News - McHenry County

Parents of missing Crystal Lake boy fight foreclosure of home

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Lenders are trying to foreclose on the home where a 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy was reported missing Thursday, court records show.

Andrew Freund and JoAnn Cunningham bought the mortgage for their Dole Avenue home from Home Sites LLC on March 14, 2017, court records show.

The pair failed to pay 2016 and 2017 property taxes on their home, however, and in July, Home Sites sought foreclosure on the property, citing defaulted payments in the amount of $98,909, according to a petition filed in McHenry County court.

The property originally was bought by Freund for $137,500 in 1990, according to property records.

In accordance with a Nov. 21 court order, the home was sold at a Feb. 22 foreclosure sale. Freund is trying to dispute the transaction and the matter is expected to pick back up in McHenry County court Thursday.

Freund and Cunningham live together at 94 Dole Ave., Crystal Lake – the last place Andrew “A.J.” Freund was seen before his reported disappearance Thursday morning.

Another man, 36-year-old Daniel Nowicki, also is reported to have lived at the home sometime within the past year.

Woodstock police arrested Nowicki in December, after he allegedly kicked and hit two nurses and a security guard at Northwestern Medical Hospital – Woodstock, while undergoing a psychological evaluation, Cunningham said in a Jan. 1 email to the Northwest Herald. Nowicki lived at the Dole Avenue address at the time, according to the criminal complaint detailing his arrest.

Nowicki was taken to the McHenry County Jail on Dec. 19, and remained there Monday evening on a $75,000 bond.

Katie Smith

Katie Smith

Katie reported on the crime and courts beat for the Northwest Herald from 2017 through 2021. She began her career with Shaw Media in 2015 at the Daily Chronicle in DeKalb, where she reported on the courts, city council, the local school board, and business.