IA IA - Des Moines, Male 2458UMIA, Newborn, Burned in River w/Skull Fracture, Dec'53

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Fuuro

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  • #1
On Saturday, December 12, 1953, officials recovered a white male infant from the Des Moines River in Polk County, Iowa. The newborn had been struck in the skull and burned before being tossed into the river.

The infant’s charred body was burned beyond recognition, and investigators could determine neither the child’s exact weight nor height, but did identify a skull fracture in the baby’s head.

Detectives believe the infant was likely killed sometime on or around Dec. 12, 1953.

The baby wore no clothing, and the Polk County Medical Examiner’s Office took over the case in attempts to identify the newborn’s body.

No DNA or dental charting is available in this case.

Information Needed
If you have any information about this unidentified infant please contact the Polk County Medical Examiner’s Office at (515) 286-2102 or NamUs Regional Administrator Melissa Gregory at (855) 626-7600.

Sources:
Click to expand...

Unidentified male infant

This case is really depressing to me as it's likely that whoever did this got away with a really heinous murder of a child, seeing as it's been 65 years. Though, it was much more common back then for teenagers to get married and have children, so maybe the parents are still out there. His mom would be about 79-80 at the absolute least right now.

I'm not sure how old he was exactly, but if he was just born (as in, within hours of his death), maybe someone tried to hide a pregnancy and nobody else knows that this child existed?
 
  • #2
The comments at the link are interesting. To solve this they’d have to interview young people who were in the area at the time. Did a young girl miss school or work that week or just prior to that time, due to illness? Maybe they were “sick” at Thanksgiving? If they’re referring to him as a newborn, he had to have been less than a month old or so. Did he still have the umbilical cord attached? I wonder if it was the father who left the body. Usually a mother wraps her baby in something, towel, blanket, etc.

Edit: Date discrepancy is it Dec 12 or Nov 12?
 
  • #3
PayrollNerd said:
Edit: Date discrepancy is it Dec 12 or Nov 12?
Click to expand...

I'm a bit unsure myself. I assumed that the November 12 date on NamUS was a mistake because the Iowa Cold Cases source, for what it's worth, has more information and also says that police believe the baby died on December 12, which would obviously be impossible if the baby were discovered a month before.

I also think it would be really helpful to know exactly how old the baby was. It changes the dynamics of this case. The older of a newborn the baby was, the more likely it is that several people knew about him and the higher the odds that someone outside of the perpetrator knows what might have happened to him.

Good question about the umbilical cord. I'm assuming it was not attached due to the fact that it was never mentioned in the case file, but seeing as the body was extensively burned, is it possible that it was totally incinerated?
 
  • #4
Fuuro said:
I'm a bit unsure myself. I assumed that the November 12 date on NamUS was a mistake because the Iowa Cold Cases source, for what it's worth, has more information and also says that police believe the baby died on December 12, which would obviously be impossible if the baby were discovered a month before.

I also think it would be really helpful to know exactly how old the baby was. It changes the dynamics of this case. The older of a newborn the baby was, the more likely it is that several people knew about him and the higher the odds that someone outside of the perpetrator knows what might have happened to him.

Good question about the umbilical cord. I'm assuming it was not attached due to the fact that it was never mentioned in the case file, but seeing as the body was extensively burned, is it possible that it was totally incinerated?
Click to expand...
Oh, I forgot the body was charred so I doubt they were able to find any soft tissue. If the skull was intact, I do wonder if they could exhume the body and do DNA at this point. I have not looked at the geographical area yet. I’m wondering if this was a rural community and the mother was relatively unknown. Years ago, young girls were sent away to have a baby out of wedlock.
 
  • #5
Comments interesting, indeed.

What is in the immediate area?

Know insular religious community? Maternity home? Private "rest home" or similar facility?
 
  • #6
Just wondering - if the mother of the infant were found and it was determined that she was responsible for both its life and death, would you punish her?
 
  • #7
On NamUs if you click on the general found map there’s a hospital, possibly a graveyard, a botanical garden and looks like a walkway. I’m sure that’s all new since the 1950s. Well, maybe not the graveyard.

It also strikes me that the words charred and cremated were used. How were they able to determine gender if the body was so badly damaged? Maybe the pelvic bones?
 
  • #8
bubblepup said:
Just wondering - if the mother of the infant were found and it was determined that she was responsible for both its life and death, would you punish her?
Click to expand...

I'm not even completely sure that his mother had anything to do with this. If he was a very recent newborn (as in, hours old), it's a strong possibility, in my opinion.

Regardless of who was responsible and what their connection to the victim was, whoever did this beat a newborn to death, burned his body, and threw him in a river as if he were trash. No sort of genetic or social connection comes close to a justification for doing something like that, and I wish there were a better chance that the person responsible would get what they deserve in terms of legal repercussions.

If the perpetrator is dead (and there is a high chance that they are), there's obviously no chance for legal recourse, and so the next best thing is the thought that every time they closed their eyes during the remainder of their life, they were haunted by the image of that burnt carcass floating in the water.
 
  • #9
Graveyard??? River???

Parts of Iowa look like this right now:

upload_2019-5-4_6-13-9.jpeg



Grave disturbed? After a gruesome house fire?
 
  • #10
bubblepup said:
Just wondering - if the mother of the infant were found and it was determined that she was responsible for both its life and death, would you punish her?
Click to expand...

YES. The baby was burned.
IMO. I’m questioning whether a woman/ mother would do this

Case recently man killed a baby because he found out he was not the biological father
(Sorry I cant find the thread)
 
  • #11
  • #12
I expect parts of that hospital were indeed right there in the 1950's.

Incinerated remains, disposed of improperly?

I didn't read this in detail but this river flooded in 1953:

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.901.6613&rep=rep1&type=pdf

These remains may be from far upriver.

NAMUS used the term "cremated." This is incineration of remains.

Certainly the skull fracture is concerning. This was before child safety seats. Was the infant injured in an accident? We don't know.

What was the bridge like at that time? We don't know.

Still looking for news coverage of a house fire in that time frame.
 
  • #13
Just wondering. Why this particular case? Killed/dead left alone infants are found all over America over the years. Every case in itself is horrific.

Isn't there some kind of "program" in America that every infant has to be tested for DNA and this put on file? What are the procedures nowadays?

LE mentions this a homicide, so no accident or the like.
 
  • #14
Bit of hope said:
Just wondering. Why this particular case? Killed/dead left alone infants are found all over America over the years. Every case in itself is horrific.

Isn't there some kind of "program" in America that every infant has to be tested for DNA and this put on file? What are the procedures nowadays?

LE mentions this a homicide, so no accident or the like.
Click to expand...
Newborns are not automatically DNA tested in the US. That would require parental consent and funding from somewhere. It would not surprise me if parents were DNA testing their kids and keeping the results quiet. My youngest when she was 13, was what I refer to as partially DNA tested by her cardiologist, to see if her heart condition was genetic. It was not a full DNA profile because insurance wouldn’t pay for that.
 
  • #15
PayrollNerd said:
Newborns are not automatically DNA tested in the US. That would require parental consent and funding from somewhere. It would not surprise me if parents were DNA testing their kids and keeping the results quiet. My youngest when she was 13, was what I refer to as partially DNA tested by her cardiologist, to see if her heart condition was genetic. It was not a full DNA profile because insurance wouldn’t pay for that.
Click to expand...

My mistake, mea culpa....actually I meant every dead infant found to be DNA tested. Not every infant.....it's against everything I believe in....
 
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