The caseworker assigned to monitor an Illinois foster child who died in May 2024 had a troubling past, including an arrest for a violent crime and orders of protection filed against her by eight women for alleged threats, harassment and abuse, court documents show.

Take a look back at some of the biggest news stories of 2024 in the McHenry County area.

Carlos Acosta, the DCFS caseworker convicted in the mishandling of the AJ Freund case months before the Crystal Lake boy was killed by his mother, completed his jail term this week.

Truth in sentencing? Proposed Illinois law would mean all people who are in prison would serve half their sentences, and it would apply retroactively.

As expected, a June 13 column on the sentencing of a former Department of Children and Family Services investigator drew spirited feedback.

DCFS employees gathered in the courtroom in McHenry County where former caseworker Carlos Acosta was jailed for child endangerment tied to the death of Crystal Lake boy AJ Freund.

The former Illinois Department of Children and Family Services caseworker convicted in the mishandling of the AJ Freund case could face prison time when he is sentenced Thursday.

Proponents say it's better to keep families together and provide substance abuse treatment to parents. McHenry County State's Attorney Patrick Kenneally said the decision shouldn't be left in DCFS's hands.

Five-year-old AJ Freund's body was found five years ago this week. Here is a timeline of events from when AJ Freund was first reported missing to the recent conviction of a DCFS worker involved in his case.

Kids in Need of McHenry County opened The Bridge store in Crystal Lake on March 1. The store allows foster parents, social workers and others to find new and gently used clothing and other supplies for children.

DCFS chid protection specialist in AJ Freund case guilty of child endangerment, supervisor acquitted.

In a rare move, the former child welfare agency workers were charged criminally for allegedly failing to follow procedures that might have prevented the boy's slaying.

Since July 1, 2018, 123 children who had cases with the Department of Children and Family Services have died and the death of 5-year-old AJ Freund marked the only case that lead to criminal charges filed against that department’s employees, a defense attorney said.

AJ Freund's DCFS case worker made a series of missteps before the Crystal Lake boy was found dead, according to court testimony Tuesday.

A Crystal Lake police officer broke into tears Monday as she spoke of her disbelief when a child protective specialist from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services allowed AJ Freund, a bruised 5-year-old boy, to leave the police station with his mother.

The criminal trial for two former Illinois Department of Children and Family Services employees assigned to the case of a 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy killed by his parents in 2019 is set to begin Monday.

The Crystal Lake mother serving 35 years in prison for killing her 5-year-old son in April 2019 will receive evaluations completed by doctors who examined her in the months following the death.

McHenry County’s top prosecutors were recognized as “heroes” recently by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for the prosecution of the Crystal Lake parents who killed 5-year-old AJ Freund in 2019.

Illinois Department of Children and Family Services’ reports and medical records pertaining to the life of a 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy killed by his parents in 2019 could be presented during the criminal trials of the social workers in charge of his case.

The 19 police reports that Department of Children and Family Services employees did not request during an investigation into whether AJ Freund, the 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy later killed by his mother, was being abused can be admitted as evidence, a judge ruled.

Opinion: The Illinois legislature has given DCFS a combined additional $150 million in the past two state budgets to fix this mess.

An out-of-county judge will be brought into the McHenry County courthouse to preside over the cases of two case workers charged criminally in connection with the death of a 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy killed by his parents in 2019.

Writing that JoAnn Cunningham’s constitutional rights were not violated, a McHenry County judge Wednesday dismissed the post-conviction petition filed by the former Crystal Lake mother serving 35 years in prison for killing her 5-year-old son.

A McHenry County child welfare advocacy group created a display of children’s shoes in the Illinois Statehouse on Thursday to bring awareness of child abuse to legislators.

Members of the Roar for AJ group will rally Thursday at the state Capitol to call attention to what members consider ongoing failures by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

A McHenry County judge said Friday he has 90 days to decide whether the post-conviction petition filed by a Crystal Lake woman serving 35 years in prison for killing her 5-year-old son has merit.

