An old unsolved US criminal case is about to be solved after 65 years. Police have identified a child whose body was discovered in 1957 in a box in a then-rural area outside of Philadelphia, broadcasters CBS 3 and NBC 10 reported Wednesday (local time), citing police sources. With the help of DNA analyses, relatives of the previously unnamed boy were found and a birth certificate was also found
The family was from the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania. Although so many years have passed, charges of murder may still be filed in this cold case, it said. The unclothed body of the four- to six-year-old boy was wrapped in a blanket and showed signs of being beaten several times when it was found on February 25, 1957. “The cause of death was blunt force trauma,” a now-retired investigator told CBS in 2021. In addition, the victim had been washed and had his hair cut.
Name for tombstone of unknown child
The investigations, which dragged on for years, did not lead to a breakthrough. At that time, sheets with the face of the blond boy were distributed all over the city to ask the population for help. The child and case became known as “The Boy in the Box” and “America’s Unknown Child” – as it is written on the headstone in Philadelphia’s Ivy Hill Cemetery. The remains were last excavated there in 2019 to take DNA samples, it said. “I’m glad to see the little boy’s name on the tombstone,” said a cemetery worker.
Police will likely not comment publicly on this case until next week. “We expect to have an important update on this case in the near future,” Detective Inspector Eric Gripp told the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper.
Source: Krone
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