He is known as “America’s Unknown Child” as despite a massive search – no one has been able to figure out who the little one is or who killed him. 8 Police have released disturbing pictures of the boy – who is believed to be between three and seven years old 8 Officers found the boy dumped inside a cardboard furniture box 8 The police then even posed with the remains of the boy in clothes in an attempt to jog people’s memory On a cold February day in 1957, a hunter came across the cardboard box containing the naked boy’s remains. The child aged between three and seven was malnourished dirty with matted hair and covered in scars. Despite the distribution of 40,000 leaflets and massive media attention – no family members ever came forward to claim him. Post-mortem examinations found the boy was underweight and his skin was covered in scars – including surgical cuts – and fresh bruises. His hair has also been cropped in an attempt to hide his identity and his nails were neatly trimmed. The boy is believed to have been beaten to death. The hunter who originally discovered the body failed to report the remains to the police because he was afraid his traps would be confiscated. But it wasn’t until February 25 that a 27-year-old student at LaSalle College found the body and reported it to the police a day later. He thought the child’s remains could be a doll, but called him when he heard that a child from New Jersey had gone missing – however that case turned out to be unrelated to The Boy in the Box. The young victim was placed in a JC Penney basketball box before being dumped on Susquehanna Street in Fox Chase. After the boy’s fingerprints were taken, police uncovered evidence related to the case, including a child’s scarf, scarf and handkerchief. The shocking crime attracted enormous media attention and was widely reported in the local press in Philadelphia. As the police tried to find clues, they decided to release an autopsy photo of the boy, who was dressed and posed in a sitting position. And this year, facial recognition software was implemented to figure out what the victim would look like. But 60 years on the Box in the Boy remains a mystery with the killer still on the loose. For decades, criminologists have come up with chilling theories about what happened to the young boy and how he ended up in a box by his evil killers — and here are some of those theories:
Foster family
Some theorists believe the crime had to do with a foster home, which was located just over a mile from where the body was discovered. One of the coroner’s employees, Remington Bristow, became involved in solving the case. In 1960, he contacted a psychic in New Jersey, who told the investigator to look for a house that looked like a foster home. As officers searched the property, they found a basin that could fit into a JC Penney box. Bristow also claimed that the blankets in the foster home were very similar to those wrapped around the unidentified victim. Despite speculation, police have been unable to find any solid links to the crime. 8 The boy was found stuffed inside a furniture box
suspicious “M”
A shocking confession broke the case wide open in 2002 by a man identified by police only as M. The woman, who had a history of mental illness, claimed her abusive mum had ‘bought’ the young boy from another family. In her lengthy police interview, the witness also claimed that the boy was sexually and physically abused for two and a half years before he was killed. Worryingly, she insisted her parents had punished the boy after he vomited in the bathtub and died after falling to the floor. One factor that lends her story some credibility is that a witness spotted them moving a box from the trunk of their car. The women ignored the man’s offer to help them carry their box, so could this be the body of the unknown child? When the police followed the lead, M’s extended family denied ever seeing a young boy in the house. 8 Recent facial reconstruction of The Boy in the Box
SON OF HALLOWEEN
In 1961, Philadelphia investigators questioned Kenneth Dudley and his wife Irene Dudley to determine if the Boy in the Box was one of the middle-aged couple’s 10 children. The whole family traveled up and down the country with Kenneth as he looked for work. But the Dudleys came to the attention of law enforcement when one of their children — 7-year-old Carol Ann — died as a result of neglect, malnutrition and exposure. Instead of burying their toddler’s body in a cemetery, the couple wrapped their daughter in a blanket and placed her body in a wooded area in Virginia. It later emerged that seven of the family’s ten children starved to death and none of them received a proper burial. After questioning the Dudleys and tracking their movements, officers determined that the pair were not connected to the boy in the box. 8 The traces of the unknown boy
BOY RAISED AS A GIRL
Another theory states that the boy in the box could actually have been raised as a girl – leading to no one being able to identify him. Coroner Frank Bender believes the boy’s hastily cut hair and the fact that his eyebrows appeared to have been plucked indicate this. “I’m pretty sure they missed the boat because they were showing a boy and it’s a boy, but the boy, I believe, was dressed as a girl,” he told ABC in 2008. Photographs of the ‘boy’ circulated, including eerie shots of his remains posing in men’s clothing, would mean that anyone who knew him could not recognize him. The theory was briefly explored in the 1950s – but at the time produced no leads. However, Mr Bender created his own sketch in an attempt to gather new leads to help solve the case. 8 Sketch of The Boy in the Box as a girl, drawn by researcher Frank Bender
VICTIM OF KIDNAPPING
In 1955, three-year-old Steven Craig Damman was kidnapped outside a supermarket. As the descriptions of both boys are similar, police investigated the theory that both could be the same person. X-rays, fingerprints and medical records were searched as officers tried to close the case. Despite speculation, it is unlikely that two victims were the same person due to some key differences. While the boy in the box did not appear to be suffering from organ problems, Steven was being treated for kidney growth when he was abducted. Investigators were also unable to find Steven’s signature freckle on the back of the body’s calf. 8 Steven Craig Daman was thought to be the boy in the box However, the officers learned that Steve had broken his arm before he disappeared, while the boy in the box has no fractures. Their tracks also didn’t match, and in 2003 when DNA experts were able to find evidence from the two boys, no matches were made. The body of the unidentified child was buried in a potter’s field with police paying for his funeral, but his body was exhumed in 1998 so experts could collect DNA evidence. He was reburied at Ivy Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia in a donated casket and given a headstone inscribed “America’s Unknown Child”. Despite this, members of the Vidocq Society crime-solving club hold an annual memorial service to pay their respects to the boy. A website dedicated to the mystery of the boy in the box has also been set up, where people can provide information that could solve the mystery.
