10 mysterious police cases that are still unsolved (case 6)

6. THE BOY IN THE BOX

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It was the year 1957 in Philadelphia when a hunter found the bruised body of a boy in a JC Penney box. The boy, around four to six years-old, was nude and wrapped in flannel. He seemed to have died from blows to the head. Fearing his muskrat traps would be confiscated by police, the hunter didn't report the body. It was two days later when a college student found the body, that the police started on the case of "America's Unknown Child." It immediately attracted the media's attention, and flyers of the boy were seen throughout Pennsylvania.

Although police received thousands of leads, they were never able to uncover the identity of the young boy. They tried tracing back the JC Penney box and checking the boy's fingerprints, but everything led to a dead end. However, there were two promising leads of note. One lead involved a foster home located 1.5 miles away.

A medical examiner, who pursued the case until his death, had a psychic lead him to the foster home, where he found a bassinet similar to the one that was sold in the box. Hanging on the clothesline were blankets much like the one wrapped around the boy. He believed the boy belonged to the stepdaughter of the man who ran the home, and she didn't want to be found as an unwed mother. Police interviewed the couple, but closed the investigation.

In 2003, they opened the case again when interviewing a woman identified as "M" who claimed her abusive mother bought the child back in 1954. According to her, her mother killed the boy in a fit of rage. Because "M" was mentally unstable, the investigation was closed as well, leaving the boy to remain "America's Unknown Child."       

Read more about The Boy in the Box here.

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