Identified! PA - Philadelphia, 'Boy in the Box', WhtMale 4-6, 4UMPA, Feb'57

Thx for merging the 2 Chico and thanks for bringing it up Gina.

Okay, now that we are all "on the same page"...literally

This trace element geochemistry is fascinating. It's been posted in a few other UID threads, and I thought I'd bring it over here as well. The bones and teeth collect oxygen isotopes that act as geographic markers throughout a person's life. This was done with the DuPage County Doe:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=85576
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-babydoe_webnov29,0,6995280.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout

The guy who is working on these studies:
http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/geo/faculty/emeriti/schwarcz/index.html
http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/geo/faculty/emeriti/schwarcz/research/index.html

With the DuPage County Doe, they could tell where he lived during his short life (general region) as well as where his mom lived while pregnant (different region). I wonder if this could be done for our Boy in the Box?

What ever happened with that woman who claimed that her mother bought the boy, I think she called him "Jonathan," for sexual purposes? The woman claimed the boy lived in their basement, and after his death she and her mother disposed of him (I think she insinuated she and her mother were spotted by a passerby).

I kept waiting to hear if this story was fabricated or authenticated, but I never heard anything.

Mr. E said:

What ever happened with that woman who claimed that her mother bought the boy, I think she called him "Jonathan," for sexual purposes? The woman claimed the boy lived in their basement, and after his death she and her mother disposed of him (I think she insinuated she and her mother were spotted by a passerby).

I kept waiting to hear if this story was fabricated or authenticated, but I never heard anything.

Click to expand...

On the website set up by investigators it said this story was dismissed because they thought she was not a reliable source. In otherwords they thought she was loony . I thought her story was very plausible though. I still think it should not be totally dismissed.

wow, i saw something similar to this on tv, i think it was on cold case or something like that. in the movie the scenario was that he ended up being a foster child who was born into the foster system by the nun who apparently had sinned, but the part where they found the boy in the cardboard box and the picture of this boy were the same. I wonder if they did it based on him but i wasn't aware that it was a real case. that is so sad. someone has to know who this child is. about the lady they claim is a looney, they should at least take it into consideration. hopefully they are still investigating

I think there was a show that did that, maybe CSI?

Cold Case (the show is depicted to be in Philadelphia)... I was just thinking the same thing, while reading this... I think their episode was based on this case.

Here it is, the Cold Case episode:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_in_the_Box_%28Cold_Case_episode)

imthemom said:

On the website set up by investigators it said this story was dismissed because they thought she was not a reliable source. In otherwords they thought she was loony . I thought her story was very plausible though. I still think it should not be totally dismissed.

Click to expand...

Especially since it corroborates another witness's testimony about coming across a woman and someone else getting something out of a car, he asked them if they needed help, they turned their backs and didn't respond.

IMHO, very very humble opinion, I do think these 2 are right on the money. Just because one is mentally ill does not mean that they make up stories, though sadly that is the case a number of times.

Hi
I found this.I go by the saying "YOU NEVER FAIL UNTILL YOU QUIT TRYING"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LImoCjRjpfQ&mode=related&search=



suzanne

So mito/DNA is now available and at some point he had a chest tube and a catheter (perhaps) as well as IV fluid or a transfusion through his legs because he was either too dehydrated to present with a good vein or he was damaged like in an accident. Were there ever XRAYS done to see if he had broken bones? Arms and hands spring to mind...

Hi
Can some one please help me find this.I think it was in an old newspaper article that says some one in N.J.? saw a man and a boy that fit the boy in the boxes discription in a resturaunt? and the boy called home?something like that.

suzanne

It seems there were X-Rays taken according to an article dated August 9, 1957:

<snip>
Roberts decided to have the body X-rayed, to determine if there was an old fracture of the left arm, like the Damman boy. Footprints also were taken for comparison.

Spelman, meanwhile, came up with a more detailed report on the body. "The cool weather makes it difficult to tell how long the boy was dead," he said, "but it was at least two or three days, and possibly as long as two or three weeks. I don't think the body was in the field that long, though."

According to laboratory tests the boy had not been sexually assaulted.
"As closely as we can tell, he is four to five years old, 40 1/2 inches tall, weighing 30 pounds. He has a full set of baby teeth, still has his tonsils, and has no deformities. No past bone breaks, and no vaccination scar. It would seem he was well cared for, because his fingernails and toenails are carefully clipped."

"His haircut seems crude," Spelman continued. "Trimmed high around the sides. Could have been given at home by an inexpert barber, or perhaps in an institution."

By then, the failure of parents or acquaintances to claim the body, after pictures and descriptions had appeared in the press, led police to believe the boy had either lived in an institution or been brought from some distance.

City Welfare Commissioner Randolph E. Wise offered to check on the whereabouts of all children in foster homes under his jurisdiction, while police canvassed orphanages and children's homes. A thorough check was made of all missing persons reports. But within several days all these efforts proved fruitless.

Police department technicians reported the blanket wrapping the boy was of cheap cotton flannel, patterned in a sort of "Indian print" of green, rust and white blocks, with faded colors. It apparently had been recently washed, then mended with poor-grade cotton thread on a sewing machine.

The blanket had been torn into halves. Its overall size would have been 64 by 76 inches. However, a section 31 by 26 inches had been torn from one half, leading police to think it might have borne some identifying mark.

Although the blanket was untraceable, investigators had better luck with the box. Marked "Furniture", it carried no firm name, but through serial numbers detectives learned the carton had once contained a baby's bassinet, shipped to a West Philadelphia department store in November, 1956.

