The boy in the box

The boy in the box is the name used to refer to a murder victim who was discovered on February 25, 1957 in a cardboard box. The body of the boy indicated that he was approximately 4 to 6 years old at the time of his murder. Evidence shows that the young boy was murdered and left in the box in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The boy’s body had been wrapped in a plaid blanket and placed in the box and left abandoned. The boy was discovered once by a muskrat trapper checking on his traps and a second time by a college student who spotted a rabbit in the area, neither reported the incident immediately. The day after his discovery though, the college student finally reported the incident.

While much attention was given to the case after it was reported and the boys face was posted all over the news and in the media, no one was ever charged with involvement in the case. There have been a few theories revolving around potential explanations for the young boy’s murder. The first theory states that the young boy had been killed while in a foster home close to the scene; however, this was later ruled out as police interviewed the man who ran the home. The second theory states that the young boy was sold by his parents in to a home that was extremely abusive, the daughter of the woman who was accused of the abuse came forward with the story; however, the accuser had a severe history of mental illness.

While no progress has been made in identifying the boy or his killer, mitochondrial DNA has been extracted from the boy’s tooth and is being run through the mitochondrial DNA database in an attempt to locate his identity.

http://americasunknownchild.net/