Mystery Unsolved Inc True Crime

The Boy In The Box

This week on Mystery Inc Unsolved, we cover the unfortunate murder of the unknown boy in the box. This case has been highly requested and is as bizarre as it is mysterious.

"On February 25th, 1957, the body of a boy was found in an illegal dumping ground near Bury Road in Philadelphia."

"The boy was estimated to be four to six years old, weighed thirty pounds, stood three feet and three inches tall, was found naked but wrapped in a blanket. The boy's hair was cut and his body was recently washed. There were small scars in several places including his chin, groin, and left ankle, some of which suggest he underwent a medical procedure. Head injuries were determined to be the cause of death and there were no witnesses."

"The body was first found by a young man who was walking through the abandoned lot. Strangely, this man waited a full day before tipping off the police and even stranger it turns out that a second man had previously found the boy's body but claimed he did not contact the police because he did not want to get involved."

"With the cold weather at the time of year and the delayed phone call from the person who found the body, it wasn't possible to accurately estimate when the boy had passed away. In hopes of finding his identity, the police kept the body at the morgue while visitors from over ten different states tried to identify the body by looking for any significant marks to no avail. "

"Police sent out four hundred thousand flyer images of the boy to police stations, post offices, and courthouses all over the country. Even the American Medical Association sent out a description of the boy but it led nowhere."

"The police compared the child's footprints to hospital records in the area, finger prints were taken of the boy, but no record was found to prove the boy ever existed."

"Let's run through some of the key clues left at the scene of the crime. One promising clue came from the actual box itself. The box contained a serial number that allowed investigators to pinpoint the shipment who were able to trace it back to a JC Penny's store fifteen miles away. Eerily, before the box, box was used to ship a bassinet. The store had shipped twelve of these boxes of bassinets, however, all of the purchasers paid in case leaving no record. Eight purchasers ended up contacting the police when they read the story in newspapers to go on record that they either still had the boxes or had put the boxes out for trash collection. Though the police were able to determine the box was shipped to Upper Darby, Pennsylvania."  

"The blanket was examined by the Philadelphia Textile Institute which believed the blanket was made in either Grandby, Quebec in Canada or Swannanoa, North Carolina but there was no way to tell where this particular blanket was purchased since thousands were made and sold. Ultimately, the blanket was a dead-end."

"Another propitious clue was a hat found fifteen feet near the box, a blue corduroy Ivy League style cap size seven and one-eighth, it was labeled 'Eagle Hat and Cap Company.' And made by the small company owner Mrs. Hannah Robbins in South Philadelphia."

"Mrs. Robbins remembers the man who purchased the hat because she had customized it for him. The man who was described as blonde, between the ages of twenty-six and thirty, requested a leather strap and buckle be added to the hat. He paid in cash and she never saw him again. Detectives visited over one hundred stores in the area, but nobody recognized the hat nor the boy."

"There were also strands of hair found on the boy's body, suggesting a hast haircut and one forensic artist named Frank Bender believes the boy was possibly raised a girl. In fact, Bill Kelly, an original investigator on the case recounts in 1976 and 1958, a West Coast artist did circulate a rendition of the child as a girl but it never produced any leads."

"With all these dead ends, let's get into the theories of what could have possibly happened to this boy and who he could be."

"The first theory comes from authors Lou Romano and Jim Hoffman, who came across a lead from a man in Philadelphia who said that his family once rented a place to a man who sold his son, possibly, The Boy In The Box."

"A forensic pathologist looked at photos of the boy's potential father and possible brother and agreed that similarities would warrant further laboratory testing. He found similarities in the facial structure, the helix of the right ear, and the nose. A DNA sample was taken from the man they believed to be the brother, oddly, investigators from Philadelphia did not say whether they would test DNA to compare the potential brother to the boy in the box, they only said they would 'Investigate further.'"

"The second theory comes from medical examiner Remington Bristow who investigated the case for over thirty-six year. Bristow gathered newspaper clippings of the boy and spent thousands of dollars of his own money and spent countless hours trying to identify the boy. He traveled all the way to Arizona and Texas for leads. Bristow even consulted with a psychic who held staples from the bassinet box hoping he or she could gather some clues. Bristow even went as far as carrying a mask of the boy's face in his briefcase."

"Bristow theorized that the boy died accidentally, his freshly cut hair and nails indicated that he was well taken care of. Perhaps the boy's family never came forward because they did not want to be charged with murder. Based off a psychic's clue, Bristow looked into a foster family that lived nearby where the boy was found. The foster family had already been interviewed by the police, at this foster family's 1961 estate sale, Bristow found a bassinet that he believed could have previously been stowed in the box the boy was found in."

"Bristow then began to theorize that the boy was an illegitimate child of the daughter of the foster family and was perhaps abandoned by the daughter so that she would not be revealed as a single mother. Bristow would eventually pass away in 1933 but shortly Detective Tom Augustine took up the case where Bristow left off. On February 23rd, 1998, Detective Augustine went to the home of Arthur Nicoletti, the man who led the former foster care home. Nicoletti's wife Anna Marie was the woman Bristow theorized to be the boy in the box. In addition to being Nicoletti's wife, Anna Marie was also Nicoletti's step-daughter."

"Anna Marie told Augustine that she did have a boy who passed away in bizarre fashion with morgue records supporting her statement. His cause of death was electrocution from a nickel ride outside a store."

"The third and final theory comes from a woman named Martha. A psychiatrist from Cincinnati contacted Augustine and said one of the patients insisted on speaking to the police. One of the patients went by the name Martha, and said that when she was eleven year old her mother took her to a house where she handed an envelope over for a boy."

"Martha said she was sexually abused by her mother and the mother wanted to do the same to the boy. Martha said her mother beat the boy to death after struggling to bathe him and drove Martha and the boy to Philadelphia to abandon him. Martha spoke to investigators Tom Augustine, Joseph McGillen, and William Kelly. McGillen and Kelly were one of the first on the Boy In The Box crime scene. All three were allegedly convinced by Martha's story. According to Bill Fleischer, a retired FBI agent, details of Martha's story add up. Testimonies, addresses, and descriptions. It's a strong theory. But even with Martha's lead, the police were not able to verify if the boy was who Martha claimed he was."

"Either way, to this day, the boy's identity remains a mystery. His grave is marked as 'American's unknown child' at the Ivy Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia. To this day, people are mystified as to why nobody came to claim him. Perhaps someday, we will learn who this boy is and what happened to him. But for now, the case remains unsolved."