WI WI - Cudahy, Pulaski Park, WhtFem Infant, UP9573, inside shopping bag, buffalo essays, Feb'71

[YaYa_521]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Female Doe
​

Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP9573
Female, White / Caucasian
Date found February 11, 1971
Location Found. Cudahy, Wisconsin
Estimated Age Range. 0-12 Months
Estimated Age Group. Infant
Estimated Age Range (Years) 0-1
Estimated Year of Death. 1971
Estimated PMI. Days
Height. Cannot Estimate
Weight. 6 lbs, Measured

Hair Color Brown
Head Hair Description. Has a small amount of hair, the deceased is a newborn infant.
Body Hair Description. None, the deceased is an infant.
Facial Hair Description. None, the deceased is an infant.
Eye Color Unknown or Missing
Inventory of remains. All parts recovered
Condition of Remains. Recognizable face

Other distinctive physical characteristic -
The body was completely frozen, even after 24 hours at room temperature before the autopsy was performed.

Accessories
The infant was wrapped in some material/fabric and a plastic bag then placed into a shopping bag. Towels and clothes accompanied the infant that were bloody and soiled. In the bag that contained the clothes, there was what appeared to be hand written essays about buffalos for a school assignment. (Pictures of the essays are loaded under "Documents".

Street Address
Pulaski Park
East Grange Avenue & South Swift Avenue
Cudahy, Wisconsin 53110
Milwaukee County

Circumstances of Recovery
This full term Unidentified White Female infant was found dead on February 11th, 1971 in a 55 gallon wire mesh trash can in Pulaski Park located near East Grange Avenue & South Swift Avenue in Cudahy, WI. A stranger walking through Pulaski Park found the fetus inside a shopping bag on top of a filled trash can. The fetus had been wrapped in some fabric, clothes and plastic bags and then placed inside a shopping bag. The shopping bag also contained some hand written essays about buffalos that appeared to be apart of a school assignment. The essays contained no names or any identifying features.

1 image; 5 additional documents
Zero comparisons

 

[Jim_M]

Wow. 1971. I will go on the assumption that LE did not spend much time investigating this case. However, there could be some viable clues that should have been explored, IMHO.

The top clue is that Buffalo essay. "Group 4" implies an unknown number of students involved in the assignment. The differing handwriting implies at the minimum two individuals, as well as an adult. So, three people at a minimum were writing out these pages. And of course, that is all dependent on these pages having anything to 'do' with this poor discarded baby. Was the essay mistakenly grabbed up in the wrapping? Or somehow these items just happened to be 'there' at the drop sight?

I wonder if they attempted any canvassing of the local schools? Even now, I wonder if they could/would publicize the information? Perhaps a retired educator would recognize that assignment, from so long ago? Even a student from those days, might be able to provide some answers to the clues. And yet....

The contact info is for the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office.....

 

[Ms. Sleuth]

Did they ever do DNA testing on the baby? They could do more testing today and see if they get any matches especially since we have better technology today, I think it might be worth doing. Cases like this are so sad

 

[YaYa_521]

No exclusions.

 

[MadMcGoo]

Unidentified People | Milwaukee County Medical Examiner

county.milwaukee.gov

 

[Laughing]

clipart-library.com

Agree with @Jim_M that asking local schools about the buffalo assignment is a good idea, even today. Is there a Facebook page for alumni of the nearest high school, or for people who grew up in the area?

 

[Laughing]

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If you are near Cudahy, please stop by that Torres Bakery & enjoy a conchas for me, and a Mexican gingerbread as well!

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jmho ymmv lrr

 

[lightofmine99]

This one is really sad and that park photograph is truly haunting.

My immediate thought was canvassing local schools to see if any group of kids did a project on buffaloes. Handwriting would suggest the age of the child(ren). The infant being wrapped in school project paper would imply that the infant has an older sibling or cousin that lived with them (and would likely be aware of them).

Is there a more concrete estimate on the age of the infant? The handwriting suggests the child was a bit older, post 4th grade. I remember a lot of things I did in school. Surely someone out there remembers a buffalo essay? Who knows.

The body was completely frozen, even after 24 hours at room temperature before the autopsy was performed.

This would imply the baby was stored in a freezer for X amount of time prior to being left.

 

[Goecke]

I typed the first page of the essay into this site: Readability Score Checker at PlagiarismSearch.com and it said it was at a 7th grade level. Obviously, a lot of kids write at a level above or below their grade level, and what's considered 7th grade level now might not be considered as such 50+ years ago. The essay seems to be a group/partner project since there's 2 distinct handwritings. I'd assume the writers were in middle school or early high school, so if the baby's mother was one of the students who wrote the essay, she could easily be a young teen... Which opens up a lot of unfortunate possibilities if true.

Also, this was February in Wisconsin, so I don't think the fact that her body was completely frozen would mean that she had been kept in a freezer. It probably took a few days to find her body (postmortem interval is "days" on NamUs) and it just never got above freezing in that time period.

 

[lightofmine99]

IMO the handwriting on one of the essay documents is more indicative of an adult or older teen. Now, why an adult (like a parent/guardian) would write the other part is up for debate. Maybe the adult wrote the essay for the child who then wrote it in their own handwriting. I'm pretty sure the plural of buffalo is still buffalo, not "buffalo's" with a possessive apostrophe; both sets of handwriting use "buffalo's."

I agree about the reading/writing level assessment, but I think the topic of the buffalo (or an assignment where you pick an animal to write about) sounds a bit too juvenile for high school. Not to say that high school students can't have a similar assignment.

I wonder how old investigators would think I am based on my print...I somehow didn't develop that pretty writing girls usually have, haha.

 

[Kamiko123132]

If It helps I can prob transcribe what the writing says if you need me to I can try and guess but like that’s the best I can do

 

[Blurgle]

This would imply the baby was stored in a freezer for X amount of time prior to being left.

In February? In suburban Milwaukee???? It could have been colder outdoors than in even a deep freezer.

There was a cold snap in February of 1971 that saw temperatures dipping below -15°F.