Few unsolved cases can be as sad, as tragic as the case of the boy in the box.
The little boy was discovered completely unclothed in a box in Pennsylvania in the USA on February 25, 1957. Judging from his injuries, the poor little mite had been battered to death.
Despite numerous police appeals, nobody came forward to identify him never mind claim the child.
His murder was a double tragedy. Buried without even a name, somewhere someone should have been mourning the little boy who was just 4 or 5-years-old.
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| How the little boy mighy have looked |
So, who was the Boy in the Box, also known as America's Unknown Child?
Why did nobody claim him as their own?
The police inquiries focused on why his hair had been cut so severely short very closely to his scalp, probably shortly before his death. They believe it was cut to hide the lush big curls he would have had in life so identification would be easier.
Someone must have cared about him. He'd been wrapped in a blanket, but there were signs he'd been starved.
The police printed thousands of leaflets with a photograph of the little boy who'd been posed to look as closely as he would to in life. They hoped someone would recognise him.
Their hopes were dashed.
There were plenty of theories, but none that could be proven -
He was the child of an unwed mother who's father ran a nearby foster home and he wanted rid of the child.
He was a child who'd been raised as a girl and that was the reason his hair had been hacked off.
Whoever the child was, he was never identified and was finally laid to rest for a second time (after he was moved from a potter's field). His funeral was attended by members of the public and paid for by the son of the man who'd first buried the unknown child. The headstone bearing the words 'America's Unknown Child.'
~~~Updates~~~
In 2016, a forensic facial reconstruction was done of his face and he was entered in the the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children database.
In 2018, a top genetic genealogist who helped identify the Golden State killer, said she was trying to use a new DNA profiling to finally give a name to the little boy in the box for the first time.
