On February 25, 1957, the naked and beaten body of a young boy was found in a box on the side of the road in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For more than 65 years, authorities were unable to identify the victim, leading to him being nicknamed “The Boy in the Box.”
But now, the Philadelphia Police Department says it has used DNA and genealogical information to identify the boy, according to CBS Philadelphia. The boy’s name, however, has not yet been released.
When his body was found, it was determined that the boy was malnourished, and though his real age was not known, he is believed to have been between four and six years old. The boy had been freshly groomed, with a haircut and trimmed nails, but he was also covered in scars, some of which appeared surgical.
Police determined that the boy was killed by blunt force trauma, and the discovery of his identity could lead to criminal charges.
“To have a name on that stone, that’s what everybody has been wishing forever,” Linda Tamburri, who has cared for the previously unidentified boy’s grave, told CBS. “I’m just glad I’m here to actually know I’ll see that little boy’s name on the stone.”
Dave Drysdale, cemetery secretary and treasurer at Ivy Hill, where the boy was buried, told the outlet that the discovery was “wonderful.”
“I just wish that the police officers and all the people involved who long passed away were still here to see it because that was one of their goals and a couple of them said, ‘I hope they live long enough to see a name put on there,’” he added.
Drysdale was at Ivy Hill in 1998 when the boy’s remains were transferred from Potter’s Field.
“Someday, there will be a name on there and it will be great,” Drysdale said. “It will be great.”
Police have reportedly worked for years to identify the boy, exhuming his remains in 2019 to retrieve additional DNA for analysis. That analysis was cross-referenced with genealogical information to develop a family tree and track down family members.
Sources told NBC 10 Philadelphia that police found the boy’s birth certificate.
Last year, Philadelphia Police Captain Jason Smith told the outlet that identifying the remains means “[t]he investigation will start all over again and then we’ll start searching for a suspect.”
Police say they will reveal the name of the child next week.