0:01

America's unknown child, an alias for a little boy, unknown to the world was a tragic enigma.

0:08

His seemingly forgotten and abandoned life was cut short by an unexplainable unsolved death in the days leading up to February 25th, 1957, leaving all who followed the John DOE case both locally and across the United States.

0:26

Grasping for answers in a sea of evidence that drowned us all in doubts as a hope to provide more substantial reasoning built upon observable evidence and situational analysis.

0:39

This is an examination of the unidentified legacy of the boy in the box and the unexplainable backstory to his life before he was discovered in the woods of Cisco Hanna road in Fox chase Philadelphia.

0:56

This is cold case to Unlike most of the incidents we investigate here on cold case, detective America's unknown Childs anonymous anomaly leaves us without a victim, at least one with an identity or known history.

1:36

It's quite the peculiar case. Instead of looking for someone whose life was taken from them by an unknown assailant or someone who went missing without a trace, we are instead attempting to determine a human being's existence before their mystery even began.

1:52

Therefore, a complete profile of the victim is mostly unavailable leaving us only with shaky forensic clues and theoretical characterization.

2:03

In the case of the boy in the box, the reality is the child could have come from anywhere in the country.

2:09

However, it is more than likely.

2:11

He was local to the Eastern side of the United States and probably Philadelphia itself it's feasible.

2:19

He lived in another state or city and then was transported to Fox chase after his murder.

2:24

But the possibility of someone risking interference by the police or running into another complicated situation with a dead child in tow doesn't seem likely.

2:34

In fact, he was probably placed in that specific part of the woods because the offender knew of its general anonymity and unpopulated nature.

2:44

Thus, the Philadelphia area was likely his home.

2:48

However, other suggests that while the boy may have been in Philly at the time of his death, he may actually have been born in a different part of the country or even the world because so little is known about his parents or genealogy.

3:02

He could have been perhaps adopted from Europe or another American orphanage.

3:07

It is tragically, not unheard of to see malnourishment and child abuse take place in orphanages and foster homes.

3:14

So the boy could have been an unwanted foreigner or misunderstood kid with disabilities left subjected to the torment of his elders or even fellow foster siblings.

3:25

It should be stated that the medical inspector theorize, the boy had a possible chronic eye ailments, which could have made him partially blind and physically disabled.

3:35

The eye ailment was not all that the coroner discovered either.

3:40

Overall, the boy was determined to be between the ages of four and six, having been born sometime within the range of late 1950 to early 1953, he had light Brown hair and blue eyes with fast skin and stood about three feet, six inches while wearing around 30 pounds.

3:59

He was also tragically found to have been severely malnourished with surgical scars on his ankle and growing and an L shaped scar under his chin.

4:09

He was beaten and bruise with the cause of death.

4:12

Seemingly being blunt force trauma whoever's care.

4:17

He was under, it ended in brutality and disregard for youthful life and whatever his origin point was.

4:24

The boy in the box almost certainly suffered prior to death.

4:29

We can only hope it wasn't for very long, Like all cases of unidentified children and the murders of the innocent youth.

4:38

It's hard to fathom how an innocent blossoming human could be taken from the earth before they even had a chance to truly live the boy.

4:47

And the box was not just a child, but a being full of endless potential.

4:52

While he may have injured a few rough years of existence and dealt with incredible pain, he persevered longer than anyone should ever have to.

5:01

He was probably a brave little boy with hopes and dreams to escape a hellish life and make sure it would never happen to others.

5:09

Maybe America's unknown child was going to rebound from a rough childhood and go on to achieve great things.

5:15

Maybe he was going to learn a trade or scale in labor.

5:19

He might've been a doctor or a nurse or a lawyer, a father, a husband, a friend, the boy in the box had a future one that was cut short on a cold and miserable day in February of 1957.

5:36

Let's now turn to the timeline of events that unfolded in the mysterious case of the boy in the box.

