TWO RIVERS, Wis. — Monday marks three months since 3-year-old Elijah Vue went missing from Two Rivers, Wis.
Despite thousands of tips and extensive hours of work, police have yet to locate the missing toddler.
The Amber Alert for Vue was activated on Feb. 20. Two Rivers Police Captain Andrew Raatz said he never imagined three months later, the 3-year-old would still be missing.
“It’s very frustrating. I know it’s frustrating for the public and is frustrating for us as well. We use a lot of resources to attempt to locate him. Our officers have worked a lot of overtime. Within the first several weeks, we exhausted our entire overtime budget,” Raatz said.
Hundreds of community members and law enforcement officers have searched many areas of northeastern Wisconsin for Vue. Raatz said most of their search efforts have been focused in Manitowoc County because of the evidence collected. He said they’ve had many leads that are now running dry.
“We are well over 2,000 tips at this point. Tips are still coming in. They’re not as frequent as they once were. But they do come in every day,” Raatz said.
Those in the Two Rivers community are still holding out hope for the tip that will help break this investigation. Alex DeWitt, manager of Crafty Cravings in Two Rivers, continues to hang blue hearts so everyone knows the community is still invested in the search.
“We have blue hearts displayed on our windows to continuously show our support for Elijah and remind our community that he’s still out there and that people are looking for [him],” DeWitt said.
Dewitt said after three months of searching for Vue, the color of those blue hearts hanging in her store window are not the only thing fading.
“I’m kind of starting to see the hope go down. There are still plenty of people who are involved in the daily searches and who are still donating and giving tips and anything that they possibly can,” DeWitt said.
Still, investigators continue to push forward. Raatz said he remains optimistic.
“We haven’t given up our search and our focus on finding Elijah and we hope the community doesn’t either,” Raatz said.
The Two Rivers police department is asking the public to keep looking for Vue and call in tips as the department’s focus continues to be the same: Locate Elijah Vue.
Vue is a 3-year-old boy with sandy colored hair and brown eyes. Two Rivers Police Department said he “was described as having Hmong and white ethnicity.”
He has a birthmark on his left knee. He is 3-feet-tall and weighs 45 pounds.
In the Amber Alert issued Feb. 20, police said he was last seen wearing gray sweatpants, as well as a long-sleeve, dark-colored shirt and red and green dinosaur slip-on shoes.
Anyone with any information about the case is asked to call the tipline at 844-267-6648 or submit information via the Manitowoc County Crime Stoppers P3 app. Those who provide information that help investigators located Vue are eligible for a reward of up to $40,000.