Who Was the Convicted Felon Elijah Vue’s Mother Chose to Raise Her Three-Year-Old?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Drake.

**Tony Brueski** (0:09)
If you're a human, if you're a parent, if you are someone who cares about the wellbeing of other people in any way, shape or form, this case I'm gonna warn you right now is going to upset you, Elijah Vue. We've talked about it a little bit in the past, when some of this was slowly developing a while back, we're getting closer to a court date and we're gonna dive deeper into where this case is at today in anticipation of where it's going tomorrow. And three different parts are today. And of course your thoughts are welcome in the comment section and sub stack and YouTube, Facebook, wherever you're listening. Links are there in the description. The first part is about the people in the Elijah Vue case, who they are, how they're connected, and what the evidence says about the dynamic between them. Because at the end of the day, this is a case about a three-year-old. So of course, it's about all the people surrounding the three-year-old. Katrina Baur once told police that Jesse Vang trafficked her, that's his mom, and that she was his property. Years later, she sent her three-year-old son to go live with him for what she described as disciplinary reasons.
The criminal complaint lays out text messages, deleted photographs, and what looks like coordinated understanding between them about what was being done to the child. Both are now charged in connection with Elijah's death. Surprise, yes, he died. Both have pled not guilty. Joining me to discuss Lisa Hale, who is one of our own reporters and has been following this case for quite some time in Wisconsin. And of course, Todd Michaels is with us as well. Robin is off today. He'll be back later in the week. I don't know what we I can't say anything about where he's at today, but we'll reveal that at some point in time when he says we can.
It's neat. It's fun. It's exciting. Anyway, Lisa, the big thing on this case, and I think the case that strikes everyone right off the bat, and you've been following this thing more than almost everyone, is the fact that Katrina brought her son back to the same guy that she had said was trafficking her. She said she was his property. She knew the abuse. She knew the track record according to her, and somehow thought, you know what? My three-year-old needs some direction in life. Let me go drop him off there.
That's kind of the jump point on this. I mean, what the hell is going on here?

**Lisa Hale** (2:48)
The Katrina Baur did not have control of her child. She has another child. It is a girl child.
But she just felt that little Elijah was, how do I put this, too unruly, didn't behave enough, didn't do what mom said. So she sent him to Jesse Vang, as you said, for disciplinary reasons, for him to teach a three-year-old baby to be a man.

**Tony Brueski** (3:26)
How much math was involved? Is the next question, the next natural question to that statement.

**Lisa Hale** (3:38)
That is a natural question to the statement because Jesse Vang himself has a storied history of drug arrests and things of that nature. So it could be involved.
It's just, it's such a sad situation because of how the attempts to mold this child into what they thought was behavior. And it broke my heart because this little boy was described by his aunts and people who knew him as just the sweetest thing. And he loved the color green and he loved dinosaurs. And then you get the information from the criminal complaints that he was forced to kneel with praying hands and constantly say over and over, I'm sorry mommy. I'm sorry mommy. I won't be bad mommy.

**Tony Brueski** (4:42)
What was the relationship here with Vang and his mom prior to her dropping him off? Were they still tight? Because obviously she has horror stories to share of this man. How did they connect or reconnect or never disconnect, I guess?

**Lisa Hale** (5:02)
Well, Katrina Baur, her husband Jimmy, was a friend of Jesse Vang's. So she claimed that Jimmy and Vang together trafficked her.
So she considers him her trafficker. Now, that's what she's saying. At the time, he was her boyfriend who just happened to live in Two Rivers when she lived in Wisconsin Dells because he was on probation for other child. So they were boyfriend girlfriend and they had a relationship, a connection, and that's why she sent him to Vang to learn how to be a man.