The Crystal Lake mother serving a 35-year prison term for killing her 5-year-old son AJ Freund in 2019 claims she suffered postpartum psychosis and was “seeing demons” when she killed her son.

The Crystal Lake mother who pleaded guilty to murdering her 5-year-old son is seeking post-conviction relief. Read the petition she filed here.

The former Department of Child and Family Services case investigator charged in connection with the death of Crystal Lake’s 5-year-old AJ Freund is asking to have his case separated from his old supervisor’s.

The Cook County Public Guardian's Office argues DCFS is not doing enough to place kids in proper care settings and has pushed the court to find the director in contempt in homes of causing action

The motion, and the evidence the prosecution wants to admit at trial, are not being made available to the public to view, as they have been impounded.

The Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police on Friday will honor 12 Crystal Lake police officers as the 2019 Most Outstanding Law Enforcement Officers of the Year.

In its ruling, the Public Access Bureau found that not only did DCFS employee text messages exist which the Northwest Herald might have been entitled to examine, but the agency didn’t search for those messages until more than two months after the newspaper submitted its request.

Former DCFS employee Carlos Acosta will be allowed to travel to Texas at the end of July

Potential state witnesses so far include a doctor who examined AJ in 2018, several officers with the Crystal Lake Police Department and FBI, and investigators from the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office, records show.

Andrew Freund, who was licensed as an attorney in 1984, pleaded guilty in September to aggravated battery of a child, involuntary manslaughter and concealment of homicidal death

The former Illinois Department of Children and Family Services supervisor charged criminally in the death of AJ Freund, beaten to death last year by his parents, made a brief appearance in McHenry County courtroom Tuesday.

The Crystal Lake parents convicted of beating and killing their 5-year-old son could be called to testify in the trials of two former child welfare employees who had contact with the family in 2018, court records show

After 17 months of denying before a McHenry County judge any involvement in the death of his 5-year-old son, AJ Freund, Andrew Freund Sr. pleaded guilty Friday to aggravated battery of a child, involuntary manslaughter and concealment of a homicidal death.

Prosecutors will have to show former caseworker Carlos Acosta, 54, and his supervisor Andrew Polovin, 48, were not only neglectful and endangered Freund, but that it was their activity or lack of activity that caused the death of the child

The details of the case, where Acosta was the caseworker and Crystal Lake’s AJ Freund ultimately died, are well documented. So is public opinion, which is both Freund’s parents and DCFS should pay for his death.

A pair of former child welfare employees who had prior contact with slain Crystal Lake boy AJ Freund and his family were arrested Thursday on child endangerment charges.

Andrew Freund is scheduled to appear in court again next Friday for a status hearing. Eventually, one of these hearings is likely to announce a plea agreement.

The woman convicted of beating and killing her 5-year-old son, AJ Freund, was transferred Thursday to Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln to serve her 35-year prison sentence.

A plea deal between the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office and the father of slain 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy AJ Freund could be on its way, the man’s attorney said in court Thursday.

In the past 15 months, the Crystal Lake home where a 5-year-old boy was beaten to death has been leveled, his mother has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for first-degree murder of her son and the boy’s father awaits trial.

Thirty-five years just isn’t enough. JoAnn Cunningham made her son AJ Freund's life hell from the start, born addicted to heroin. And she ended it in the most cruel and inhumane way imaginable.

At Thursday’s sentencing hearing for JoAnn Cunningham, the Crystal Lake mother who admitted to killing her 5-year-old son, a foster parent said all that Cunningham had to do was ask for help and the boy would have been alive today.

The Northwest Herald will be providing live updates from Thursday's sentencing hearing for JoAnn Cunningham in the death of her son, AJ Freund. Reporters Amanda Marrazzo and Katie Smith, along with Editor Jon Styf, will update throughout the day.

Facing up to six decades in prison, JoAnn Cunningham – the mother who pleaded guilty to killing her 5-year-old son last year inside their Crystal Lake home – is expected to learn her fate this week.