Identified! PA - Philadelphia, 'Boy in the Box', WhtMale 4-6, 4UMPA, Feb'57

[ScarlettScarpetta]

I just can't get past of all the places they could have left him but they basically left him out in the open.
I still wonder if someone who loved him did that to make sure he was found. Maybe they could not stop what happened to him but they wanted to make sure that he was not forgotten?

 

[Ms Suzanne]

I feel the answers of who our little boy is are possibly in these 3 leads and a possible 4th lead.They were all early leads.

1.The Manuyunk Pennsylvania boy put in that West Philadelphia Orphanage (I use to think the Horsham suspects were my #1.But I have now put the Manayunk Pennsylvania boy #1 to check)

1.The Horsham suspects and the picture of the little boy found at their farm.

3.The lady at the grave site with pictures of a little boy in February 25 2007.

4.QUERY FROM TRENTON
From Trenton the detective bureau received a query from State Police Capt. D. C. Borghard, who was checking the Philadelphia victim against descriptions of another child who vanished, also with his mother, on Jan. 26 from a nearby community. As in the case of the Rhode Island child, the weight of the missing boy was said to be greater than that of the child here.
A promising clue discovered near where the body was found had to be discarded a few hours after it was found yesterday morning.



I feel they should and I strongly feel and hope and pray they check these boys again. (I do feel LE knows their names) But this time with DNA.If anything just to rule them in or out as our boy.I hope someone,anyone will look into these boys again.

 

[ScarlettScarpetta]

I feel like this is something else entirely.

I don't think the answer is in the old leads.

 

[Ms Suzanne]

Who ever he is or what ever happened to him I just pray in Jesus's name they find out who he is to put his real name on his grave.This makes me very sad for him.

 

[ScarlettScarpetta]

When I look at him in the box on the side of the road. I have to wonder why not just bury him? Or leave him out in the woods? It feels like someone wanted him protected. I know that sounds odd looking at the condition of his little body.
He was obviously beaten not long before his death. Seeing those hand bruises on his head makes me wonder if the attack came while he was getting a haircut and not sitting still enough for the monster who was cutting his hair?

 

[Harmony 2]

If you drive on that road, You can see all the options they had. It is obvious to me someone wanted him found. They could have left him down a ravine in Penny pack park just down the street. It is like a wilderness in there. He would really never have been found and it would not have taken much to get him there, A stop and a dump, but they left him there, where there were houses near by and on the side of the road.

I know a lot about the area because I have been there and around there hundreds of times.

As someone who has lived in the area, It says to me that they wanted him found...

Hi Scarlett,
The unidentified was found in 1957, are you referring to modern day current options? The area probably looked very different back then. Obviously the ravine you mention would have been one option. Were the houses nearby built at the time?

 

[ScarlettScarpetta]

Hi Scarlett,
The unidentified was found in 1957, are you referring to modern day current options? The area probably looked very different back then. Obviously the ravine you mention would have been one option. Were the houses nearby built at the time?

I have looked at the map then and now. Even though the houses were not as close as they are now, he was left relatively close to housing and people. When a short ride down the street would be where pennypack is and while the area is different now, Back then the creek and the hills and trees and characteristics that make it a great hiking place where still there then.

I am trying to think about the things that have not changed in the area..KWIM?

The boy is wrapped in a blanket, put in a box and left in a place he was likely to be found. It feels to me that this was the intention. Someone who left him there, cared about him. At least that is what it seems like to me. Maybe the spouse of the abuser? Or another abused party?

I also wonder if there was maybe an unknown woman found that was also beaten and left somewhere around that time, Maybe in the year after?

 

[alliemay]

I also have pictured in my mind a woman who was beaten herself, child died by the hands of possibly the husband/father, or step-father. In one aspect it would seem like someone was trying to care for the child, fingernails cut, clean blanket, on the other hand there is the marks of abuse. What I would like to know......how far away from the road was the box, was it obscured by high weeds? If I had a child that died by the hands of an abuser and I was afraid of that abuser but yet I still wanted the child to be found I would have laid him in plain sight, in the middle of the night on the steps of an orphanage or the like. The thing that gets me is this, in this area where he was dumped, no one recognized him, so the theory that he was loved by some woman doesn't fit into that picture. If he was from that area, the caring mother would have taken this boy out in the public eye, she would have talked about her child to other mothers with children. I think at some point in his little past someone did care about him hence the surgeries or this child would have been left to die with his ailments long before he was found. But I am thinking the person who left him in the box was not the one who cared for him at the time of his death.

