Possible scenarios that resulted in this child's death (feel free to add your own):
Undocumented migrant
Part of a church/religious group that doesn't believe in medical care
Mother is being abused
Parents are under threat of losing child to social services
Parent or parents are wanted by LE
BBM
Expanding on this thought. I remember a few cases of children dying from malnutrition due to the parents spiritual beliefs surrounding food and diet. I vaguely remember those children being infants and toddlers, though.
I keep remembering one of the the first things LE said made me think this little boy was completely off the grid, that they didn't expect him to be in any missing person databases. If he lived with a secluded group, there may have been no record of his birth.
But still, how did he end up in the woods there? If he was well-cared for, no signs of abuse and yet died from what is basically dehydration, it makes no sense to dump him in the woods like that. Dying from something like gastroenteritis makes no sense, either. And why wouldn't the group just perform their own funeral?
If he was the child of an undocumented migrant, he was still well-cared for, so the parents or caregivers had to have been in contact with others for shelter, work, etc. Someone would have noticed he was sick and then missing, wouldn't they?
I really wish we could see a reconstruction, not just because I'm nosy but it might jog someone's memory. If he did live in a spiritual group, it's possible some of his extended family may recognize him as looking like their own relative they lost track of because said relative joined a spiritual group. Like, "Wow, he looks so much like my niece that we haven't seen in ten years."
MOO
Source for LE indicating off grid:
Indiana officials are still trying to identify a child whose body was found last month inside a suitcase in a heavily wooded area in southern Indiana.
us.cnn.com