The store reported the bassinet had probably been sold between December 3, 1956, and February 16, 1957. Roberts issued a public plea for the purchasers of all such bassinets during that period - there were believed to be about a dozen - to come forward and tell where they disposed of the cartons.

There were several other clues.

One was a blue corduroy "Ivy League" cap, size 7 1/8, found 30 feet from the body. The wearer had stuffed tissue paper in the sweatband. It had been manufactured in Philadelphia, but the trail ended there.

Two hundred feet from the body, along Verree Road, police searchers found a cache of clothing for a woman and child - but the smaller clothing was not the dead boy's size.

A story told by an informant who later contacted police seemed to cast some light on this clothing, but created a new mystery.

Two days before the body was found, said the man to Lieutenant William Lovejoy of the northeast detective division, he had been driving along Verree Road when he saw a middle-aged woman and a boy, 12 to 14, unloading something from the trunk of a car.

"I thought the car might have a flat tire, so I stopped and asked if I could help. They didn't say a word, and seemed to be standing so as to block my view of the license plate."

The scene which he described was almost exactly where the clothing had been found. The informant described the car and the woman and boy, but they were never found.

Meanwhile, the possibility that the dead boy was Steven Damman had been eliminated. Two Nassau County detectives came to Philadelphia to view the body and confer with local investigators. Footprints failed to compare; the body showed no left arm fracture. The visitors left convinced it was not Steven's.
</snip>

Complete article: http://americasunknownchild.net/FrontPage.htm

believe09 said:

So mito/DNA is now available and at some point he had a chest tube and a catheter (perhaps) as well as IV fluid or a transfusion through his legs because he was either too dehydrated to present with a good vein or he was damaged like in an accident. Were there ever XRAYS done to see if he had broken bones? Arms and hands spring to mind...

Click to expand...

thank you-I thought perhaps he might have had some kind of crushing injury at some point that made his arms unable to be used for transfusions.

The chest scar sounds superficially like a chest tube, and the incision in the groin area could be from a inguinal hernia or undescended testes?

I have read some articles dated between 1908 and 1951 that indicate "exchange transfusions' were routinely done through the ankle. For example, one of the articles told a story of a woman who had routinely suffered from "pulmonary hemorrages" and was on the verge of death. Her husband had a tube placed into his wrist (artery) and then she had the other end placed into her ankle. his blood flowed from him into her and saved her life...this was in 1908. There are also some articles indicating that it was routinely done on pediatric patients who needed transfusions...up until the 1970's.

I wonder if he was a hemophiliac?

I noticed that St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, which currently pioneers hemophiliac care, opened in 1875....just thinking out loud.

I can't seem to find a COD-or why the police were sure he was beaten around his whole body.

Hi
It looks like his poor legs got most of the beating.

suzanne

Hello everyone. I have been reading your message board for about 3 months now. I found Websleuths.com when I was googling the case of the little boy, David Gonzalez, that went missing in California in 2004. I remember so vividly the night I sat on my couch, watching the news of this little boy’s disappearance. I was pregnant at the time with my third child. I remember distinctly, the profound sadness I felt at the thought of losing my child. It wasn’t too long after that when I discovered the doe network. It was then that I realized just how many missing and unidentified persons there are in the world. It is almost too much to wrap my brain around sometimes. I always think, there has to be someone, somewhere out there missing this unidentified person; or, how could a someone just disappear off the face of this Earth?

My “pet case” is an old one, which at this point in time, seems so hopeless as far as solving or even just learning his identity. The case I am speaking of is that of “America’s Unknown Child, a/k/a The Boy in the Box”. This case has haunted me and tugged at my heartstrings since I first came upon it nearly 4 years ago on the doe network. First, as a mother, it is just unimaginable how someone could take the life of the beautiful, precious and innocent soul of a child. Second, this unknown boy resembles my firstborn son. Third, just the whole premise of how this child died and how he was so callously disposed of literally breaks my heart. There are many nights as I try to fall asleep that I play in my head, the various scenarios of who he could have been, how he fell into such tragedy and who could have done it. As I said before, this case haunts me.

I was recently in touch with Mr. Joseph McGillen. He was one of the investigators of the case of America’s Unknown Child. He is a member of the Vidocq Society. I had suggested that a ribbon be made up in honor of the little boy. Mr. McGillen brought it before the board, but it was rejected, as they felt it wouldn’t accomplish much.

In addition, I have contacted the Nancy Grace Show, The Larry King Show and the producers/George Noory at Coast to Coast AM with a request that they feature the case of America’s Unknown Child, as well as supplementing it with other unidentified and missing cases. I have yet to hear back and unfortunately, I would hedge a bet that these media outlets probably won’t want to feature it due to the fact that this is a 51 year old cold case.

So, here I am. After three months of reading your board, I can see what a kind and caring community you are. It warms my heart to see how dedicated you are to these cases and the lengths that some of you go to in order to help law enforcement solve them.

I am really looking forward to being a part of this community and joining in on your discussions and most importantly, having the opportunity to share my passion for these poor unidentified and missing persons. Unfortunately, when I do speak of my interest in this subject with friends and family, it is often met with indifference and disinterest.

I apologize for such a lengthy post, but I wanted to “make my entrance” and introduce myself before I just jumped in. Thank you!

Hi & Welcome to WS.

A thread exists for this young boy here:
http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57128

Thank you Cubby.