5:47

Sometime in early to mid February in the year of 1957, a young male child who would later be given the Monica boy in the box is murdered blunt force trauma

5:58

To the hat. His hair is chopped off in clumps in a very rushed and unprofessional manner and is wrapped in a plate blankets in the moment saw days following the killing the offender places, the boys corpse in a baby bassinet box, which one could buy out JC penny at the time around the same time the offender takes the bassinet box to a wooded area off the Suskia Hanna road in Fox, chase Philadelphia and places.

6:25

The boy in the box in a semi concealed area of brush for an undetermined amount of time.

6:32

The box sits in the woods, mostly undisturbed by wildlife or suspicious possibly sometime during the last weekend of that February, either on Saturday, the third or Sunday, the 24th, an 18 year old male by the name of John Powell, Raznick ventures to his home on pine road, very close to Susquehanna road and the resting place of the boy in the box.

6:55

He is returning from a basketball game in town, but wants to check out his muskrat traps that he sent prior to the weekend.

7:02

He walks through the brush and drizzling rain and spots, the bassinet box.

7:07

He piers inside to find the corpse of the unidentified boy and stands there in shock.

7:13

John finally makes it back home, but refuses to tell his parents of his discovery out of fear.

7:20

He also avoids alerting the police as his muskrat traps, technically illegal and would bring unwanted attention upon himself.

7:28

A few days later at about 3:15 PM on Tuesday, February 26, 26 year old college student, Frederick J bananas drives along Susquehanna road, West of Barry road.

7:40

He spot same rabbits hopping across the road into the neighboring, under Bush, deciding to chase it into the woods, Frederick over an exit, his vehicle to follow the critter.

7:52

Once inside of the Woodlands, Frederick finds the muskrat traps, belonging to John, and then the cardboard bassinet box he looks inside.

8:01

And at first believed that to be a child dolls stuffed at the bottom upon closer inspection.

8:06

However, Frederick notices the object could be an actual human corpse moments later.

8:13

Frederick returns to his vehicle and returns home.

8:16

However, link John before him, he doesn't[inaudible] alert the authorities.

8:21

It would later be revealed that Frederick was a secret peeping Tom, and would habitually visit Sask Harner road to spy on the unsuspecting young women at the good shepherd school for wayward girls and worried giving up his location to police would expose these illegal tendencies.

8:38

When Frederick wakes up the following day on Wednesday, February 27th, he's racked with guilt and second thoughts.

8:44

He was on the radio and his unused bullets and detailing a fresh case about a missing child from New Jersey and feels a growing urge.

8:51

How someone about his discovery later that morning, Frederick visits to college faculty, priests uninformed, some of his fines.

9:00

They both encourage Frederick to alert the authorities immediately by the afternoon, Frederick visits, the local police departments and tells them about the boy in the box.

9:10

They investigate the Fox chase Woodlands and find what would later become.

9:15

America's unknown child still inside the bassinet box.

9:19

The Philadelphia PD quickly opened unofficial investigation the same day on February 26th, 1957.

9:27

Over the following days, every available man in the Philadelphia police departments and local law enforcement agencies, including 270 Academy rookies are assigned to canvass, the areas surrounding Sask Hanna road and the greater Fox chase area for clues, they find a few random objects and suspicious items in the vicinity, but nothing to identify the child.

9:52

Meanwhile, the coroner's office examines the corpse and highlights the boys, scars, malnourishment, bruised head, and a strange Brown substance coating the inside of the esophagus.

10:03

Suggesting the boy must have vomited before dying, despite not eating anything two to three hours before perishing.

10:10

Once the autopsy is finished, police take fingerprints and footprints of the boy in the box to send to nearby hospitals and locate a match with regional birth records.

10:20

Despite exhaustive mailings to medical centers all over the Northeast, there are no hits after another few days of an absent identity or authorities begin sending photos of the boys to households statewide the coroner, dresses the boy in clothing and sets up his corpse in a chair for a better photograph of what the child probably resembled in life.