 

[Ms Suzanne]

All his bruises were inflicted at the same time.No other bruises were on him in different stages of healing.No broken bones or fractures.He was in ill health and malnourised for about a year.I have also felt very strongly he changed care takers up to a few days before he was found.I feel he was just getting into somewhere or someone new came to him.

 

[Harmony 2]

Here are site photos from 1957 and four decades later in 2000.

http://americasunknownchild.net/SitePics.html

 

[alliemay]

So the road was only big enough for one car to pass at a time. So I would guess not much traffic except for people who were going to Good Shepard, it looks like the garbage is not far from that dirt road but in the photo's from the air its looks like there were only big open fields surrounding the location, except for Good Shepard.

 

[Ms Suzanne]

Another # 4th lead I feel should be checked was in early newspaper articles.This lady and her boy missing is not listed as far as I know in the summary of people checked on the America's unknown child's website or in David Stouts book or any where.Something I found in early newspaper articles.

http://americasunknownchild.net/Archives2Text.html#BPC

QUERY FROM TRENTON
From Trenton the detective bureau received a query from State Police Capt. D. C. Borghard, who was checking the Philadelphia victim against descriptions of another child who vanished, also with his mother, on Jan. 26 from a nearby community. As in the case of the Rhode Island child, the weight of the missing boy was said to be greater than that of the child here.
A promising clue discovered near where the body was found had to be discarded a few hours after it was found yesterday morning.

 

[ScarlettScarpetta]

So the road was only big enough for one car to pass at a time. So I would guess not much traffic except for people who were going to Good Shepard, it looks like the garbage is not far from that dirt road but in the photo's from the air its looks like there were only big open fields surrounding the location, except for Good Shepard.

Except, that it is kind of still out in the open there as opposed to concealed in the woods not at all far from there. This case always has me thinking and talking out loud..

 

[ScarlettScarpetta]

Here are site photos from 1957 and four decades later in 2000.

http://americasunknownchild.net/SitePics.html

I was looking at them earilier.. and I keep thinking, look a that big patch of woods there. That is where I would want to dump something I did not want found, But he was left basically on the side of the road out in the open.
I can not imagine how this case drove the detectives nuts trying to solve it. IT just seems that someone anyone would want to claim this child.

 

[alliemay]

Except, that it is kind of still out in the open there as opposed to concealed in the woods not at all far from there. This case always has me thinking and talking out loud..

You are right, the BOX is kinda out in the open.

 

[ScarlettScarpetta]

I wonder if they ever investigated anyone who worked at the store where the box came from? Like maybe someone took it home because they needed a box, and it was there empty for a floor model??

 

[Ms Suzanne]

Can someone please call them to find out what's going on in his case? I think if enough people call we might get some answers.

 

[Cracka*Jaxx]

Sometimes usable DNA is found many years after a crime is committed. Maybe investigators can get permission to physically check out some of the buildings where Persons of Interest have lived. They could do a Luminol (sp?) test under new carpeting or near baseboards. There must be some physical evidence left over from this crime. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Cracka*Jaxx]

I was looking at them earilier.. and I keep thinking, look a that big patch of woods there. That is where I would want to dump something I did not want found, But he was left basically on the side of the road out in the open.
I can not imagine how this case drove the detectives nuts trying to solve it. IT just seems that someone anyone would want to claim this child.

I hadn't seen the photos before and they are quite interesting. I agree with wondering why the box was pretty much left out in the open when there were thicker wooded areas nearby. It's a brazen move on the abuser's part. Could they have felt confident because they knew that no one ever cleaned up the debris right there. Or were they driving towards the woods but got nervous for some reason and decided to get rid of the body quickly. Was the vehicle driving towards or away from the Good Shepard School?

 

[alliemay]

Maybe they were driving towards the woods and got nervous, that would make sense.