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

[PayrollNerd]

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....

Oh no worries. I'm not sure if current infant victims are automatically DNA tested or not. It would seem likely in order to solve crimes.

I don't know that DNA was even an option to LE back in 1953. If they truly cremated the remains, there's nothing left. If they are using charred and cremated interchangeably, and if the remains were buried, they could be exhumed. If there was a distant match, the decadents likely never knew this infant existed. This would certainly be a surprise to a family. I'd love to see him have his name and be placed near his family.

 

[Bit of hope]

In 1953 DNA was not a thing...much later...

 

[Laughing]

I don't know that DNA was even an option to LE back in 1953.

Watson, Crick, & Franklin did figure out the structure in 1953.

Not in time to help identify this little guy! Still curious about how "they" decided he is a he.

And of course how he ended up in the river!

 

[Fuuro]

I also just realized how odd it is that they were able to conclusively establish sex. Makes me wonder how burned the remains were or if just some parts of the baby were burned before he ended up in the river, but the verbiage they use makes it seem as if the remains were almost entirely destroyed. The use of the word "cremation" is especially odd.

According to the Iowa Cold Cases profile, police do believe that this was a homicide and that it had taken place the same day as discovery, as Bit of hope said earlier.

 

[Melt71]

I'm still confused.... I get that there was a skull fracture/injury. Was the infant then burned/charred by the presumed murderer AND then cremated by authorities? Is that what they are trying to say? Or.... was the skull separated from the body and thrown into the river and the body was found charred/burned/cremated?


UP10855 www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/10855?nav
Circumstances of Recovery Infant's skull was struck and then thrown into Des Moines River. Body was cremated.
Details of Recovery
Inventory of Remains All parts recovered
Condition of Remains Not recognizable - Charred/burned

 

[Goecke]

IMO, I feel like he was probably cremated *after* his body was discovered- It was pretty commonplace back then to cremate any unidentified/unclaimed remains since DNA testing wasn't a thing. He could have been burned by the killer, or not- There's not enough information to tell. I've just never heard the word "cremated" be used when talking about a murder victim who was burned by their killer.

 

[airportwoman]

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?

There may have been enough genital material remaining that they could determine that the baby was a boy. You can't determine gender from pelvic bones until puberty.

I grew up in Des Moines, and at that time, they had a Boothe Home for pregnant women who weren't planning to keep their babies. Most were unmarried teenagers, but not all of them.

p.s. This is the first I've heard of this story.

 

[airportwoman]

Watson, Crick, & Franklin did figure out the structure in 1953.

Not in time to help identify this little guy! Still curious about how "they" decided he is a he.

And of course how he ended up in the river!

DNA was not useful as a crime-fighting tool until the 1980s, and only very crudely at the time.

 

[truthteller2025]

Oh no worries. I'm not sure if current infant victims are automatically DNA tested or not. It would seem likely in order to solve crimes.

I don't know that DNA was even an option to LE back in 1953. If they truly cremated the remains, there's nothing left. If they are using charred and cremated interchangeably, and if the remains were buried, they could be exhumed. If there was a distant match, the decadents likely never knew this infant existed. This would certainly be a surprise to a family. I'd love to see him have his name and be placed near his family.

 

[Tricia]

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