10:42

The pictures are posted in shops, orphanages, courthouses, and even in envelopes containing citizens, utility bills, but still bring forth no concrete leads as winter turns to spring.

10:55

And the spring turns to summer in 1957, investigators continue to run into dead ends in their search for the boy's identity, with no parents or relatives coming forward to claim him a group of detectives in to buy the boy, a tombstone clothing and a casket on July 24th, 1957.

11:14

The boy in the box is buried in a Potter's field in the city of Philadelphia with the only marked grave displaying number one nine one for 41 years.

11:26

America's unknown child rests at the anonymous grave sites while his case is featured in numerous media profiles and television programs.

11:35

That is until November 3rd, 1998.

11:38

When a secured order from an orphans' court is processed to have the body examined for DNA extraction.

11:44

During that week, forensic scientists have the FBI evidence recovery program are able to extract vital DNA from the of the boys teeth.

11:55

Afterwards. The boy has given a proper funeral at Ivy Hill cemetery in Cedarbrook Philadelphia, where he is remarried with a large plot of land purchased by multiple donors.

12:06

The funeral receives massive media attention and reignites the general public's awareness, but still no leads are discovered holding any merit over the next two decades.

12:18

A few solid theories are built by investigators and public citizens alike, but non are proven to be true.

12:25

Instead, the boy in the box remains unidentified despite major breakthroughs with DNA technology.

12:32

Presently that remains to be people's greatest hope that his DNA will someday be connected with a family member who either comes forward with a legitimate proof or unintentionally enters a national database without a doubt.

12:50

The mysterious case of the boy in the box and unidentified person cases in general are usually stuck in States of anonymity.

12:58

For a reason, there simply isn't enough evidence to shed light on their history.

13:03

If there were obvious clues left behind to reach a conclusion on that identity.

13:09

Well over 60 years later, we'd probably have them by now.

13:14

Luckily, one of the major pieces of evidence providing hope in missing identity cases, his DNA, the boy in the box did indeed have salvageable DNA on his body and had it extracted after his 1998 exhumation, as previously mentioned, however, the type of DNA available known as mitochondrial DNA.

13:34

Isn't a sure fire way to clarify his genealogy.

13:38

That being said, this type of DNA can confirm or deny genetic relationships through maternal lineage.

13:46

It just requires a person to come forward with enough evidence of their own, that they may be related to the boy in the box.

13:52

In some way as of 2020, there hasn't yet been a hit with any of the DNA supplying to forensic officers in the past 20 years.

14:01

While we wait for progress with the DNA samples, there were three other major pieces of physical evidence left at the crime scene in 1957 that deserve a closer inspection.

14:14

The first was the bassinet box itself sold by JC penny for$7 50 cents.

14:20

This specific bassinet unrelated packaging were from a shipment of 12 units on November 27th, 1956, that went to the JC penny store at 100 South 69th streets in upper Darby, Pennsylvania, all 12 bassinets were sold between December 3rd, 1956 and February 16th, 1957.

14:42

But frustratingly, the customer purchase records were not kept in detail as the store had a cash only policy at the time, nevertheless detectives were able to track down all, but one of the 12 bassinets and their boxes, the one that was found at the crime scene was actually in good condition.

15:01

Just a bit damp on the outside with white paint smears on the interior forensic teams dusted the box, but were unable to find any distinguishable fingerprints.

15:11

The second clue was a cheap cotton flannel blankets used to wrap the boy up.

15:16

The blanket itself was faded yet clean, most likely washed just before the crime took place.

15:22

The plaids design consisted of block and diamond patterns in whites, Brown, green, and rust colors.

15:29

The mending was of a poorly graded cotton threat.

15:32

And the entire blanket itself was cut in half one, half measuring 33 by 76 inches.

15:38

And the other part measuring 31 by 51 inches with a third chunk torn off and missing the Philadelphia textile Institute to run tests.

