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Report: Mother of AJ Freund gives birth behind bars

The mother of slain 5-year old AJ Freund of Crystal Lake gave birth to a baby girl while behind bars, a television station has reported.

According to a WGN 9 News report, which cited an unnamed source associated with DCFS, JoAnn Cunningham agreed to keep the baby girl in DCFS custody.

Cunningham, 36, and AJ's father, Andrew Freund, 60, are accused of killing the 5-year-old in April and hiding his body.

The Crystal Lake couple are being held in the McHenry County jail on $5 million bail while awaiting trial on murder charges.

A paternity test to determine who the baby girl's father is was ordered by a judge, according to the report. A similar paternity test to determine the father of AJ's younger brother was ordered by a judge in late May.

AJ was reporting missing by his parents April 18, but police later said the boy had been killed three days earlier, wrapped in plastic and buried in a shallow grave in a field near Woodstock. His remains were recovered April 24.

The parents each face multiple charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery, domestic battery and failure to report a missing child or child death. Andrew Freund faces an additional charge of concealment of a death. The next court date for each on the criminal charges is June 18.

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