The Horrifying Unresolved Puzzle: The Boy Inside the Box
By: Vivek Coder
Tags: True Crime, True Story, History, Unsolved Mysteries, Horrific Tales

The Horrifying Unresolved Mystery: The Boy Inside the Box

How the case of a boy inside the box has remained unsolved for more than six decades

Original photo to the Boy in the Box (Philadelphia) case with which the cops tried to locate the unidentified victim(1957). (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

There is a large plot in Ivy Hill Cemetery in Cedarbrook, Philadelphia, almost completely paved with fluffy animal species, contributed by nearby residents and tourists. The headstone states, “America’s Missing Boy,” a lasting sign of the boy lying underneath it.

He had been reported lost and abandoned in a box, and nobody could recognize him.

The mystery of the boy in the box became one of Philadelphia’s greatest disconcerting incidents, stunning the cops for more than six decades and raising a lot of questions.

In 1957, a teenage muskrat hunter headed out to inspect his traps around the park, slightly north of Philadelphia. When he walked towards the woods, he noticed a little cardboard box resting on the land. There was a nude boy’s body within it, covered with a pleated blanket.

Due to the fear that the cops might seize his traps if they were alerted to the package, the young hunter avoided it and kept trapping.

A few days later, a university student heading towards the highway spotted a bunny hopping around the highway. He realized that there were dangers in the region and waited to ensure the animal was secure. While he was trawling via the trees and bushes searching for hazards, he stumbled across the container.

While he was worried because of an encounter with the cops, the student notified the authorities of the body's location.

Who was the boy in the box?

Because the boy was young, between three and seven years old, the cops had been confident that he would be easily identified.

But even when they saw the body, these thoughts were shattered. Although people would certainly be searching for a lost boy who was healthy, properly cared for, and truly loved, it was very doubtful that they would be searching for a small, unkempt boy who was suffering from malnutrition. Sadly, only the boy was found within that box.

The crime scene where the boy’s body was located. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The boy’s hair was tangled and would have just been chopped since the clumps were trying to cling to his body. The body had been significantly undernourished and marked with bruises, particularly on his ankle, groin, and chin.

Regardless of him looking lost, he was fingerprinted by the police, expecting to find a match. Unfortunately, it was never found.

More than 400,000 flyers were dispatched to Philadelphia and many other Pennsylvania towns throughout the following years. The forensic facial reconstruction had been completed, and a depiction of a cheerful teenage child was used on most of the posters. Flyers had all been placed in police stations, post offices, and used in the parcels containing gas bills, but really, hardly anyone volunteered details.

The crime scene was also investigated on numerous occasions, but there were no clues aside for many children’s clothing pieces, which gave no clues about what had transpired. To this day, the boy’s existence appears very elusive, just as it did in 1957.

While this horrifying mystery has run cold, the media interest and attentiveness of enthusiast detectives have uncovered a wide range of impressive hypotheses over the years.

In this case, several insights and hypotheses have arisen. While most of them have been rejected, two theories have attracted significant attention between the cops and the public. They were each thoroughly examined.

Theory #1: it involves a foster home close to the location where the body was found

In 1960, a psychic gave new clues to Remington Bristow, a staff member of the medical examiner‘s division. The latter investigated the matter relentlessly before his death in 1993 that the boy in the box actually originated from a nearby foster home.

The cop questioned the boys at the foster home and noticed blankets similar to those that covered the body in a clothesline and even a basin placed in the same sort of package that the boy was located in.

Bristow argued that the boy was born to the daughter of the man who owned the foster home and that his demise had been tragic.

Amidst the staff member’s emphasis on these details, there had never been a link between the boy in the box and the foster center.

But before forty years had passed, another confounding possibility arose.

Forensic facial reconstruction demonstrating how that boy would have looked like when he was alive. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Theory #2: it involves a woman identified as “M”

A lady, only referred to as “M,” came around alleging that the boy was bought by her oppressive mother and tortured within her home for many years.

M reported that once when the boy vomited his baked beans meal, her mother actually brushed his head through the wall as retribution. She then decided to shower him, at which he had passed.

The cops eventually investigated this evidence since there were leftovers of baked beans in the boy’s abdomen, as well as his fingers had seemed to be droopy with water.

Both of these were types of information that had not been made available to the public. They were also influenced by M‘s portrayal of the boy as a little kid with long hair.

The above detail matches up with the claim that his hair had just been cut, as well as the past claims of a person who reported seeing the boy bring put in a box next to the forest.

Sadly, the cops let the hypothesis slip away since they failed to validate M‘s statements properly.

While digging at M‘s past, they noticed a record of significant psychological disorders. Once they sought to validate her claims with neighbors and acquaintances, they all denied ever seeing a boy at home.

This hypothesis was ultimately rejected as “stupid.”

Many different hypotheses have been proposed throughout the years, but all of them have ultimately been rejected.

It looks like the mystery of the boy in the box will never be resolved and that “America’s anonymous boy” may remain this way forever.

References

[1] http://americasunknownchild.net/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_in_the_Box_(Philadelphia)