15:48

After the medical examiner shipped the blanket to their facility and they found that it had been manufactured at either the beacon mills in Swannanoa North Carolina or the asthma mills in Granby, Quebec, Canada, sadly points of sale could not be investigated as thousands upon thousands of similar blankets had been shipped across the United States to various wholesale shops.

16:12

And this specific blankets was one of an infinite amount.

16:17

The third and final major clue left at the scene was an adults males cap size seven and one eighth made of Royal blue corduroy containing a leather strap and a buckle on the backside on the inside of the cap was the tissue paper normally used to make sure the cap kept its original shape.

16:36

Strangely the cap was discovered just 17 feet away from the thickets camouflaging the boy in the box on a carved pathway through the underbrush that led directly from the cap to the bassinet box.

16:49

The FBI forensics team carried out a detailed analysis of the cap, but found nothing of importance on the garments.

16:56

However, the local detectives weren't as convinced that there was nothing suspicious about this cap.

17:01

They checked inside the label and found its manufacturer to be the Robbins, bald Eagle hats and cap company at two six Oh three South seventh streets in Philadelphia.

17:11

The detectives then interviewed the business owner, mrs.

17:14

Hannah Robbins, who told police the cap was one of 12 made from leftover blue cord Roy material before may of 1956.

17:22

There was one anomaly though, as Ms.

17:25

Robbins explained that the cups were sold without the leather strap and buckle.

17:29

She informed detectives that one of the cap customers and unidentified lone, some man in his late twenties wearing work clothes speaking without an accent and sporting blonde hair had come into the store, bought one of those exact caps and asked her to sew a strap on the back.

17:46

Mrs. Robbins concluded her story saying the man ball resemblance to the photograph of the boy in the box on the flyers posted around town.

17:54

What happened to this man was never clarified and whether the police ever followed this lead through to a conclusion is unknown.

18:03

While these three items are old and forensically cleared from giving up any leads on an actual suspect.

18:09

As always we ask if you know anything that might be of use to investigators related to the box blankets or cap, no matter how small lets the proper or authorities know if you'd like a closer inspection of these case, points yourself, check out the case file photographs supplied in the Google drive link posted in the episode's description.

18:32

Let's now turn to the most prominent theories in answering the mystery

18:36

Of the boy in the box

18:40

Within the first few years of the hunt for the boy and the boxes, identity, hundreds of tips and theories poured into the Philadelphia police departments.

18:49

Some were legitimate claims of possible family relations.

18:53

Others were attempts to stake, 15 minutes of fame with an infamous phenomena.

18:58

And sadly enough, most of them all led to the exact same place, a dead end with more questions than answers.

19:06

For example, both the general public and lead investigators on the case.

19:10

Wondered if America's unknown child could be the body of another missing child that of Steven Craig Damman from Mitchell air force base in New York.

19:21

Steven was kidnapped at just 34 months of age, outside a supermarket in long Island on October 31st, 1955.

19:30

He was about 38 inches tall and weighed at around 32 pounds.

19:35

Also sporting light colored hair, detectives reasoned.

19:39

He would be the same age and physical stature as the boy and the box had.

19:43

He survived that long and checked into the comparisons.

19:47

However, besides a few vague similarities in their appearance, the juxtapose details were not as promising.

19:54

The footprints on Diamond's birth certificate did not match the boys nor did the X rays of the boy display a healed bone fracture in the left arm like Steven had before he went missing most telling of all the boy and the box had normal kidneys in the autopsy's findings.

20:13

Whereas Steven had abnormally large kidneys as a two year old with enough physical disparities investigators on both the boy in the box.

20:22

And the diamond case agreed that they were two separate children to confirm this forensic experts collected DNA from diamond surviving sister in 2003 and compared it to the boy in the boxes.

20:35

The earlier conclusion was proven once.

20:37

And for all America's are known Childs and Steven Damon did not come from the same mother.

20:44

Another strong lead came into the Philadelphia in early 1961 residents of the Southern United States who were following the boy in the box case sent newspaper clippings and other bulletins to Pennsylvania and authorities that reported, or a couple who had recently been arrested for child neglect and murder.

