After more than Philadelphia Police Capt. Jason Smith60 years, authorities in Philadelphia have revealed they finally know the name of the “boy in the box.”
One of the city’s most notorious unsolved murders, the child, believed to have been between 4 and 6 years in age, was stuffed in a box and abandoned on the side of Susquehanna Road in Fox Chase in 1957. He was nude, malnourished and fatally beaten.
His headstone sits at Ivy Hill Cemetery and reads “America’s Unknown Child.”
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For decades, investigators went without a break in the case, and the area where the boy was found has since been developed with homes. Authorities for years have combed through tips and posited theories – all of which have been debunked until now.
On Wednesday, sources confirmed with NBC10 that police have finally identified the boy and found the child’s birth certificate through DNA evidence.
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Authorities are expected to release their findings at a press conference sometime next week.
“There have been rapid developments as it pertains to that investigation,” Philadelphia Police Capt. Jason Smith said, adding he couldn’t discuss the new news ahead of the scheduled news briefing.
“The investigation will start all over again and then we’ll start searching for a suspect,” he added.
The boy has reportedly been linked to a prominent family in Philadelphia.
