Boy In The Box

In the Ivy Hill Cemetery in Cedarbrook, Philadelphia, there sits a large plot, kept almost entirely covered in stuffed animals, donated by local families and visitors. The headstone reads “America’s Unknown Child,” a permanent reminder of the child who lies beneath it.
The case of the boy in the box was one of Philadelphia’s most baffling murder cases, stumping police for over 60 years, and still, today, leaving hundreds of unanswered questions.
On February 25th, 1957 the body of a boy was found in a box in an illegal dumping ground near Bury Road in Philadelphia.
The boy was estimated to be around 4 to 6 years old with 30 pounds and stood 3 feet 3 inches. He was found naked but wrapped in a blanket the boy's hair was cut and his body was recently washed. There were small scars in several places including his chin groin and left ankle some of which suggested he underwent a medical procedure, head injuries were determined to be the cause of death and there were no witnesses.
The body was first found by a young man who was walking through the abandoned lot, strangely this man waited a full day before tipping off the police. And even stranger it turns out that a second man had previously found the boy's body but had not contacted the police because he claimed he did not want to get involved.
With the cold weather at the time of year and the delayed phone call from the person who found the body, it wasn't possible to accurately estimate when the boy had passed away in hopes of finding his identity the police kept the boy at the morgue while visitors from over 10 different states tried to identify the boy by looking for any significant marks to no avail. Police sent out 400 thousand fliers of images of the boy to police stations post offices and courthouses all over the country even the American Medical Association sent out a description of the boy but it led nowhere.
The police compared the child's footprints to hospital records in the area fingerprints were taken of the boy but no record was found to prove the boy ever existed…
The police weren’t sure what to do, but there were a few key clues left at the scene of the crime. One promising clue came from the actual box itself. The box contained a serial number which allowed investigators to pinpoint the shipment and were able to trace it back to a JC Penney store 15 miles away. Eerily before the boy, the box was used to ship a bassinet the store had shipped 12 of these boxes of bats and nets. However, all of the purchasers paid in cash leaving no record. Eight purchasers ended up contacting the police when they read about the story in newspapers, to go on record that they either still had the boxes or had put the boxes out for trash collection. Though the police were able to determine that the box was shipped to Upper Darby Pennsylvania.
Another potential clue was the blanket the boy was wrapped in. It was examined by the Philadelphia textile Institute which believed the blanket was made either in Granby Quebec in Canada or Swannanoa, North Carolina; but there was no way to tell where this particular blanket was purchased since thousands were made and sold, ultimately the blanket lead was a dead end.
Another propitious clue was a hat found 15 feet near the box a blue corduroy Ivy League style cap size 7 and 1/8, it was labeled Eagle hat and company. and it was made by the small company owner, Mrs. Hannah Robbins in South Philadelphia.
Mrs. Robbins remembered the man who purchased the Hat because she had customized it for him. The man who was described as blond between the ages of 26 and 30 requested that a leather strap and buckle be added to the Hat he paid in cash and she never saw him again. Detectives visited over 100 stores within the area but nobody recognized the Hat nor the boy. There were also strands of hair found on the boy's body suggesting a hasty haircut and one forensic artist named Frank bender believes the boy was possibly raised as a girl. In fact, Bill Kelley, an original investigator of the case recounts that in 1957 and 1958 a West Coast artist did circulate a rendition of the child as a girl but it never produced any leads.
There were countless dead ends and plenty of theories but this case soon went cold, for there is no substantial evidence or identification of the boy.
His grave is marked as America's unknown child at the Ivy Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, and to this day people, are mystified as to why nobody had come to claim him. Perhaps someday we will learn who this boy was and what happened to him.