21:04

The couple Kenneth E and Irin Adelaide Dudley were carnival workers had been caught in Lawrenceville, Virginia killing their then seven year old daughter through harsh exposure and malnutrition.

21:17

When brought in for an interrogation, the Dudley's actually admitted to killing six of that 10 children in a similar fashion, abusing them through neglect and malnutrition until they died, then dumping their bodies across a random points in the United States, Southern belt investigators followed this lead and found the Dudleys have been telling the truth recovering one of their children's corpses in a phosphate mine and two others in a hidden Lake.

21:45

However, through intense questioning and cooperation from the Dudley family, it was eventually ruled out that the boy in the box could have been one of the kits, despite the similarities in modus operandi, probably the biggest dead end theory that arose in the case was that of the foster home predicament sometime in 1960 and investigator for the Philadelphia medical examiners office named a Remington Bristow dived deep into his own boy in the box research, he was especially fascinated with the Morton road foster home located just 1.5 miles from the Fox chase crime scene and full of peculiar subjects.

22:27

It was operated by Arthur and Catherine Nicoletti.

22:30

And Catherine is daughter of a previous marriage, Anna Marie Nagle, and Marie had tragically given birth to three stillborn children in the years prior.

22:40

And the only son she ever bore was killed in an electrocution accidents at an amusement park.

22:47

Apparently these children were all conceived out of wedlock and kept secrets by the Nicoletti couple.

22:53

Instead, their focus was on boys and girls who were brought to their large stone home from both city and statewide shelters.

23:01

The foster children sometimes staying with the Nicolette is four weeks up to a few years when the boy and the box was discovered, the Nicoletti is housed five girls and three boys, all of whom cooperated with police when they initially investigated the house in 1957, when Remington started his own journey in solving the mystery, he struggled to find anything additional of merits.

23:26

Thus, he sought advice from a New Jersey, psychic an elderly woman by the name of Florence.

23:31

Sternfeld Florence claimed to have the ability to identify unknown subjects and all she needed was a piece of metal associated with the person Remington perhaps out of pure desperation, took a couple of metal staples from the bassinet box to Florence in New Jersey, where she informed him that he needed to look for a big house with a log cabin on the property and that it would be connected to the boy in the box.

23:59

Bristow returned to Philadelphia and started searching the Fox chase area for such a landmark.

24:04

He eventually stumbled upon the Morden road, foster home, a large house with a log cabin in the back where the foster children would sometimes camp out in wanting to confirm his discovery.

24:16

Remington brought Florence back to Pennsylvania with him and had her examine the crime scene on Susquehanna road from there without any prior knowledge of the area, Florence guided him directly to the foster home.

24:29

As a believer in psychics, Remington was sure he had his major development under his belt and kept a close eye on the family a year later in 1961, the Nicoletti couple removed themselves from the foster care business and sold their home in a public auction.

24:46

Remington attended a preview of the interior furniture and was shocked to discover a dusty and unused baby bassinet quite similar to the one inside the JC Penney branded box that held the boys corpse hung on the clothesline outside of the home were played blankets.

25:04

Also similar to the flannel blankets wrapped around Americas.

25:08

Unknown Childs. These blankets were cut in half to, to fit the metal cops in which they will place.

25:14

Remington also noticed a duck pond on the property, a possible body of water that could account for the dead boys, water wrinkled hands and feet signifying that he had been submerged under water prior to ending up in the Fox chase underbrush, despite an alarming number of coincidences.

25:32

Remington could never pin anything of a criminal nature on the Nicoletti couple when police investigators finally gaving to Remington's please for the family to be re interrogated, they contacted orphan Nicoletti in Dublin, Pennsylvania, but again, found zero evidence of wrongdoing in disbelief, Remington called Arthur himself demanding a lie detector test to be taken.

25:55

Arthur politely declined, but it didn't stop Remington from concocting.

