APPLETON, Wis. — Aug. 20 marked six months since 3-year-old Elijah Vue disappeared from Two Rivers. It also marked his fourth birthday.
While family and community members are heartbroken he has not been found, they spent Sunday honoring him.
They held a birthday party at Kiwanis Park in Appleton, with face painting, dinosaur cupcakes and giant “4” balloons. His family said he would have loved it.
“He is very vibrant, funny, full of energy. He will pull on your heartstrings as soon as you meet him. He is very verbal. He’s intelligent, and he’s not a little guy that would be so easily forgotten,” said Amber Runge, Vue’s aunt.
Melissa Ramsden helped organize the birthday party. Ramsden said this event gives people the chance to share their love for the missing boy and keep his name in the headlines.
“It’s a happy day for us. We’re together. We’re celebrating Elijah. He’s not here. He’s here in our hearts. He’s here in our minds. He’s here in our spirit. We don’t know where he’s at. We don’t know what happened, so let’s have a birthday party for him. We need to keep him remembered. We need to keep him in the news,” Ramsden said.
Tara Michaels traveled almost four hours to be at the birthday party. Michaels and her husband have participated in most of the searches for Vue. She said she felt an instant connection when she saw Vue’s face.
“Elijah looks like my grandson. If it was my grandson, what would I have an expectation of? Well, I would want the Army here. I would want everybody. I would want anybody and everybody who could make it, who had the free time,” Michaels said.
Authorities confirm the search and investigation into what happened to Vue is still open and active. The boy’s mother and her boyfriend have been arrested and remain in jail on accusations of child neglect and punishment of Vue before his disappearance.
Runge said this celebration in Vue’s honor is a symbol of hope that he will still be found.
“While he’s not here, I feel like he’s here in spirit, and even as I speak, I’m hopeful, no matter where he is, he can hear me. More than anything, I wish he could be here so that he could see the amount of love everybody has for him,” Runge said.