AJ Freund's home previously met health, safety standards, county records show

The home where police believe 5-year-old Andrew "AJ" Freund was beaten to death by his parents was not always in the squalid condition it is today, McHenry County Department of Health records show.

Records from 2014 and 2015 show that for some time, JoAnn Cunningham, the boy’s mother and a self-admitted addict, steered clear of drugs and kept the home on Dole Avenue in a livable condition.

Eventually, the commitment made by Cunningham and AJ’s father, Andrew Freund Sr., to keep up with health and safety standards fell to the wayside, however, which was evidenced by police reports and affidavits that described the home at the time AJ was reported missing. Officers who searched for AJ reported seeing mouse droppings and cockroaches throughout the home, as well as garbage bags piled on top of one another.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services temporarily took custody of AJ in October 2013 after he was born with opiates in his system, DCFS records show. He spent the next two years in foster care before he was court-ordered to return to his mother in June 2015.

About that time, home visits were conducted by Family Case Management program workers who are employed through the county’s health department, said Keri Zaleski, the health department’s community information coordinator.

Reports from a July 10, 2014, visit to the home, described a house that met county health department standards.

“[Cunningham] states she has no problems with keeping appointments since she has been sober,” the report stated. “Mom states she has been sober for seven months and is motivated to stay this way.”

Another report from a visit conducted March 13, 2015, claimed Cunningham was “doing good now.”

The county’s health department inspected the home based on specific criteria, and on both visits, it determined the house had proper heating and sanitation, food storage and cooking facilities. It also was free of insects and rodents, reports show.

Additional home visits were performed by a Youth Service Bureau of Illinois worker who made 17 unannounced visits to the home between June 24, 2015, and March 11, 2016, and nine planned visits between June 17, 2015, and April 13, 2016. The worker did not observe any signs of abuse or neglect, DCFS records show.

The Abused and Neglected Child Report Act defines neglect as failing to provide care such as adequate food, clothing and shelter, among other necessities.