25:59

A theory that Arthur was covering up the murder of another out of wedlock child birthed by Anna Marie as to protect her reputation in a last ditch effort in 1988 to find incriminating evidence against the Nicoletta's Remington attempted to contact the doctor who treated the foster homes, children after discovering in old police documents that he had never been interviewed in the first investigation.

26:24

Sadly, the doctor had since passed away and his widowed wife informed Remington that she had thrown out all of his personal records.

26:32

Nevertheless, it didn't retract Remington show fire theory that orphan Nicoletti was involved and he took this theory to the grave with him when he died in 19 three, when the investigation was reopened in 1998, just five years later, investigators for the Philadelphia police department decided maybe they should follow up on Remington's borderline obsessive theories homicide detective Tom Augustine joined up with a few local officers in Dublin, Pennsylvania and interviewed Arthur wants more.

27:04

This time he was joined by his new wife, Anna Marie, his former stepdaughter, again, the couple fully cooperated with Augustine's questions and gave detailed answers on all the family members who were brought up after years of second guessing and skepticism.

27:21

Augustine officially ruled out the foster home theory and its relation to the boy in the box in the year since random tipsters and those associated with the Nicoletti foster family have come forward claiming to have secrets about their first home and details that could connect America's unknown child to the business.

27:41

However, each and every one has been ruled out by investigators.

27:45

As most of the information was already widely known, perhaps the most plausible of all the open-ended theories.

27:53

First circulated in February, 2002 45 years after the boy in the box was found a Cincinnati Ohio woman going by the alias of Martha or better known as M reached out to the Philadelphia authorities via her psychiatrist with supposedly information regarding the boy in the box.

28:13

At first, all am told them was that she had an abusive mother who wants purchased a boy from his birth parents in the summer of 1954 and abused him on and off for 2.5 years until one day she killed him in an act of rough after he vomited baked beans during his bath, apparently am had told this story to her psychiatrist way back in 1989, but was too fearful to alert the authorities of it for another 13 years when investigators realized much of M's story aligned with case details such as the Brown substance lining the boys, a Sophic as being the baked beans and his water wrinkled extremities, they visited Amad her psychiatrist's office in may of 2002, during that interview and revealed when she was only 10 years old, she and her mother drove to a rendezvous where they met with a couple and exchanged an envelope full of cash for that baby boy named Jonathan, who was mentally handicapped and overall unhealthy M continued the twisted story, explaining that her mother was physically and sexually abusive and bought the boy as another outlet for sexual abuse.

29:26

This came as a surprise, as M also said she grew up in a wealthier suburb of Philadelphia called lower Marion in the 1950s where her parents were respected employees of the lower Merion school district.

29:38

No one suspected AM's mother to be a pedophile or abusive.

29:42

When in reality, she housed the child named Jonathan in that basement where he could not talk to or see anyone from outside and forced him to sleep in an old refrigerator box and use a drain in the floor as a toilet.

29:57

This went on for two and a half years until the mother snapped and slammed poor Jonathan's head against the floor until he died after this despicable act of murder in order to shift his appearance and hopefully disguise his identity, the mother horridly chopped off Jonathan's hair and clipped his fingernails, and then stated that her mother wrapped him up in an old blankets and took both her and Jonathan in the car to traverse the countryside and find a good spot to hide the cops.

30:28

They ended up at Susquehanna road in Fox chase.

30:32

When the, the realized a rural landscape with a little Woodland would be perfect for camouflage.

30:38

However, while she and M went to the trunk to retrieve Jonathan's body, M told police that a male motorist pulled over on the side of the road, his vehicle to see if she and her mother needed assistance.

30:51

The mother turned back and made sure to block her license plate from the man's vision, insisting that they were okay and didn't need the man's help.

30:59

The man finally gave in and departed leaving em and her mother to dump the child's body somewhere in the underbrush, within a box, they already found on the ground Emma's story, perplexed investigators, as it was full of details that matched the boy in the box mystery.

