of refurbishment.