true crime

the boy in the box

  The boy in the box was a little boy was 4-6 years old boy who was found naked and battered.

  In February 1957, the boys body was wrapped in a plaid blanket. The body was first discovered by a young man who was checking his muskrat traps. Afraid the police would confiscate his traps, he did not report what he found. A few days later, a college student spotted a rabbit spotted a rabbit running under a bush. Knowing there was animal traps in the area, he stopped his car to investigate and discovered the body. He was also reluctant to have any contact with the police, but he did report what he had found the following day, after hearing of the disappearance of Mary Jane Baker.

  The police received the report and opened an investigation on February 26, 1957. The dead boy's fingerprints were taken, and police at first were optimistic that he would soon be identified. However, no one ever came forward with any useful information. The case attracted massive media attention in the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley. The Philadelphia inquirer printed 400,000 flyers. The police also distributed a post-mortem photograph of the boy fully dressed and in a seated position, as he may have looked in life, in the hope it might lead to a clue. On March 21, 2016, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released a forensic facial reconstruction of the victim and added him into their database.

The boy in the box was originally buried in a posters felid. In 1998, his body was exhumed for the purpose of extracting DNA, which was obtained from an enamel tooth. He was reburied at Ivy Hill Cemetery in Cedarbrook wich donated a big plot. The coffin, headstone, and funeral service were donated by the son of the man who had buried the boy in 1957.