31:17

However, they also had to take in M's complex history with mental illness and trauma, thus, they returned to Philadelphia and launched a special six month projects that focus purely on the story of AMA, despite covering every angle and going above and beyond to corroborate her testimony, they found nothing to prove any of her claims.

31:38

They even visited the old lower Marion house to search for trace evidence that may still reside in the basement, but found once again, absolutely nothing.

31:49

Presently investigators do not believe em to be a trustworthy witness or to have any relation to America's unknown child citing her stories as hysterical make-believe full of information.

32:02

She probably gleaned from reports in the 45 years between the discovery and her reveal to the Philadelphia detectives.

32:10

While it may be easy to write off M as an unreliable narrator due to her psychological backgrounds, there is one major piece to her story that is actually agreed on by another witness back in 1957, an anonymous motorist approach police.

32:25

Soon after the boy in the box was recovered and the case went public sharing a peculiar incidents that happened to him on Sunday, February 24th, 1957.

32:36

The unidentified man claimed that just a mere 200 feet from where the child's body would be found.

32:42

He had pulled his vehicle over after seeing an adult female between the ages of 40 and 50 and a young boy aged between 12 and 14, standing by the trunk of their car.

32:52

On the side of Susquehanna road, he approached them thinking they had a flat tire and needed help, but said that both the woman and the boy ignored him, man never said a word simply turning their back on him while the woman groped something in the trunk.

33:07

The man said that the duo seemed to purposefully block the license plate numbers, but not wanting to cause any problems.

33:14

He simply backed up returned to his car and drove away the male motorists account slides in neatly with M story aside from two details.

33:25

First, the man said that the juror was a woman and a 12 year old boy, not a 10 year old girl, like M was however, being in the middle of winter, they could have been dressed in a way that made that gender difficult to pinpoint.

33:38

Secondly, the man said, this happened on February 24th, which would put it one day after John Paul Raznick first saw the boy in the boxes corpse.

33:48

Now it's possible either the man or John got their dates wrong.

33:52

However, if not, this would mean the boy was barely in the under Bush before he was discovered, which goes against the medical examiners belief that he had been laying there for two to three days prior to his discovery, regardless of the foggy details in these two testimonies.

34:07

It's important to remember that just because M suffered from mental illness and experienced trauma throughout her life does not mean the story was make-believe or fantasy too often.

34:19

We stigmatize and discredit those with psychological barriers as liars or untrustworthy.

34:25

It is possible that M was telling the truth.

34:28

And just because of the detectives don't fully believe her does not mean her experiences.

34:33

Weren't valid. Sadly, this type of account cannot be proven nor disproven via DNA, unless a relative of the birth parents comes forward.

34:43

Once again, it seems we are left grasping at straws.

34:47

If anyone out there has any information that might support the woman by the name of M's testimony, please reach out to the proper or authorities.

34:58

Before we dive bulge. Our hypothesis of America's unknown child's unsolved identity.

35:03

We want to make known our conclusions presented in cold case.

35:06

Detective are purely logical speculation based on evidence circumstance and factual subtext.

35:14

We are only privy to the same information presented in each video, and we do not promise certainty or an expert guarantee on the findings we reach in closing, we simply observe research and report in terms of the boy in the box.

35:33

It is obviously impossible to guess who exactly is with DNA evidence in existence.

35:40

It's only a matter of playing the waiting game for the right information to come forward for a hidden secret to be revealed, being just a child.

35:50

The boy in the box, simply wasn't around long enough to leave behind many, if any traces of himself, his short existence robbing us of our ability to turn back the clock and really dig into his life up until the point of death thought being set.

36:06

We do believe that's of all the theories examined thus far, and there are hundreds of them[inaudible] does seem to hold the most weight simply considering the vast amount of detail included that matches up with the boys autopsy as well as the inclusion of the unidentified motorists story.

36:25

45 years prior, even if AM's accounts cannot be conclusively linked to the life of the boy in the box, the unspeakable horrors, the boy named Jonathan underwent were cruel inhumane and undeniably tragic in their own rights.

36:42

They are experiences. No living person should enjoy let alone a child.

36:48

Of course, we cannot rule out that some of the other theories and small scale leads could be the key to solving the mystery.

36:55

So many of the early tips simply weren't investigated thoroughly enough or leave a lot to be desired by modern day sleuths, could the boys identity be the sleeping young male child held by an unidentified man on a Philadelphia New Jersey bus route in Camden, New Jersey, a fellow female passenger beliefs.

37:15

So confirming the boy in the box was the same child.

37:18

When she visited the morgue in March of 1951, despite this, the police never located the man, even though the woman who was an amateur artist, sketched a profile of the man after seeing the boy, the sketch is available in our Google drive case photo folder, should you wish to examine it further and to follow up?

37:39

Could the man in the sketch be the same man who purchased the blue corduroy hats at Robbins, bald Eagle, hats and Capco, the same man who requested a leather strap to be stitched on like the one found near the crime scene.

37:53

Remember police never followed that leader either.

37:56

And so never made contact with the mysterious buyer.

38:00

We can't even completely rule out foul play with the two gentlemen who discovered the boy in the box initially did Frederick bananas hide his findings from police?

38:10

Because he was guilty of being a peeping Tom or because he was guilty of something more sinister.

38:15

Did John Nick wait to inform authorities of the corpse in the woods because he was protecting his muskrat traps or because he was protecting himself due to the possibility that he could be hunting more than Muskrat's in the Woodlands, regardless of who the portray to was or whose story might be the most accurate.

38:35

It's important to remember that the boy in the box was so much more than what his Monica implicates.

38:41

He was a beautiful child with a father and a mother.

38:46

And even if they didn't care for him, someone in the world did, he had a name and a spirit.

38:53

He had likes and dislikes. He felt joys and he felt sorrows.

38:58

He might have been a boy named Jimmy who loved going to baseball games or an Edward who loved playing the piano.

39:04

Maybe he was junior from Philadelphia who enjoyed winter time play dates with the kids in his neighborhood.

39:11

The boy in the box had a life.

39:13

And though it was taken from him. We must look to bring a light to the future of America's unknown child, a future with a legacy that focuses not on tragedy, but on justice, on providing an enigmatic child with an identity, a story, and a soul, a box of mysteries, no more Sort of the cold case.

39:39

Detective podcast was a particularly difficult case to dive into.

39:44

Although all murder cases are tragic cases involving the death and abuse of children are to me.

39:52

And I believe to most of us the most painful, but that doesn't mean we can choose to ignore them or turn away from the realities.

40:01

These brave children have to face.

40:04

It can be hard not to give way to despair, but remember there is hope out there for us all to help build a better, safer world for all who inhabitants and a brighter future can be found.

40:20

We'd also like to give a special shout out to all those involved in the America's unknown child official website, as they have compiled an unbelievable archive of resources, full of both case details and law enforcement contacts that exhaustive work on this case has been instrumental in keeping the discussion alive and bringing awareness over more than six decades and counting.

40:48

We want to thank them from the bottom of our hearts.

40:51

If you'd like to submit a tip, please call the Philadelphia police department homicide units, a(215) 686-3334.

41:01

Or you can use any of the various contact mediums provided by America's unknown child.net.

41:09

This is cold case detective.

41:14

Uh,

41:15

Thank you for listening to this episode of the cold case detective podcast.

41:19

Should you wish to delve deeper into the mystery?

41:22

You can follow the case file link included in the shown ups, which contains important photographs, documents, maps, and further reading relevance to the case.

41:31

If you would like to support the show you can do so by leaving a five star rating wherever you listen, it really helps us expand our reach and bring awareness to the cases we cover.

41:41

If you would like us to investigate a specific case, perhaps even one close to home or that of a loved one, please fill out the submission form in the show notes.

41:50

Thank you for listening.